Budget Overview

Introduction

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has outlined a $9.88 billion budget for FY2027 that largely protects key investments and programming without adding to the District’s existing debt burden, which currently exceeds $9 billion. This budget is rooted in equity, transparency, and student-centered decision making, and is aligned to the vision set forth in CPS’ five-year strategic plan, which ensures a rigorous, joyful, and equitable daily learning experience for every child.

Protecting What Works

This budget protects the overall level of school funding from the 2025-26 school year, thereby largely maintaining the investments that have propelled CPS students to impressive academic gains over the past several years. While individual school budgets change every year due to shifts in enrollment, programming, and student need, the FY2027 budget increases the total amount provided directly to schools by $143 million over last year, with much of that going toward Cost-of-Living Adjustments for unionized school-based staff.

Protecting school funding has been a strategic priority for CPS leadership to continue driving students’ recent academic gains. Since 2019, CPS has increased the total amount of annual funding provided to schools by over $1 billion, and has increased the number of in-school staff — including teachers, classroom assistants, interventionists, nurses, counselors, therapists, social workers, and more — by over 7,000. Even with the necessary reductions being made to staff as part of the FY2027 budget, CPS is maintaining the vast majority of these positions going into next school year.

As a result of our staffing investments, CPS students achieved a strong post-pandemic academic recovery, especially in literacy. Reading proficiency for CPS elementary school students grew by more than 10 percentage points in just two years, and 8th-grade students at CPS are now achieving reading scores that are just two points off the national average — a remarkable achievement given the barriers that many of our students face.

These investments have also helped CPS maintain its upward trajectory when it comes to high school achievement. CPS continues to set new records for graduation rate, scholarship dollars earned, early college credit attained, and rates of college enrollment and persistence.

Revenue Pressures

CPS continues to face significant revenue pressures at the federal, state, and local levels while having very little control over its own revenue.

At the federal level, funding has not kept up with the growing needs of our students, especially our children with disabilities.

At the state level, CPS has benefited from the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula created by the State of Illinois in 2017 to direct additional dollars to districts where students are furthest from opportunity. But CPS still does not have the appropriate level of funding from the state to meet students’ needs, as we are currently receiving just 73 percent of what the formula says the District needs to be “adequately” funded. This is down from 79 percent in FY2025, and 81 percent the year prior, marking a sharp eight-point decline in just the past three years.

Furthermore, CPS is impacted by inadequate state funding of block grants and mandated categorical grants for services such as transportation and special education. In addition, there are unique circumstances regarding state coverage of teacher pensions and CPS’ ability to raise its own capital funding that are discussed in greater detail in the following section.

At the local level, CPS has benefited in recent years from the City’s ability to surplus funds from Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Districts. The rise in TIF surplus funding has been commensurate with the growth in TIF funds themselves. The amount of property taxes collected by the City and claimed by Chicago’s TIF districts grew 326 percent between 2014 and 2024. As of the most up-to-date information available and prior to the distributions received by CPS in FY2026, there was more than $3.2 billion in TIF revenue held in reserves by the City with over $1.25 billion of incremental new revenues flowing in annually. While CPS is grateful for the record amount of TIF surplus revenue provided by the City last year, the current program could yield over $735 million in annual revenue for the District if all funds were shared.

Amid these revenue pressures, CPS has very limited control over its own ability to generate revenue. The District’s main tool is the annual property tax levy, where annual increases are capped at five percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is higher. While the District aggressively pursues grants and reimbursements, and benefits from philanthropic generosity, these are no substitute for sustainable, dedicated revenue streams to provide the District with the stability necessary to consistently provide a high-quality public education.

Additional Cost Drivers

At the same time CPS confronts significant revenue pressures for FY2027, the District faces major cost drivers, including continued growth in student needs, pension costs, labor contracts, and maintaining our aging facilities that are an average of 86 years old.

Like many school districts across the U.S., CPS is serving a growing number of students who require unique and specialized services — English Learners, students experiencing homelessness, and our students with disabilities. The District has both a legal and moral obligation to serve these students who face unique barriers — especially our students with disabilities. But while the needs have grown, the state and federal resources to serve those needs have not kept pace.

When it comes to pension obligations, CPS has received some support from the state of Illinois, but the District still has significant outstanding pension liabilities for which there is no dedicated revenue source, and CPS is forced to divert funds from classrooms to pay for these liabilities.

More specifically, CPS is the only district in the state that is required to fund its own teacher pensions. The state covers teacher pension costs for every other district in Illinois, while providing only 36 percent of CPS’ total cost in FY2027. The remaining 64 percent ($646.5 million) is covered by Chicago taxpayers, a burden no other district in Illinois incurs.

The third significant cost pressure is the District’s aging infrastructure. The average age of CPS buildings is 86 years, which requires significant maintenance, repair, and replacement needs. The District currently has more than $16 billion in necessary projects to maintain these aging facilities, and unlike every other district in the state, CPS has limited access to alternative revenue sources such as bond referenda to fund capital projects. Because of this, in FY2027, the District must divert over $650 million of Evidence Based Funding (State Aid) and Personal Property Replacement Tax (PPRT) from the classroom annually to pay for debt service to fund school construction and repairs. This limitation has forced the District to perpetually spend more on day-to-day maintenance, which is more expensive than making permanent long term improvements to school buildings that would save CPS money in the long run and improve the learning experience for current and future students.

Prioritizing Direct Student Needs

Throughout the FY2027 budget development process, the District’s priority was to protect those investments that have the most direct and measurable impact on student achievement, engagement, and well-being. We followed a framework where, for every line item, we considered whether the activity directly impacted students’ daily experience at school and prioritized those investments with the most measurable, equitable direct impact. In reviewing those line items that are one, two, or more steps removed from a student’s daily school experience, we worked to strategically align resourcing decisions in order to advance the goals of our five-year strategic plan.

We began with the school budget allocations, released in the spring. District leadership from across our academic and operational teams took great care reviewing every allocation formula, determining where we could make adjustments to sustain investments where they are needed most. The FY2027 school budgets:

• Maintain the needs-based funding model, providing a minimum set of foundational positions and funding to each school, regardless of size or enrollment, and then layering in additional resources based on enrollment and need;
• Increase the number of school-based special education teachers and special education classroom assistants by nearly 950 positions, reflecting the growing population and needs of our students with disabilities;
• Continue to invest in academic intervention and professional development supports at schools with the greatest needs; and
• Maintain levels of flexible, needs-based discretionary funding and increased levels of school-based Title I funding for eligible schools.

Changes to Staffing Allocation Formulas

CPS made adjustments to school-based staff allocation formulas in a way that accounts for the District’s declining enrollment, while continuing to prioritize support for high-need schools. Class size limits will not change as a result of these adjustments. Staff allocations will just be more reflective of the needs of the students in the building.

• CPS reduced funding allocations for assistant principals at schools with fewer than 250 students.
  • These schools were still able to use discretionary funds to pay assistant principals, and many took advantage of this option. More than two-thirds of schools that were slated to lose funding for an assistant principal were able to retain an AP position for FY2027.
• CPS adjusted allocations for core teachers, shifting the student-to-teacher ratio by 1.
  • All schools are still receiving a minimum of 10 core teachers, regardless of their size.
  • The average teacher loss resulting from this shift alone was -0.9 teachers per school, with no elementary school losing more than four core teachers, and no high school losing more than six core teachers.
  • These changes were made after reviewing the data and determining that schools could still meet class size requirements under these adjusted formulas, and building in things like loss caps and appeals processes to account for unique enrollment patterns and other considerations.
• CPS made slight adjustments to the median score of the Opportunity Index - the tool the District uses to ensure resources are distributed equitably across schools.
  • All other things being equal, schools did not lose foundational resources as a result of this shift.

Closing the District's Deficit

Again this year, CPS was forced to grapple with a budget deficit going into the new school year. The deficit for FY2027 totaled $732.5 million, and several steps needed to be taken to address it.

As the District prepared initial department and school budget allocations in the spring, leadership identified $450.8 million in deficit reduction strategies, reducing the gap to $281.7 million. The largest reduction is $105 million in reductions to CPS department budgets, representing an approximately 17 percent reduction to the remaining portions of Central Office and Citywide budgets not included in school resourcing packages released during May’s school budget process. Reductions impacted both Central Office expenditures that mainly pay for staff and vendors that provide critical administrative support to District functions, as well as Citywide expenditures that mainly fund staff, programming, and materials that are administered at the District level and serve students across multiple schools.

The following table outlines year-over-year changes from the FY26 original budget to the FY27 proposed budget in millions of dollars.

Details around the $105 million reduction to Central Office and Citywide Budgets

Central Office and Citywide savings were identified after a careful and thoughtful District-wide review, and are focused mainly on optimizing resources, improving efficiency, reducing vendor costs, eliminating duplicative work, and refocusing workstreams to support the most important District functions. These reductions meant laying off over 160 dedicated and hardworking District staff members. In this third consecutive year of Central Office and Citywide reductions, it has become increasingly difficult to identify savings that do not impact supports to students and schools or compromise our ability to remain effective as an organization. These layoffs are the unfortunate result of the difficult choices that CPS must make in order to protect school budgets and the District’s overall fiscal health.

Details of spending reductions by department is provided below.

$37.15 million from Academic Offices:

• $1.8 million reduction to College and Career Coaches; the district will no longer centrally fund these positions at schools
• $1.0 million reduction to the amount budgeted for Ventra cards for students in temporary living situations (this will not result in fewer transportation supports for these students; rather, this is a budget adjustment based on historical spending trends)
• $15 million reduction to the local fund by moving Out of School Time (OST) to a dedicated state grant for after school programming. Going forward, the total OST budget will be dependent on the amount of the grant, historically about $8 million annually. For FY27, the total OST budget is $8 million, consistent with pre-pandemic funding levels
• $7.5 million reduction to Summer Bridge, in alignment with FY26 spending levels
• $4.5 million reduction to Choose to Change; based on outcome and participation data, this program will be discontinued in order to focus on maintaining other school-based mentoring programs
• $3.6 million reduction in education software licenses, including Skyline
• $1.8 million reductions to After School Matters and City Year, previously funded by intergovernmental agreements with the City (programs will continue at a smaller scale)
• $3 million reduction to centrally funded Tutor Corps; based on outcome data, centrally funded support of this program will be discontinued in FY27, although the district will maintain other academic intervention supports, such as school-based intervention teachers
• $1 million investment to the Office of Multicultural-Multilingual Education

$26 million from Operations:

• $1.0 million from Information Technology and Services (reduction of 3 positions and project management expenses)
• $0.2 million from Marketing
• $0.5 million from Nutrition Support Services in staff overtime and retention bonuses
• $4.0 million in utilities savings
• $2.0 million rebate related to the purchase of electric buses
• $0.5 million from Procurement (reduction of 3 positions and software costs)
• $15 million reduction to Facilities, including efficiencies in custodial supplies management and identification of large scale school repairs eligible for transfer to the capital budget
• $2.8 million reduction in routing efficiencies

$8.4 million in additional central and citywide departmental reductions: 

• $0.8 million from Portfolio (reduction of 2 positions and professional services)
• $2.2 million from Student Health and Wellness (reductions of 13 positions to the pandemic-era Disease Prevention and Response and data team, and various non-payroll items)
• $2.7 million from Talent (reduction of 6 positions, training and development stipends, and various non payroll expenses)
• $2.7 million in reduction of 44 Resident Teacher positions (the district will retain 109 positions going into FY27)

Furthermore, as in FY26, CPS will continue its hiring freeze on central and citywide positions to save $15.0 million and eliminate district-sponsored food and travel expenses to save $1.0 million. The remaining $17.5 million will be identified in early FY27, as the District is continuing to review its central office organizational structures and citywide supports.

Together, these reductions and investments total $105 million.

Balancing the FY2027 Budget

Throughout June and the first half of July, the district’s Finance team continued to analyze FY27 budget inputs, leading to refinements in several areas:

• Final adjustments to property tax estimates to actuals;
• Final adjustments to state revenue assumptions based on the state’s final budget;
• Adjusting position vacancy assumptions (due to expected attrition and hiring patterns across the district) based on review of current year data;
• Full accounting of actual FY27 staffing costs, including all cost of living adjustments for union employees;
• Changing assumptions around incremental underspend across the district (i.e., accounting for the fact that not every budgeted dollar is spent at the end of each fiscal year) based on review of FY25 and FY26 financial performance;
• Anticipating opportunities for additional debt savings and increased interest income;
• Review of grant funding availability in FY27, including carryover and more aggressive strategies to fully maximize available revenue.

At the end of this process, the remaining budget gap increased slightly, from $281.7 million to $297.6 million. To close the remaining gap, the District will take the following actions:

1. Increase the TIF surplus assumption by $100 million, bringing the total TIF surplus assumption in the FY2027 budget to $200 million ($179 million less than in the FY2026 budget)
2. Institute five furlough days for all CPS employees, to be taken on non-instructional days between January and June 2027, resulting in $85 million in savings
3. Implement a combination of procurement savings initiatives and a Districtwide mid-year spending and hiring freeze, for a savings of $112.6 million.

The furloughs and mid-year spending freeze are measures of last resort. By delaying the implementation of these measures until the second half of the school year, we create a critical window between now and December 31, 2026. This timeline gives CPS, the Board, our labor partners, and city and state leaders the opportunity to collectively secure additional revenue required to close our remaining gap.

Engaging the CPS Community

Under the leadership of Superintendent/CEO Dr. Macquline King, CPS spearheaded an extensive community engagement campaign over the last two years to ensure that budget decisions were being driven by the families, educators, and community partners who are most impacted by them. During the summer of 2025, the District hosted several feedback sessions, in person and virtually, where stakeholders grew their understanding of the District’s financial situation and offered suggestions on how best to invest resources. CPS hosted another series of feedback sessions this summer to continue engaging our communities.

Several themes emerged from these community conversations, many of them consistent with those from last year. By-and-large, CPS stakeholders said they wanted the District to:

• Protect funding for and continue to invest in providing additional resources to high-need students, especially students with disabilities, English Learners, and students in temporary living situations
• Work collaboratively with state and local partners, both governmental and philanthropic, to identify new streams of revenue to support schools
• Ensure a more equitable distribution of resources across schools and geographic areas
• Increase transparency about the District’s fiscal health and engage communities and stakeholders around the budget earlier in the process, before decisions are made

This feedback directly informed the strategies CPS has implemented in shaping the FY2027 budget and moving closer to achieving the goals outlined in the District’s five-year strategic plan.

Increasing Sustainable Revenue

The steps taken to balance the FY2027 budget reflect CPS’ commitment to maintaining, and hopefully growing, the funding currently allocated to schools. But to do so will require more sustainable revenue. As a District, CPS stands ready to work with all local and state partners to find long-term solutions that will support all funding streams.

At the federal level, CPS will continue to advocate for additional funding for public education and fight to protect the District from future defunding attempts by the Trump administration.

At the state level, CPS will continue to advocate for additional funding to bring the District to full funding adequacy and for full funding of mandated categorical grants, much of which supports costs for students with disabilities. As the Chicago Board of Education completes its transition to a fully-elected board, CPS will seek critical changes at the state level, including having the state cover a larger portion of CPS’ teacher pensions and giving CPS additional tools to raise money for capital improvements.

At the local level, CPS will continue to work with City partners to strike a balance of support and accountability while the Chicago Board of Education transitions to a fully-elected Board.

Next Steps

Two budget hearings will be held on July 20, 2026 to gather additional feedback from the CPS community on the proposed FY2027 operating budget. Information on how to participate in these hearings can be found at cps.edu/budget.

Following these hearings, the District will present the balanced FY2027 budget to the Chicago Board of Education for approval on July 30, 2026.

CPS’ Operating Budget by Spending Unit

CPS’ total operating budget includes $8.48 billion in funding, with 95.5 percent of these funds directly supporting schools. Funding allocated directly to District, charter, and contract school budgets makes up 63.9 percent of the operating budget. Citywide funding allocations to provide centrally managed support directly to schools, such as custodians, nurses, social workers, security, and other functions, make up 31.6 percent. Citywide allocations include funds transferred to schools after the start of the year to account for fall enrollment funding adjustments, grant awards, and other factors. The remaining 4.5 percent of the CPS operating budget covers central office and network costs providing essential services in support of schools and the District.

CPS’ Operating Budget by Expense Category

The following table breaks out the District’s same $8.48 billion operating budget by expense category, to provide an overview of what types of spending CPS has planned in its FY2027 budget.

Salaries and Benefits: 76 percent of the FY2027 operating budget funds employee salaries and benefits. The FY2027 budget for salaries and benefits reflects an increase of $56 million over the FY2026 budget which is primarily driven by the cost of contractual increases for union employees, and the addition of Special Education Teachers and Classroom Assistants. The reduced growth year over year is a result of deficit closing measures which include five furlough days for all CPS employees as well as vacancy savings assumptions.

Contracts: This category includes tuition for charter schools and private therapeutic schools and payments for clinicians that are not CPS staff. This category also includes early childhood education programs provided by community partners and programs such as Safe Passage, City Year, After School Matters, and Safe Haven. In addition, this category includes transportation, non-capitalizable repair contracts, legal services, waste removal, and other services. FY2027 contractual costs decreased by roughly $39 million from FY2026. This reduction was largely driven by a shift of building repair costs into the capital budget, for repairs that are capitalizable. Additionally, the District transitioned custodians from contracted services to board employees. The District also identified efficiencies and cost savings throughout the operating budget in effort to balance the FY2027 budget.

Commodities: Commodities include spending on items such as food and utilities (which make up the largest share), instructional supplies such as textbooks and software, and other supplies such as postage and paper. The FY2027 budget for commodities decreased slightly by approximately $9 million from the FY2026 budget. The District is anticipating energy efficiencies to reduce overall utility consumption, and has identified cost savings on purchased food as well as digital instructional materials.

Equipment: Equipment pays for the cost of furniture, computers, and similar other non-consumable items. The FY2027 budget remains relatively flat to FY2026 at a total of $11.9 million.

Contingencies: This account type includes two categories of spending. The first category represents funding that has been budgeted but not yet allocated to specific accounts or units where it will eventually be spent. Under the current system for school funding, schools are not required to allocate all of their funds, but can hold some in contingency while they determine how they want to spend it. Similarly, the District holds grant funds in contingency, particularly if the grant is not yet confirmed. The FY2027 contingency budget reflects a reduction of $182 million, this is due to the inclusion of deficit balancing measures which include a districtwide mid-year spending freeze and mid-year non payroll budget reductions.

CPS’ Operating Revenues

Local Revenues

CPS is projected to receive $4,457.3 million in property tax operating revenues in FY2027, which remains the District’s largest single revenue source. A portion of the District’s property tax revenues are restricted for specific uses. Within the operating budget, CPS projects to receive $646.5 million from the dedicated Chicago Teacher Pension Fund (CTPF) levy, which assists CPS in paying its annual pension obligation. (For more information on the pension levy calculation, please review the Pensions chapter).

Personal Property Replacement Taxes (PPRT) are collected by the State of Illinois and distributed to local governments state-wide. While the tax rates behind the collections are constant, the amount of funding CPS receives from this revenue can vary significantly from year to year. This is because PPRT is a tax that businesses and partnerships, trusts, and S corporations pay on their net Illinois income, along with a tax that public utilities pay on invested income. As corporate and investment income fluctuates, so does the amount received by local government agencies, including CPS. CPS projects to collect $283 million in PPRT revenue in FY2027.

State law requires that surplus TIF District property tax revenue is proportionally distributed to the taxing bodies within the TIF Districts, a reclaiming of lost property tax revenue due to frozen TIF district equalized assessed property values. CPS has budgeted $200 million in TIF surplus, a year-over-year budget reduction of $179 million, and over $350 million less than FY2026 actuals. CPS’ share of TIF surplus funding will be finalized once the City of Chicago passes its budget in the fall. CPS’ share in recent years has been approximately 54 percent.

All other local revenue includes a variety of other revenue sources, including school-generated revenue, payments from charter schools, and revenue generated through intergovernmental agreements (IGAs), including $142 million from an annual City property tax levy that funds the debt service on CPS issued bonds through the District’s School Building and Improvement IGA.

State Revenues

In FY2027, CPS’ state revenue budget is $2,184.6 million, which comprises 25.8 percent of CPS’ operating budget. The state provides funding to CPS through Evidence-Based Funding, support for teacher pension normal cost, and several other appropriations that come in the form of reimbursable or block grants.

EBF is the largest portion of funding that CPS receives from the State of Illinois. In FY2027, EBF represents 60.8 percent of the $2,184.6 million of CPS’ state operating revenues.

FY2027 is the tenth consecutive year that CPS has benefited from the State of Illinois making payments to the Chicago Teacher Pension Fund (CTPF). While the state contributions help to offset the impact that CTPF has on CPS’ financial health, Chicago remains the only district in Illinois that is required to pay contributions to its teacher pension fund. In FY2027, the state contribution to CTPF is $368.0 million, an increase of $4.9 million from the prior year’s contribution of $363.1 million, but only 36 percent of the District’s total teacher pension cost.

In addition to EBF and teacher pension contributions, CPS is projected to receive $489 million in revenue from other state-appropriated funds and categorical grants. The majority of this funding is from the Early Childhood Block Grant, estimated at $277 million in FY2027, and mandated categorical grants, estimated at $164 million in FY2027.

Federal Revenues

Most federal grants require the Chicago Board of Education to provide supplemental educational services for children from low-income households, children from non-English speaking families, and for neglected and delinquent children from preschool through twelfth grade. These grants are dedicated to specific purposes and cannot supplant local programs. Medicaid reimbursement and Impact Aid are the only federal funding that is without any restriction.

For additional information on the FY2027 Revenues, please review the Revenue chapter of the budget book.

CPS Personnel Budget

The FY2027 budget includes 46,288 full-time equivalents (FTEs), an increase of 746 FTEs from the FY2026 budget. Over 96 percent of all positions in the FY2027 budget provide direct support to schools.

Over 79 percent of the District’s budget is tied to the people who provide our students with instruction, support, and critical operational administration. The changes in the FY2027 headcount include:

• A decrease of 716 Classroom Teachers from FY26 projected figures, driven by an enrollment decrease of over 7,700 students and an increase in the student-to-teacher ratio formula for centrally-funded core teachers. Additional information on methodological changes can be found in Appendix B of the FY27 Budget Book.
• A decrease of 37 School Administrators, driven by a reduction of centrally-funded Assistant Principals at schools with K-12 enrollments below 250 students.
• An increase of 155 School Support Staff over FY26 projected figures, primarily driven by additional Special Ed Classroom Assistants (SECAs) in certain settings to meet student Individualized Education Program (IEP) needs, and reduction of vacant school lunchroom positions. Based on evolving student IEP needs coupled with expected enrollment changes, the District has budgeted for classroom support roles to be added during the school year, as needed. Support roles that were reduced year over year included Technology Coordinators, Teacher Assistants, and other roles.
• A decrease of 96 FTE in Central and Network offices; these include staff performing central operational functions within Talent and other administrative offices, Network support roles, and other staff providing academic, programmatic, and technical support to schools.
• An increase of 1,435 Citywide Student Support staff, primarily driven by the transition of private custodians to board employees during FY2026, these employees were previously paid via vendor contracts. Additionally, the FY2027 budget includes a staffing retention pool for Special Education Classroom Assistants, Special Education Teachers, Assistant Principals, and other roles to be staffed to schools throughout the year.

Capital Budget Overview

The FY2027 budget for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) includes a capital budget totaling $600.4 million of investments that will focus on priority facilities needs at neighborhood schools, mechanical systems that control the indoor environment and air quality of our schools, building envelope improvements for roofing systems, ADA accessibility, restroom modernizations, student recreation and athletic improvements, site improvements, and continued expansion of technology upgrades and other academic priorities. To support schools throughout the city, the FY2027 capital plan provides funding in five main areas: critical facility needs, interior improvements, programmatic investments, site improvements, and IT upgrades.

CPS will continue to invest in energy efficiency measures, including the replacement of existing equipment with energy-efficient equipment, replacement of steam heating systems with hydronic systems, lighting controls, replacement or addition of Building Automation Systems (BAS) for more efficient systems operations, heat pumps, replacement of existing roof-mounted equipment with energy-efficient equipment, improved roof reflectance and energy efficiency resulting from a water and airtight roofing envelope system, which we can build on to further invest in energy savings through clean energy investments.

CPS is committed to promoting equitable access to high-quality school environments, and equity served as the foundation for the FY2027 capital plan. The District's Equity Office played an important role in developing the FY2027 capital proposal by ensuring that resources are distributed fairly and equitably across CPS schools, allowing all students to share in the District's record-setting progress. In addition, the FY2027 capital budget planning process included several enhancements, most notably around transparency and community outreach.

Community feedback requested more transparency in the prioritization process for capital projects. In April, CPS held three virtual and two in-person meetings to engage communities in discussing capital priorities for the FY27 capital plan. These sessions, led by the CPS Capital Department, Office of Equity, and Office of Family and Community Engagement (FACE), offered insights into the capital planning process and helped prioritize critical needs. We received over 6,600 survey responses during the capital plan development process. The high number of critical facility needs identified by the Educational Facilities Master Plan (EFMP) is reflected in the proposed Capital budget, which allocates funds across various categories.

The CPS facility portfolio includes 527 campuses and 799 buildings. Our average facility age is over 86 years old, and the total CPS immediate critical facility need is nearly $4 billion. Since FY2017, CPS has invested over $3 billion in capital improvements across the District. These projects include major renovations to ensure our schools remain warm and dry, facility construction to relieve overcrowding, security cameras to provide a safer environment for our children, and renovations to aid programmatic enhancements, among others. Additionally, CPS is continuing to invest in ADA upgrades to ensure all CPS campuses are more accessible.

The FY2027 capital budget is primarily funded by future issuance of general obligation bonds, which are principally repaid by Evidence-Based Funding (EBF). (For more information, please see the Debt Management chapter of the budget book.) A portion of the FY2027 budget is also funded by Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds, state funding, and other outside resources as they are identified.

CPS’ capital plan aligns with the priorities outlined in the Educational Facilities Master Plan. Future projects will be determined by equity, assessed need, educational priorities, and available funding, with the goal of maximizing the number of students impacted by the capital investments.

For additional information on the FY2027 Capital budget, please review the Capital chapter of the budget book.

Debt Budget Overview

The Chicago Board of Education (Board) is authorized by state law to issue notes and bonds, enter into lease agreements for capital improvement projects, and assist in the management of cash flow and liquidity. As of June 30, 2026, the Board has approximately $9.3 billion of outstanding long-term debt and $861 million of outstanding short-term debt. FY2027 includes appropriations of $794 million for long-term debt service payments. Approximately $27.0 million of appropriations for interest on short-term debt is included in the operating budget.

CPS’ Capital Improvement Program, described in the Capital chapter, funds long-term investments that provide our students with a world-class education in high-quality learning environments. CPS relies on the issuance of bonds to fund the investments laid out in the program, which include roofs, envelopes, and windows; state-of-the-art high school science labs; high-speed internet and digital devices; playgrounds and athletic fields; and the expansion of full-day pre-k and other high-quality programs. Bonds are debt instruments that are similar to a loan, requiring annual principal and interest payments. Typically, CPS issues long-term fixed-rate bonds, which pay a set interest rate according to a schedule established at the time of debt issuance. As of June 30, 2026, all CPS outstanding long-term debt is fixed rate.

For additional information on the FY2027 Debt budget, please review the Debt Management chapter of the budget book.