Page 10 - School Finance Manual 2025-26

Budget Formula Construction cont. 10

Pupil Transportation Funding

A.R.S. §15-945 and §15-946 provide increased budget The second section of the support level is for academic,
limits for districts that transport or contract for the trans- vocational and athletic trips. This add-on amount varies
portation of students to and from school. There is addi- by type of district and is determined by the following chart:
tional funding for academic, vocational and athletic trips.
The subsections below provide details on the computa- Daily Route Mileage District District District
tion of the transportation limits. Per Eligible Student Type 01, Type Type
Transported 02 or 03 04 05

Transportation Support Level (TSL) 1.0 or Less 0.15 0.10 0.25
The Transportation Support Level (TSL) is based More than 1.0 0.18 0.12 0.30
on the average daily route miles per eligible student
transported. Districts are required to use the prior
year Approved Daily Route Mileage in calculating this Type 02 = unified district, Type 03 = elementary district
amount for the budget year. Eligible students are those not in a high school district, Type 04 = elementary
in elementary school (grades PSD-8) whose place of district in a high school district and Type 05 = high
residence is greater than one mile from their school school district.
of attendance, and those in high school (grades 9-12)
whose place of residence is greater than one and a half The factor determined above is multiplied by the to-and-
miles from their school of attendance. The formula is from support level (excluding bus tokens and passes) to
based on 180 school days (or 200 days). calculate this add-on.

The first step in calculating the TSL is to divide the The third part of the calculation is the support level for
district’s total daily route miles by the total number of the extended year programs which is determined by
eligible students transported. The quotient obtained multiplying the total route miles for students with disabil-
from this calculation is used in this chart to determine ities attending the extended school year program by the
the district’s funding per route mile. per mile factor used in the basic to and from support
level.

State Support Level
Daily Route Mileage per Route Mile for The sum of the above three items, (to-and-from,
Per Eligible Student academic/vocation/athletic, and extended school year)
FY2026
constitutes the TSL.
0.5 or less $3.01

More than 0.5 through 1.0 $2.47
The Transportation Support Level
More than 1.0 $3.01 (TSL) is based on the average daily

route miles per eligible student
The factor chosen from the chart is multiplied by the transported.
total route mileage and then actual expenditures for bus
passes and tokens for eligible students is added to that
product to determine the to-and-from school support level.

Arizona Association of School Business Officials | School Finance Summary Manual