K-12 families are expected to spend around $864 per student this back-to-school season, 24% more per person than seven years ago. Meanwhile, the districts those students are walking into are managing tighter budgets than they have in years. Federal education funding...

Every so often, the Department for Education updates the technical detail that most people outside a trust finance team never see, the chart of accounts. It sounds administrative. In practice, it shapes how every trust records and reports every pound it spends. The...

Every multi-academy trust finance team knows the drill by now. A new Academy Trust Handbook lands, and somewhere in the detail are a handful of changes that quietly reshape how the finance team has to operate. The Academy Trust Handbook 2026 comes into effect from 1...

For the last few years, federal pandemic relief funding gave many US school districts room to breathe. That room has now run out. Large districts across the country, from Florida to California, are making painful budget cuts driven by a combination of inflation,...

The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill has prompted widespread discussion across the education sector. Much of the debate has focused on the proposed changes themselves, from greater oversight of academies to new expectations around safeguarding, admissions,...

School district finance leaders are used to uncertainty. Funding formulas change, grants come and go, and costs continue to rise. But the debate around federal education funding for fiscal year 2027 has created a different kind of challenge. It is not just about how...

There’s a point in most school district finance teams where the work stops feeling like finance and starts feeling like admin. Not officially. Nothing changes on paper. But day to day, it looks different. Instead of analysing spend, people are entering it. Instead of...

Most school districts don’t have a problem with approvals. If anything, they have plenty of them. Purchases get signed off. Emails get replies saying “approved.” Budget holders review requests before anything moves forward. On the surface, everything looks controlled....

The UK Government’s new education white paper, “Every Child Achieving and Thriving,” sets out a renewed focus on standards, accountability, and long-term improvement across the education system. While much of the conversation understandably focuses on teaching,...