Navigate to a specific district's page:

Tucson Unified School District

—Among the highest-risk districts

District demographic information

General information
County	Pima County
Operational peer group (FY 2024)	1
Legislative district(s)	16, 17, 18, 20, 21, and 23

School information	FY 2024	FY 2025
Students attending	38,010	37,452
Number of schools	87	87

Summary of risks identified

Tucson Unified School District is at high risk of not being able to operate within its available budget constraints and cash resources. As shown on the measure cards below, the District’s high-risk status is due to its change in weighted student count (WSC), operating and capital budget limit reserves, General Fund operating margin ratio, General Fund change in fund balance, and capital monies redirected to operations.

The District’s WSC has consistently declined every year since fiscal year (FY) 2022, with an overall 8.99% decline, including a 3.68% decline in FY 2026, to date, impacting its budget limits and student-count-generated revenues.

The District increased its operating budget limit reserve to over $38 million in FY 2023 because of the additional COVID-19 federal relief monies that were available to all districts at that time. However, since FY 2023, the District has used 36.43% of that reserve, with a 25.18% decrease during FY 2025. Similarly, the District accumulated a capital budget limit reserve of over $12.5 million at the end of FY 2022 and has been steadily spending the reserve since then. Specifically, the District decreased its reserve to only $1.9 million at the end of FY 2025, which represents an 82.99% decline since FY 2021 and 68.22% decline during FY 2025 alone. The District began redirecting a small portion of its capital monies to support operational spending in FY 2024 (8.67%) but increased that amount in FYs 2025 and 2026 to $10 million, or 44.41% and 45.15%, respectively. The District’s steadily decreasing capital budget limit reserve and increased redirecting of capital monies to operations, could indicate it is delaying necessary operational spending cuts or may be at risk of overspending its capital budget limit when large capital spending needs arise.

Although the District reduced General Fund spending from FYs 2024 to 2025, General Fund expenditures still exceeded available revenues (i.e., negative operating margin) in FY 2025, reducing the District’s General Fund balance by 42.25%, leaving it with a General Fund reserve balance that would cover just over 1 month of expenditures going into FY 2026.

While the District has not yet exceeded its statutorily prescribed budget limits or cash resources, it must identify and implement appropriate risk-mitigation measures to prevent future overspending and cash deficits. See the District’s action plan below.

District action plan

The District's management created this downloadable financial risk action plan to describe its current and planned actions to reduce its financial risks. The action plan includes the District's identified root causes for each of its risk areas, its planned mitigating actions, and the estimated financial impact.

Analysis and data

The Measures page describes how each measure was calculated, how districts were identified as high risk for each measure, and other measure-related information.

High risk

Change in weighted student count

Analysis

-3.68%	-8.99%
(1-year change)	(4-year change)

Data

FY	Group A WSC
2026	42,851
2025	44,486
2024	45,205
2023	46,299
2022	47,085

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows a district's change in group A weighted student count (WSC) over a 1- and 4-year period. A single-year substantial decrease in WSC, or smaller but repeated decreases over more years, may expose a district to higher financial risk due to the loss of student-count-generated revenue.

High risk

Budget limit reserve—

Operating budget

Analysis

-25.18%	6.12%
(1-year change)	(4-year change)

Data

FY	Budget limit (in $)	Expenditures (in $)	Balance (in $)
2026	390,966,083
2025	401,305,311	377,033,232	24,272,079
2024	402,888,799	370,448,383	32,440,416
2023	371,607,542	333,425,090	38,182,452
2022	339,056,430	313,268,657	25,787,773
2021	316,473,846	293,600,819	22,873,026

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows how a district's Maintenance and Operation (M&O) Fund budget limit reserve has changed over a 1- and 4-year period. Declining, negative, or unfunded M&O Fund budget limit reserves indicate higher financial risk.

High risk

Budget limit reserve—

Capital budget

Analysis

-68.22%	-82.99%
(1-year change)	(4-year change)

Data

FY	Budget limit (in $)	Expenditures (in $)	Balance (in $)
2026	15,375,354
2025	21,241,164	19,308,961	1,932,203
2024	31,814,514	25,734,562	6,079,952
2023	37,641,184	28,622,182	9,019,002
2022	36,633,772	24,051,421	12,582,351
2021	26,671,236	15,310,244	11,360,993

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows how a district's Unrestricted Capital Outlay (UCO) Fund budget limit reserve has changed over a 1- and 4-year period. Declining, negative, or unfunded UCO Fund budget limit reserves indicate higher financial risk.

Financial position—

General Fund operating reserve ratio

Analysis

9.76%	21.51%
FY 2025 unaudited	FY 2024 audited

Data

FY	Balance (in $)	Expenditures (in $)
2025 unaudited	38,623,195	395,810,045
2024 audited	88,708,591	412,386,181

balance ÷ expenditures = operating reserve ratio

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows the percent of General Fund monies held in reserve for future spending (i.e., fund balance), compared to total spending from the prior year. A negative operating reserve ratio indicates a negative fund balance, which means the district must use monies received in the following year to cover prior-year spending.

High risk

Financial position—

General Fund operating margin ratio

Analysis

-9.27%	-2.93%
FY 2025 unaudited	FY 2024 audited

Data

FY	Revenue (in $)	Expenditures (in $)
2025 unaudited	362,222,279	395,810,045
2024 audited	400,659,076	412,386,181

(revenue - expenditures) ÷ revenues = operating margin ratio

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows the percent of district General Fund revenues not spent in the year received for each of the most recent 2 years. A district with below-average operating reserves exposes itself to higher financial risk each time its spending exceeds its revenues (i.e., negative operating margin).

High risk

Financial position—

General Fund change in fund balance

Analysis

-42.25%	4.98%
FY 2024 to 2025 unaudited	FY 2023 to 2024 audited

Data

FY	Change amount (in $)
2024 to 2025 unaudited	-28,261,170
2023 to 2024 audited	4,209,459

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows the 1-year percentage change in a district's General Fund balance for each of the most recent 2 years. Declining fund balances or a negative fund balance in the most recent year indicate higher financial risk as less resources remain available for current and future needs.

High risk

Capital monies redirected to operations

Analysis

45.15%	19.65%
(FY 2026)	(5-year average)

Data

FY	Capital monies (in $)	Amount redirected (in $)
2026	22,146,015	10,000,000
2025	22,519,864	10,000,000
2024	23,067,870	2,000,000
2023	21,449,768	0
2022	19,178,401	0

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows the percentage of intended capital funding the district has redirected to operational spending rather than capital spending in the current year and on average over the last 5 years. Districts that direct a substantial portion of their intended capital funding to operational spending may be at higher financial risk.

Small school budget limit adjustment

Analysis

N/A - District is too large to be eligible for adjustment.

Data

FY	Adjustment (in $)	Total operating and capital budget limit (in $)
2026	0	406,341,437
2025	0	422,546,475
2024	0	434,703,313
2023	0	409,248,726
2022	0	375,690,202

The small school adjustment is included in the total operating and capital budget limit.

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows a district's additional budget capacity from a small school adjustment in the current year and each of the prior 4 years. The loss of the ability to include a small school budget limit adjustment or an unfunded small school budget limit adjustment due to a frozen tax rate may indicate higher financial risk.

Frozen tax rate

Analysis

District's primary property tax rate is not frozen.

What is this measure telling me?

This measure shows whether a district has a frozen primary property tax rate, limiting the District's ability to increase its property tax revenue to fund its allowable budget limits.

Receivership

Analysis

District is not in receivership.

What is this measure telling me?

This measure identifies whether a district is operating under a State Board of Education-appointed receiver due to gross mismanagement or insolvency.

Less common revenues in FY 2025

Some districts have access to revenues and budget capacity that are not available to all districts. These revenues may help lessen financial risks for some districts, but desegregation and small school adjustment revenues can contribute risk for other districts, if they result in a district's property tax rate being frozen, which can cause the district to accumulate unfunded budget capacity. Select the information icon to learn more about the revenues presented.

	Desegregation	$63,709,826
	Federal Impact Aid	$1,288,301
	Small school adjustment	$0
	Voter-approved budget overrides	$0
	Total less common revenues per student	$1,736

Source: Desegregation, small school adjustment, and voter-approved budget override amounts - FY 2025 Arizona Department of Education BUDG75 report. Federal Impact Aid amounts - FY 2025 district submitted, unaudited annual financial reports.

Tucson Unified School District

Summary of risks identified

District action plan

Analysis and data

Change in weighted student count

Budget limit reserve—

Operating budget

Budget limit reserve—

Capital budget

Financial position—

General Fund operating reserve ratio

Financial position—

General Fund operating margin ratio

Financial position—

General Fund change in fund balance

Capital monies redirected to operations

Small school budget limit adjustment

N/A - District is too large to be eligible for adjustment.

Frozen tax rate

District's primary property tax rate is not frozen.

Receivership

District is not in receivership.

Less common revenues in FY 2025

Additional school district resources

Arizona Auditor General