Measures

Select a measure:

Small school budget limit adjustment

9 of 207 districts are at high risk for small school budget limit adjustment

What is this measure telling me, and why is it important?

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 due to exceeding the allowable student count thresholds may indicate higher financial risk as it generally results in substantially decreased spending capacity. A district may also experience higher financial risk if its small school budget limit adjustment is not fully funded due to a frozen tax rate .

Tell me more about small school budget limit adjustment.

Arizona school districts receive revenues from local, State, and federal sources. In general, districts receive local and State revenues based on an equalization formula

set by State law. Districts that are small school adjustment eligible may increase their budgets and receive more local property taxes and, in some cases, additional State assistance. In recent years, approximately 50 Arizona school districts budget a small school adjustment, and the total budget amount is shown along with other less common revenues at the bottom of each district's page.

Although districts with frozen tax rates can continue to increase their budget limits through higher small school adjustments, they will not receive additional local property taxes for those increases. Such districts will have unfunded budget limit reserves (i.e., budget capacity without related monies to support spending).

How were districts' risk points assigned for this measure?

All districts that budget for a small school adjustment, have a frozen tax rate, and unfunded budget limit reserves of at least 10% in the most recently completed fiscal year each receive 1 high-risk point for this measure.

Districts that historically budgeted for a small school adjustment but have become ineligible for the adjustment because they have exceeded the maximum student count

in either of the last 2 fiscal years were assigned risk-points for this measure. However, those districts will experience varying effects from losing their small school adjustment based on the amount previously levied and any other changes to its total budget limit. To account for this, we assigned risk points based on the percentage of the current year total operating and capital budget limit the most recently budgeted small school adjustment would have represented, had the district been eligible.

Loss of small school adjustment risk points

Lost small school adjustment as a percentage of the current year's budget limit	Risk points
0.1% to 9.9%	1
10.0% to 19.9%	2
20.0% to 29.9%	3
30.0% to 39.9%	4
40.0% to 100%	5

Example school district-lost small schol adjustment beginning in FY 2025

Fiscal year	Small school adjustment	Total operating and capital budget limit
2022	$100,000	$200,000
2023	$100,000	$250,000
2024	$100,000	$275,000
2025	$0	$215,000
2026	$0	$225,000

Risk points calculation: 100,000 / (100,000 + 225,000) = 30.8%
As a result, the district receives 4 high-risk points for this measure (30.0% to 39.9%).

How were districts identified as high risk for this measure?

All districts with small adjustment risk points are considered high risk for this measure.

How was this measure calculated?

To identify unfunded small school adjustments, we complete the following calculation:

([Maintenance and Operation ending fund balance + Unrestricted Capital Outlay ending fund balance] — [Operating budget limit reserve + Capital budget limit reserve])	= Unfunded small school adjustment percentage
[Operating budget limit reserve + Capital budget limit reserves]

To identify the impact of a district losing the ability to levy a small school adjustment in either of the last 2 fiscal years, we complete the following calculation:

Most recent small school adjustment levy	= Small school adjustment percentage of current year's budget limit
([Current year total operating budget limit + Capital budget limit] + most recent small school adjustment levy)

How many districts have been identified as high risk for this measure in each of the last 5 years?

Report date	Number of districts at high risk
December 2021	12 of 207
December 2022	8 of 207
December 2023	8 of 207
January 2025	6 of 207
January 2026	9 of 207

Data source

District-set small school adjustment budget amounts were obtained from the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) as of November 24, 2025, as follows:

Fiscal year 2026: BUDG25 report for each district, which includes the small school adjustment budget amount for the current year based on each district's most recent adopted or revised expenditure budget and budget limits.
Fiscal years 2022 through 2025: BUDG75 reports for each district, which include the final small school adjustment budget amount for each year and budget limits..

Frozen tax rate data was obtained from the Property Tax Oversight Commission 's report, 2025 Review of School Districts that Exceed the 1 Percent State Constitutional Limit.

Fiscal year 2025 Maintenance and Operation and Unrestricted Capital Outlay Fund ending fund balances were obtained from ADE as of November 24, 2025, from the district-submitted unaudited annual financial reports .

Districts at high risk for this measure

School district	County	Legislative district(s)	Additional information
		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Ash Fork Joint Unified School District	Yavapai County	1 and 6	District became ineligible to levy a small school adjustment in FY 2026.
Bonita Elementary School District	Graham County	19	District's small school budget limit adjustment is not fully funded because of a frozen tax rate.
Bowie Unified School District	Cochise County	19	District's small school budget limit adjustment is not fully funded because of a frozen tax rate.
Hayden-Winkelman Unified School District 1 of 9 highest-risk districts	Gila County	7	District's small school budget limit adjustment is not fully funded because of a frozen tax rate.
Hyder Elementary School District	Yuma County	25	District's small school budget limit adjustment is not fully funded because of a frozen tax rate.
McNary Elementary School District	Apache County	6	District became ineligible to levy a small school adjustment in FY 2025.
San Simon Unified School District	Cochise County	19	District's small school budget limit adjustment is not fully funded because of a frozen tax rate.
Santa Cruz Elementary School District 1 of 9 highest-risk districts	Santa Cruz County	21	District's small school budget limit adjustment is not fully funded because of a frozen tax rate.
Valley Union High School District	Cochise County	19	District's small school budget limit adjustment is not fully funded because of a frozen tax rate.

Measures

Small school budget limit adjustment

9 of 207 districts are at high risk for small school budget limit adjustment

Loss of small school adjustment risk points

Example school district-lost small schol adjustment beginning in FY 2025

Districts at high risk for this measure

Additional school district resources

Arizona Auditor General

Measures

​ Small school budget limit adjustment

9 of 207 districts are at high risk for ​ ​ small school budget limit adjustment

Loss of small school adjustment risk points

Example school district-lost small schol adjustment beginning in FY 2025

Districts at high risk for this measure

Additional school district resources

Arizona Auditor General

Small school budget limit adjustment

9 of 207 districts are at high risk for small school budget limit adjustment