NYS Board of Regents Meeting Summaries

 Summary of December 2025 Board of Regents Meeting 

The Board of Regents conducted their monthly meeting on Monday, December 15, and Tuesday, December 16. Chancellor Lester Young opened the meeting with a moment of silence in remembrance of lives lost in the recent tragedies at Brown University and in Sydney Australia. 

P-12 related topics covered during the December 2025 meeting Include: 

• Presentation of the final Board of Regents 2026-2027 Legislative and Budget Priorities Proposal 
• Update on NYSED’s Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) Initiative 

• Finalized Board of Regents Legislative Priorities and Budget Proposal Funding to support professional development for the NY Inspires – Portrait of a Graduate Initiative. ($2.5 million). 
• Funding for standards development and technical assistance support for the NY Inspires – Portrait of a Graduate. ($2.6 million). 
• Expanding College in the High School Opportunities ($10.9 million). 
• Increased funding for P-TEACH ($5 million) to support high school students interested in entering the teaching profession. 
• Increased financial support for special education students through age 22 (FAPE). 
• Increased financial support for expanding preschool education services. 
• Expanding collaboration with state agencies to support student mental health. 
• Proposing that a portion of Foundation Aid funding be set aside to assist districts with supporting students experiencing homelessness. 
• Increasing the percentage of Foundation Aid funding dedicated to support English Language Learners. 

The Board formally adopted their finalized 2026-2027 Legislative Priorities and Budget proposal. Prior to the vote, Regent Roger Catania presented a brief overview of the budget development process and emphasized the efforts NYSED made to reach out to as many New York stakeholder groups as possible in developing the priorities. Members of the State-Aid Subcommittee then presented a more specific itemized overview of the proposal, which includes a $1.1 million increase over last year. 

Key areas of emphasis in the proposed budget include: 

The finalized budget proposal will now be sent to the Governor and the legislature for consideration in upcoming budget negotiations. 

Below you will find a link to the slides referenced during the presentation that includes a more detailed breakdown of the proposal. 

https://www.regents.nysed.gov/sites/regents/files/SA%20-%20Regents%20State%20Aid%20Proposal.pdf 

• Update on NYSED’s Statewide Longitudinal Data System 

Deputy Commissioner for the Office of P-12 Operational Support, Jason Harmon, along with several NYSED colleagues and collaborative partners, updated the Board on progress with the development of the Statewide Longitudinal Data System (LSDS) initiative. 

In 2024, NYSED was awarded a $3.75 million federal grant to work on building a network that connects NYSED databases with a variety of different outside agencies to better research educational data. Deputy Commissioner Harmon provided an overview of the scope of the project which is allowing NYSED to analyze data trends through connecting a variety of P-12, postsecondary, and workforce related sources that they have never had access to in the past. This has enabled NYSED to significantly expand interagency collaboration and ask questions they’ve never been able to get answers to previously. The interagency collaboration allows the department to gather data from a variety of different sources and connect the information into a central database to guide evidenced-based planning and policy-making. As an example, NYSED is now working to connect P-12 and postsecondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) student data with workforce statistics related to CTE professions, to help guide future programming for P-12 CTE programs and courses. 

The link below includes the slides referenced in the presentation. 

https://www.regents.nysed.gov/sites/regents/files/FB%20Monday%20-%20An%20Update%20on%20NYSED%27s%20Statewide%20Longitudinal%20Data%20System%20%28SLDS%29%20Initiative.pdf