Many questions have been asked regarding when districts may experience cuts to their federal funds if sequestration takes place.  Recently, the US Department of Education provided clarification that although major education programs like Title I, IDEA, Title II, and Perkins receive advanced 2013 funds during the 2012-13 school year, districts would not begin having federal funds sequestered until July 2013.  The federal funds that this will impact will include all federal education funds appropriated to districts during fiscal year 2013.

While the delay in sequestering those major education program funds will be helpful, the result will be that unless Congress acts on the issue of sequestration, a larger cut to our federal programs budget will occur in the next fiscal year.

Currently, the cuts are estimated to be 7%-9% of all federal funds. For budget planning purposes, we are assuming the 9% reduction to ensure we have a balanced budget.  The allocation for Hillsborough County Public Schools for the 2012-13 school year is $121,904,572.27 and a 9% sequestration of funds would result in a budget reduction of $10,971,411.50.