ORLANDO, Fla. — Orange County Public Schools leaders are discussing making changes to their budget for the 2025-2026 school year.

The district could lose almost $28 million in state funding because of a decrease in enrollment.


What You Need To Know

  • Orange County Public Schools sent out a memo to employees updating them about a predicted a loss of 3,130 students for the 2025-2026 school year, leading to a $27.8 million decrease in state funding

  • OCPS stated it will adjust staffing levels based on enrollment along with 2% decrease in funding at the administration level

  • The School Board unanimously voted to approve a partnership with Caissa Public Strategy LLC in order to help recruit students back to the district

  • OCPS will receive $7,065 for each student that returns to the district. Caissa will be paid a per student fee of $935 if students re-enroll with OCPS and attend a district operated school for 30 days

  • The teacher’s union claims the issue is the state puts public money into private school vouchers   

There are a few things that contributed to this proposed change to the budget, according to OCPS officials.

The first is the impact of the increase in Family Empowerment Scholarships and how it has impacted their enrollment.

The second is the decrease in birth rates.

OCPS officials say they are preparing for their largest enrollment decline since the pandemic, but they hope to remedy this enrollment drop.

“We just haven’t seen this amount of decline in enrollment since the pandemic, so this is something that is certainly concerning and we want to make sure that we are in fact the choice for parents when it comes to the individual schools within our district,” said Scott Howat, the school district’s spokesman.

The OCPS School Board unanimously voted Tuesday night to partner with third party firm Caissa Public Strategy LLC to help reverse the district’s deficit.

“Caissa K12 is a company that has been used by several districts to try and bring back students that have left Orange County Public Schools," shared OCPS Superintendent Maria Vazquez.

School board members say they hope this partnership with Caissa Public Strategy works as the district is looking at a multi-million-dollar loss in state funding.

“This is something that we’ve all looked into and it’s something that we would be doing for a year as the current commitment," explained OCPS District 3 School Board Member Alicia Farrant. "And it’s something personally as a school board member that I will be looking very closely at this to see does this actually help our district.”

The firm will only get paid for the students they help get enrolled, according to Vazquez. It is efforts they hope will close the gap on their deficit.

Orange County Public Schools gets funding from the state based on the number of students it enrolls.

Caissa would get paid about $900 of the almost $9,000 that a student would generate.

But if the school district does not meet its enrollment goals come next school year, then Orange County Public Schools will be faced with a deficit of about $28 million.

Orange County Public Schools sent out a memo to employees updating them about a predicted a loss of 3,130 students for the 2025-2026 school year, leading to a $27.8 million decrease in state funding.

This loss of state funding also means that all departments will have to reduce their operating budgets by 2%, according to OCPS officials.

News 13 also reached out to the Orange County Classroom Teacher's Association about the possible decline in funding and they sent a statement from President Clinton McCracken:

“The real issue isn’t just what’s happening now — it’s what caused it. We wouldn’t be facing this situation if the state had prioritized properly funding public education instead of funneling public dollars into private school vouchers. It’s time for Tallahassee to put students and communities first by investing in the public schools that serve us all.”