District overview
Washington County Public Schools
How Washington County Public Schools is paid for, and what the county's own budget records show.
Who pays for Washington County's schools, and who decides?
Washington County Public Schools runs 16 schools for about 6,700 students around Abingdon in far south-west Virginia. Its school board members are elected, but the county's own audit puts the position bluntly: the School Board is fiscally dependent on Washington County, because the county approves all of its borrowing and provides much of its money, and the School Board does not publish separate financial statements of its own. Money reaches the schools through five funds the county appropriates: the General School Fund for day-to-day running, the School Fiscal Agency Fund, the School Textbook Fund, the School Facilities Fund for buildings and the School Cafeteria Fund. Education is 62.25% of everything Washington County spends. This page is built from county budget and audit documents, because the school division's own website and its board record service both refuse requests from this project.
State money is falling and the county is not fully replacing it
For 2026-27 the state's share of the General School Fund fell $2,210,563 to $64,768,889. The School Board asked the county for $2,500,000 more; the county administrator recommended and the county adopted $1,400,000 more, taking the local contribution to $32,053,567. The fund still ended up $739,389 smaller than the year before.
Three years of smaller school budgets
Before the county's own transfer, the General School Fund was adopted at $77,338,594 for 2024-25, $76,886,090 for 2025-26 and $74,746,701 for 2026-27.
The building fund has no yearly income
The School Facilities Fund is made up entirely of money carried over from previous years. It receives no county contribution and no state or federal money, and it drops from $2,122,780 to $950,000 for 2026-27.
The county holds the borrowing power
The audit records that the county approves every debt issuance of the School Board. That means a large building project cannot be financed by the school board on its own, and the county's budget is where those decisions become visible.
None of this says the division is badly run, and it is not the whole picture. County budgets show what a school system is given, not what it does with it. Federal money to Washington County's schools actually rose $846,709 for 2026-27, the textbook and fiscal agency funds both grew, and the county did put $1.4 million more of its own money in. What is missing here is the school board's own account of its decisions, which could not be read.
What is on the public record
Federal NCES Common Core of Data district directory, 2022 collection year. No current enrolment figure appears in the county documents available.
Federal NCES Common Core of Data district directory, 2022 collection year.
Down $739,389 from $107,539,657 in 2025-26. This total includes the county's own transfer of $32,053,567; the county's expenditure tables show the fund as $74,746,701 before that transfer.
Up $1,400,000 on the $30,653,567 of 2025-26. The School Board had requested $33,153,567, so the county funded $1.4 million of a $2.5 million ask.
State income drops from $66,979,452 to $64,768,889. Federal income rose $846,709 over the same period, and other local income fell $775,535.
Down from $2,122,780 in 2025-26 and $1,800,000 in 2024-25. Every dollar of it is money carried over from earlier years; the fund receives no county, state or federal contribution.
Of a $196,500,041 adopted county budget. The next largest category is public safety at 10.68%.
Actual audited spending, against $5,212,954 of charges for services and $82,364,159 of operating grants and contributions, leaving a net $27,473,220 carried by the county.
Major projects
FY 2026-2027 school funding
Adopted June 23, 2026, smaller than the year beforeWashington County's budget year runs from departmental requests in the winter, through a county administrator's recommendation published in March, to adoption in June. For 2026-27 the School Board asked for a $2.5 million increase in the county's contribution and received $1.4 million, while state aid fell $2.2 million, leaving the General School Fund $739,389 smaller than the previous year.
- County adopts the 2025-26 budget, setting the General School Fund at $76,886,090 before the county transfer
- Requested and recommended budget published: School Board asks for $33,153,567, county administrator recommends $32,053,567
- County adopts the 2026-27 budget: $196,500,041 in all, 62.25% of it education
Funding
Virginia state aid, federal grants, and a Washington County appropriation approved by the Board of Supervisors
School Facilities Fund
Shrinking: no yearly income, down to $950,000The fund that pays for work on school buildings holds only money carried over from earlier years. It rose from $1,800,000 in 2024-25 to $2,122,780 in 2025-26, then fell to $950,000 for 2026-27. No county, state or federal contribution goes into it, so it declines as it is spent. The county separately maintains a debt service fund for schools, budgeted at $930,586 in transfers for 2026-27, down $48,845.
- Fund adopted at $2,122,780 for 2025-26, up from $1,800,000
- County administrator recommends $950,000 for 2026-27, all of it carryover
- $950,000 adopted
Funding
Carried-over balances only; no annual county, state or federal contribution
School resource officers
Grant-funded, renewed annuallyThe Washington County Sheriff's Office provides law enforcement and security in all county schools through its Community Services Division. School Resource Grants from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services pay for secondary school resource officers at three of the county's high schools and an officer at the Neff Center, and are applied for each year.
- County budget records the grant-funded officers at three high schools and the Neff Center
Funding
Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services School Resource Grants, administered through the Sheriff's Office
Recent news
Built from six documents published by Washington County on its own Budget and Finance page and read in full: the adopted county operating budgets for 2024-25, 2025-26 and 2026-27, the requested and recommended budgets for 2025-26 and 2026-27, and the county's audited financial statements for the year to June 30, 2025. These carry the school division's five appropriated funds with prior-year comparatives, the school board's request against the county administrator's recommendation, and audited actual school spending.
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