In recent budget workshops and public discussions, school district officials have correctly stated that certain Nassau BOCES costs are mandatory. Administrative, facilities, capital, and debt service costs are mandatorily allocated through RWADA (Resident Weighted Average Daily Attendance). Most other services, however, are discretionary and could be procured directly by districts, even though structural incentives make BOCES the default channel.

What receives far less attention is how that structure functions when long-term capital and real-estate decisions are layered on top of mandatory cost allocation, and how those decisions intersect with the roles of local Boards of Education and the public.

This article examines that structure using Nassau BOCES’ own budget documents and the October 16, 2025 public referendum as a case study.

For the 2025–2026 fiscal year, Nassau BOCES allocates administrative operations, facilities rental, capital projects, and debt service costs using a total RWADA of 209,765 across 56 component school districts.

RWADA is the mechanism by which:

are distributed to districts on a per-pupil basis, regardless of program usage. Each district’s share changes annually based on how its RWADA compares to the countywide total.

This structure promotes consistency in cost sharing. It also means that every major BOCES capital decision carries countywide financial consequences, even when the underlying asset or program is geographically concentrated.

Nassau BOCES’ budget materials state plainly that:

For 2025–26, combined administrative, facilities, capital, and debt service charges exceed $34.6 million.

Once costs are categorized as administrative or capital, they become ongoing obligations shared across all districts.

It is important to be precise about governance.

Component district Boards of Education do vote annually on:

These votes typically occur in April, district by district. A majority of boards must approve the Administrative Operations Budget for it to pass. If it fails, Nassau BOCES is required to adopt a contingency administrative budget.

This means district boards do have formal leverage.

However, district boards do not vote individually on:

Those decisions are made by the Nassau BOCES Board itself or, in some cases, approved through a countywide public referendum.

As a result, board-level votes often occur after major capital decisions have already been made, when costs are already embedded in the RWADA allocation. Without coordinated action among districts, the board approval process tends to function as ratification rather than early-stage oversight.

Capital projects differ from programmatic services in one key respect: they persist.

When Nassau BOCES:

those actions:

Capital costs do not automatically decline when enrollment changes or programs consolidate. They remain part of the shared cost structure until retired.

On October 16, 2025, Nassau BOCES held a countywide public referendum seeking approval for a package of capital actions that included:

The stated funding sources were the Nassau BOCES Capital Fund and proceeds from the property sale. Nassau BOCES indicated that the proposal would result in no additional cost to local taxpayers or the 56 component school districts.

The referendum passed, with approximately 1,820 total votes cast countywide.

Voting was conducted at nine locations, all of which were school facilities that are owned, operated, or primarily used by Nassau BOCES programs:

Voters from all 56 component districts were eligible to participate. The decision, however, bound all districts through RWADA-based cost allocation, despite being decided by a relatively small electorate compared to the scale of the system funding it.

This reflects a structural concentration of decision-making, not a failure to follow legal requirements.

When administrative and capital costs are mandatory and allocated across 209,765 RWADA units, decisions that expand those cost categories effectively bind:

At the same time, approval mechanisms for major capital decisions do not require:

The result is a mismatch between who bears the cost and how decisions are approved.

Because district boards vote annually on the Nassau BOCES Administrative Operations Budget, they retain the ability to:

Absent coordination among districts, RWADA-based systems tend to expand incrementally, with each decision defensible in isolation but cumulative in effect.

None of this suggests that Nassau BOCES lacks value or purpose. The issue is structural:

In such systems, growth becomes structural rather than deliberate unless districts act together to impose discipline upstream.

As districts move through the 2026–2027 budget cycle, Nassau BOCES costs will continue to appear across administrative, operational, and capital lines.

Understanding how those costs are created — and when meaningful oversight can occur — is essential to understanding why local budget flexibility feels increasingly constrained.

The question is not whether BOCES is mandatory.
It is how mandatory systems remain balanced over time.

Without coordinated oversight, cost growth becomes a function of structure rather than choice.