Generated source map

Budget source map

This page maps the UFB source families behind the budget site. It shows which file carries which claim, how much latest-year coverage is in the local warehouse, where the exact latest CSV link appears, and the caveat that should travel with the number.

NJDOE User-Friendly Budgets, 2025-26 latest year. Source links come from the loaded UFB rows in the local warehouse. How this budget data works

Source families11

Latest rows98,567

Exact source links10

District reports582

Operating scale$35.5B

Read the statewide reportSynthesis path before raw tables. Understand measuresUnits, denominators, and timing bases. Build storylinesClaim, proof, records, and counter-readings. Trace named rowsLargest and fastest-moving UFB rows. Understand categoriesPupil-cost and source-family lenses. Choose comparison framesCounty, model, scale, and slices. Scan district first readsOne generated question per district. Explore side filesFilter the long source-row instrument.

Source-to-story coverage

This crosswalk answers the journalism question directly: which source files are enough to write a narrow UFB-backed sentence, which published surfaces expose the proof, and which outside records still have to be pulled before the sentence becomes a full budget story.

Story lane	What UFB can support	Files to keep open	Published proof surfaces	Still outside the data
Cost position and fair comparisonIs the district actually high or low for the right peer set?	UFB can support a relative-position sentence using NJDOE's published comparative-cost line, county peers, and generated comparison slices.	Budget summary; NJDOE pupil-cost file; budget-enrollment file; generated county/model/scale/category slices.	Comparison atlas Cost-position brief District reports	Still needs grade span, regional/vocational/special status, service model, contracts, staffing, and local program context before any waste, quality, efficiency, or adequacy claim.
Real movement after inflationDid the budget story change after nominal growth is stripped out?	UFB can support loaded-year movement in 2025 dollars and separate cost level from real change.	Budget summary; revenue and appropriation histories; pupil-cost rows; budget-enrollment rows; CPI-U conversion.	Real-movement brief Statewide trend Cost anatomy	Still needs local reporting to explain why the movement happened: staffing, contracts, enrollment decisions, grants, facilities, programs, or accounting reclassification.
Current proposal movementWhat changes now in the latest budget proposal?	UFB can support revised/current-to-proposed movement for rows where the latest file carries both columns.	Revenue amount_2/amount_3; appropriation amount_2/amount_3; latest-file comparative-cost and planning-enrollment rows.	Current-proposal brief Proposal rows Proposal source rows	Still needs adopted budget documents, board materials, hearing slides, staffing plans, and checks on whether the change is recurring or one-time.
Operating funding and payer mixWho pays the General Fund operating budget?	UFB can support local/state/federal/other operating-revenue mix and source-row movement for aid, levy, tuition, fund balance, reserves, and carryover.	Budget summary operating revenue; revenue source rows; tax levy rows; fund-balance, reserve-withdrawal, and carryover rows.	Funding brief Source rows Model atlas	Still cannot become all-funds revenue, audited revenue, formula-causality, or household tax-bill language without outside tax and district records.
Tax effort and tax-base contextIs the local burden about levy, rate, tax base, or regional slices?	UFB can support estimated levy, rate, taxable value, equalized value, valuation-date, and regional/municipal slice checks.	Budget summary tax levy; estimated-tax side file; district and municipal slice rows where published.	Tax-burden brief Funding brief Comparison atlas	Still cannot provide household tax bills, audited property-tax data, municipal budget context, or advice about an individual taxpayer's burden.
Spending and revenue categoriesWhich part of the budget makes the total understandable?	UFB can support standardized pupil-cost category comparisons plus broader source-family and named-row movement.	Pupil-cost file; appropriation rows; revenue rows; budget-family taxonomy; named line numbers and account labels.	Category atlas Category brief Source-row brief	Still cannot make overlapping rows additive or prove cause, quality, waste, adequacy, staffing sufficiency, or program effectiveness.
Students, denominator, and service loadIs a per-pupil claim really a student-flow claim?	UFB can support planning on-roll, special-education on-roll, sent placements, received students, contract preschool, and denominator movement; fall enrollment adds context.	Budget-enrollment file; budget summary on-roll; same-year fall-enrollment warehouse context.	Students/service-load brief Service-load table Fall-enrollment table	Still needs placement records, tuition agreements, staffing and program details, and local context before explaining why the service-load pattern exists.
One-time support and reserve contextIs the budget using a bridge that has to recur?	UFB can support planned fund-balance, reserve-withdrawal, and carryover source rows, then place them beside projected balance and reserve context.	Revenue source rows; recap balances and reserves; unusual-item rows where relevant; latest proposal movement.	One-time support brief Side-file brief District first reads	Still cannot prove audited cash stress, structural deficit, surplus, spendable cash, recurrence, or fiscal strategy without audits and board records.
Outside-operating fundsAre grants, capital, or debt changing the visible budget scale?	UFB can surface special revenue, federal grants, capital, facilities, and debt rows as operating-budget-equivalent scale clues.	Revenue and appropriation rows for special revenue, federal grants, capital outlay, facilities acquisition, debt service, and related families.	Outside-operating brief Category atlas Source rows	Still cannot treat outside-operating rows as recurring classroom spending or one additive operating mix without fund-specific documents.
Labor, benefits, and resourcesWhat can the UFB say about people and resource allocation?	UFB can support standardized salary/benefit cost categories, listed administrative role rows, selected compensation components, and school-resource statement rows where published.	Pupil-cost file; appropriation rows; selected administrative-salary file; school-resource file.	Labor/resources brief Category atlas Side-file brief	Still cannot provide full payroll, contracts, staffing counts, total compensation, vacancy context, school-level adequacy, or negotiated labor history.
Unusual and shared-service explanationsWhich local explanation rows change the first read?	UFB can surface district-entered unusual-item explanations, shared-service arrangements, and optional reported savings.	Unusual-item file; shared-services file; named revenue/appropriation rows that may overlap with the explanation.	Side-file brief Storylines Reporting leads	Still cannot prove audited savings, causality, recurrence, or whether the explanation duplicates another source row without local documents.
Named source-line proofWhich exact row carries the claim?	UFB can point to file family, line number, account label, row description, current/proposed amount, loaded-year movement, source URL, and district examples.	Revenue and appropriation files; source URLs stored on loaded rows; district reports with source-file ledgers.	Source-line brief Source map Line index	Still cannot turn row existence into cause, quality, adequacy, recurrence, or final audited spending without the document trail behind the row.

The coverage rows are source discipline, not completeness claims. A row marked as UFB-supported can still require board records, audits, contracts, tax documents, staffing context, enrollment records, or interviews before becoming an explanation.

Claim-to-source routes

Start with the claim, then keep the proving files and blocked overread beside it. This is the source discipline behind the budget issue briefs and district reports.

Claim	Source families	Proof move	Open	Block this overread
Published cost position	Budget summary, NJDOE pupil-cost file, budget-enrollment file, county peers, and comparison slices.	Use NJDOE comparative cost as published, then test county, model, scale, cost-band, and service-load frames before quoting a rank.	Cost-position brief Comparison atlas District first reads	Do not recompute comparative cost from operating budget divided by enrollment or read a rank as quality.
Inflation-adjusted movement	Budget summary, revenue rows, appropriation rows, pupil-cost rows, budget-enrollment rows, and CPI-U conversion.	Use loaded UFB years and source-row histories to separate real movement from ordinary nominal growth and denominator effects.	Real-movement brief Statewide report Explorer trend	Do not mix CPI-adjusted first-to-latest movement with latest-file proposal-column changes.
Current proposal changes	Revenue and appropriation amount_2/amount_3 columns, pupil-cost latest-file values, and UFB planning enrollment.	Read revised/current-to-proposed movement as the budget-adoption story for the latest file, then trace large changes to named source rows.	Proposal brief Proposal rows Proposal source rows	Proposal rows are nominal planning dollars, not audited actual spending or real-dollar trend.
Operating funding mix	Budget summary operating revenue plus revenue source rows for levy, aid, tuition, federal revenue, fund balance, reserves, and carryover.	Separate General Fund operating mix from named revenue rows, then check whether local, state, federal, or fund-balance sources changed.	Funding brief Source rows Model atlas	Operating revenue mix is not all-funds revenue, audited revenue, or a household tax-bill claim.
Tax burden and tax base	Budget summary tax levy plus estimated-tax side file rows for levy, rate, taxable value, equalized value, and municipal or regional slices.	Name whether the claim is levy per UFB on-roll, estimated rate, equalized value, taxable value, basis gap, or regional spread.	Tax-burden brief Funding brief Comparison atlas	Estimated tax rows are context, not tax-bill advice or audited property-tax data.
One-time support and fiscal cushion	Revenue source rows for budgeted fund balance, reserve withdrawals, and carryover, plus recap balance and reserve rows.	Put planned source-row support beside close-year balance or reserve context, then test recurrence with board and audit records.	One-time support brief Side-file brief District first reads	Do not call planned fund-balance or reserve support audited cash stress, surplus, or recurring revenue.
Spending and revenue categories	Appropriation rows, revenue rows, standardized pupil-cost rows, and the budget-family taxonomy.	Use standardized pupil-cost categories for comparable per-pupil claims, then use source families and named rows for local explanation.	Category atlas Category brief Source rows	Pupil-cost rows, source families, and raw UFB rows can overlap and should not be added into one schedule.
Outside-operating money	Appropriation and revenue rows for special revenue, federal grants, capital, facilities, debt service, and related source families.	Scale outside-operating rows against operating budget only to show salience, then keep grants, capital, and debt outside the recurring operating story.	Outside-operating brief Category atlas Source rows	Outside-operating rows are not one additive operating mix and are not recurring classroom spending by default.
Labor, benefits, and resources	Standardized pupil-cost rows, benefits source families, school-resource side files, and selected administrative-salary side files.	Keep salary-bearing cost categories, benefits, listed roles, FTE/shared flags, add-on fields, and school-resource rows as separate evidence bases.	Labor/resources brief Category atlas Side-file brief	These rows do not equal full payroll, staffing counts, contracts, total compensation, or school-level adequacy.
Students and service load	Budget-enrollment file plus same-year fall-enrollment context loaded elsewhere in the warehouse.	Keep UFB planning on-roll, special-education on-roll, sent placements, received students, fall enrollment, and student need visible together.	Students/service-load brief Service-load table Fall-enrollment table	UFB planning enrollment and fall enrollment answer different denominator questions and should not silently replace each other.
Side-file explanations	Recap, estimated tax, unusual-item, shared-service, school-resource, and selected administrative-salary files.	Use side files to identify records and interviews to pull next, then return to source rows and district context before making a causal claim.	Side-file brief Storylines Reporting leads	Side-file rows are sparse context, not audited fiscal schedules, complete payroll, or replacement budget totals.
Named source-line proof	Revenue and appropriation files with UFB line numbers, account codes, row descriptions, current/proposed amounts, and source URLs.	Use exact file, line number, row label, amount basis, and district example before turning a category or proposal signal into prose.	Source-line brief Source row atlas Statewide explorer	A named source row can prove the row exists; it cannot by itself prove cause, quality, recurrence, or audited final spending.

Source family inventory

Each row names the latest-year warehouse coverage, the reader-facing use, source links where the UFB rows expose them, and the limit on interpretation.

Source family	Latest coverage	What it can establish	Open	Source file and limit
Budget summary warehouseBudget spine and first-read comparisons.	595 latest rows595 districts; 7 loaded yearsproposed operating-budget scale: $35.5B	Published comparative cost, operating budget, all-funds scale, operating revenue mix, tax levy, high-level uses, and UFB on-roll.	Measure guide Statewide report District first reads	Derived warehouse table; 2019-20 to 2025-26This is the profile-facing warehouse spine, not a public standalone NJDOE CSV. Detailed proof still lives in the UFB source files below.
Revenue fileFunding mix, one-time support, proposal revenue changes, and named source-row proof.	29,876 latest rows595 districts; 7 loaded yearslatest proposed source-row dollars: $211.1B	Named levy, aid, grant, tuition, fund-balance, reserve, carryover, and other source rows behind who pays.	Funding brief One-time support Source rows	rev26.csv2019-20 to 2025-26; latest statewide CSV link from loaded rowsRevenue rows include subtotals, contextual rows, and non-operating sources. Do not add indexed rows into one revenue total.
Appropriation fileSpending categories, outside-operating scale, proposal use changes, and named row movement.	34,452 latest rows595 districts; 7 loaded yearslatest proposed source-row dollars: $208.5B	High-level operating uses, lower-level program rows, transfers, special revenue, capital, debt, and all-funds context.	Category atlas Outside-operating brief Source rows	approp26.csv2019-20 to 2025-26; latest statewide CSV link from loaded rowsAppropriation rows are heavily nested. Operating-equivalent shares are scale references, not additive accounting.
Pupil-cost fileCost-position explanation and inflation-adjusted category movement.	9,136 latest rows569 districts; 7 loaded years	NJDOE standardized per-pupil rows for comparative cost, classroom instruction, support services, operations, administration, benefits, and related categories.	Category atlas Category brief Measure guide	pupcst26.csv2019-20 to 2025-26; latest statewide CSV link from loaded rowsThese are published NJDOE per-pupil rows. The site does not recompute comparative cost from operating budget or enrollment.
Budget-enrollment fileStudent/service-load and denominator checks for per-pupil claims.	3,791 latest rows593 districts; 7 loaded yearslatest planning-row count total: 1,478,584	UFB planning on-roll, special-education on-roll, sent placements, received students, contract preschool, state facilities, and denominator context.	Students/service-load brief Measure guide Statewide explorer	enroll26.csv2019-20 to 2025-26; latest statewide CSV link from loaded rowsPlanning rows are not fall enrollment and should not be added to dollar rows. Some rows overlap by definition.
Recap and balances fileReserve/cushion context and one-time support follow-up.	8,156 latest rows595 districts; 7 loaded yearslatest projected close-year balance rows: $3.6B	Projected close-year balances, reserves, restricted balances, and fund-balance context outside current operating appropriations.	Side-file brief One-time support Explorer reserves	recap26.csv2019-20 to 2025-26; latest statewide CSV link from loaded rowsBalance rows are not current operating spending or proof of spendable cash.
Estimated tax fileTax effort, tax-base, and local-burden basis checks.	749 latest rows553 districts; 7 loaded yearsGeneral Fund levy rows: $18.3B	Estimated school-tax rates, levy slices, taxable values, equalized values, valuation dates, and municipal/regional spread context.	Tax-burden brief Comparison atlas Explorer tax table	esttax26.csv2019-20 to 2025-26; latest statewide CSV link from loaded rowsEstimated tax rows are UFB context, not tax-bill advice or audited property-tax data. Regional slices can repeat a district across municipalities.
Unusual-item fileOne-off explanations, local board-story leads, and side-file caveats.	813 latest rows126 districts; 7 loaded yearsabsolute flagged amount: $918.8M	District-reported unusual revenue or appropriation explanations that may change the latest-year story.	Side-file brief Storylines Explorer side files	unusual26.csv2019-20 to 2025-26; latest statewide CSV link from loaded rowsUnusual rows can duplicate named revenue or appropriation rows. They are explanation prompts, not separate spending totals.
Shared-services fileShared-service context and potential local-record follow-up.	4,931 latest rows557 districts; 7 loaded yearsdistrict-reported savings: $12.0M	District-reported shared-service arrangements and optional savings fields.	Side-file brief Reporting leads Explorer side files	shared26.csv2019-20 to 2025-26; latest statewide CSV link from loaded rowsReported savings are district-entered context rows, not audited offsets against operating spending.
School-resource fileSchool-resource allocation context and district-report side-file follow-up.	288 latest rows32 districts; 7 loaded yearslatest resource-row dollars: $22.5B	School-based resource statement rows where districts publish the side file.	Labor/resources brief Side-file brief Explorer resource rows	schapp26.csv2019-20 to 2025-26; latest statewide CSV link from loaded rowsRows appear only for districts that publish the statement and can overlap with other operating rows.
Admin-salary fileListed leadership/resource context, not complete payroll.	5,780 latest rows583 districts; 7 loaded yearslisted base salary total: $728.3M	Selected administrative salary rows, FTE, shared-service flags, contract fields, and comments where published.	Labor/resources brief Side-file brief Explorer salary rows	employees26.csv2019-20 to 2025-26; latest statewide CSV link from loaded rowsSelected listed administration is not complete payroll, total compensation, or a staffing adequacy measure.

What this source map cannot prove

It is not a financial audit. The map routes generated claims to public UFB evidence, but audited statements, contracts, board materials, staffing records, and local tax documents may still be needed.
It does not make rows additive. Revenue, appropriation, side-file, pupil-cost, tax, and enrollment rows use different bases and can overlap.
It uses the local warehouse. Row counts and links reflect the NJDOE UFB files loaded into this repository when the site was rebuilt.
It separates source from interpretation. A source file can prove that a row exists; it cannot by itself prove waste, adequacy, quality, causality, or recurrence.