The School Construction Authority has about $21 billion to spend. That's the five-year plan, fiscal 2025 through 2029, and it covers just about everything — new schools, additions, roofs, boilers, electrical, ramps and elevators, cameras, asbestos. If you swing a hammer anywhere in this city, some of that money is headed your way.

Here's the thing, though. The full $21 billion is not a pile of contracts ready to bid today. Not even close.

“The full $21 billion is not a pile of contracts ready to bid today. Not even close.”

Some of it buys land. Some of it pays for insurance, computers, emergency reserves, and the back office. Some of it finishes jobs that started under the last plan. And a good chunk of it is still sitting with the architects. So if you want to know what's actually coming to the street, don't read the five-year total. Read the live bid list and the anticipated-award lists. Those are the jobs that are real.

That said, the plan tells you where the money's pointed. And that's worth knowing before your competitor does.

How they split the pie. The SCA's November 2025 proposed amendment cut the program into four buckets:

Now, you'll see two totals floating around, and both are right for their date. The November 2025 amendment added up to about $20.92 billion. Later allocations, through the SCA's summary data updated in March 2026, brought it to roughly $20.97 billion. Either way, call it $21 billion — and remember that not every one of those dollars turns into a new construction award.

Almost $10 billion lands in the next two years. The latest capital-plan summary puts about $5.62 billion in fiscal 2026 and $4.35 billion in fiscal 2027. Sounds like a gold rush. It isn't, exactly. Capital-plan dollars pay bills on work that's already underway, close out jobs from the old plan, and cover costs that never see a jobsite. So no, the SCA is not putting $10 billion of fresh work on the street in two years.

The line items are where you should be looking. Here's what the plan sets aside for 2026 and 2027 combined, by type of work:

These are plan allocations. Nobody's promised a contract. But they tell you which trades have real money behind them, and that's the list you plan a year around.

The jobs heading to bid say it even plainer. The SCA's current capital-improvement pipeline carries 577 usable project line items across the five boroughs. One warning before you start counting: a school can show up more than once if it's got several separate scopes. So that's 577 line items, not 577 contracts.

The big groups: 232 exterior-work line items, 117 electrical, 57 accessibility, and 37 playgrounds.

So if you do roofs, masonry, parapets, windows, or flood work — that's your market right there, and it's the clearest one in the building. If you're an electrician, you've got a wide lane too: low-voltage, fire alarms, cameras, access control, lighting, generators, and the electrification push on top of it.

And these aren't small jobs. The SCA puts 312 of the 577 line items in its "over $4 million" range, with another 98 between $1 million and $4 million. Now — those are estimated ranges, and the SCA may bundle several of those line items into one package when it actually goes out. The big GCs will probably lead on those. But every one of those packages needs subs, and that's where a lot of the trade work in this plan actually gets done.

Brooklyn and Queens have the most of it. Here's how the current repair pipeline breaks down by borough:

Those are counts, not dollars. A borough with fewer line items can still have a couple of very big jobs in it. Staten Island's 23 might be worth more than it looks.

The near-term capacity list — new schools, leases, and sites — leans even harder toward Brooklyn. As of the SCA's August 8, 2026 update, that short list had 16 line items: eight in Brooklyn, four in Queens, two in Manhattan, one in the Bronx, one on Staten Island. Eleven of the 16 were site or demolition packages, three were new-school items, and two were leases. That list moves every time a design finishes or a job gets advertised, so treat it as a watch list you check, not a forecast you bank on.

The long game on new seats is Queens. Look at the longer-term capacity plan and the picture shifts a bit. Queens has the biggest borough-specific program: 7,059 planned seats and about $1.16 billion in listed project costs. Brooklyn's next with 4,820 seats and about $1.03 billion. After that it's 3,358 seats on Staten Island, 1,912 in Manhattan, and 1,672 in the Bronx. There's also a separate citywide pot of 14,596 seats that hadn't been assigned to any one borough in the table.

So if your shop builds whole schools, Queens and Brooklyn are where you watch closest. And notice Staten Island — a decent-sized new-seat program next to a pretty thin repair pipeline. Different kind of work, same borough.

Which trades are sitting best? Let's be straight: no trade is guaranteed work. But the budget and the pipeline point to a few strong spots.

Roofing, masonry, waterproofing. This is the clearest near-term market in the whole plan. Roof replacement, facade and exterior masonry repair, parapets, windows, flashing, waterproofing, drainage, flood work — it's all over the plan and all over the anticipated-award list. And every one of those jobs drags more work behind it: scaffolding, sidewalk sheds, rigging, temporary protection, sealants, and somebody to handle the hazardous material when they open up the wall.

Electrical, controls, low-voltage. The SCA is funding electrification and still doing fire-alarm, PA, camera, access-control, lighting, and emergency-power work. That's electricians, controls guys, low-voltage shops, testing firms, and the people who sell them gear.

HVAC, plumbing, mechanical. Electrification isn't just an electrical job. Turning a school building over to heat pumps can mean new service, switchgear, controls, piping, ventilation, and tearing up the mechanical room. Stack on heating-plant upgrades, ventilation, domestic piping, backflow preventers, kitchens, and toilet rooms, and there's plenty here for mechanical contractors, plumbers, pipefitters, and sheet-metal shops.

Accessibility and elevators. The five-year plan carries $800 million for accessibility. That's elevators and lifts, ramps, accessible entrances, doors, toilets, handrails, paths of travel, and the electrical and fire-alarm changes that come with them. It's usually five trades in one job, and you're doing it inside a building full of kids — so the phasing is half the estimate.

General construction and structural. New schools, additions, and the big renovations feed concrete, rebar, structural steel, carpentry, drywall, ceilings, flooring, painting, millwork, doors and hardware. And the current capacity list has demolition and site packages that hit the street before the building contract does — get in early on those and you're on the site when the big one comes.

Civil, site, and recreation. Playgrounds, athletic fields, drainage, flood elimination, paving, fencing, site prep. That's its own lane for civil contractors, landscapers, utility crews, and the specialty outfits that install fields and play equipment.

Asbestos and lead. The plan carries $250 million for asbestos work and $10 million for lead-paint abatement. And that's just the stand-alone jobs. Abatement is baked into a lot of roof, window, masonry, boiler, and interior projects whenever the work disturbs hazardous material. If you're an environmental contractor, watch both — the jobs with your name on them and the sub scope inside everybody else's.

School work costs more to schedule. Price that in. Most of this happens in buildings that are still full of students and teachers. The SCA says intrusive interior work may get pushed to summers, nights, and school holidays. So expect short windows, temporary protection, daily cleanup, background and access rules, shutdown coordination, and a principal who wants to know what you're doing Tuesday. All of that costs labor and supervision. A low number that forgets the phasing, the overtime, the temporary systems, or the second mobilization — that's how a good job goes bad.

What to do now. First: start your SCA prequalification today, not when the bid drops. You may be able to put a proposal in before prequal is done, but you have to be prequalified before the SCA can award you anything. Subs can run into SCA qualification rules too.

Second: keep three lists open. The five-year capital plan for the long view. The anticipated-award lists for the jobs finishing design. And the live bid list for the real thing — actual solicitations, dates, documents, and addenda.

Third: check the labor rules before you price. The SCA has project labor agreements covering specified rehab and renovation work. Prevailing wage, certified payroll, labor compliance — that stuff moves the number, and it moves it a lot.

Last: read the spec book. The capital plan has $900 million for wrap-up insurance in it, but that big number tells you nothing about your job — what coverage you get, how you enroll, what the deductibles are, what's excluded. That comes from the actual SCA bid book, and it deserves its own insurance review before you sign.

Bottom line. If you want SCA work in the next stretch of this plan, the strongest signals are exterior work, electrical, and accessibility. If you build whole schools, it's Queens and Brooklyn.

The money's real. The headline number just isn't the whole story. Use the capital plan to pick your market. Use the anticipated-award list to build your pipeline. And use the live solicitation to decide whether a job is actually ready to bid — because that's the only one of the three that ever cuts a check.