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LRBs0296/1
FFK/KRP/MIM:all
2019 - 2020 LEGISLATURE
ASSEMBLY SUBSTITUTE AMENDMENT 1,
TO SENATE BILL 821
February 20, 2020 - Offered by Representatives Hintz, Hesselbein, Spreitzer,
Doyle, Anderson, Billings, Bowen, Brostoff, Cabrera, Considine, Crowley,
Emerson, Fields, Goyke, Haywood, Hebl, Kolste, McGuire, B. Meyers,
Milroy, L. Myers, Neubauer, Ohnstad, Pope, Riemer, Sargent, Shankland,
Sinicki, Stubbs, Stuck, Subeck, C. Taylor, Vining, Vruwink and Zamarripa.
SB821-ASA1,2,3 1An Act to repeal 115.436 (2) (c), 115.436 (3) (a), 115.436 (3) (am), 115.881 (3) and
2115.884 (2); to renumber 115.745 (2); to renumber and amend 115.745 (1);
3to amend 20.255 (2) (ac), 20.255 (2) (bd), 20.255 (2) (da), 20.255 (2) (dj), 40.22
4(1), 40.22 (2m) (intro.), 40.22 (2r) (intro.), 40.22 (3) (intro.), 115.364 (1) (a),
5115.364 (1) (am), 115.364 (1) (b), 115.364 (2) (a) 1., 115.364 (2) (a) 2., 115.364 (2)
6(a) 3., 115.364 (2) (b) 2. a., 115.364 (2) (b) 2. b., 115.436 (2) (intro.), 115.436 (3)
7(b), 115.447 (title), 115.447 (1), 115.447 (2) (intro.), 115.881 (2), 115.884 (1)
8(intro.) and 119.04 (1); and to create 20.255 (1) (kt), 20.505 (8) (hm) 5m., 40.26
9(6) (intro.), (a) and (b), 115.364 (1) (c), 115.436 (2) (b), 115.436 (3) (ac), 115.436
10(3) (ag), 115.447 (2m), 115.745 (1) (b), 115.745 (2) (b), 115.884 (3) and 121.15
11(3m) of the statutes; relating to: general school aids, aid for special education,
12high-cost special education aid, sparsity aid, school mental health programs
13aid, summer school grants, special education transition readiness grants, tribal

1language revitalization grants, Wisconsin Retirement System teacher
2annuitants who are rehired by or provide services to a school district, and
3making an appropriation.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
This bill makes changes to laws related to general school aids and various
categorical aid programs and provides additional funding for general school aids and
various categorical aid programs in the 2020-21 school year. The bill also allows
certain retired teachers who are Wisconsin Retirement System annuitants to return
to work as a teacher without suspending annuity payments and without resuming
participation in the WRS.
General school aids
Under current law, the amount appropriated each fiscal year for general school
aid is an amount set by law. Beginning in the 2020-21 school year, this bill directs
the Department of Public Instruction, the Department of Administration, and the
Legislative Fiscal Bureau annually to jointly certify to the Joint Committee on
Finance an estimate of the amount necessary to appropriate in the following school
year to ensure that general school aids equal two-thirds of partial school revenues
(in general, the sum of general school aids and school property taxes). Under the bill,
JCF determines the amount appropriated as general school aids for each
odd-numbered school year (for example, 2020-21) and the amount is set by law for
each even-numbered school year (for example, 2021-2022).
The bill provides an additional $130,000,000 in the 2020-21 school year for
general school aids.
Aid for special education and school age parent programs
This bill provides an additional $79,100,000 in the 2020-21 school year for
special education and school age parent programs. Under current law, special
education aid, aid for providing physical or mental health treatment services to
certain private school and tribal school pupils, and aid for school age parents are
funded by a single appropriation. These types of aid are paid on the basis of eligible
costs incurred in the prior year and are subject to proration if the amount of money
appropriated is insufficient to reimburse the total amount of eligible costs. By
increasing the amount appropriated for these aid programs, the bill increases the
proration amount for aid paid under these programs in the 2020-21 school year.
Under current law, DPI provides 1) special education aid to school districts,
cooperative education service agencies, county children with disabilities education
boards, and independent charter schools; 2) aid to school districts, CESAs, and
CCDEBs for providing physical or mental health treatment services to private school
and tribal school pupils; and 3) aid for school age parent programs to school districts
only.

High-cost special education aid
Under current law, if the costs incurred to provide special education and related
services to a child with a disability exceed $30,000 in one school year, DPI pays the
school board, CESA, CCDEB, or operator of the independent charter school that
incurred those costs 90 percent of the costs that exceeded $30,000. This additional
aid is known as high-cost special education aid. The bill increases the amount DPI
pays an eligible entity for high-cost special education aid to 100 percent of the costs
that exceed $30,000.
Under current law, if the amount appropriated for high-cost special education
aid is insufficient to pay the full amount to the eligible entities, DPI must prorate
payments among all eligible entities. The bill converts the appropriation for
high-cost special education aid from a sum certain to a sum sufficient, eliminating
the need to prorate aid due to an insufficient appropriation amount.
Special education transition grants
This bill changes the per individual amount for grants awarded to school
districts and independent charter schools under the special education transition
grant program. Under current law, a school district or independent charter school
is awarded $1,000 per qualifying individual. Under the bill, a school district or
independent charter school is awarded the lesser of 1) $1,500 per qualifying
individual or 2) an amount per qualifying individual that is determined by dividing
the amount appropriated for these grants in a school year by the total number of
individuals who qualify for the grants in that school year.
The bill also provides an additional $1,500,000 for special education transition
readiness grants in the 2020-21 school year. DPI awards special education
transition readiness grants to school districts and independent charter schools to
support special education workforce transition support services.
Sparsity aid
This bill makes certain additional school districts eligible for sparsity aid.
Under current law, a school district is eligible for sparsity aid in the amount of $400
per pupil if the school district's membership in the previous school year did not
exceed 745 pupils and if the membership divided by the school district's area in
square miles is less than ten. Also, under current law, a school district that was
eligible to receive sparsity aid in the previous school year but that is not eligible to
receive sparsity aid in the current school year because the school district's
membership exceeded 745 pupils may receive up to 50 percent of the aid the school
district received in the previous school year.
Under this bill, beginning in the 2020-21 school year, a school district with the
same density of pupils per square mile and a membership that exceeds 745 pupils
is eligible for sparsity aid in the amount of $100 per pupil. The bill also provides that,
beginning in the 2020-21 school year, a school district that is ineligible for sparsity
aid because it no longer satisfies the pupils per square mile requirement may receive
50 percent of the aid the school district received in the previous school year.
The bill provides an additional $10,100,000 for sparsity aid in the 2020-21
school year.

School mental health programs; aid
Under current law, DPI must make payments to school districts, independent
charter schools, and private schools participating in a parental choice program that
increased the amount they spent to employ, hire, or retain social workers during the
two previous school years (eligible local education agency). Under current law, DPI
first pays each eligible local education agency 50 percent of the amount by which the
eligible local education agency increased its expenditures for social workers over the
previous two school years. If, after making these payments, there is money
remaining in the appropriation for this aid program, DPI makes additional
payments to eligible local education agencies. The amount of these additional
payments is determined based on the amount remaining in the appropriation and
the amount spent by eligible local education agencies to employ, hire, and retain
social workers during the previous school year.
This bill expands eligibility for the first round of payments under this aid
program to include increased spending on school counselors, school social workers,
school psychologists, or school nurses, or any combination thereof (pupil services
professionals), during the previous two school years. Additionally, the bill expands
eligibility for the second round of payments to any school district, independent
charter school, or private school participating in a parental choice program that
made expenditures to employ, hire, or retain pupil services professionals during the
previous school year. In other words, for the second round of payments, the bill
eliminates the requirement that a school district, independent charter school, or
private school increased its expenditures on pupil services professionals.
The bill provides an additional $19,000,000 for aid for school mental health
programs in the 2020-21 school year.
Summer school grants; urban school districts
Under current law, DPI must award a grant to a first class city school district
(currently, only Milwaukee Public Schools) for the purpose of developing,
redesigning, or implementing a summer school program. This bill expands the
summer school grant program to include additional urban school districts. Under
the bill, an urban school district is a school district that had a membership of at least
18,000 pupils in the previous school year. The bill requires DPI to annually allocate
$2,000,000 to MPS and to allocate the remaining amount appropriated equally to the
other urban school districts. The bill provides an additional $3,600,000 for summer
school grants in the 2020-21 school year.
Tribal language revitalization grants
Under current law, a school board, CESA, or Head Start agency may apply to
DPI for a grant to support instruction in one or more American Indian languages.
Under this bill, beginning in the 2020-21 school year, an applicant also may apply
to DPI for a two-year grant to develop, implement, and provide American Indian
heritage, language, and cultural instruction programs for children participating in
Head Start programs and for pupils in grades kindergarten to two.
The bill also authorizes DPI to contract with the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal
Council, Inc., to implement and administer those grant programs and provides an

additional $262,200 for tribal language revitalization grants in the 2020-21 school
year.
WRS annuities for teachers returning to work
Under current law, if a WRS annuitant, or a disability annuitant who has
attained his or her normal retirement date, is appointed to a position with a
WRS-participating employer, or provides employee services to a WRS-participating
employer in which he or she is expected to work at least two-thirds of what is
considered full-time employment by the Department of Employee Trust Funds, the
annuity must be suspended and no annuity payment is payable until after the
participant again terminates covered employment.
This bill creates an exception to this requirement for an annuitant who retired
from employment as a teacher with a school district who is subsequently rehired or
provides employee services as a teacher after retirement if 1) the participating
employer is a school district; 2) at least 30 days have elapsed from the date the person
left covered employment with a school district; 3) at the time the person initially
retires from a school district, the person does not have an agreement with any school
district to return to employment; and 4) the person elects to not become a
participating employee at the time the person is rehired as a teacher by a school
district or enters into a contract to provide employee services as a teacher after
retirement. In other words, the bill allows a teacher annuitant who retired from a
school district to return to work as a teacher for a school district that is a
participating employer and elect to not become a participating employee for purposes
of the WRS, and instead continue to receive his or her annuity.
The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do
enact as follows:
SB821-ASA1,1 1Section 1 . 20.005 (3) (schedule) of the statutes: at the appropriate place, insert
2the following amounts for the purposes indicated: - See PDF for table PDF
SB821-ASA1,2 3Section 2. 20.255 (1) (kt) of the statutes is created to read:
SB821-ASA1,6,8
120.255 (1) (kt) Tribal language revitalization grant program operations. The
2amounts in the schedule to pay operational and administrative costs incurred by the
3Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council, Inc., to implement and administer the tribal
4language revitalization grant programs under s. 115.745. All moneys transferred
5from the appropriation account under s. 20.505 (8) (hm) 5m. shall be credited to this
6appropriation account. Notwithstanding s. 20.001 (3) (a), the unencumbered
7balance on June 30 of each year shall revert to the appropriation account under s.
820.505 (8) (hm).
SB821-ASA1,3 9Section 3 . 20.255 (2) (ac) of the statutes is amended to read:
SB821-ASA1,6,1510 20.255 (2) (ac) General equalization aids. The amounts in the schedule A sum
11sufficient
for the payment of educational aids under ss. 121.08, 121.09, 121.095,
12121.105, and 121.137 and subch. VI of ch. 121 equal to the amount determined by the
13joint committee on finance under s. 121.15 (3m) (c) in the 2020-21 fiscal year and
14biennially thereafter, and equal to the amount determined by law in the 2021-22
15fiscal year and biennially thereafter
.
SB821-ASA1,4 16Section 4. 20.255 (2) (bd) of the statutes is amended to read:
SB821-ASA1,6,1817 20.255 (2) (bd) Additional special education aid. The amounts in the schedule
18for
A sum sufficient for the payment of aid under s. 115.881.
SB821-ASA1,5 19Section 5. 20.255 (2) (da) of the statutes is amended to read:
SB821-ASA1,6,2220 20.255 (2) (da) Aid for school mental health programs. The amounts in the
21schedule for aid to school districts and independent charter schools employ, hire, and
22retain pupil services professionals
under s. 115.364.
SB821-ASA1,6 23Section 6. 20.255 (2) (dj) of the statutes is amended to read:
SB821-ASA1,7,3
120.255 (2) (dj) Summer school programs; grants; urban school districts . The
2amounts in the schedule for grants to school boards districts for summer school grant
3programs under s. 115.447.
SB821-ASA1,7 4Section 7. 20.505 (8) (hm) 5m. of the statutes is created to read:
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