With certain exceptions, the bill requires that, beginning on July 1, 2024,
teachers at private schools participating in a parental choice program or in the SNSP
must hold a license or permit issued by DPI. Under current law, teachers at choice
schools must have at least a bachelor's degree from a nationally or regionally
accredited institution of higher education, but they are not required to be licensed
by DPI. There are no current law requirements regarding who may teach at SNSP
schools.
The bill provides an exception for a teacher who teaches only courses in
rabbinical studies. In addition, the bill provides a grace period for a teacher who has
been teaching for at least the five consecutive years immediately preceding July 1,
2024, which allows the teacher to apply for a temporary, nonrenewable waiver of the
licensure requirement. An applicant for a waiver must submit a plan for becoming
licensed as required under the bill.
Special Needs Scholarship Program; religious activity opt-out
The bill provides that a private school participating in the SNSP must allow a
child attending the private school under the SNSP to refrain from participating in
any religious activity if the child's parent submits to the child's teacher or the private
school's principal a written request that the child be exempt from such activities.
Special Needs Scholarship Program; requirement for schools to participate
in parental choice program
The bill provides that a private school that begins participating in the SNSP in
the 2022-23 school year or any school year thereafter may participate only if the
private school also participates in a parental choice program.
Transportation aid; full-time open enrollment and early college credit
programs
Under current law, a parent or guardian of a pupil attending a public school in
a nonresident school district under the full-time open enrollment program or of a
public or private high school pupil attending an institution of higher education under
the early college credit program may apply to DPI for reimbursement for the costs
of transporting the pupil to the nonresident school district or the institution of higher
education. Under current law, the reimbursements for transportation costs for both
the full-time open enrollment program and the early college credit program are
funded from a single sum certain, annual appropriation. Under the bill,
reimbursements for transportation costs related to each program are funded from
separate sum certain appropriations.
Annual charter school authorizer report
Under current law, a school board, the OEO, the City of Milwaukee, the
chancellor of an institution in the UW System, a technical college district board, the
county executive of Waukesha County, the college of Menominee Nation, and the Lac
Courte Oreilles Ojibwa community college may contract with a person to operate a
charter school. These entities are commonly referred to as charter school
authorizers.
Current law requires each charter school authorizer to annually submit to DPI
and the chief clerk of each house of the legislature a report that includes specific
information about each charter school authorized by the charter school authorizer,
services provided by the charter school authorizer, and the charter school
authorizer's operating costs. The bill eliminates this requirement.
Per pupil payment to independent charter schools authorized by a tribal
college
A charter school authorized by a charter school authorizer other than a school
board is commonly known as an independent charter school. Under current law, DPI
pays a different per pupil amount to an independent charter school authorized by a
tribal college than it pays to other independent charter schools.
Under current law, the per pupil payment to an independent charter school
authorized by a tribal college is based on the per pupil academic base funding the
federal Bureau of Indian Education provides to tribal schools under federal law. In
the 2020-21 school year, the per pupil amount paid to an independent charter school
authorized by a tribal college is $8,719. The per pupil amount paid to an independent
charter school authorized by an authorizer other than a tribal college is set by law.
In the 2020-21 school year, the per pupil payment amount to an independent charter
school authorized by an authorizer other than a tribal college is $9,165.
The bill eliminates the different per pupil amount paid to independent charter
schools authorized by a tribal college. Under the bill, beginning in the 2021-22
school year, DPI pays the same per pupil amount to all independent charter schools.
Early College Credit Program; pupils attending an independent charter
school
Under current law, public and private high school pupils may enroll in an
institution of higher education for the purpose of taking one or more courses to earn
high school credit or postsecondary credit or both. This program is known as the
Early College Credit Program. The bill makes various technical changes to the
ECCP to ensure that the program is accessible to public high school pupils who
attend independent charter schools. Under current law, the only secondary
educational entity referenced in the ECCP for a public high school pupil is the school
board of the school district in which the pupil is enrolled. A public high school pupil
who attends an independent charter school is not enrolled in a school district. The
bill adds throughout the ECCP the governing board of the independent charter
school the pupil attends as the relevant secondary educational entity for a public
high school pupil who attends an independent charter school.
County children with disabilities education boards; pupils attending a
school district under the full-time open enrollment program
Under current law, a county children with disabilities education board may
provide a special education program to pupils enrolled in or attending a school
district if the school board has agreed to be included in the CCDEB's special
education program. If a CCDEB is fiscally independent from the school districts that
participate in its program, the state provides state aid to the CCDEB. In the 2019-20
school year, there were three fiscally independent CCDEBs.
Under current law, one of the factors used to calculate state aid paid to a
CCDEB is determined by recalculating a participating school district's equalization
aid by adding resident pupils solely enrolled in the CCDEB program to the district's
membership and by adding the costs of the services provided by the CCDEB to all
resident pupils to the school district's shared costs. Under the bill, nonresident
pupils attending the school district under the full-time open enrollment program are
included in this calculation.
Current law provides a minimum per pupil revenue limit for school districts,
known as the revenue ceiling. Under current law, a school district qualifies for the
revenue ceiling if its base revenue per pupil is less than the revenue ceiling. Under
current law, the per pupil revenue ceiling is $10,000 in the 2020-21 school year and
each school year thereafter.
Under current law, the costs of services provided to resident pupils who were
solely enrolled in a CCDEB program in the previous school year are included in a
school district's base revenue per pupil amount. Under the bill, the costs of services
provided to nonresident pupils attending a school district under the full-time open
enrollment program who are solely enrolled in a CCDEB program are also included
in the school district's base revenue per pupil.
Opportunity Schools and Partnership Programs
The bill repeals the Opportunity Schools and Partnership Programs. Under
current law, there are three OSPPs: a first class city OSPP applicable only to
Milwaukee Public Schools; the MPS superintendent of schools OSPP; and the OSPP
for certain eligible school districts. Current law provides that the first class city
OSPP and each eligible school district OSPP are under the supervision of a
commissioner appointed by the county executive of the county in which the school
district is located. Currently, under each OSPP, the commissioner, or MPS
superintendent of schools, grants supervision over the operation and general
management of each eligible school in the school district to an entity other than the
school board. Those entities include a person that operates a charter school and the
governing body of a nonsectarian private school participating in a parental choice
program. Under current law, an eligible school is a school that was assigned to the
lowest performance category on the most recent accountability report published for
the school.
Primary and secondary education: administrative and other funding
GED test fee payments
The bill requires DPI to pay the $30 testing service fee for an individual who
takes a content area test given under the general educational development test
(commonly called the GED test). The GED test consists of four separate content area
tests that cover mathematical reasoning, reasoning through language arts, social
studies, and science. Under the bill, an individual who takes a GED content area test
to earn a High School Equivalency Diploma (commonly called an HSED) is also
eligible for the payment. Under the bill, DPI will pay for an individual to take all four
content area tests in each calendar year.
In order to be eligible for the payment, an individual must satisfy DPI's
requirements for the individual to receive a Certificate of General Educational
Development or an HSED from DPI. Among other things, DPI requires that the
individual meet certain residency and minimum age requirements and attend a
counseling session. The individual also must obtain a passing score on a GED
practice test for the content area (commonly called a GED Ready practice test).
Grants to replace race-based nicknames, logos, mascots, or team names
associated with American Indians