January 6, 2022 - Introduced by Representatives Bowen, Shelton, Conley, Pope,
Hebl, Neubauer, Cabrera, Subeck, Spreitzer, Sinicki, Hong and Stubbs,
cosponsored by Senators Larson, Carpenter and Agard. Referred to
Committee on Colleges and Universities.

AB813,1,3 1An Act to amend 119.04 (1); and to create 20.255 (2) (cv) and 115.393 of the
2statutes; relating to: community school start-up grants, funding for the
3University of Wisconsin System, and making an appropriation.

This bill requires the Department of Public Instruction to create a community
school start-up grant program under which DPI awards competitive grants to school
boards to plan and implement community schools. The bill defines a “community
school” as a public school that focuses on improving pupil learning, strengthening
families, developing healthier communities, working with community partners to
provide additional services to the surrounding community, and providing
wraparound support services to pupils and their families. “Community school” does
not include independent charter schools or charter schools that are not an
instrumentality of a school district.

The bill requires that, under the community school start-up grant program,
DPI must allocate portions of the program funding to establishing community
schools in rural school districts, to establishing community schools in high-poverty
school districts, and to transforming low-performing schools into community
schools. The bill also requires an applicant for a community school start-up grant
to demonstrate that the applicant has secured matching funds for the grant and to
identify a school resource coordinator who will coordinate school programming. An
applicant for a community school start-up grant must also describe the types of
programming the school will provide to improve pupil learning, strengthen families,

and develop a healthier community. A community school start-up grant is for a
five-year term and may be renewed for additional five-year periods.

The bill also requires a recipient of a community school start-up grant to
provide an annual report to DPI.

The bill also provides additional funding for the University of Wisconsin
System under its general program operations for purposes of maintaining
compliance with maintenance of effort requirements of the federal Consolidated
Appropriations Act and the federal American Rescue Plan Act.