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Start Date Rule (ch. PI 27) Changes
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | March 7, 2024
Good Afternoon,
The legislative session is quickly ending for the remainder of 2024 – but work to provide additional flexibility for school districts has not ended. The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) recently opened the School Start Date rule that governs the issuance of start date waivers. The goal behind this is to provide clearer guidance around the waiver process and provide additional flexibility for school districts when applying for a waiver. I strongly encourage everyone to email comments to adminrules@dpi.wi.gov or submit comments using the online form to express your support of granting schools additional flexibility and more strongly supporting the ability for locally elected boards to make decisions that are in the best interest of their students and the community.
Please remember that you can work with your school leadership teams to generate multiple emails to the above address or link in support of allowing additional flexibility. Emails can be very simply constructed, or you can use the opportunity to highlight specific reasons that your school district would benefit from additional flexibility. Comments in favor of ch. PI 27 changes must be submitted by March 25, 2024. Below are sample talking points you and others can use to craft a short email:
- The proposed rule provides a more flexible process for school boards to follow when seeking to adjust their school calendars to better meet the academic and local needs of their respective districts. Without additional rule changes to ch. PI 27 school boards are incredibly limited by the current criteria by which they may request an exemption to the school start date.
- Locally elected school boards should be granted greater flexibility in determining the start date for their district, so they are best able to meet the needs of their students.
- Many school districts are working together cooperatively to expand academic opportunities for their students by collaborating with other districts, universities, and technical colleges to provide dual or concurrent enrollment. Having the flexibility to determine their start date locally allows for greater expansion of these opportunities through the alignment of calendars.
The rule is specifically amended to allow for an early start date for updated purposes that better represent the needs of our students, families, and schools. Specifically, SECTION 4. PI 27.03 (5) (f) and (6) (am) are created to read:
PI 27.03 (5) (f) A determination by the school board that an earlier commencement date will improve student achievement across content areas or address academic needs, which includes any of the following:
1. Student graduation rates.
2. Reading proficiency, as measured by reading readiness scores, and mathematics proficiency.
3. Student attendance or absenteeism.
4. Coordination between universities, technical colleges, and school districts related to dual or concurrent enrollment.
5. Mental health of students and staff.
6. Recruitment and retention of the educator workforce.
7. Coordination between one or more school districts related to educational programming.
Additional changes include:
(6) (am) If a request is made after the March 1 deadline under sub. (3) (b), and the department determines the request was not made as a direct result of the unforeseen event cited in the request, the department shall determine that an extraordinary reason does not exist.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions you may have – if you wish to view the entire text of the proposed changes please use this link.
Topics: Legislative Action, SAA Capitol Reports, SAA Capitol Reports with Email Notifications, SAA Latest Update | No Comments »
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