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Upcoming Legislative Action

By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | February 4, 2025

The Assembly Education Committee has scheduled a hearing for February 6, 2024, at 10 am on the following bills.  It is anticipated that the proposals may be voted on by the end of the month in the State Assembly:   

Assembly Bill 1: Under the bill, beginning with report cards published for the school year in which the bill becomes law, for the index system to identify school and school district performance and improvement, also known as the accountability rating categories, DPI must use the same cut scores, score ranges, and corresponding qualitative descriptions that DPI used for report cards published in the 2019-20 school year. In addition, beginning with the WSAS administered in the school year in which the bill becomes law, DPI must do the following:

1. For the Wisconsin Forward exam in English Language Arts and Mathematics, align cut scores, score ranges, and pupil performance categories to the cut scores, score ranges, and pupil performance categories set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

2. For the PreACT and ACT with Writing in English, Reading, and Mathematics, use the same cut scores, score ranges, and pupil performance categories that DPI used for the same assessments administered in the 2021-22 school year. The bill specifically requires DPI to use the terms “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient,” and “advanced” for pupil performance categories on these assessments. (Public Hearing, Assembly Education Committee 02/06/25)

Assembly Bill 3: This bill requires the state superintendent of public instruction to incorporate cursive writing into the model academic standards for English language arts. The bill also requires all school boards, independent charter schools, and private schools participating in a parental choice program to include cursive writing in its respective curriculum for the elementary grades. Specifically, each elementary school curriculum must include the objective that pupils be able to write legibly in cursive by the end of fifth grade. (Public Hearing, Assembly Education Committee 02/06/25)

Assembly Bill 4: Beginning in the 2027-28 school year, this bill requires school boards, independent charter schools, and private schools participating in a parental choice program to include in their respective curricula instruction in civics that include specific topics and pupil development goals included in the proposed legislation. (Public Hearing, Assembly Education Committee 02/06/25)

Assembly Bill 5: This bill requires a school board to comply with a school district resident’s written request to inspect a textbook, curriculum, or instructional material within 14 days. (Public Hearing, Assembly Education Committee 02/06/25)

Assembly Bill 6: This bill requires school boards to spend a minimum amount of operating expenditures on direct classroom expenditures and limits annual compensation increases for school administrators. The bill requires each school board to spend at least 70 percent of its operating expenditures in each school year on direct classroom expenditures. Under the bill, “direct classroom expenditures” are expenditures for salaries and benefits of teachers and teacher aides, instructional supplies, tuition, athletic programs, and co-curricular activities.

Under the bill, if a school board fails to meet the 70 percent threshold in any school year, the school board must increase the amount spent on direct classroom expenditures by at least 2 percent in each succeeding school year until the 70 percent level is reached. In addition, in the school year following a school year in which a school board fails to meet the 70 percent threshold, the bill directs the Department of Public Instruction to reduce the school district’s state aid payments by the difference between what the school board spent on direct classroom expenditures and the minimum that it should have spent on direct classroom expenditures and prohibits the school board from levying additional property taxes to compensate for the reduction. DPI must order the school board to reduce the property tax obligations of its taxpayers if the aid deduction does not cover the amount of the excess expenditures.

The bill limits the amount a school board may increase the total compensation paid to a school district administrator, business manager, school principal, or an assistant to any of those positions (collectively, school administrators), to the average annual percentage increase in total compensation that the school board provided to teachers in the school district. Under current law, the term of a school administrator contract is limited to no more than two years but may provide for additional one-year extensions. The pay increase limitation created in the bill first applies to contracts entered into, renewed, or modified on the date the bill becomes law. (Public Hearing, Assembly Education Committee 02/06/25)

It is anticipated that the Assembly Committee on Science, Technology, and AI will hold a public hearing on the requirement for school boards to adopt a policy prohibiting the use of cell phones and devices during instructional hours. Assembly Bill 2: Requiring school boards to adopt policies to prohibit the use of wireless communication devices during instructional time.

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