Applications for the full-time open enrollment program in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years and the family income requirement for the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program in the 2021-22 school year. (FE)

Full-time open enrollment; applications for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years Under current law, a pupil may attend a public school, including a virtual charter school, in a nonresident school district under the full-time open enrollment program (OEP). For purposes of the OEP, a virtual charter school is located in the school district that authorized the virtual charter school.

The standard OEP application procedure requires a pupil's parent to apply to a nonresident school district during the spring semester immediately preceding the school year in which the pupil wishes to attend the nonresident school district.

However, current law provides an alternative application procedure that allows a pupil's parent to apply to a nonresident school district at any time during the school year if certain circumstances apply. One of the circumstances under which a pupil may apply using the alternative application procedure is if the parent of the pupil and the nonresident school board agree that attending school in the nonresident school district is in the best interests of the pupil. Current law allows a resident school board to deny a pupil's application if the resident school board determines the circumstance relied upon by the pupil to use the alternative application procedure does not apply to the pupil. Current law also provides an appeal process in the event the resident school board denies a pupil's application.

Under the bill, during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, if a pupil submits an OEP application using the alternative application procedure on the basis of the pupil's parent and nonresident school board agreeing that attending school in the nonresident school district is in the best interests of the pupil, the pupil's resident school board may not deny the application for any reason.

Current law also limits the number of nonresident school boards to which a pupil may apply to attend a public school under the OEP to no more than three nonresident school boards in any school year. Under the bill, this limitation does not apply to 1) applications for the 2020-21 school year that are submitted under the alternative application procedure, or 2) applications for the 2021-22 school year that are submitted under the standard or alternative application procedure.