by Chris Kulow | Mar 11, 2024 | Legislative Update Blog, State Issue
The state Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance (JFC) has voted along party lines to select the early literacy curricula that will comprise the recommended list of curricula under 2023 Wisconsin Act 20, the law that revamped early reading requirements. See our previous blog post for more background. Democrats on the committee moved to approve the 11 curricula proposed by the DPI but were voted down. The GOP-supported motion approves only the four curricula selected by the Council on Early Literacy Curricula: Core Knowledge Language Arts K-3, Our EL Education Language Arts, Wit and Wisdom with Pk-3 Reading Curriculum, and Bookworms Reading and Writing K-3. As we stated previously, schools are not required to use one of these four recommendations, but there is an opportunity to have some of the cost reimbursed by the state if a school decides to choose one from the list. (more…)
by Chris Kulow | Mar 11, 2024 | Legislative Update Blog, State Issue
The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) recently proposed changes (Clearinghouse Rule CR 24-026) to the school start date rule that governs the issuance of start date waivers. The goal behind this is to provide clearer guidance and additional flexibility for school districts when applying for a waiver. The proposed rule provides more flexibility for school boards when seeking to adjust their school calendars to better meet the academic and local needs of their respective districts. Currently, school boards are significantly limited in requesting an exemption to the school start date.
The WASB strongly supports this proposed rule based on our WASB Resolution supporting local control of the school start date. While this does not get us all of the way back to school boards having the authority to set their own start date locally, boards would be granted greater flexibility in determining the start date for their district. PLEASE SUBMIT COMMENTS IN SUPPORT OF THIS RULE (information on how to do this is below). (more…)
