Next week Tuesday (December 5th), the Assembly Committee on Education, chaired by Rep. Joel Kitchens (R-Sturgeon Bay) is set to convene in order to hold a public hearing on several bills impacting Wisconsin public schools. Topics to be covered in the public hearing include provisional teaching licenses for paraprofessionals currently working in school districts, removing liability protection from personnel in a school district that possesses “obscene materials”, sexual misconduct towards a student by a school employee or volunteer, and full-time open enrollment acceptance for children of teachers working in a district outside their resident school district.
Prior to the hearing, the committee will also hold an executive session to vote on a tribal relations package that they previously received public testimony on in late October. If the committee votes to pass the package as is, the bills will move to the full chamber for a vote. The Senate has taken no reciprocal action on their version of the package. For a view of the committee’s full agenda and more information on these bills, please see below.
Public Hearing
Assembly Bill 640 — Relating to: a license to teach based on working as a paraprofessional in a school district.
By Representatives Dittrich; cosponsored by Senators Knodl
“This bill requires the Department of Public Instruction to issue a provisional license to teach to an individual who a) passes a background check, b) worked as a paraprofessional for at least three days per week for at least one school year in a classroom, and c) is recommended for licensure by the principal of the school at which the individual worked as a paraprofessional, the director of teaching and learning for the school district in which the individual worked as a paraprofessional, and the school district administrator of the school district in which the individual worked as a paraprofessional. Under the bill, a provisional license to teach that is issued based on these criteria authorizes the license holder to teach only in the school district that recommended the individual for the license. Additionally, during the first school year during which the license holder teaches under the license, the license holder must be mentored by a teacher who has taught for at least three school years in the school district. Finally, the bill specifies that DPI must issue a lifetime license based on a provisional license issued under the bill if the license holder successfully completes six semesters of teaching experience.”
Assembly Bill 308 — Relating to: protection from prosecution for employees of libraries and educational institutions possessing obscene materials.
By Representatives Allen; cosponsored by Senators Jacque
Assembly Bill 341 — Relating to: sexual misconduct against a pupil by a school staff member or volunteer and providing a penalty.
By Representatives Spiros; cosponsored by Senators James
(The Senate previously passed their version of this bill on 11/7/23. If the Assembly votes to do the same with this bill, the bill will move to the Governor)
Assembly Bill 644 — Relating to: applications for full-time open enrollment.
By Representatives Penterman; cosponsored by Senator Knodl
“This bill creates an alternative OEP application procedure for pupils who have a parent who is employed as a teacher in the nonresident school district to which the application is made. The application procedure created in the bill is available at any time during the school year and, if a pupil is accepted under the procedure, the pupil may immediately begin attending public school in the nonresident school district. However, under the bill, if the pupil’s parent is no longer employed by the nonresident school board as a teacher or an administrator, the nonresident school board may require the pupil to reapply using the standard or existing alternative OEP application procedure.
Under the application procedure created in the bill, a nonresident school board may accept a pupil’s application even if the result is that the nonresident school board exceeds the number of spaces it determined were available for nonresident pupils in a school, program, class, or grade in the nonresident school district. In other words, the space limitations determined by the nonresident school board do not apply to these applications. The bill also adds whether a pupil’s parent is employed as a teacher by the nonresident school district to the criteria that a nonresident school district may use to accept or reject OEP applications.
Specifically, under current law, OEP applications for a pupil may be submitted to no more than three nonresident school boards in any school year. However, applications submitted to a nonresident school board for a pupil to attend a virtual charter school under the OEP does not count towards this limitation. Under the bill, applications submitted under the new application procedure also do not count towards this limitation and may be submitted even if applications for the pupil have already been submitted to nonresident school boards in that school year.”
Executive Session
Assembly Bill 209 — Relating to: model academic standards related to American Indian studies, informational materials related to a school board’s obligation to provide instruction on American Indians, and the American Indian studies requirement for teacher licensure.
Assembly Bill 210 — Relating to: pupils wearing traditional tribal regalia at a graduation ceremony or school-sponsored event.
Assembly Bill 212 — Relating to: requiring school districts to report information related to American Indian children attending school in the school district.
Assembly Bill 214 — Relating to: a lifetime license that authorizes an individual to teach an American Indian language in an American Indian language program and modifying rules promulgated by the Department of Public Instruction.
For more information on the bills within the tribal relations package, see the WASB’s previous blog post.
