The state Assembly is scheduled to continue their spring floor period with two session days (Tuesday, Jan. 20 & Thursday, Jan. 22) full of legislation on all kinds of topics. Two K-12 related bills scheduled to be voted on by the full Assembly include Assembly Bill 393 relating to school bus operation by drivers over 70 and drivers with medical conditions on Tuesday and Assembly Bill 749 relating to requiring instruction in blood and organ donation in high school grades on Thursday. More information on these bills is included below:
From the Legislative Council analysis: Under current law, if the Department of Transportation (DOT) cancels a motor vehicle operating privilege for medical reasons, the individual may request an appearance before a medical review board. A medical review board may recommend that an exception be granted by DOT if, in the medical review board’s opinion, the individual’s medical condition does not impair the individual’s ability to safely operate the class or type of motor vehicle for which the individual’s operating privilege was cancelled.
Under current law, a medical review board consists of a DOT representative and at least two members appointed by the DOT secretary from a list of physicians and, in cases concerning vision only, optometrists licensed to practice in Wisconsin. AB 393 makes physician assistants and advanced practice nurses eligible to serve on a medical review board.
Also under current law, DOT may issue a school bus endorsement to an individual who is more than 70 years of age, if the individual annually passes a physical examination. Under DOT administrative rules, such an individual must also demonstrate the continuing ability to meet the endorsement requirements
at two-year intervals. AB 393 requires an individual who is 70 years of age or older to demonstrate the continuing ability to hold a school bus endorsement at four-year intervals, rather than the two-year intervals required by DOT administrative rules. Under the bill, these intervals are measured from the date of the preceding examination.
Finally, under current law, DOT may require any individual to demonstrate continuing qualifications to hold an operator’s license at two-year intervals, if the license is otherwise valid for a period of more than two years. under the bill, DOT may require any individual to demonstrate continuing qualifications to
hold an operator’s license at intervals of not less than two years, rather than at two-year intervals, if the license is otherwise valid for a period of more than two years.
The bill is supported by the Wisconsin School Bus Association among other bus companies/groups (see testimony). WASB did not register a position on this bill.
Beginning in the 2026–27 school year, this bill requires school boards to include in their curricula for pupils in at least one of grades 9 to 12 instruction in human organ and blood donation.
The WASB (along with the School Administrators Alliance (SAA) and Rural Schools Alliance (WiRSA)) opposes this legislation on local control grounds and the fact that the bill’s requirements do not apply to independent charter or private voucher schools. See WASB Testimony.
