Wisconsin rates high nationally for open enrollment transparency
The article discusses a new report praising Wisconsin for its transparency and effectiveness in open enrollment policies. Wisconsin is ranked 10th nationally by the Reason Foundation for its open enrollment program, which allows about 60,000 students to attend schools outside their home districts without paying tuition. The state’s Department of Public Instruction (DPI) publishes detailed annual reports on open enrollment data dating back 25 years, showing steady growth from 2,000 students at the program’s start.
The report highlights Wisconsin’s transparency, especially concerning rejected open enrollment applications, noting that 20% of denials were due to limited space in special education programs. It also reveals that students with disabilities face higher denial rates than their non-disabled peers, a level of data not commonly available in other states.
While Wisconsin excels in statewide transparency, the report suggests improvements at the district level, recommending school districts publish open enrollment policies, procedures, deadlines, and available capacity on their websites to better inform families.
Wisconsin’s open enrollment period runs annually from February through April, with additional exceptions allowing transfers outside this window for reasons like bullying, military orders, homelessness, recent relocation, custody changes, or mutual agreements between districts.
Wisconsin rates high nationally for open enrollment transparency
(The Center Square) – Wisconsin is the “gold standard of open enrollment reporting in the nation,” according to the author of a new report on how state’s compare in open enrollment policy.
Wisconsin ranked 10th overall in Reason Foundation’s open enrollment rankings and Reason Senior Policy Analyst Jude Schwalbach praised the state’s cross-district enrollment policy that 60,000 students used in 2023-24 where students are not charged tuition.
“DPI annually publishes this open enrollment report dating back to the 1990s, so we have 25 years worth of data and you can see how the program in Wisconsin increased incrementally,” Schwalbach said, noting there were 2,000 students when it was launched.
“It slowly scaled up, which should be encouraging for other states,” he added.
Wisconsin’s high level of detailed transparency on the program also led to the conclusion that Wisconsin saw 20% of its rejected open enrollment denials were due to lack of space in special education programs.
“Wisconsin’s data continued trends from previous years, showing that school districts deny students with disabilities at higher rates than their non-disabled peers,” the report noted. “This level of data wasn’t available for other states.”
While the state has a high level of statewide transparency, the same level of reporting is not done on a district-by-district level.
“I think that districts should be posting their open enrollment policies, procedures and deadline on their websites so families can, if they want to transfer, quickly learn when, where and how to apply for one and what they have to do.
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“And they should also be posting their available capacity.”
Wisconsin has an open enrollment period from February through April each year when families can submit applications but also has an alternative open enrollment for specific reasons including bullying, military orders, if the student is or was homeless, within 30 days of entering the state, if residence changed due to a custody order or if both districts agree on the move.
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