{"id":14857,"date":"2025-01-21T13:51:26","date_gmt":"2025-01-21T14:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=14857"},"modified":"2025-01-21T15:00:36","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T15:00:36","slug":"wisconsin-school-choice-programs-serve-thousands-of-disabled-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=14857","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin School Choice Programs Serve Thousands of Disabled Students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/wisconsin-school-choice-programs-serve-thousands-of-disabled-students\/\">https:\/\/will-law.org\/wisconsin-school-choice-programs-serve-thousands-of-disabled-students\/<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"et_pb_section et_pb_section_0 et_section_regular\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_row et_pb_row_0\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_3_4 et_pb_column_0  et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_text et_pb_text_0  et_pb_text_align_left et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\">\n<p>The News: An estimated 14% of students in Wisconsin school choice programs have a special needs disability, according to a new analysis conducted by the Wisconsin Institute for Law &amp; Liberty (WILL) and School Choice Wisconsin (SCW).<\/p>\n<p>The Quotes: Will Flanders, Research Director at WILL, stated: \u201cThe data is clear. Wisconsin\u2019s school choice programs serve thousands of students with disabilities\u2014far more than choice opponents acknowledge. The Department of Public Instruction\u2019s method of counting grossly undercounts these students. This fuels a false narrative about private schools\u2019 commitment to serving children with disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mike Metoff, Director of Research at SCW, added, \u201cThis research shows why official state estimates greatly understate the actual number of choice students with disabilities. Our data is consistent with prior scholarly work and dispel misinformation circulated in some media outlets and by opponents of school choice programs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Additional Context: Despite claims by opponents and media outlets that Wisconsin\u2019s choice schools under-serve students with disabilities, this report reveals the opposite. DPI\u2019s flawed identification method significantly undercounts these students, misrepresenting the reality that choice programs serve thousands of students with disabilities. This study provides data to correct the record and dispel these persistent myths.<\/p>\n<p>Report Highlights:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Current DPI identification requirements guarantee undercounting of students with disabilities who are enrolled in one of the state\u2019s choice programs. Even some students in the Special Needs Scholarship Program (SNSP) are not counted as having a disability.<\/li>\n<li>More than 14% of students in choice schools likely have a disability. This is seven times greater than DPI reports.<\/li>\n<li>Private schools in the choice programs may not deny admission based on disability status. In contrast, disability discrimination is widespread in Wisconsin\u2019s public school open enrollment program.<\/li>\n<li>School choice opponents wrongly claim that private schools in the SNSP receive reimbursement for 90% of costs. In fact, of the 3,068 students using a SNSP scholarship in 2024-25, only 11 (0.36%) are eligible for 90% reimbursement. The majority of the 8,653 choice students estimated to have a disability are funded at about 70% of public funding for the general student population.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Read more: <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Disabilities_Report_Final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-link-type=\"web\">Thousands Served: Students with Disabilities in Wisconsin\u2019s Parental Choice Programs<\/a>, January 2025<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_column et_pb_column_1_4 et_pb_column_1  et_pb_css_mix_blend_mode_passthrough et-last-child\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_team_member et_pb_team_member_0 clearfix  et_pb_text_align_center et_pb_bg_layout_light\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_team_member_image et-waypoint et_pb_animation_off\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"617\" height=\"980\" src=\"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/WILL_Flanders_Color_002_WEB_980x617_100ppi_Sharpened.jpg\" alt=\"Will Flanders, PHD\" class=\"wp-image-9280\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"et_pb_team_member_description\">\n<h4 class=\"et_pb_module_header\">Will Flanders, PHD<\/h4>\n<p class=\"et_pb_member_position\">Research Director<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Flanders@will-law.org<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\/wisconsin-school-choice-programs-serve-thousands-of-disabled-students\/\">Wisconsin School Choice Programs Serve Thousands of Disabled Students<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/will-law.org\">Wisconsin Institute for Law &amp; Liberty<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post originally appeared at https:\/\/will-law.org\/wisconsin-school-choice-programs-serve-thousands-of-disabled-students\/ The News: An estimated 14% of students in Wisconsin&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14857"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14859,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14857\/revisions\/14859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}