Hearing on part-time open enrollment coming soon

Posted at 2:30 p.m. on February 6, 2018

The Brillion News

MADISON – Part-time public school open enrollment (PTOE) could be coming back soon.

PTOE allows public school students to attend a non-resident public school to take a class offered by the non-resident school district.  The program was eliminated in the 2013-2015 budget, but was put back in by the state legislature in 2017 through Wisconsin Act 59.

Now the state Department of Public Instruction is planning to take public testimony on the administrative rules that would guide the restored PTOE. The hearing will take place from 2:30 to 4 p.m. on February 21 at the DPI headquarters, GEF3-Room P41 at 125 South Webster Street in Madison.

Written comments can be submitted through an online form at https://goo.gl/forms/NPdNndNWLsae4vJB3, or by e-mail at adminrules@dpi.wi.gov or by U.S. Mail to Carl Bryan, DPI, 125 S. Webster Street, P.O. Box 7841, Madison WI 53707-7841. Written testimony must be received by the DPI by March 2, 2018 at the latest.

The part-time open enrollment program only applies to students in public high schools seeking to take courses in other public high schools.  The program does not apply to enrollment in college or technical college courses or courses in private schools.

Effective in the 2018-19 school year, under the part-time open enrollment statute, a high school student enrolled in a public school may attend school in a nonresident public school district for the purpose of taking up to two courses at any time.  The resident school district must pay the nonresident district an amount equal to the cost of providing the course(s), calculated in the manner determined by DPI.

Students must submit an application to the nonresident school board no later than six weeks prior to the date on which the course is scheduled to begin and the nonresident school board must send a copy of a student’s application to the resident school board.  No later than one week before the course is scheduled to begin, the nonresident school board is required to notify the applicant whether the application has been accepted.