Under the statutes, records created and maintained by a governmental agency are normally open to inspection by anyone who requests inspection or copies of the records. Also under current law, a governmental agency is prohibited from selling or renting a record containing an individual's name or address unless authorized by statute. This bill allows the department of tourism to refuse to reveal names, addresses and related demographic information from any lists maintained by the department of persons who have requested travel information from the department. In addition, if the department reveals information from any such list, the department may charge a fee to recover its costs in compiling and providing the information.
Under current law, the department of commerce awards grants to community-based organizations for regional economic development, but is limited in the amount that it may award in a fiscal year. This bill removes this limit so that the department may use its discretion in the total amount of grants awarded.
Under current law, the department of commerce provides technical assistance, or a grant for technical assistance, to individuals, nonprofit organizations and businesses with fewer than 25 full-time employes for developing and planning the start-up or expansion of a business that is expected to provide job opportunities for persons with severe disabilities. This bill makes businesses with fewer than 100 employes eligible for such assistance.
Commerce
This bill allows a savings bank, a savings and loan association and a state bank (a financial institution) to become certified by the division of banking in the department of financial institutions (DFI) as a universal bank. If certified as a universal bank, the financial institution may exercise certain additional powers.
In order to be certified as a universal bank, a financial institution must be chartered or organized, and regulated, as a Wisconsin financial institution and be in existence and continuous operation for at least three years; must be well-capitalized or adequately capitalized; must not exhibit moderately severe or unsatisfactory financial, managerial, operational and compliance weaknesses; and must not have been the subject of any enforcement action within the 12 months preceding the application.
A financial institution that the division of banking certifies as a universal bank retains its original status and remains subject to all of the laws that applied to the financial institution prior to its certification as a universal bank, except to the extent that such laws are inconsistent with the powers and duties of universal banks.
The bill expands the powers of a financial institution that becomes certified as a universal bank to include any activity authorized for any savings bank, savings and loan association or state bank. In addition, the bill does all of the following with respect to the powers that a universal bank may exercise:
1. The bill grants a universal bank the authority to exercise all powers that may be exercised, either directly or through a subsidiary, by a national bank, a federally chartered savings bank or a federally chartered savings and loan association.
2. A universal bank may deal in loans or extensions of credit for any purpose. Like state banks, the limitations imposed on a universal bank's lending generally focus on the total amount of liabilities of any one lender at any one time. Although the limit varies, the general rule is that the total liabilities of any one person to a universal bank may not exceed 20% of the capital of the universal bank. In addition, the bill grants a universal bank additional authority to lend an aggregate amount to all borrowers not to exceed 20% of the bank's capital. The division of banking may suspend this additional authority based upon factors including the universal bank's capital adequacy, management, earnings, liquidity and sensitivity to market risk.
3. To the extent consistent with safe and sound banking powers, a universal bank may purchase, sell, underwrite and hold certain investment securities in an amount up to 100% of the universal bank's capital. A universal bank may not invest greater than 20% of its capital in any one obligor or issuer. Subject to certain limits, the bill also allows a universal bank to purchase, sell, underwrite and hold equity securities. Universal banks may also invest in certain housing properties and projects and profit-participation projects. The bill provides that a universal bank also may invest without limitation in several specific types of securities. The universal bank may invest in risk management instruments, including financial futures transactions, financial operations transactions and forward commitments, solely for the purpose of reducing, hedging or otherwise managing its interest rate risk exposure. In addition, a universal bank may invest in other financial institutions. However, the bill contains specific provisions governing the purchase by a universal bank of its own stock and of stock in banks and bank holding companies.
4. The bill grants a universal bank the authority to establish the types and terms of deposits that the universal bank solicits and accepts. A universal bank may pledge its assets as security for deposits and, with the approval of the division of banking, may securitize its assets for sale to the public. In addition, a universal bank may exercise certain safe deposit and trust powers.
5. A universal bank may exercise all powers necessary or convenient to effect the purposes for which the universal bank is organized or to further the businesses in which the universal bank is lawfully engaged. In addition, the bill allows a universal bank to engage in activities that are reasonably related or incident to the purposes of the universal bank. The bill specifies numerous activities that are either reasonably related or incidental powers, including real estate-related services; insurance services, other than insurance underwriting; securities brokerage; investment advice; securities and bond underwriting; mutual fund activities; financial consulting; and tax planning and preparation. A universal bank may also engage in any activity permitted to be engaged in by bank holding companies under the federal Bank Holding Company Act.
Under Wisconsin's version of the Uniform Unclaimed Property Act (UUPA), the holder of certain types of intangible property that is presumed to be abandoned must report and deliver the property to the state treasurer. If the presumption that the property is abandoned is incorrect, the holder must file a statement with the state treasurer explaining the error in the presumption. The UUPA defines intangible property to include a sales credit reflected in a vendor's bookkeeping. This bill excludes from the definition of intangible property a balance credited by a business association to a commercial customer's account in the ordinary course of business. Thus, the bill eliminates the requirement that a vendor either report and deliver to the state treasurer a sales credit issued to a commercial customer's account or file a statement with the state treasurer explaining why the sales credit is not reportable as abandoned property.
Under current law, certain articles and substances, including toys containing mercury, are statutorily banned from being sold or distributed in this state. This bill expands the ban to include fever thermometers that contain mercury.
Under current law, a person who owns a meter used to sell or deliver liquefied petroleum gas must comply with certain requirements to ensure the accuracy of the meter and the price charged to the purchaser. These requirements include registering the meter with the department of agriculture, trade and consumer protection (DATCP) and having the meter inspected annually by a meter servicing company that is licensed by DATCP. The meter service company then must file with DATCP a report of the test results.
This bill changes the registration requirement to a licensing requirement and imposes the requirement on the operator of the meter instead of the owner. The bill also imposes the requirement that the meter be inspected on the operator instead of on the owner.
Current law imposes fees on meter owners for failing to comply with these registration and testing requirements and on meter servicing companies for failing to comply with the reporting requirements. This bill authorizes DATCP to suspend or revoke operator licenses for and meter and servicing licenses for these failures.
On January 1, 1999, 11 members of the European Union (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Finland, Ireland, Austria and Luxembourg) adopted the euro as their single currency. Beginning on January 1, 1999, there is a three-year period for the conversion of the currencies of the members to the euro. On January 1, 2002, euro notes and coins will be introduced and on July 1, 2002, the member currencies will be withdrawn from circulation.
This bill provides a general mechanism for interpreting contracts or other legal instruments that are entered into or executed in this state or that contain provisions that require the contract or other legal instrument to be interpreted according to the laws of this state and that use currencies or other monetary units affected by the introduction of the euro. Generally, under the bill, any contract or other legal instrument that uses a currency or other monetary unit that is affected by the euro must use the euro as a commercially reasonable substitute for the currency or monetary unit. The bill also provides that no person may discharge or otherwise excuse performance under any contract or other legal instrument, or unilaterally alter the terms of, or terminate, any contract or other legal instrument, as a result of the requirement that the euro be a commercially reasonable substitute for the currency or monetary unit.
This bill changes the name of the division of savings and loan in DFI to the division of savings institutions.
This bill authorizes DFI to charge members of the public a fee for accessing or using DFI's databases or computer systems.
Buildings and safety
Under current law, the department of commerce regulates private sewage systems. A private sewage system is a sewage treatment system with a septic tank or an alternative sewage system approved by the department of commerce, such as a holding tank. Under current law, a person who is responsible for a point source of pollution (pollution from a pipe or similar conveyance into the surface water or groundwater of this state) is generally required to obtain a water pollution discharge permit from the department of natural resources (DNR).
Under this bill, the department of commerce regulates small sewage systems rather than private sewage systems. A small sewage system either is a wastewater treatment and disposal system that discharges below the surface of the ground and that has a design flow that does not exceed a maximum established by the department of commerce or is a holding tank. The bill authorizes DNR to exempt small sewage systems from the requirement to obtain a water pollution discharge permit.
Current law charges governmental units (counties in which small sewage systems are located or, for counties with a population of at least 500,000, the cities, villages or towns in which such systems are located) with certain regulatory duties concerning private sewage systems. Governmental units may delegate these regulatory duties to town sanitary districts or certain public inland lake protection and rehabilitation districts if these districts consent. This bill permits governmental units to delegate these regulatory duties to the department of commerce if the department consents.
Under current law, one statute authorizes governmental units to issue sanitary permits for the installation of small sewage systems and another statute authorizes both the department of commerce and governmental units to issue sanitary permits. The department's practice has been to issue sanitary permits for the installation of small sewage systems on state-owned property only. This bill permits both the department and governmental units to issue sanitary permits for the installation of small sewage systems on either private or state-owned property.
Current law prohibits a governmental unit from issuing a sanitary permit for the installation of a small sewage system if the department of commerce finds that the governmental unit has not adopted a small sewage system ordinance, as required by law, or if the governmental unit fails to carry out its regulatory duties concerning small sewage systems. This bill provides instead that the department may order the governmental unit to remedy its failure to adopt a small sewage system ordinance or to carry out its regulatory duties.
Under current law, the department of commerce administers a grant program for the replacement or rehabilitation of certain types of failing small sewage systems. Generally, a covered system is one that discharges sewage into surface water, groundwater or bedrock or to drain tile or the surface of the ground. Under the program, the department awards grants to eligible local governmental units which, in turn, award grants to eligible individuals and businesses. A person is generally eligible for a grant to replace or rehabilitate a failing sewage system if, among other things, he or she owns a principal residence that was constructed and inhabited before July 1, 1978, and that is served by a covered system and if the person's annual Wisconsin adjusted income does not exceed $45,000. If there is insufficient funding for all eligible individuals and businesses, the grants are prorated.
Under this bill, in a year in which the department of commerce must prorate funds under the program, a local governmental unit that received a prorated grant may apply for a no-interest loan to increase the prorated grants provided to eligible individuals and businesses. To obtain a loan, a local governmental unit must enter into a financial assistance agreement with the department of administration and the department of commerce. In addition, the bill provides that a person is eligible for a grant if the system serving the principal residence was installed before July 1, 1978, the person's federal adjusted gross income does not exceed $45,000 and the person meets the other eligibility requirements.
Current law requires small sewage systems to be inspected every three years by, among others, persons licensed by DNR to service septic tanks (pumpers). This bill eliminates pumpers as a class of approved inspectors for small sewage systems and adds small sewage system inspectors certified by the department of commerce. The bill also eliminates the three-year inspection requirement and requires instead that the department of commerce establish a schedule for the inspection or pumping of systems.
Current law requires cities and metropolitan sewerage districts to report to the department of commerce each failure of a state licensed plumber to qualify as a journeyman or master plumber and each wilful violation of any plumbing regulation. This bill eliminates this reporting requirement.
Correctional system
Adult correctional system
This bill provides that the department of corrections (DOC) may not enter into any contract or other agreement if, in the performance of the contract or agreement, a prisoner would perform data entry or telemarketing services and have access to any information that may serve to identify a minor or have access to an individual's financial transaction card numbers, checking or savings account numbers or social security number. Under the bill, a financial transaction card means an instrument or device issued to the cardholder for obtaining anything on credit, for certifying or guaranteeing the availability of funds sufficient to honor a draft or check or for gaining access to an account.
Under current law, DOC may, until July 1, 1999, operate the juvenile secured correctional facility at Prairie du Chien as a state prison for nonviolent offenders who are not more than 21 years of age. This bill extends that authority to July 1, 2001.
This bill requires DOC to establish a probation and parole holding and alcohol and other drug abuse treatment facility in Milwaukee, a medium security correctional institution in Redgranite and a medium security correctional facility in New Lisbon.
Juvenile correctional system
Under current law relating to community youth and family aids (generally referred to as "youth aids"), various state and federal funds are allocated to counties to pay for state-provided juvenile correctional services and local delinquency-related and juvenile justice services. DOC charges counties for the costs of services provided by DOC. This bill provides new per person daily cost assessments upon counties for juvenile placements during the 1999-2001 fiscal biennium as follows:
Under current law, DOC may operate or contract for the operation of secured correctional facilities for holding in secure custody juveniles who have been adjudicated delinquent and placed in a secured correctional facility under the supervision of DOC by the court assigned to exercise jurisdiction under the juvenile justice code (juvenile court). Current law also permits DOC to license child welfare agencies to operate secured child caring institutions (secured CCI's) for holding in secure custody juveniles who have been adjudicated delinquent and referred to the child welfare agency by the juvenile court or by DOC. A juvenile court may place a juvenile in a secured correctional facility or a secured CCI only if the juvenile has been adjudicated delinquent for committing an act that would be punishable by a sentence of six months or more if committed by an adult and has been found to be a danger to the public and in need of restrictive custodial treatment.
This bill permits the county board of supervisors of not more than one county to establish, and DOC to license, a secured group home for holding in secure custody juveniles who have been adjudicated delinquent for committing an act that would be punishable by a sentence of six months or more if committed by an adult, who have been found to be a danger to the public and in need of restrictive custodial treatment and who have been placed under the supervision of DOC by the juvenile court.
Under current law, various laws apply to juveniles who are placed in a secured correctional facility or a secured CCI. Those laws relate to such subjects as sex offender registration, the commitment of sexually violent persons, a deoxyribonucleic acid data bank of sex offenders, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing when certain persons have been significantly exposed to HIV, adult jurisdiction and criminal penalties for certain persons who commit assault, transfers to a state treatment facility, aftercare planning, escape, notification of victims and witnesses when a juvenile is released or escapes from correctional custody, taking runaways into custody, strip searches and an exception to the open records law when disclosing a record would endanger the security of an institution. This bill applies those laws to juveniles who are placed in a secured group home in the same manner as those laws apply to juveniles who are placed in a secured correctional facility or a secured CCI.
Under current law, DOC provides a corrective sanctions program for juveniles who have been placed under the supervision of DOC. Under the corrective sanctions program, DOC must place a participant in the community, provide intensive surveillance of the participant and provide an average of $5,000 per year per slot to purchase community-based treatment services for participants. This bill reduces the amount that DOC must provide to purchase community-based treatment services for corrective sanctions program participants to $3,000 per year per slot.
courts and procedure
Circuit courts
Current law provides for limited payment of attorney fees by the unsuccessful litigant to the successful litigant in all civil actions. In a civil action concerning money damages or property, the successful litigant is entitled to attorney fees based on the following schedule:
This bill changes the amount of attorney fees allowed in these cases as follows:
The bill also increases the amount of attorney fees recoverable in civil cases that do not involve money damages or property from a maximum of $100 to a maximum of $500.
Under current law, in civil cases certain disbursements, such as those made for the costs of certified copies of public papers or records, postage and depositions, are recoverable by the successful litigant, but are limited to $50 for each item. This bill expands the list of disbursements that are recoverable to include such items as overnight delivery and facsimile transmissions and increases the limit to $100 for each item. The bill also increases the amount that a successful litigant may recover for the cost of each expert witness testifying on behalf of the successful litigant from $100 to $300 and for filing a motion from $50 to $300.
Under current law, when the clerk of circuit court collects a fee from a person commencing a civil action, including garnishment, small claims and forfeiture actions, the clerk is also required to collect a $7 justice information system fee. Four-sevenths of the $7 fee is used to pay the costs incurred by the department of administration to develop and operate the automated justice information system. Two-sevenths of the $7 fee is used to pay the costs incurred by the director of state courts for the operation of the circuit court, court of appeals and supreme court automated information systems and for the payment of interpreter fees. The remaining $1 of the fee does not have a specified purpose.
This bill raises the justice information system fee from $7 to $9 and uses the additional $2 of each fee to pay the costs incurred by the director of state courts for the operation of the circuit court, court of appeals and supreme court automated information systems and for the payment of interpreter fees.
Public defender
Under current law, the state public defender (SPD) provides legal representation to indigent persons in criminal, delinquency and certain related cases. The SPD assigns cases either to staff attorneys in the agency's trial division or local private attorneys. A staff attorney working in the trial division is expected to meet an annual caseload standard. This bill provides that, beginning on July 1, 2000, the SPD may exempt up to ten staff attorneys in the trial division from the annual caseload standards based on the need of those attorneys to perform other assigned duties.
Other courts and procedure
Under current law, the department of agriculture, trade and consumer protection (DATCP) administers and enforces certain consumer protection and trade practices laws. These laws include laws prohibiting or regulating methods of competition, fraudulent representations, fraudulent drug advertising, prize notices, mail-order sales, purchases of vegetables and dairy products from farmers and advertising of telecommunication services. They also include laws relating to weights and measures. A person found to have violated one of these laws is subject to a forfeiture or a fine.
This bill requires a court to impose an assessment equal to 15% of the fine or forfeiture if the court imposes a fine or forfeiture for a violation of any of these laws or local ordinances enacted pursuant to these laws. The assessments that are collected are appropriated to the department of agriculture, trade and consumer protection to pay for providing consumers with information and education.
Currently, the state is immune from most lawsuits. Although state authorities, local governments and state and local governmental officers, employes and agents may be sued, statutory and common law limitations severely limit the types of lawsuits that may be brought against, and the amounts and types of damages that may be recovered from, these entities. Currently, these entities may also limit their liability by contract.
This bill prohibits lawsuits, to the extent that they are now permitted, against these entities for the alleged failure to deal with the failure of a computer system to handle any date, or the inability of a computer system to interpret, produce, calculate, generate, utilize, manipulate, represent or account for any date, if the entities make a good faith effort to address the alleged failure. The immunity provided by the bill may not be waived.
The bill also eliminates current requirements for the state and local governments to pay interest to vendors on late payments arising from date-related failures described above.
Under current law, the governmental unit that provides certain public assistance benefits as a result of an injury, sickness or death that creates a claim or cause of action on the part of a public assistance recipient or beneficiary or his or her estate against a third party must be joined by the plaintiff as a party to the claim or action. The governmental unit has the right to recover from the third party the amount provided in public assistance benefits. This is known as subrogation. The governmental unit may make a claim or maintain an action or intervene in a claim or action by the recipient, beneficiary or estate against the third party. A party that is joined in a cause of action based on subrogation may, among other things, agree to have his or her interests represented by the party who caused the joinder. If this option is selected the subrogated party must sign a written waiver of the right to participate in the action.
Under this bill, if the department of health and family services (DHFS) is joined based on subrogation because of the provision of medical assistance (MA) benefits, DHFS need not take any affirmative action in order to have its interests represented by the party causing the joinder.
Currently, an attorney retained to represent a current or former recipient of public assistance benefits, or the recipient's estate, in asserting a claim that is subrogated, must provide notice of the claim, and of any award or settlement, to the governmental unit that provided the benefits. If an attorney is not representing the current or former recipient of public assistance in asserting a claim that is subrogated, the current or former recipient or his or her guardian most provide the notice. If the recipient is deceased, the personal representative of the recipient's estate must provide the notice if an attorney is not representing the estate.
This bill requires a person against whom a subrogated claim is made, or that person's attorney or insurance company, to provide notice of the claim, and of any award or settlement, to DHFS if that person, or that person's attorney or insurer, knows or should know that the claim is subrogated because of the provision of MA benefits. Additionally, under this bill, if DHFS or a county is a subrogated party because of the provision of MA benefits, the subrogation creates a lien on the claimant's recovery, equal to the amount of the MA paid as a result of the injury, sickness or death that gave rise to the claim.
Under current law, DHFS must file a claim against the estate of a recipient of certain health aids for the amount of aid paid to the recipient. If the recipient's spouse or minor or disabled child survives the recipient, and the recipient's estate includes an interest in a home, the probate court must, in the final judgment, assign the interest in the home subject to a lien in favor of DHFS for the amount of DHFS's claim. Currently, small estates may be settled or assigned summarily, in which case a final judgment is not entered. Instead, a summary order is entered. This bill states that the lien requirement extends to cases in which assignment of the home is made by summary order.
education
Primary and secondary education
Current law allows up to 15% of the enrollment of the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) to attend, at no charge, any private school located in the city of Milwaukee under certain circumstances. The state pays the parent or guardian of the pupil an amount equal to the amount of per pupil aid that MPS receives from the state or an amount equal to the private school's educational cost per pupil, whichever is less. The parent or guardian must endorse the check for the use of the private school. The state reduces the MPS school aid entitlement, for each pupil participating in the program, by the amount of per pupil aid that MPS would otherwise receive.
Under current law, the city of Milwaukee, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Milwaukee Area Technical College may establish and operate a charter school or may initiate a contract with an individual or group to operate a school as a charter school. For each pupil attending the charter school, the state pays the charter school an amount equal to the shared cost per pupil (the portion of a school district's costs that are aided by the state divided by the school district's enrollment) of MPS and reduces the MPS school aid entitlement by an identical amount.
Current law also generally limits the increase in the total amount of revenue per pupil that a school district may receive from general school aids and property taxes in a school year to $208.88 per pupil in the 1998-99 school year and, in subsequent school years, to the amount of revenue increase allowed per pupil in the previous school year increased by the percentage change in the consumer price index. To determine the total allowable revenue increase for a school district under the revenue limit, the department of public instruction (DPI) uses a three-year rolling average pupil enrollment, which includes, for MPS, some of the pupils enrolled in the choice program and the charter schools described above. DPI may adjust a school district's revenue limit upwards or downwards for a number of contingencies, including transfers of service responsibilities between a school district and another governmental unit and changes in a school district's boundaries. Any school district that received less in revenue per pupil in the previous school year than a revenue ceiling of $6,100 (low-revenue district) may increase its revenues up to the revenue ceiling. A low-revenue district is not subject to a revenue limit and its concomitant adjustments.
Beginning in the 1999-2000 school year, this bill replaces the per pupil inflation adjustment with a fixed revenue limit of $208.88 per pupil. The bill also provides that, beginning with aid paid in the 1999-2000 school year, pupils participating in the choice program or attending one of the charter schools described above are not counted in the enrollment of MPS for state aid purposes and are not counted in the three-year rolling average for revenue limit purposes. The MPS school aid entitlement is not directly reduced as a result of such participation or attendance. In addition, the bill directs DPI to adjust the revenue ceiling of a low-revenue school district as if it constituted a revenue limit.
Currently, if a school district's three-year rolling average for the 1998-99 school year is less than the average of the number of pupils enrolled in the school district in the three previous school years, the school district's revenue limit is increased for the 1998-99 school year by the additional amount that would have been calculated had the decline in the three-year rolling average enrollment been 25% of what it was. This bill extends this one-year revenue limit increase for declining enrollment to subsequent school years.
Current law generally provides that the enrollment of a school district in the previous school year must be used to calculate general school aid for the current school year. The enrollment of MPS, however, includes pupils in the choice program in the current school year who were enrolled in grades kindergarten to three in a private school located in Milwaukee in the previous school year and who did not participate in the choice program. This bill eliminates these additional choice pupils from MPS enrollment for calculating general state aid.
Current law provides two special state aid adjustments for any school district that would otherwise receive in any school year less than 85% of the aid that it received in the previous school year. If a school district is eligible for both of these special state aid adjustments, the school district's state aid is increased to an amount equal to 85% of the state aid that the school district received in the previous school year. A school district is entitled to receive a special state aid adjustment only if the additional aid does not result in a state aid payment greater than the school district's shared cost. This bill provides that, if a school district is eligible for both special state aid adjustments, the school district receives the greater adjustment if the additional aid does not result in a state aid payment greater than the school district's shared cost.
Under current law, if a school district exceeds its revenue limit without referendum approval, DPI must reduce the school district's state equalization aid payment by the excess revenue amount. If a school district's equalization aid is less than the penalty amount, DPI must reduce the school district's other state aid payments until the remaining excess revenue is covered. If the aid reduction is still insufficient to cover the excess revenues, DPI must order the school board to reduce the property tax levy by an amount equal to the remainder of the excess amount or refund the amount with interest, if taxes have already been collected. DPI does not include the excess revenue in the school district's base. This bill imposes these same penalties on low-revenue school districts that exceed their revenue ceilings.
Current law requires each school board to adopt either its own academic standards or the academic standards contained in the governor's executive order issued January 13, 1998, and to administer fourth and eighth grade promotional examinations to fourth and eighth grade pupils enrolled in the school district, including pupils enrolled in charter schools located in the school district. Beginning in the 2000-01 school year, each school board must also administer a high school graduation examination that is designed to measure whether pupils have met the academic standards adopted by the school board. A school board may either adopt examinations developed by DPI or develop its own examinations. A school board must notify DPI if it adopts its own high school graduation examination instead of the high school graduation examination developed by DPI, and it must determine the high school grades in which the examination is administered each school year.
This bill provides that a school board must administer the high school graduation examination to all pupils enrolled in a charter school located in the school district other than a Milwaukee charter school described above. The bill also provides that the operator of a Milwaukee charter school must adopt academic standards and administer fourth, eighth and high school graduation examinations to pupils enrolled in the charter school. The operator may either adopt DPI's examinations or develop its own. In addition, the bill requires a school board or the operator of a Milwaukee charter school to notify DPI annually by October 1 if it intends to administer its own high school graduation examination in the following school year and provides that, beginning in the 2001-02 school year, the high school graduation examination may be administered only to 11th and 12th graders.
Current law requires each school board and operator of a Milwaukee charter school to administer the tenth grade examination developed by DPI to all tenth graders enrolled in the school district or the charter school. This requirement does not apply after the 2000-01 school year. This bill eliminates the expiration of the tenth grade examination requirement.
Under current law, beginning September 1, 2002, a school board may not grant a high school diploma to a pupil unless he or she passes the high school graduation examination. Beginning July 1, 2002, a pupil may not be promoted from the fourth to the fifth grade or from the eighth to the ninth grade unless the pupil passes the fourth and eighth grade promotional examinations. A pupil's parent or guardian, however, may excuse a pupil from taking any of these examinations. A pupil who is excused must satisfy alternative criteria for promotion or graduation.
This bill imposes upon operators of Milwaukee charter schools the same prohibitions against promotion that are imposed upon school boards. Finally, the bill eliminates the authority of a pupil's parent or guardian to excuse the pupil from taking the high school graduation examination.
Under current law, a school board, board of control of a cooperative educational service agency (CESA) or a county children with disabilities education board is eligible for special education aid if the state superintendent of public instruction is satisfied that the special education program has been maintained according to law. This aid is equal to a percentage of the amount expended on special education costs in the preceding school year.
This bill eliminates the reimbursement rates for handicapped education costs and school age parents program costs and directs that aidable costs be fully reimbursed, subject to the availability of funds. The bill also provides that the operator of a Milwaukee charter school described above is eligible for special education aid, on a current school year basis, if the operator operates a special education program and the state superintendent is satisfied that the operator has complied with the federal Individuals With Disabilities In Education Act as though the operator were a school board.
Under current law, a charter school may be established by, among other things, petitioning the school board of the school district in which the charter school will be located to enter into a contract with a person to establish and operate a charter school. Within 30 days after receiving a charter school petition, the school board must hold a public hearing on the petition. The MPS board must grant or deny a petition to establish a charter school within 30 days after the public hearing. If the MPS board denies the petition, the person seeking to establish a charter school may, within 30 days of the denial, appeal the denial to the state superintendent of public instruction, who must decide the appeal within 30 days after receiving it.
This bill requires all school boards to grant or deny a charter school petition within 30 days after the public hearing and permits the person seeking to establish a charter school to appeal a denial of a charter school petition to the state superintendent.
Under current law, the Milwaukee charter schools described above are not instrumentalities of MPS, and the MPS board may not employ any personnel for these charter schools. If, however, the city of Milwaukee contracts with an individual or group operating for profit to operate a charter school, the charter school is an instrumentality of MPS and the MPS board must employ all personnel for the charter school.
This bill provides that if the city of Milwaukee contracts with an individual or group operating for profit to operate a charter school, the charter school is not an instrumentality of MPS, and the MPS board may not employ any personnel for the charter school.
Current law authorizes the MPS board to contract with any nonsectarian private school located in the city to provide educational programs for pupils enrolled in the school district. The MPS board may also close any school that it determines is low in performance. If the MPS board closes a school or reopens a school that has been closed, the superintendent of schools may reassign the school's staff without regard to seniority in service. In addition, the MPS board is prohibited from bargaining collectively with respect to: 1) the board's decision to contract with a private nonsectarian school or private nonsectarian agency in the city to provide educational programs to pupils, or the impact of any such decision on the wages, hours or conditions of employment of the employes who perform those services; or 2) the reassignment of employes who perform services for the board, with or without regard to seniority, as the result of a decision of the board to close or reopen a school or to contract with a person to operate a charter school or convert a school to a charter school, or the impact of any such reassignment on the wages, hours or conditions of employment of the employes who perform those services. This bill extends the above provisions to cover all school boards.
