Budget Development and Planning - Membership

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The Wisconsin Equalization Aid formula uses a fulltime equivalency (FTE) count of district resident students. FTE is the result of a computation that divides the amount of time for a less-than-fulltime program by the amount of time normally required in a corresponding fulltime program. For instance, one (1) halftime kindergarten student would be counted as .5. It would take two (2) halftime kindergarten students to equal 1 fulltime (FTE) student. Districts report to the Department of Public Instruction their resident student counts and corresponding programs, and the information is converted to FTE “membership” for use in the Equalization Aid computation.

“Membership” is defined as the average of the resident FTE students enrolled on the third Friday of September and 2nd Friday of January (including part-time attendance by home-based or private school students), plus the summer school and foster group home FTE.

The following table displays district Equalization Aid Membership used in the formula from the 1982-83 school year to the present. It is important to note that the Equalization Aid formula uses prior-year data – that is, 2006-07 FTE membership data is used to calculate Equalization Aid paid to school districts during the 2007-08 school year.

26-Year Survey of Equalization Aid Membership

Please call a finance consultant if you have questions.

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For questions about this information, contact dpifin@dpi.wi.gov (608) 267-9114

Last updated on 6/23/2008 8:36:21 AM