From:	DPI Open Enrollment
Sent:	Wednesday, December 9, 2020 8:23 AM
To:	Demrow, Jennifer   DPI
Subject:	Open Enrollment Termination Due to Habitual Truancy

To – District Administrators and Open Enrollment Coordinators

From – Jen Demrow, Open Enrollment Consultant

Subject – Open Enrollment Termination Due to Habitual Truancy 

Per Wis. Stat. § 118.51(11), if an open enrolled student has been found habitually truant from 
the nonresident district, the nonresident district can prohibit the student from attending their 
district only in the succeeding semester or school year. 

We recommend that districts review our Bulletin 19-05 – Guidelines for Termination of Open 
Enrollment Due to Habitual Truancy, located on our Habitual Truancy webpage at 
https://dpi.wi.gov/open-enrollment/resources/truancy. 

We also have several questions related to habitual truancy in our Open Enrollment FAQ 
document (https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/open-enrollment/pdf/oe-faq-5-
2017.pdf). See questions 133, 134 and 135 on pages 31-32.

When a nonresident district decides to terminate a student’s open enrollment due to habitual 
truancy, the district must send a written termination letter to the parent and a template of this 
letter is available on our OE website at https://dpi.wi.gov/open-enrollment/resources/bulletins. 
Scroll down the webpage to the heading “Letters Notifying Parents of Denial of Continued Open 
Enrollment” and select the link “Nonresident District Denial Due to Habitual Truancy”. 

Once the student’s open enrollment has been terminated, the nonresident district must enter 
the student’s withdrawal information in OPAL using the Withdraw Student tab. The Date of 
Withdrawal would be the last day of the semester or school year. The Days of Open Enrollment 
would be the total number of days the student was open enrolled for, from their start date 
until the last day they received instruction. The Reason for Withdrawal would be “NON-VCS: OE 
terminated due to habitual truancy”. 

Again, this termination cannot occur until the end of the semester or school year. If a 
nonresident district has trimesters, the district would need to figure out when the end of the 
semester would be.

If you have any questions, please contact us at openenrollment@dpi.wi.gov or call us at 888-
245-2732, option 2. 

Jen Demrow
School Administration Consultant
Public School Open Enrollment
Department of Public Instruction
608-264-6707
Jennifer.Demrow@dpi.wi.gov 

DISCLAIMER: The content of this email is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of 
providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain legal advice, including compliance 
with state and federal laws and regulations.