Act 12 Criminal Charges and Violations Reporting Requirement
2023 Wis. Act 12 requires public high schools, including independent charter schools (ICS), and private high schools that participate in a choice program, to collect and maintain statistics regarding specific types of incidents that occur on school grounds and/or school transportation, during normal school hours or during school-sponsored events that occur before or after normal school hours. The requirement applies to incidents reported to law enforcement and results in filing a charge or citation.
Specified incidents include:
- Homicide.
- Sexual assault.
- Burglary, robbery, or theft.
- Certain types of battery, substantial battery, or aggravated battery.
- Arson.
- Use or possession of alcohol, a controlled substance, or a controlled substance analog.
- Possession of a firearm in violation of the gun-free school zones law.
- Disorderly conduct in violation of a municipal ordinance.
Requirements
Under Act 12, each high school within a school district is required to report the statistics to the district’s school board.
School boards and the governing bodies of ICS and private choice schools operating a high school must report those statistics annually to DPI by July 31 for the preceding school year.
To assist with this data collection, DPI will send each District Administrator and ICS/Private Choice School Administrator a link to the form prior to the end of each school year. For reference, a sample of the 2024-2025 form is available.
After data collection ends each year, DPI will review the data and add the information to each school's and/or district's report card.
Certain State & Local Law Violations, 2024-25
The incident rate data presented is new for 2024–25, provided for informational purposes only, and intended solely to fulfill new statutory reporting requirements.
Important Notes: A charge or citation is not a conviction or admission of guilt and does not necessarily result in either. The data may include charges and citations that were later dismissed. DPI does not recommend using this data to assess school safety or to compare schools or districts.
Caution: Multiple limitations affect the quality and completeness of this reported data. Differences in local law enforcement and prosecuting attorney policies and discretion influence charging and citation practices and reporting to education agencies. The incident rate data presented is new for 2024–25, provided for informational purposes only, and intended solely to fulfill new statutory reporting requirements. Data are reported by schools and districts to DPI and do not impact school and district report card scores per state statute. For more information, refer to the Reporting Guidance Document for Schools and School and District Reporting Requirements - Cautions & Limitations documents in the Resources section of this page. For questions regarding a specific rate, please contact that school or district directly.
Certain State & Local Law Violations, 2024-25 - Public Download File
If you have questions regarding the requirements of this legislation or the guidance document, please contact DPI's Office of Legal Services at OLS@dpi.wi.gov. If you have any questions regarding the reporting form, please contact Denise Kohout at denise.kohout@dpi.wi.gov . For questions regarding the data download file, please contact John Crawford at john.crawford@dpi.wi.gov.