Clarifying Information on the Definition of a School

School: WISEdata/School Directory

Public schools are the elementary and high schools supported by public taxation (see Wis. Stat. § 115.01(1)).

A public school:

• is part of a local education agency or is itself a local education agency.
  • In Wisconsin, a local education agency can be a school district or independent charter school.
  • In addition to districts and independent charter schools, there are some other entities identified in Wisconsin as LEAs (for example, the WI Department of Corrections and the WI Department of Health Services).
• has an assigned administrative unit (i.e., administrator or principal),
• has a unique identification code assigned by the DPI,
• provides or directly supervises the primary PK-12 educational services,
• serves a grade or grades within the 4K-12 range (see Wis. Stat.§115.01(2)),
• has one or more teacher/s to provide instruction or care, and
• may be located in one or more buildings.
• For federal reporting purposes, public elementary/secondary school is defined as an organization authorized by public authority and financed primarily through public funds to provide public education to students. See the Attachment B EDFacts Package 22-23, 23-34, 24-25 resource for additional information.

A public school is not:

• a program for students enrolled in another public school.
  • Programs are not assigned school codes, and students participating in a program remain enrolled in a school.
  • Programs are typically housed within pre-existing schools.

A private school:

• provides a private or a religious-based education program.
• must provide at least 875 hours of instruction each school year and a sequentially progressive curriculum of fundamental instruction in reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, and health, as well as meet other requirements in state law under Wis. Stat. s. 118.165 (1).
• submits the PI-1207 annually to provide required data and verify their status as a private school. Additional information about private schools is available on the Private Schools – Information webpage.
• is not part of a local education agency and is not responsible for providing free appropriate public education. In the School Directory, each private school is assigned a LEA code based on the school district they are associated with.

WISEdata Reporting

School Districts and independent charter schools, established under Wis. Stats §118.40 (2r). and Wis. Stat. §118.40 (2x), are responsible for submitting data to WISEdata for students enrolled to meet accountability and reporting requirements under state and federal law. Private schools that participate in the Private School Choice Programs are also required to report certain data to the DPI through WISEdata.  Submitted data impacts district and school report cards. For more information about WISEdata reporting, please see the WISEdata landing page. Please see the Report Cards Home and About Wisconsin Accountability webpages for additional information about the accountability systems in Wisconsin.

FAQs, Details, and Points to Note

1. Charter Schools: Charter schools, established or created under Wis. Stats §118.40, are public, nonsectarian schools created through a business-like contract or "charter" between the charter governance board and the chartering authority or authorizer. In Wisconsin, charter schools can be authorized by a school district or an independent authorizer. Additional information about charter schools is available on the Charter Schools in Wisconsin webpage.
   • District Authorized Charter School: Every school district in Wisconsin can authorize a charter school. Charter schools authorized by a district are a part of that district.
   • Independent Charter School: Independent charter schools are their own local education agency and are not part of a public school district. For additional information about ICS, please see the Independent (2r or 2x) Charter Schools webpage.
   • Virtual Charter School: A virtual charter school is a type of district-authorized charter in which all or a portion of the instruction is provided through means of the internet and the pupils enrolled in and instructional staff employed by the school are geographically remote from each other. For additional information about VCS, please see the Virtual Charter Schools webpage.
   • Multi-district Charter Schools: A multi-district charter school has one authorizing district and one or more participating consortium member districts that have entered into a s. 66.0301 agreement with the authorizing district. The charter school will be listed in the School Directory under the authorizing district. Additionally, every participating district will also have an iteration of the school listed under its district. Please see the Wisconsin Resource Center for Charter Schools (WRCCS) Consortium Cheat Sheet for additional information about accountability and other considerations.

2. Assignment of Private Schools   

   All territory in the state must be included within a public school district by law (Wis. Stats §117.05). All private schools are:

   • associated with a public school district for the purposes of equitable services provided by the public district.
   • assigned a unique school code.
   • assigned a local education agency code for the public school district where the private school is located.
   • The process to associate private schools located with K-8/Unified High School districts is different. The rules related to these situations are described below:

Resource Links:

• About Wisconsin Accountability webpage
• Charter Schools in Wisconsin webpage
• DPI’s Parental Education Options webpage  
• DPI’s Parental Education Options, Private School Information webpage
• Organization Type data element page
• Report Cards Home
• School Category/Program data element page
• School Modification Form webpage
• Uncommon WISEdata Portal Situations, Multi-district Charter Schools
• Wisconsin School Directory Public Portal
• Information on different types of school districts in WIsconsin.

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