Students Under Contract

Students Under Contract

Definition: Student attending a school under a 66.03.01, tuition sharing agreement, or any other contract agreement

Data Element Information: The act of paying tuition or having a contract does NOT transfer accountability. Accountability transfer via the FAPE-accountable agency should occur only when the IEP transfers the student to another district for services.

Helpful Details/Use Cases:

66.03.01 Agreements

State statutes define two types of agreements under which tuition may be paid for special education services. These types of agreements involve multiple LEAs sharing the cost of a program, with one serving as fiscal agent. Programs may serve one or more students. An agreement under s. 121.78 (1) (a)5 is made for an individual student, while an agreement under s. 66.0301 is for cooperative delivery of a program under a fiscal agent.

Two or more Wisconsin LEAs may enter into a cooperative “66.03.01” agreement to provide a special education program. A cooperative program agreement under s. 66.03.01 is in effect for the term specified in the contract, which may be for multiple years.

Cooperative agreements are not factored into a district’s space determination for the Open Enrollment program.

DPI interprets these laws to mean that a district may not sell instructional services to other districts for the purpose of generating revenue above and beyond its cost of providing those services.

In general, the school or LEA where the student is enrolled and receiving instruction is both the data submitting and accountable agency.  The paying of tuition or having a contract does NOT transfer accountability back to the tuition paying agency for WISEdata student reporting purposes (This differs from PI-1563 reporting). Accountability transfer via the FAPE-accountable agency occurs only when an IEP transfers the student to another district for services. 

Students Under a Tuition Sharing Agreement

Agreements for individual students are authorized by s. 121.78 (1) (a), which was updated by the 2015-17 biennial budget bill. This type of agreement is for one school year and must include two components:

• The specific amount of tuition to be paid in the school year of attendance, determined with one of the three DPI-approved methods described in the following section on "Determining Tuition."

• A specific estimate of the maximum amount of state aid, if any, to be received by the enrolling district in the following year and paid to the resident district as a transit of aid. If the actual aid received is greater than the estimate, the enrolling district retains the difference.

The school where the student attends (sits in the desk) would be held accountable and would be responsible for data submission.

Students with Special Transfer Aid

Definition: Minority group student who reside in an attendance area where minority group pupils constitute 30 percent or more of the number of pupils enrolled in the school serving that attendance area but, for intra-district moves, transfers to another school within the district where minority group pupils constitute less than 30 percent of the number of pupils enrolled in that school or to a school serving the entire district

OR

non-minority group student who has reached the age of four on or before September 1 of the year starting school and who resides in an attendance area where minority group pupils constitute less than 30 percent of the number of pupils enrolled in the school serving that attendance area and which the pupil normally would attend, from that school to another school within the district where minority group pupils constitute 30 percent or more of the number of pupils enrolled in that school or to a school serving the entire district

Helpful Details/Use Cases: This practice was discontinued, but students served under it before the change were grandfathered in as still accepted.

Membership/Financial Implication: Any state or federal aids received by the agency of service for serving the resident district’s students must be paid to the resident district as a transit of aid.

Related Links:    School Financial Services - Fund Information         School Financial Services - Tuition Overview                 Stat. 121.85