Open-Enrolled Students

Open-Enrolled Students

Definition: Student who is a Wisconsin resident in K4 to grade 12 may apply to attend a nonresident school district under the open enrollment program.

Data Element Information: Generally use a TC exit type for a student who transfers out of your school to open enroll in another district and then let DPI validations tell you through an error message when it needs to be modified to ETC.

In the case where a student open enrolls into your district, if you provide educational services to the student for even one day, then the student is your responsibility. If the student ceases to attend or enroll elsewhere, then the student will become your dropout and should be exited with the ODO Exit Type. The dropout will NOT revert to the student's Resident District if you provided educational services. 

• The only exception to this is when beginning a new school year enrollment – if a student is approved for open enrollment by both open enroll and resident district but does not show up for services at the open enroll district, the open enroll district should not submit an enrollment in WISEdata and the resident district is still responsible for compulsory attendance follow up.

There is nothing in open enrollment state law or administrative rules that allow a nonresident district to terminate a student’s open enrollment due to behavioral or discipline issues. The only reasons that a student’s open enrollment can be terminated are specified in state law and they include:

• habitual truancy (at the end of the semester or school year only),
• failure to participate (only virtual charter schools can use),
• expulsion, and
• two special education reasons related to the development or revision of an IEP.

If a student’s open enrollment is terminated, the resident district becomes responsible for ensuring that the parent is in compliance with compulsory attendance laws if the student is aged 6 - 18. This means that the resident district must contact the parent and ask them where the child is being educated, since compulsory school attendance law requires students to attend school in either a public school, private school, or homeschooling.

Only enroll the student if the parent provides information stating that the student was going to begin attending the resident district.

If the parent fails to respond to inquiries made by the resident district, or if the resident district discovers that the student is not attending school, they would need to follow the district’s local truancy policies and procedures.

The Non-Attending Minor Students and Attendance Process document put out by the Student Services/Prevention and Wellness Team at DPI will provide more guidance on this topic.

Helpful Details/Use Cases: The inter-district public school open enrollment program allows parents to apply for their children to attend public school in a school district other than the one in which they reside.

The nonresident school district is the local educational agency (LEA) responsible to provide a free, appropriate public education (FAPE) to children, with and without disabilities, attending the school district under open enrollment.

Children with disabilities can and do participate in open enrollment. A pupil may not be denied open enrollment because the pupil is a child with a disability or based on the category of the disability. However, any open enrollment application may be denied if the nonresident school district does not have space for the pupil. For a child with a disability, this includes availability of and space in the special education program and related services required in the pupil’s individualized education program (IEP). An IEP moving a special education student is different than a special education student choosing to open enroll in another school. In the case of open enrollment, the school of open enrollment will be FAPE accountable and will generate the IEP (usually still working with the resident district).

Open Enrollment in Virtual Charter Schools:

If a student open enrolls in a virtual or multi-district charter school, students will be enrolled under the authorizer. The authorizer is then accountable and submits the open-enrolled students. Students open enrolled in a virtual charter school in a public district are treated the same as other regular public school students; their not attending in a physical school building doesn't impact reporting.

• ACCOUNTABILITY: Even if a student open enrolls in a virtual charter school in another district, whether receiving services in both districts or not, the accountability and reporting still remain with the school of open enrollment. 
• DROP-OUTS: If a student attends an open enrollment virtual program (even just for one day) and then drops out, and the school of open enrollment is aware of the dropout, the school of open enrollment should claim the dropout.
• SwD: If the student in the open enrollment virtual charter school is a student with a disability, then all services and accountability are on the school of open enrollment.
• TRANSFER to HOMESCHOOL: If a student enrolls in a virtual private school or registers for home-based education through HOMER, the student should be exited from the public district with an exit type of TNC. As the student is leaving the district, after the exit of the student,  there will not be any further tracking in WISEdata.

Failure to Participate in Virtual Charter School

When a student does not participate at all in the virtual program with the virtual school district, or if the student did initially attend the virtual school but stop participating, we refer to this as 'failure to participate'.

Failure to participate can happen at any time during an enrollment. It does not imply that the student was a ‘no-show’.

Failure to participate is a means for a virtual school to remove a student who is not participating AND is not communicating with / responding to requests from the virtual school.

Before Dropping a Student Enrollment Record, Follow the Failure to Participate Process:

The ‘failure to participate’ process in state law is specific to virtual schools. The virtual school district would need to go through a follow up process with the student, before they can remove this student enrollment and send accountability back to the resident district. This involves a series of letters to the student / family and the resident district. Completing or failing to complete this step has a direct effect on how to proceed with a student's enrollment record.

1. Did the student ‘attend’ the virtual school? 
   1. This is not clearly defined for a virtual school, however, logging on, even just once, is attending. 
   2. The district may not define ‘attending’ as the student completed a course. 
   3. If the student went through the intake process to the virtual school, then they likely logged in.
   4. If the student did attend:

      • the virtual school enrollment should enter the exit type ODO and take the dropout.

   5. If the student did not attend: 

      • the virtual school should not report an enrollment record in WISEdata. 
      •  The last district of enrollment, likely the resident district, needs to follow up with the student.
      • If no other information about schooling is available, then the resident district should enter an ODO on their last enrollment and take the dropout if no subsequent enrollment is entered.
2. If the student did attend, did the student state to the school that they were dropping out / terminating schooling?
   1. If the student did attend, and informed  the virtual school that they were terminating schooling:
      • T

        he virtual school should report ODO for the exit type. This is NOT failure to participate.

   2. If the student did attend, but did not inform the virtual school that they were terminating schooling:
      • Providing that the virtual school completed the failure to participate process, then the virtual school district may enter an ETC back to the resident district. The expected transfer response entered by the resident district determines which district is accountable for the dropout.
      • If the virtual school has not completed the failure to participate process, then the virtual school district is still responsible for the student. The student should not have an exit date or and exit type entered until this process is followed.

Membership/Financial Implication: The resident school district counts the pupil in membership for state aid and revenue limit purposes. The Third Friday in September is the date upon which a school district’s allowable revenue limit and state aid is based.

Related Links:    

Open Enrollment home page     Open Enrollment - Special Education