Bradley Bill to Increase Accuracy of School Report Cards Now Law

March 31, 2022

MADISON, Wis. — A new law authored by Franklin Senator Julian Bradley and Representative Ken Skowronski updates the Department of Public Instruction's report cards to more accurately reflect the achievements of local school districts, such as Franklin.

Act 212, formerly Senate Bill 235, became law on Thursday and goes into effect for the 2022-23 school year.

"This policy change will ensure more accurate reporting of schools' performances across the state," Senator Bradley said. "I trust parents to decide how to educate their children, and when they make those choices, they ought to have the most reliable data available at their fingertips. This new law creates an important fix to the school report cards that will help accurately depict the performance of our school districts and teachers."

This new law ensures a school report card doesn't report the data from a juvenile detention facility or jail where 50 percent or more of its population doesn't reside there for the entire school year. Before this law change, school districts were unfairly penalized on the report card when students left these facilities and then failed to reenroll when going back to their primary residence. These situations were reported as dropouts for the district with the juvenile detention facility, negatively affecting the school district's scores.

This change will impact several school districts across Wisconsin, including Franklin School District. The Wisconsin Association of School Boards supported the bill throughout the legislative process.

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