This bill makes a number of changes in the laws governing the Milwaukee
Parental Choice Program (MPCP), under which a pupil who resides in the city of
Milwaukee may attend a private school at state expense under certain conditions.
The changes include the following:

Beginning in the 2009-10 school year, this bill directs each private school
participating in the MPCP to ensure that every teacher, supervisor, administrator,
and professional staff member holds a license or a permit to teach issued by the
Department of Public Instruction (DPI). Currently, persons are not required to be
licensed to teach in any private school.

Current law requires each private school participating in the MPCP to meet at
least one of the following standards:

1. At least 70 percent of the pupils in the program must advance one grade level
each year.

2. The private school's average attendance rate for pupils in the program must
be at least 90 percent.

3. At least 80 percent of the pupils in the program must demonstrate significant
academic progress.

4. At least 70 percent of the families of pupils in the program must meet
parent-involvement criteria established by the private school.

This bill requires each private school participating in the MPCP to meet at least
three of the above standards and to annually submit to DPI a report describing the
school's status with respect to the fourth standard.

Under current law, a school board must schedule at least 1,050 hours of direct
pupil instruction in grades one to six and at least 1,137 hours of direct pupil
instruction in grades seven to twelve. This bill requires private schools participating
in the MPCP to comply with these requirements.

Under current law, enrollment in the MPCP is capped at 22,500 pupils. This
bill changes the enrollment cap to no more than 15 percent of the enrollment of the
Milwaukee Public Schools. The bill requires private schools participating in MPCP
to reduce or limit the percentage of pupils enrolled in the private school under the
MPCP so that the percentage of MPCP pupils does not exceed 49 percent. To attain
this limit, a private school with an enrollment of MPCP students that is greater than
49 percent of its total enrollment percent must replace each MPCP pupil who
graduates, is promoted, withdraws, transfers, or is expelled from the private school
with a pupil who is not enrolled under the MPCP, or not replace the pupil, until the
enrollment reaches the 49 percent threshold.

Current law requires each private school participating in the MPCP to
administer a nationally normed standardized test in reading, mathematics, and
science to pupils attending the school under the program in the fourth, eighth, and
tenth grades. This bill requires each private school participating in the MPCP to
administer the examinations adopted or approved by DPI.

Current law requires each school board to adopt either its own academic
standards or the academic standards contained in the governor's executive order
issued on January 13, 1998. Identical provisions exist under current law for

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independent charter schools. This bill requires the governing body of each private
school participating in the MPCP to adopt academic standards.

Under current law, each school board must administer to all pupils enrolled in
the school district in the third grade, including pupils enrolled in charter schools
(other than independent charter schools) located in the school district, a
standardized reading test developed by DPI. The independent charter schools are
required to administer this test to their third grade pupils. Private schools
participating in the MPCP are not required to administer this test. This bill imposes
this requirement on these private schools.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires public school assessments in
reading and mathematics in each of grades three to eight and at least once in grades
ten to twelve; and in science at least once in grades three to five, six to nine, and ten
to twelve. This bill imposes this requirement on private schools participating in the
MPCP for pupils attending the schools under the MPCP.

Under current law, each school board and the operator of each independent
charter school must develop written policies specifying criteria for granting a high
school diploma. Neither a school board nor the operator of an independent charter
school may grant a high school diploma to any pupil unless the pupil has satisfied
the criteria. Similarly, each school board and each independent charter school must
adopt policies specifying criteria for promoting a pupil from the fourth grade to the
fifth grade and from the eighth grade to the ninth grade. A pupil may not be
promoted unless he or she satisfies the promotion criteria. This bill imposes upon
private schools participating in the MPCP the same prohibitions against graduation
and promotion (for pupils attending the private school under the MPCP) that are
imposed upon school boards and independent charter schools.

The bill also requires the private school to issue a high school diploma or
certificate to each pupil attending the school under the MPCP who satisfies all of the
requirements necessary for high school graduation.

The bill requires a private school participating in the MPCP to maintain
progress records for each pupil attending the school under the MPCP while the pupil
attends the school and for at least five years thereafter. Progress records include the
courses a pupil took, the pupil's grades, the pupil's attendance record, the pupil's
immunization record, and records of the pupil's extracurricular activities. The bill
requires the private school to provide a copy of the records to the pupil or the pupil's
parent or guardian upon request and, if the school closes, to transfer the records to
the Milwaukee Public Schools. The bill also requires the private school to issue a
high school diploma or certificate to each pupil attending the school under the MPCP
who satisfies all of the requirements necessary for high school graduation.

Current law requires a school district to transfer to another school or school
district, within five working days, all pupil records relating to a specific pupil if the
transferring school district has received notice from the pupil (if he or she is adult),
from the pupil's parent or guardian (if the pupil is a minor), or from the other school
or school district that the pupil intends to enroll or has enrolled in the other school

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or school district. This bill makes this requirement applicable to the private schools
participating in the MPCP.

Current law prohibits a private school that is participating in the MPCP from
requiring a pupil attending the private school under the program to participate in
any religious activity if the pupil's parent or guardian requests that the pupil be
exempt from the activity.

This bill requires each private school participating in the MPCP to adopt a
policy implementing the requirement described above. The private school must
include in the policy a list of the school activities that it has determined are religious
activities for the purpose of the exemption requirement. The list must include
religious worship, religious instruction, and any school activity that the private
school has determined is sectarian, proselytizing, or religiously doctrinal in nature.
The bill requires each MPCP school to provide a copy of its policy to each person who
expresses an interest in attending the private school under the program and
annually to DPI.

The amendment directs each MPCP school to ensure that a pupil who is exempt
from participating in a religious activity is not present in the room in which the
activity occurs. The bill also directs each MPCP school to provide a pupil who is
exempt from religious activities with a sufficient number of hours of instruction to
meet the statutory requirement for all private schools (at least 875 hours of
instruction each school year) and to enable the pupil to advance from grade to grade.

Current law prohibits public schools from discriminating against pupils on the
basis of sex, race, religion, national origin, ancestry, creed, pregnancy, marital or
parental status, sexual orientation, or physical, mental, emotional, or learning
disability. Current law does permit a school district to operate one or more schools
that enroll only one sex or provide one or more courses that enroll only one sex if the
school board makes comparable schools or courses available to the opposite sex under
the same policies and criteria of admission. Current law requires each school board
to adopt policies and procedures implementing this nondiscrimination requirement.
This bill imposes the same nondiscrimination requirements on private schools
participating in the MPCP. The governing body of the participating private school
must develop written policies and procedures to implement the nondiscrimination
requirement.

The bill also requires each MPCP school to provide each applicant to the school
with all of the following: (1) a list of the names, addresses, and telephone numbers
of the members of the governing body of the school; (2) a notice stating whether the
school is an organization run for profit or not for profit, and, if the school is run not
for profit, proof of its federal tax-exempt status; (3) a copy of the appeals process used
if the school rejects an applicant for admission; (4) a statement that the school agrees
to be subject to the open meetings and open records requirements applicable to public
bodies; (5) a copy of the school's nondiscrimination policies and procedures; (6)
graduation requirements; (7) a copy of the non-harassment policy and procedures

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used by the school; (8) suspension and expulsion policies and procedures; and (9)
policies for accepting or denying the transfer of credits for coursework completed by
pupils at other schools. In addition, upon request of any person, the school must
provide to that person the information above, as well as the number of pupils enrolled
in the private school in the previous school year; the number of pupils enrolled in the
private school under MPCP in the previous school year; pupil scores on standardized
tests administered in the previous school year; the number of pupils who were
expelled or who failed to graduate in the previous school year; a copy of the academic
standards adopted by the private school; the number of pupils who have graduated
from the private school in every year in which the private school has participated in
the MPCP; and the rates of promotion of 4th and 8th grade pupils enrolled in the
private school.