District outlines Act 12 reporting steps for high school incidents; initial data due to DPI by July 31

Chris Wines, director of people services, briefed the board on Act 12 reporting requirements that the district must deliver to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI). Wines said Act 12 (a 2023 law on shared revenue and local fiscal relief) includes a reporting requirement for incidents on high school grounds and that the district learned late in the school year that the first report was due July 31.

Wines described the scope the district must report: criminal charges and municipal ordinance citations that occur on high school grounds during school hours, on buses connected to the high school, or during after‑school events sponsored by the school—and that the incidents must involve grade 9–12 students to be reportable. He said some reportable items will be municipal citations while others are criminal charges sent to a district attorney, and that the law’s drafting means some categories are inconsistent; the district consulted legal counsel and the Burlington Police Department on interpretation.

Wines said the district has coordinated with the Burlington Police Department (including the school resource officer, Dan Hayes) and that police are compiling relevant citation data. He said the district will file the DPI report by the July 31 deadline, provide a copy of the filing to the school board, and put a system in place to collect and review incidents during the school year. That system will include quarterly meetings with the SRO and police chief to review trends and discuss appropriate administrative responses and interventions if numbers rise.

Wines said DPI will publish the collected data on school report cards after DPI formats the submissions to DOJ uniform reporting procedures; he emphasized the data will be informational and “won’t be used to grade our school” but will be visible on report cards. Board members asked whether county law enforcement needed to be consulted for schools in township/county jurisdiction (Wines said Act 12 only applies to grades 9–12 and county consultation was not required in this case). Board members asked Wines to return with the compiled numbers in August; Wines said midyear collection had begun and that the SRO will provide data for the district’s use going forward.