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District staff brief committee on new DPI incident-reporting rules and ambiguities
Summary
Administrators told the committee they must report certain incidents to the Department of Public Instruction by school and that ambiguity remains about which incidents must be reported; staff plan to compile and upload district data by July 31 and are consulting SROs and counsel.
Speaker 1 briefed the committee on state-directed reporting obligations to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) for certain incidents that occur on school property during the school year. The presenter listed types of incidents that the new guidance includes and stressed the district is working to determine exactly which events must be reported.
What the presentation included: The presenter recited a range of incident types described in DPI materials, including homicide, assault, burglary, robbery, theft, battery (including aggravated battery) and offenses involving controlled substances or firearms; the presenter also noted that municipal ordinance violations (for example, disorderly conduct) can count in the reporting set depending on local charging and prosecution decisions.
Open questions: Administrators said uncertainty remains about whether incidents that were not prosecuted should be included and whether municipal tickets should trigger reporting. The presenter said DPI indicated this is the first year with limited enforcement—districts will be reminded if they miss a case but will not face sanctions in year one—but staff must make a good-faith effort to be accurate.
Next steps: The administration said it is coordinating with school resource officers and legal counsel to reconcile records and will present compiled data to the full board and upload district counts to DPI by July 31.
