Wisconsin Voucher Schools Can Legally Discriminate Against Students with Disabilities

Wednesday, May 24th, 2023 -- 10:01 AM

(By Phoebe Petrovic | Wisconsin Watch) As an advocacy specialist at Disability Rights Wisconsin, Joanne Juhnke regularly finds herself on the phone with parents concerned about their children’s treatment at school.

According to Phoebe Petrovic with Wisconsin Watch, most complaints concern public schools, which enroll the majority of students. State funding for special education has shrunk, forcing districts to struggle to provide services, and disparate treatment of students with disabilities at public schools persists.

But in public school, families have a state body to appeal to: the Department of Public Instruction. DPI is far less helpful in disputes with private schools, which under state law can legally discriminate against students who need certain disability accommodations or even kick them out.

This applies even to private schools that receive taxpayer-funded tuition vouchers to educate students. The calls Juhnke receives from voucher families often contain the same story. A family has enrolled a child with disabilities in a private school.

Administrators have begun pressuring the student to leave or have kicked them out, something public schools cannot do. The parents are shocked. They’re sure the schools can’t do that. Many times, Juhnke has to tell them: Yes, they can.

Between 2013 and 2020, DPI received several complaints alleging disability discrimination at voucher schools, but it determined it had jurisdiction to act in just one of them. Wisconsin Watch has learned the agency quietly suspended its complaint process in 2020 when it comes to students with disabilities attending voucher schools.

Juhnke and her organization argue that legal discrimination is a "fundamental issue" of the voucher program: "Discrimination is, on some level, baked into the cake."

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