The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) recently secured a significant win in a legal battle against multiple policies of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) related to the parental choice program applications. The court agreed with WILL's argument that DPI's policies did not align with the mandated statutory rulemaking procedures, rendering them invalid.

In its lawsuit, WILL challenged the DPI's "perfection" rule, which mandates that schools collect specific documents proving parental residency, with DPI unilaterally determining the acceptability of such documents. Furthermore, DPI insists on an exact match of addresses and parental names between the application and the residency documents, an approach WILL contends is an overreach of their authority.

WILL Education Counsel Cory Brewer stated, “This ruling is a win for parents, kids, and school choice in Wisconsin. As we noted in our lawsuit, DPI has been exceeding its authority under state law in how it administers the parental choice programs and making up the rules as it goes along. These programs were created to be a simple, easy to use option for eligible families, and today’s ruling helps restore that goal.”

Read more HERE.