MADISON – Parents of children with disabilities will speak at the Capitol on Thursday to urge the Legislature to reimburse school districts for more of their special education costs to remove barriers to educational opportunities and lift the financial burden on local communities.
Members of the Legislature’s budget-writing committee are scheduled to take up special education funding Thursday at 1 p.m. Parents from the Learn in My Shoes campaign, a grassroots effort, say lawmakers must approve 60% sum sufficient funding for Special Education Aid.
Right now, the state covers only one-third of special education costs. Wisconsin schools are left to cover more than $1.25 billion in special education costs after state and federal payments, according to the Green Bay Press Gazette.
The committee will also vote on a separate category of funding called High Cost Special Education Aid, which reimburses schools for a portion of the cost of educating individual students whose special education costs exceed $30,000 in a single year. For the 2024-25 school year, districts incurred about $56 million in costs that were eligible for High Cost Education Aid and received $14.5 million in reimbursements, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
“All of our children, regardless of their disability, have a right to an education,” said Tiffany Schanno, Learn in My Shoes co-founder and a special education parent from Sheboygan. “Focusing only on a much smaller category of aid will not solve the financial issues districts and communities face and the barriers to opportunity for our kids.”
Since the current state budget was passed two years ago, two-thirds of Wisconsin’s 421 school districts have gone to referendum, according to the Wisconsin Public Education Network. Some districts have had multiple referendums.
The “Learn in My Shoes” campaign has collected stories of students with disabilities, their teachers, and their schools from across the state to deliver to lawmakers. Each story is attached to a pair of children’s shoes. Families and children impacted by special education funding will gather Thursday to personally tell their stories and meet interested legislators and members of the media.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Thursday, June 12
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Location: State Capitol, North Hearing Room (2nd floor, North wing)
Visuals: Children’s shoes with stories attached and posters with quotes from families
Speaking:
Tiffany Schanno, Melissa Custer, Melanie Grosse, and other parents
Sen. Jodi Habish Sinykin, D-Whitefish Bay
“The barriers to education for our kids are not abstract. We live them every day,” Schanno said. “All children with disabilities have the right to these supports and services in school. When they don’t get them, the consequences for them and their communities are very real.”
Every classroom in the state has children with special education needs. Students with disabilities make up nearly 16% of all children in the Wisconsin school system. There are more than 130,000 students with disabilities receiving special education in the state.
The Learn in My Shoes campaign first brought stories from students with disabilities to lawmakers in March. Since then, families, teachers, and school officials from all over the state have testified in Joint Finance Committee public listening sessions, written letters to the editor, and asked legislators directly for the funding schools need.
A majority of Wisconsin residents (76%) favor a major increase in funding for special education in the schools, according to the most recent Marquette Law School poll.
“Parents are tired of competing for limited resources. They’re tired of excuses, of being dismissed. I know your head’s nodding like you understand, but you really don’t. It’s time for special education to be reimbursed at at least 60% sum sufficient, and we aren’t going anywhere until we have it,” said Melissa Custer, Learn in My Shoes co-founder from Grafton during the public listening session hosted by the Wisconsin Legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance in West Allis on April 4.
Why are we asking for 60% sum sufficient funding for special education? Because kids in special education should not have to accept a lesser education than they have a right to. Here’s an explanation in plain language everyone can understand:
Imagine you’re bringing a birthday treat for your child’s class. You bring a package of 24 cookies because two years ago, the class had 24 kids. But now, there are 32 kids in the class. That means some kids get half of a cookie instead of a whole one. Sum sufficient is equivalent to making sure that every child receives a whole cookie. You check the current number of students and, to make sure you have enough for everyone, you pick up two 24-packs of cookies. That means everyone receives a whole cookie, no matter what. Sum sufficient means school districts know they will receive enough money to help fund their actual special education costs.
BUDGET SUMMARY: Legislative Fiscal Bureau Budget Summary – Special Education
WATCH: PBS Wisconsin: Why special education is a focus of Wisconsin’s 2025 budget https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/why-special-education-is-a-focus-of-wisconsins-2025-budget/
READ:
Op-ed from school district officials: “Your property tax hike: A direct result of state failure to fund students with disabilities“
https://www.gmtoday.com/the_freeman/commentary/your-property-tax-hike-a-direct-result-of-state-failure-to-fund-students-with-disabilities/article_90b4310e-bfec-5568-82bf-473a1d0574a3.htm
New story from Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “Educators, parents from about 40 Wisconsin K-12 districts have urged lawmakers to increase special ed funding” https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2025/06/09/state-budget-hearings-drew-dozens-of-comments-on-special-education-funding/83824156007/
BACKGROUND: Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo that shows 1 in 5 school referendums held in 2024 could have been avoided if special education costs were fully reimbursed.
