Wisconsin district must pay for special ed of man in local residential facility
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has declined to consider an appeal of a court decision that would force the Oconomowoc Area School District to pay the educational costs of a disabled man placed in a residential treatment center within its boundaries. The Supreme Court's action lets stand a ruling by a three-judge panel in Madison, which said the Oconomowoc district had to pay for the man's education at the Oconomowoc Developmental Training Center once he reached age 18 and moved to an adult residential facility located in the district. The Oconomowoc school system challenged the state Department of Public Instruction's decision to assign it the man's educational costs, given that he had never been enrolled in the school system or lived there before he was placed at the treatment center by a Winnebago County court order. The appeals court, however, relied on an 1889 court ruling that says local school districts are responsible for paying the educational costs of such students so long as their primary reason for living in their districts is not for education. Officials involved in the case say it could affect other school districts that host residential care and education centers, which often serve the most drastically disabled and costly students. Special-education law guarantees students with disabilities a free public education until they graduate or reach 21 years of age.
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 5/22/08, By Amy Hetzner
[
Editor’s Note: The unpublished appellate court ruling was Oconomowoc Area School District v. Burmaster
, 747 N.W.2d 528 (Wis. App. Feb. 28, 2008).]