The Growing Burden of Behavior and Special Education in Wisconsin Classrooms

The Prevalence of Behavioral Issues in Class

The Republican-led state legislature and the Evers administration have been clashing on how to best address the pressure being put on K-12 teachers due to the rising prevalence of mental health and behavior issues in the classroom.

On March 27, 2026, Governor Evers vetoed A.B. 614, a Republican-proposed bill that sought to give teachers more control over their classroom and control behavioral disruptions. A.B. 614 was introduced by Rep. Joy Goeben on October 31 of 2025, stemming directly from concerns over behavioral issues leading to lower educational outcomes for all students.

Additionally, as learning levels reach an all-time low, teacher resignation is reaching an all-time high, with students' disorderly behavior being cited as a top reason why. A.B. 614 sought to address this issue through four changes to classroom behavioral protocol.

First, A.B. 614 would clarify when students are being disruptive or violent enough for a teacher to remove that student from the classroom. Secondly, the bill would also require schools to create a better plan for classroom re-entry after a student has been removed for disruptive behavior. This would hopefully prevent students from simply being placed back into the classroom without any clear path to remedy their behavior issues.

A.B. 614 also gives extra power to parents to help address behavior issues. It mandates that parents be notified anytime their child is removed from the classroom for behavior reasons or if their student witnessed a serious behavioral incident from another student in their classroom. Lastly, if schools fail to implement these measures, A.B. 614 would provide parents with a limited means to ensure schools comply.

Governor Evers said he was choosing to veto A.B. 614 because he rejects the "Wisconsin State Legislature encroaching upon the daily decision-making of schools and school district boards.” The governor also added that Republican lawmakers have repeatedly rejected his calls for funding increases for behavioral and mental health support in schools, further stating that this is creating “a new unfunded mandate for school districts.”

The Wisconsin ACLU, another opponent of the bill, said A.B. 614 would create “new avenues for excluding students with disabilities by creating new powers to eject a student from the classroom.” They added that this bill is unclear on how it would ensure that disabled students are still entitled to the federal protections they have under the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), strongly disagreed with this view. WILL said, "When that behavior is tolerated, every student’s ability to learn suffers. Invoking ‘mental health’ misses the point. It does not excuse a failure to address serious misconduct.”

WILL also pushed back on this being an unfunded mandate by saying that the bill is simply providing common-sense steps for schools and teachers to follow when dealing with disruptive students.

The debate over A.B. 614 comes on the heels of a bigger and growing issue in Wisconsin’s public schools, where behavioral issues, mental health problems, physical and mental disabilities, and classroom accommodations are all on the rise.

The IEP Designation

According to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), roughly 14% of Wisconsin K-12 students have some form of disability as of 2021 and receive classroom accommodations through an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).

An IEP refers to a special agreement made between parents and the school, which outlines special educational needs or services for students with a qualifying disability. Schools conduct their own evaluations of the students’ disabilities, and no outside diagnosis is needed.

Of all Wisconsin students with IEPs, 20.56% have learning disabilities, 14.65% have autism, 21.05% have a speech or language impairment, 6.48% have an emotional behavioral disability, and 21.64% have a different health impairment. Other, smaller categories include deaf, blind, orthopedic impairment, and significant developmental delay. DPI does not offer public data breaking down the disabilities or impairments any further.

Moreover, Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) also estimates that between 2020 and 2023, a whopping 9.9% of children in Wisconsin had ADHD.

Meeting the needs for all of these Wisconsin students with physical, mental, and learning disabilities can be expensive. A recent study from the state of Ohio found that special education costs associated with a specific learning disability cost, on average, an extra $9,000 per student. Additionally, the costs associated with a student who has an autism spectrum disorder are an extra $37,000. We can expect that Wisconsin would have similarly high numbers to Ohio as they are both midwestern states with similar educational costs.

Moreover, most of these high costs are borne locally by the school districts. State reimbursements cover approximately 27% to 31% of IEP costs, with 59% of costs funded locally by the school district and 11% funded by the federal government through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

If a student’s IEP plan is considered “high cost,” meaning the cost exceeds $30,000 per year, the state will reimburse the school district at a 90% rate.

Even with federal and state funding, schools are facing massive levels of unreimbursed costs for special education. Some schools have millions of dollars of IEP costs that they have no idea how to fund.

For instance, Edgerton School District had $3,520,303 in unreimbursed special education costs for the 2022-23 school year. Eau Claire School District had $17,933,991 in unreimbursed special education costs. Both districts had to resort to referendums in order to pay for these exorbitant expenses.

The 504

In addition to IEPs, some students receive support through 504 plans, which are authorized under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Unlike an IEP, 504 plans do not provide special instruction, but rather they provide accommodations so that students with disabilities can learn from the general education curriculum.

504 plans also do not require a doctor’s diagnosis and are often much easier to obtain than an IEP.

However, there is a noticeable imbalance in how these disability support programs are used in Wisconsin. While 14.1% of Wisconsin students have IEPs, ranking 20th in the nation, Wisconsin has one of the lowest incidences of 504 plans, at a rate of only 1.1%.

This drastic and unusual difference is the result of financial incentives for schools. Schools will receive reimbursements from the state and federal government for students with IEPs. However, 504 plans are not tied to any additional funding.

Another interesting pattern that emerges when looking at the type of school. 14.1% of students receive IEP services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in Wisconsin’s traditional public schools, but only 11.5% of students in charter schools receive IEP services.

Again, this difference reflects different financial incentives faced by the two school types. Under current law, public schools can get reimbursements for disability services that charter schools cannot, including physical or orthopedic disabilities, developmental disabilities, emotional disturbances, hearing impairments, visual impairments, and speech or language disabilities.

Although charter schools receive less disability funding, Governor Evers has continued to be a strong advocate against sending more taxpayer dollars to fund disabilities that support school choice.

Governor Evers recently vetoed a bill that would require Wisconsin to opt into a federal program known as the Educational Choice for Children Act, which was created under Congress’s “Big Beautiful Bill” last summer.

This program would give a tax credit of up to $1,700 for Wisconsinites who donate money to non-profit scholarship organizations. These scholarships could have gone towards funding many services that support students, including special needs therapies and services.

In his veto message, Governor Evers stated, “Republicans in Washington have given private voucher expansion carte blanche to run roughshod over public education in this country—and a blank check to do so at taxpayer expense, clearly without any regard for whether it actually does what is best for kids.”

Conclusion

Overall, Governor Evers' vetoes of A.B. 614 and 602 highlight the disagreement on how to best support Wisconsin’s students and special education needs.

As the number of students with IEPs, mental health challenges, and behavior issues continues to grow, Wisconsin lawmakers need to focus on taking a more targeted and transparent approach. This means looking at exactly what challenges and disabilities students are facing and seeing if disability funding is being effectively used to create good outcomes.

Spending on special needs has resulted in exorbitant costs that school districts have no ability to fund without going to referendum. However, simply allocating more state funding for disabilities and mental health with no clear goals, performance data, or accountability will only further raise Wisconsin's already high spending without solving the underlying reasons for widespread behavioral issues and disabilities among Wisconsin’s students.