Milwaukee Parental Choice Program

Student Eligibility

• Student must live in the Milwaukee Public School District
• Family income below 300 percent of the federal poverty guideline ($72,900 for a family of four in 2017–18), with an additional $7,000 allowed for households with married parents
• Private school students are also eligible

School Requirements

• Meet state nondiscrimination policies
• Meet state health and safety codes
• Allow students to opt out of religious programs
• Administer to scholarship recipients the Wisconsin Forward exam for: Science in grades 4 and 8; Social Studies in grades 4, 8 and 10; and English Language Arts and Math in grades 3–8
• Administer to scholarship recipients in high school: the ACT suite of assessments; and beginning in the 2016–17 school year, a civics test comprised of the same 100 questions that may be asked of an individual during the process of applying for U.S. citizenship by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (scholarship students must correctly answer at least 65 of those questions to receive a high school diploma)
• Receive accreditation within three years of participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program; current participating schools adding grades or creating a new school are exempt
• Submit to the state an annual financial audit conducted by a certified public accountant
• Admit eligible students on a random basis
• Provide the state with evidence of sound fiscal practices and financial viability to the state
• Require school administrators to undergo financial training and to have at least a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution of higher education
• Require teachers to have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution of higher education and teacher aides to have a high school diploma or a GED or HSED
• Provide 1,050 hours of direct pupil instruction in grades 1–6 and 1,137 hours of direct pupil instruction in grades 7–12
• Provide the state with information about the academic program at the participating school and student test score data