Unreliable Claims on Disability Rates in Report About Wisconsin’s School Voucher Programs

BOULDER, CO (April 8, 2025)—Scholars, advocates, and policymakers have long expressed the concern that many private schools receiving taxpayer subsidies through voucher programs would fail to serve children with disabilities. The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, in collaboration with School Choice Wisconsin, recent published a report challenging those concerns.

In their review of Thousands Served: Students with Disabilities in Wisconsin’s Parental Choice Programs, Maria M. Lewis of Pennsylvania State University and Julie F. Mead of the University of Wisconsin-Madison determine that the report’s conclusions challenge precise state data with imprecise administrative estimates and are therefore misleading and unhelpful.

The report asserts that the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) underestimates the number of students with disabilities in the state’s school choice programs. The state determined that 8.9% of students participating in the state’s voucher programs have or have had an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or were enrolled in the state’s Special Needs Scholarship Program. The report dismisses that figure and asserts instead that over 14% of participating students “likely have a disability.”

The report’s primary analysis relies upon survey data gathered from private-school leaders participating in the state’s choice programs. Although the details of the survey remain unclear, respondents were asked to estimate the number of students in their schools who would be considered a student with a disability if enrolled in a public school.

As such, the survey results amount to conjecture and cannot reasonably be compared to DPI data that relies upon a legal definition of a student with a disability and comports with the law’s procedural requirements to make that determination.

Given the report’s flawed methods, Professors Lewis and Mead conclude that the utility of its findings and analysis for policymakers is significantly limited.

Find the review, by Maria M. Lewis and Julie F. Mead, at:
https://nepc.colorado.edu/review/disability

Find Thousands Served: Students with Disabilities in Wisconsin’s Parental Choice Programs, published by School Choice Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, at:
https://will-law.org/wisconsin-school-choice-programs-serve-thousands-of-disabled-students/

 

NEPC Reviews (https://nepc.colorado.edu/reviews) provide the public, policymakers, and the press with timely, academically sound reviews of selected publications. NEPC Reviews are made possible in part by support provided by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice: http://www.greatlakescenter.org

The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a university research center housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, sponsors research, produces policy briefs, and publishes expert third-party reviews of think tank reports. NEPC publications are written in accessible language and are intended for a broad audience that includes academic experts, policymakers, the media, and the general public. Our mission is to provide high-quality information in support of democratic deliberation about education policy. We are guided by the belief that the democratic governance of public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence and support a multiracial society that is inclusive, kind, and just. Visit us at: http://nepc.colorado.edu

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