Sheboygan Area School District caps 2024-2025 open enrollment for special education seats

SHEBOYGAN — Sheboygan Area School District will not accept any special education students who live outside the district to attend its schools during the 2024-2025 school year.

The decision was made based on calculations that found the projected special education seats for the year match or exceed seat capacity across all district schools and programs.

During the curriculum and instruction meeting where members voted to send the decision to the board of education, Jacob Konrath, assistant superintendent of student and instructional services, said the district is stretched thin.

“What we really want to do there is make sure that we’re serving our students first in a world where it’s hard to find special ed teachers,” Konrath said. “And that teacher shortage is so real, we want to make sure that we’re serving our resident students first.”

The board of education voted unanimously to approve the cap during its Jan. 23 meeting.

When the district reviewed the number of students enrolled in special education, their individualized education program, and how those needs relate to current staffing, cross categorically all elementary, middle and high schools were beyond their capacity.

Elementary cross categorical seat capacity is 337 and the projected seats for next school year are 372.

Middle school capacity is currently 286 with projections reaching 292.

And high school cross categorical also has a jump with capacity at 368 and projections totaling 407.

Konrath said having the district stretched thin does make him wonder about what’s coming, a thought he said is shared by many districts across the state. There are no answers, he said.

“It’s the one thing that everyone is losing sleep over,” he said.

Shipwreck gets historic status: Century-old shipwreck off Sheboygan coast named historic place, protected by law

With funding from the state fairly low and the current density of students, providing for students with IEPs is a big financial priority for the district, he said.

“We are obviously so proud of the services that we offer our special education students, but it’s getting more and more difficult when we’re not given the resources we need there,” Konrath said.

Despite the cap on special education open enrollment, all students living in the district with IEPs will be accepted and provided for.

While open enrollment for special education will be closed, regular education open enrollment will remain open. The distinction between the programs comes from Wisconsin Act 55, which requires districts set space availability numbers for both regular and special education open enrollment.

The board votes on open enrollment based on capacity every January, Konrath said.

If a traditional education student living outside of the district wishes to attend SASD, they will be able to. However, this does not necessarily mean they will attend the school of their choice.

African heritage conference: 'It truly was amazing:' Sheboygan student leaders attend African heritage conference

If a student’s school of choice doesn’t have any availability next year, parents will be given options of other schools in the district their child can attend, and it will be their decision whether they wish to attend another school or continue education outside of the district.

Last year, out of the more than 9,500 students enrolled in the district, 79 students came through open enrollment, according to Nicole Sondalle, SASD marketing and communications coordinator. Two special education students were denied.

For the 2024-2025 school year, there are currently about 30 applications for open enrollment students and one is special education.

Have a story tip or public interest concern? Contact Sam Bailey at sgbailey@gannett.com or 573-256-9937. To stay up to date on her stories and other news, follow her on X (Twitter) @SamarahBailey.

This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan Area School District special education enrollment capped