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Wisconsin's full-time inter-district public school open enrollment program allows parents to apply for their children to attend school in a school district other than the one in which they live.
Any student in grades Early Childhood through Grade 12 may apply to attend school in any public school district in the state. Students may apply for 4-year-old kindergarten or early childhood education only if the student's resident school district offers the same type of program and only if the student is eligible for that program in their resident school district.
It is recommended that parents apply online from the Department of Public Instruction's open enrollment website during the application period. Parents who complete the on-line application will receive a confirmation number. Once completed, on-line applications are automatically submitted to the appropriate school districts. The application will be available on-line beginning at midnight on the first day of the application period until 4:00 PM on the last day of the application period.
Parents may, instead, choose to complete a paper application, and must submit the completed application forms to the school district the student wishes to attend (referred to as the nonresident school district) during the application period. There must be a separate application form submitted for each student and a separate application form submitted to each school district the student wishes to attend. Paper applications will be available in all school district offices. Parents who choose to complete paper applications must ensure the application is physically received in the nonresident school district by the application deadline. A postmark is not sufficient. It is strongly recommended that parents hand-deliver the application form to the nonresident school district office and that the parent request that their copy of the form be specifically date-stamped when the form is received.
The open enrollment application period is established in state law as beginning on the first Monday in February and ending at 4:00 PM on the last weekday in April. The next open enrollment application period is for the 2025-2026 school year, and runs from February 3 thru April 30. Early or late applications will not be accepted for any reason.
A student may apply to no more than three nonresident school districts in an application period. If applications for a particular student are submitted to more than three school districts, even if separate applications are submitted by each parent, all applications submitted during that application period for the student are invalid. Pursuant to s. 118.51(3)(a)1d and 118.51(3m)(a), Stats, applications to virtual charter schools do not count toward the three nonresident school board limit.
Once a student is attending a nonresident school district under open enrollment, the student may continue to attend that district without reapplication. Some school districts do require a reapplication when the student is entering middle school or high school, but Dodgeland School District does not require reapplication once the student is initially open enrolled here.
Parents are responsible for transporting their children to and from school. Low-income parents may apply to the DPI for partial reimbursement of their transportation costs. If the student is receiving special education services and the Individualized Education Program requires that transportation be part of the services, then transportation is provided by the nonresident district.
After the regular open enrollment period has ended (last weekday of April), parents can still apply for open enrollment through the Alternative Open Enrollment process, which begins July 1 and continues throughout the school year.
Please follow the Department of Public Instruction's Open Enrollment Alternative Application Procedures.
For more information, contact:
Public School Open Enrollment Program
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
P.O. Box 7841, Madison, WI 53707-7841
Call Toll-free: (888) 245-2732
You may email DPI with Open Enrollment questions.
The DPI website explains Open Enrollment in further detail.
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