Wisconsin Special Needs Scholarship Program

This voucher program is available to Wisconsin students from families of any income level as long as they have an IEP or other qualifying services plan. Students must be at least 4 years old for K–4, 5 years old for kindergarten, 6 years old for first grade, and younger than 21 as of the date they apply for this program, or September 21, whichever is later. A student may be reevaluated for IEP (and therefore, voucher) eligibility no more than once every three years. This is one of the most generous voucher programs, on a per-pupil basis today. A student who was counted as a voucher program student in a prior year and was later determined to no longer have a disability in a previous school year while participating in this program may receive a partial scholarship. The legislature appropriated $52,589,900 for this program for 2025-2026, meaning less than 1% of Wisconsin’s K–12 student population may participate.  

Funding Mechanism: Appropriation 

Universal Eligibility: ❌
Universal Usage: ❌
Universal Funding: ✅
Truly Universal: ❌

(Last updated December 16, 2025)

Funds may be used to pay tuition and fees at registered, participating private schools. 

(Last updated December 16, 2025)

View program requirements for parents, schools, and scholarship granting organizations by clicking on each hyperlink.

(Last updated December 16, 2025)

Wisconsin Legislature: Chapter PI 49 and Wis. Stat. §115.7915  

(Last updated April 21, 2025)

No legal challenge is currently pending.  

On October 12, 2023, a lawsuit funded by the Minocqua Brewing Company SUPERPAC was filed by a group of parents, public officials, and other plaintiffs in the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. The petition for original action argues the Independent Charter School Program, Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, statewide Parental Choice Program, and Special Needs Scholarship Program are all unconstitutional and asks the Court to halt the programs for the 2024-25 school year. The success of the programs, coupled with a change in the state’s funding formula in 2015, appear to have prompted this action.

Plaintiffs allege the programs violate the Wisconsin Constitution’s Uniform Taxation Clause [Art. VIII, Sec. 1], the annual school tax requirement [Art. X, Sec. 4], and the superintendent supervision clause [Art. X, Sec. 1]. Plaintiffs state that superintendents are not provided with sufficient control over participating private schools, arguing the Wisconsin Constitution requires superintendents to “supervise the instruction paid for by the public that is occurring at these private schools.”

Plaintiffs also allege the choice programs violate Wisconsin’s public purpose doctrine because there is less oversight and regulation of participating schools compared to public schools, thus the “private school programs serve no public purpose.” They further claim the programs lack a public purpose because they are “affirmatively designed to undermine Wisconsin’s public education system by robbing it blind and forcing local districts into financial death spirals.” Julie Underwood v. Robin Vos, 2023AP001896.

(Last updated July 15, 2024)