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SB 268 WI
Introduced

Relating to: prohibiting corporal punishment in public and private schools.

WI · session 2025 · Senate · bill

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Introduced May 20, 2025

Latest action (Jul 2, 2026) Representative McGuire added as a cosponsor

Summary

This bill expands Wisconsin's existing prohibition on corporal punishment in schools to apply to private schools and charter schools in addition to public schools. Under current law, only officials, employees, and agents of school boards are prohibited from subjecting pupils to corporal punishment. This bill extends the prohibition to officials, employees, and agents of charter school governing boards and private school governing bodies. The bill defines "corporal punishment" as the intentional infliction of physical pain used as a means of discipline, including paddling, slapping, and prolonged maintenance of physically painful positions, while excluding actions consistent with individualized education programs and reasonable physical activities associated with athletic training. The bill takes effect on the first July 1 after publication.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsors (5)

Action history (7)

  1. May 20, 2025 Introduced by Senators Roys, Hesselbein, Larson, Ratcliff and Spreitzer; cosponsored by Representatives Clancy, Mayadev, Andraca, Bare, Billings, DeSanto, DeSmidt, Emerson, Fitzgerald, Joers, Johnson, Madison, Miresse, Phelps, Roe, Snodgrass, Stubbs, Subeck and Tenorio · upper
  2. May 20, 2025 Read first time and referred to Committee on Education · upper
  3. Jun 12, 2025 Representative Haywood added as a cosponsor · upper
  4. Jun 20, 2025 Representative Sinicki added as a cosponsor · upper
  5. Oct 28, 2025 Representative Sheehan added as a cosponsor · upper
  6. Mar 23, 2026 Failed to pass pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 1 · upper
  7. Jul 2, 2026 Representative McGuire added as a cosponsor · upper

Text versions (2)

The published texts of this bill as it moves through the legislature. Each links to the official document on the state legislature site. Data from OpenStates.

  • Bill Text · PDF
  • Bill Text · HTML

Full text

Full text imported from docs.legis.wisconsin.gov

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Menu » 2025 » Related Documents » Proposal Text » SB268: Bill Text

Up Up 2025 - 2026 LEGISLATURE LRB-2409/1 FFK:ajk&wlj

2025 SENATE BILL 268 May 20, 2025 - Introduced by Senators Roys , Hesselbein , Larson , Ratcliff and Spreitzer , cosponsored by Representatives Clancy , Mayadev , Andraca , Bare , Billings , DeSanto , DeSmidt , Emerson , Fitzgerald , Joers , Johnson , Madison , Miresse , Phelps , Roe , Snodgrass , Stubbs , Subeck and Tenorio . Referred to Committee on Education.

SB268,1,4 1 An Act to renumber and amend 118.31 (1); to amend 118.305 (3) (e), 118.31 2 (2), 118.31 (3) (intro.), 118.31 (4), 118.31 (5) and 118.31 (6); to create 118.31 3 (1) (b) and 118.31 (1) (c) of the statutes; relating to: prohibiting corporal 4 punishment in public and private schools.

Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau Under current law, no official, employee, or agent of a school board may subject a pupil enrolled in the school district to corporal punishment. Current law defines “corporal punishment” as the intentional infliction of physical pain that is used as a means of discipline, which includes paddling, slapping, and prolonged maintenance of physically painful positions. This bill expands the prohibition against subjecting pupils to corporal punishment to apply to officials, employees, and agents of school boards, governing boards of charter schools, and governing bodies of private schools.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows: SB268,1 5 Section 1 . 118.305 (3) (e) of the statutes is amended to read: SB268,2,2 1 118.305 (3) (e) It does not constitute corporal punishment, as defined in s. 2 118.31 (1) (a) . SB268,2 3 Section 2 . 118.31 (1) of the statutes is renumbered 118.31 (1) (intro.) and 4 amended to read: SB268,2,5 5 118.31 (1) (intro.) In this section , “corporal : SB268,2,11 6 (a) “Corporal punishment” means the intentional infliction of physical pain 7 which that is used as a means of discipline. “Corporal punishment” includes, but is 8 not limited to, paddling, slapping , or prolonged maintenance of physically painful 9 positions, when used as a means of discipline. “Corporal punishment” does not 10 include actions consistent with an individualized education program developed 11 under s. 115.787 or reasonable physical activities associated with athletic training. SB268,3 12 Section 3 . 118.31 (1) (b) of the statutes is created to read: SB268,2,13 13 118.31 (1) (b) “Governing body” means any of the following: SB268,2,14 14 1. For a public school that is not a charter school, a school board. SB268,2,15 15 2. For a charter school, the governing board of the charter school. SB268,2,16 16 3. For a private school, the governing body of the private school. SB268,4 17 Section 4 . 118.31 (1) (c) of the statutes is created to read: SB268,2,19 18 118.31 (1) (c) “School” means a public school, including a charter school, and 19 a private school. SB268,5 20 Section 5 . 118.31 (2) of the statutes is amended to read: SB268,2,23 21 118.31 (2) Except as provided in sub. (3), no official, employee , or agent of a 22 school board the governing body of a school may subject a pupil enrolled in the 23 school district to corporal punishment. SB268,6 1 Section 6 . 118.31 (3) (intro.) of the statutes is amended to read: SB268,3,4 2 118.31 (3) (intro.) Subsection (2) does not prohibit an official, employee , or 3 agent of a school board the governing body of a school from doing any of the 4 following : SB268,7 5 Section 7 . 118.31 (4) of the statutes is amended to read: SB268,3,11 6 118.31 (4) Each school board governing body of a school shall adopt a policy 7 that allows any official, employee , or agent of the school board governing body of the 8 school to use reasonable and necessary force for the purposes of sub. (3) (a) to (h). In 9 determining whether or not a person was acting within the exceptions in sub. (3), 10 deference shall be given to reasonable, good faith judgments made by an official, 11 employee , or agent of a school board the governing body of the school . SB268,8 12 Section 8 . 118.31 (5) of the statutes is amended to read: SB268,3,17 13 118.31 (5) Except as provided in s. 939.61 (1), this section does not create a 14 separate basis for civil liability of a school board the governing body of a school or 15 their its officials, employees , or agents for damages arising out of claims involving 16 allegations of improper or unnecessary use of force by school employees against 17 students pupils . SB268,9 18 Section 9 . 118.31 (6) of the statutes is amended to read: SB268,3,22 19 118.31 (6) Nothing in this section shall prohibit, permit , or otherwise affect 20 any action taken by an official, employee , or agent of a school board the governing 21 body of a school with regard to a person who is not a pupil enrolled in the school 22 district . SB268,10 23 Section 10 . Effective date. SB268,4,1 1 ( 1 ) This act takes effect on the first July 1 after publication. SB268,4,2 2 (end) Down Down

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