Are These ‘Teacher Rights’ Discipline Bills Connected Across States?

[Lisa Lightner]

Posting with permission from email: Good afternoon Lisa!

 

I've been a longtime follower in your FB A Day In Our Shoes group and really appreciate your posts and perspectives. I'm also quite active in state disability advocacy. I live in WI, am very active with our Board for People w/Developmental Disabilities (WI BPDD) and completed their Partners In Policy-making training about 10 years ago.

 

The reason I'm reaching out today is because WI Republicans have introduced a couple of very alarming education related bills re discipline and parental rights/notification this week. I sat thru a livestream of most of the discussion and public testimony at an education committee public hearing yesterday. I'll give you a few WI specific details, but I did a quick search and see that TX passed a similar bill and FL and AL are also discussing similar sounding bills - most call it a "Teachers Bill of Rights" and the conservatives are stressing the need to bring "Law and Order" back into schools, to "control" student behavior better, to stop "disruptive" students from interfering with the learning for other students. 

Are you aware of any bill mills or conservative groups that are churning out these types of school discipline bills? I'm wondering if ALEC or voucher lobby or Project 2025 is pushing this. Seems like some similar language and similar harshly punitive measures are included regardless of state. WI may have worse reporting/notification requirements than other states.  One of the most ardent supporters, and disturbing testimonies, was from a young man named Daniel Buck who works at AEI in the Conservative Education Reform Network (CERN). I know AEI is a right-wing, partisan org but I'm not familiar w/CERN.

 

In WI the bills (AB613 and AB614) use vague language and subjective judgment to expand the definition of "disruptive" behavior that would qualify for a teacher removing a student from the class. Includes the student being too "boisterous," too loud, "interrupting" instructional time, not complying with classroom rules, along with safety concerns or actual violence. Then would require a BIP be in place before the student could return to the same classroom (conservatives called it the "re-entry requirement" which frankly sounds like an IDEA violation.) Additionally, any time a student is removed from a classroom for any reason (disruptive student or even emergency drills) the principal is mandated to send an email notification to every parent in the classroom before 5 pm on the *same day* as the incident. The bill authors claim that since the disruptive student won't be specifically named, that these notifications do not breech student privacy rights. (Of course all advocates, and indeed the WI Disability Rights office, are calling out this blatant FERPA violation.) On top of that, none of the state's voucher schools or private schools are included in mandates of these bills. And students with disabilities are not exempted or protected in any way in this bill. And of course this is an unfunded mandate.

 

It was immediately clear from reading thru the first time that this makes it easier for teachers to exclude students with disabilities and will jeopardize all gains re inclusive public schools. The likely ostracizing of students w/disabilities, students of color and their families is very concerning. And on top of the federal govt gutting OSEP feels very discouraging.

I'm not freaking out because we have a Democratic Governor who supports public education and even if the bills pass, he will veto them. And I'm writing to my state representatives to advocate for increased funding, smaller class size, additional resources and prof devt, more staffing, more support services, etc. I'm also contacting my Federal legislators to protect IDEA/Dept of Ed.

Just wondering what you are seeing/hearing about "safety" or "teacher rights" bills in different states.

 

Part 2: 

You are welcome to use the info I shared as a lead for your own article/post and fine to leave in references to WI. 

 

Wisconsinites didn't get very much lead time, but it was a publicly noticed hearing for our state Assembly Committee on Education and a recording is available by the non-profit media organization called WisEye. (If you'd like a link to the recording, just let me know. But I also understand you may be more interested in broad strokes rather than a deep dive into a specific state's proposals.)

 

I've put a pin in CERN to go back and get more info later. I'm interested in getting a bit more background on Daniel Buck, the AEI and CERN guy. He seems quite young but claims to have been a classroom teacher (English at middle school level), an Administrator (maybe Asst Principal at an elite or private charter) and now an "expert" on discipline in k-12 public schools - which seems like a rather fast career arc and reminds me of Michelle Rhee (who was also very connected/funded by voucher special interests.) 
I also thought it odd that when I was doing a quick search re other states, Daniel Buck's name kept coming up. He not only had an op-ed specific to these WI discipline bills in our local Milw Journal-Sentinel newspaper, but he had published the same post in a bunch of private college student newspapers (USC, Duke, Texas A&M and Clemson were high up in search results, there may have been others.) And he also published the same post in a handful of professional sports teams "news" sites for fans (NOLA's Saints, Baltimore Ravens, etc. all under a USA Today banner.) Why would a student in NC or a football fan in LA care about a state bill in WI?  His highlighted subhead was "I hope partisan politics doesn’t prevent legislators from scoring these obvious wins for WI schools." But he's the one supporting partisan politics and clearly a paid private lobbyist. And these bills are a tremendous loss for students with disabilities and students of color.

 

Also, FWIW, there is another WI player that is huge in attacking public schools. That would be WI Inst for Law and Liberty (WILL). They've been at it for over a decade but have grown their staff and are wickedly well funded. They frequently threaten or do sue local school districts, push the toxic "parent rights" bills, and partnered with some WI chapters of Moms for Liberty. WILL seems to be a mush of private voucher lobbyists, libertarians and tea-party conservatives. Primary donor is the Bradley Fndn, but similar to Koch network, they are enmeshed with many other far-right groups.

 

Anyway, I appreciate your interest and look forward to reading your article.

 

[Lisa Lightner]

The bills you’re describing in Wisconsin aren’t happening in a vacuum. What you’re seeing—vague “disruptive behavior” language, broadened removal authority, mandatory parental notifications, and zero disability protections—is part of a coordinated national movement. And yes, it’s absolutely tied to the larger “law and order,” anti-public-schools, anti-inclusion policy wave we’ve been watching for years.

Here’s what’s behind it, and what’s driving the similarity of these bills across states.

These bills match the pattern of ALEC-style model legislation

While ALEC hasn’t released one single widely publicized discipline “model bill,” the structure of AB613/AB614 follows the playbook:

• Broad definitions of “disruption”

• Increased teacher authority to remove students

• A required re-entry condition (often disguised as a “BIP requirement”)

• Mandatory reporting requirements framed as “parental rights”

• Exemptions for private/voucher schools

• Zero mention of IDEA protections

That combination is too consistent to be random.

In multiple states, lawmakers have referred to “model discipline legislation” they are “adapting,” which is usually legislative shorthand for ALEC, the Heritage Foundation, or a state-level conservative policy shop providing the template.

Heritage’s Project 2025 absolutely includes a discipline agenda

Project 2025 has an explicit goal of:

• Increasing “school safety authority”

• Weakening federal civil rights oversight

• Removing “barriers” to discipline

• Reducing “overreach” of IDEA, Section 504, and OCR

• Shifting control from federal protections to state-level discretion

That “re-entry requirement” you noticed?
It’s completely aligned with the Heritage position that districts should be able to exclude students who require behavior supports without worrying about IDEA compliance.

So yes this is connected.

AEI’s Conservative Education Reform Network (CERN) is part of this ecosystem

Daniel Buck is not random.CERN regularly pushes:

• Zero-tolerance discipline

• “Order and culture” frameworks

• Reduced “behavioral accommodation expectations” for teachers

• Opposition to restorative practices

• Narratives about inclusion harming “classroom learning”

CERN content is often directly cited in state-level hearings in TX, FL, AL, and now WI. AEI isn’t the originator, but it is the megaphone.

Voucher and privatization lobbies are heavily involved

One major red flag you already noted:

These bills never apply to voucher or private schools.!!!!!!!

That’s intentional.

The architecture is:

1. Make public schools seem chaotic and unsafe

2. Strip public schools of tools and funding

3. Increase public frustration

4. Expand vouchers as the “solution”

5. Funnel tax dollars into private schools not bound by civil rights law

6. Reduce overall public investment in IDEA enforcement

The discipline bills are part of the destabilization strategy.

Disability and civil rights organizations are waving massive red flags

DRCs, COPAA, NDRN, and state disability councils have all flagged identical concerns across multiple states:

• Increased removals of disabled students

• Disproportionate removal of Black and brown students

• Clear FERPA violations disguised as “parental rights”

• IDEA re-entry restrictions that directly violate federal law

• Lack of funding for mandated interventions

• Backdoor pathways to removing students who require support

Every state sees the same pattern because the bills are drawing from the same origin sources.

What’s different about Wisconsin’s versions?

From what you described, WI’s bills have two particularly extreme elements:

• Same-day classroom-wide notification for any removal or emergency drill
  This absolutely chills inclusion. Peers and parents will deduce exactly who was removed.

• Requiring a BIP for re-entry
  Schools are not legally permitted to condition access to FAPE on completion of a Behavior Intervention Plan.

That’s why you felt in your gut that this is an IDEA violation—it is.

The broader context: gutting OSEP and federal oversight

The timing is coordinated:

• Federal moves to weaken OSEP

• State bills weakening discipline protections

• Simultaneous voucher expansion

• Increased attacks on inclusion

• More rhetoric about “dangerous” or “disruptive” students

All of these pieces fit together into the long-term strategy of:

Shift control to states → strip oversight → reframe disability supports as burdens → expand privatization.

You’re not imagining the pattern.

The one piece of good news in WI

Your Democratic governor’s veto is a meaningful barrier right now.
But the presence of these bills indicates where the agenda is headed long-term.

Your response (writing legislators, pushing for funding, naming the FERPA and IDEA violations, and coordinating with WI BPDD) is exactly what stops these bills from passing quietly under the radar.

And your instincts are correct: this is bigger than Wisconsin.

This is part of a national movement to rewrite discipline and inclusion norms in public education.