2017-2018 Legislative Summaries

by Kids Forward | May 2, 2018

Home 9 Early Care and Education 9 2017-2018 Legislative Summaries ( Page 2 )

Wisconsin state lawmakers wrapped up the 2017-2018 legislative session in March. During the session they passed several bills affecting K-12 education, health care, taxes, and public assistance. To learn more about specific bills, please read our legislative summaries:

K-12 Education: Legislative Summary

Health care: Legislative Summary

Taxes: Legislative Summary

Public Assistance: Legislative Summary

Corrections and the Justice System: Legislative Summary

Some of the most concerning bills to be introduced and approved by the Wisconsin legislature this past year was a package of bills that made changes to Wisconsin’s public assistance programs. Governor Walker declared these special session bills as “welfare reform,” but in reality these bills do very little to improve the welfare of children, families, and communities. Instead, the policy changes will increase the number of children and families that are hungry, homeless, and uninsured by creating barriers to participating in safety net programs. Within just a few weeks of when they were introduced, the legislature approved nine of the ten special session bills proposed by Governor Walker.

The legislature is scheduled to be out of session for the rest of the year. Unless lawmakers call for a special session of the legislature that is not on the regular schedule, they will not meet again until January 2019. Bills that did not pass during this session can be brought up again at that time, but will have to start the process over.

Join us to build a Wisconsin where
every child and family thrives.

Recent

State Budget: Youth Justice

State Budget: Youth Justice

Tough-on-Crime Narratives Uphold Wasteful Spending and a Developmentally Inappropriate Juvenile Justice System Main Takeaways Wisconsin relies far too much on incarceration and blames children for system-wide disinvestment in basic needs. Protecting our children means...

State Budget: Health Care

State Budget: Health Care

Governor’s Proposed Budget Expands Access to Health Care and Helps Reduce Racial Disparities Main Takeaways No matter where we live or what we look like, we all deserve to live safe and healthy lives. We all need access to quality, affordable health care that supports...

Fact Sheet: Every Healthy Baby Starts with Healthy Parents

Fact Sheet: Every Healthy Baby Starts with Healthy Parents

The below fact sheet was developed by Kids Forward with the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.  Download as PDF Providing postpartum Medicaid coverage for 12 months will help ensure both parents and babies in Wisconsin thrive together....

Sign up for Emails

Your address helps us identify your legislators and the most relevant messages to send you.