Learn in My Shoes Campaign
We are a nonpartisan grassroots parent led advocacy campaign for Special Education funding in Wisconsin, co-founded by parents Tiffany Schanno and Melissa Custer. This is a huge opportunity for families to have their voices join others across the state to improve and shape the future of Special Education. We are asking WI families who have experience with Special Education to fill out our form to write a message for their legislators about how the lack of investment in Wisconsin Special Education has affected their family.
If your family has had a great experience with Special Education, that's wonderful! Share what makes it great, so they know how important it is!
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We turn the answers from that form into a letter for each family's state legislators. We give one copy to their state assembly representative and a second copy to their state senator. The letters are attached to a pair of children’s shoes to help give a visual representation of each child, and send a powerful message.
We are asking our legislators to increase Special Education reimbursement to at least 60% sum sufficient.
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Since the 2023-2024 budget was passed, IN THE LAST TWO YEARS ALONE,
271 - that's 2/3 - of Wisconsin's 421 districts have gone to referendum (some more than once)
-Per the Wisconsin Public Education Network
We have had two press conferences at the WI State Capitol- on March 19th and June 12th, 2025, where families shared personal experiences and spoke about the importance of funding special education. The parent letters were displayed there with a pair of children's shoes, and then delivered to their state representatives and senators.
Updates!
July 2025 - We would like to thank all of our families for all of their advocacy for this 2025-2027 budget. Each and every one of you has helped to make a great impact, and without you we would not have seen such an increase of up to 45% for the special education reimbursement rate!
What's next?
Tiffany and Melissa have been taking a short break the last several weeks to focus on our families. We are now planning our next steps and organizing those plans to take action.
We're also communicating with other advocates for public education funding and participating in the Wisconsin Public Education Network Summer Summit in Green Bay on July 24, 2025!
While we are grateful for the increase to 45%, it is not near what our children need. We anticipate more referendums this budget cycle and property tax increases.
This is only the beginning.
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Our June Press Conference in the North Hearing Room in the Wisconsin State Capitol.
Tiffany's speech at the Wisconsin Public Education Network's Public School Funding event in the Rotunda at the Wisconsin State Capitol
