Over the past week, many principals received notice from the DPI regarding changes to the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) lunch and milk programs. These changes are being implemented nationwide and were discovered accidentally via innocuous notices to nonpublic schools.
The USDA has updated its non-discrimination protections to include new categories reflecting society’s changing sexual and gender mores. These changes may conflict with the religious values and beliefs of many WCRIS schools.
As a result, WCRIS was among the first to raise the alarm to its allies locally and nationally. Our office has been working with a network of legal experts from across the country on the next steps.
As a result of the exhaustive efforts of WCRIS, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) has agreed to provide guidance via an informational webinar addressing how to navigate the new USDA changes on Tuesday, June 14 at 1 p.m.
In the meantime, various legal counsel are recommending that school leaders NOT file for a religious exemption at this moment. Legal scholars are debating if this is the appropriate course of action, as it could cause more harm than good.
WCRIS will update you as we learn more. We urge you to attend the webinar to learn more about the impact of these changes.
Read a summary of the webinar here.
