Office of Governor Tony Evers *FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:* December 31, 2025 Contact: [email protected]    *2025 Wrap Up: Gov. Evers Highlights Administration’s Efforts to Do What’s Best for Kids in 2025 The Year of the Kid*   MADISON — Gov. Tony Evers today reflected on his and the Evers Administration’s work over the past year to do what’s best for Wisconsin kids and families during “The Year of the Kid.” During his seventh annual State of the State Address in January 2025, Gov. Evers declared [ [link removed] ] 2025 the Year of the Kid in Wisconsin. During the address, the governor urged the Wisconsin State Legislature to join him in doing what’s best for kids in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget, which the governor later signed [ [link removed] ] in July, securing critical, bipartisan investments in Wisconsin’s kids at every stage and every age.

“2025 the Year of the Kid was one to remember, and I couldn’t be prouder of our work to do what’s best for our kids and deliver on our promise to improve the lives of Wisconsinites across our state,” said Gov. Evers. “From signing our bipartisan, pro-kid budget in the early morning hours and securing significant investments in our state’s child care industry and K-12 schools to increasing the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program and securing the largest increase for the UW System in nearly 20 years, there’s so much that we got done in 2025 to do what’s best for our kids and the families who raise them.” 

Throughout 2025 the Year of the Kid, Gov. Evers: 
* Signed the bipartisan, pro-kid 2025-27 Biennial Budget into law, securing $1.4 billion in spendable revenue for K-12 schools, the largest increase to the special education reimbursement rate in state history, over $360 million to support Wisconsin’s child care industry and help lower child care costs for working families—a third of which is in direct payments to providers, and secured the largest increase for the University of Wisconsin (UW) System in nearly 20 years and $13 million over the biennium for Wisconsin’s technical colleges;  
* Created a statewide Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention to reduce crime, prevent violence, and keep kids, families, and communities safe;  
* Approved a new emergency rule to combat lead poisoning statewide;  
* Celebrated his 49th back-to-school season with kids, educators, school staff, and families across the state;  
* Launched new online tools to help Wisconsinites interested in starting a licensed or certified child care program navigate the regulation process, cutting license processing times nearly in half and helping to bolster the child care industry by making licensure and certification more accessible and more straightforward for interested applicants; 
* Announced that for the fourth year in a row, Wisconsin’s Youth Apprenticeship program [ [link removed] ] set a new record high of 11,344 youth apprentices enrolled during the 2024-25 school year, a 14 percent increase from the prior year; 
* Signed a bipartisan bill aimed at creating a statewide ban on cellphone use in the classroom, as growing evidence shows that schools with phone bans foster stronger social connections, improved classroom focus, and better health and safety of students;
* Announced that the Evers Administration immediately moved to pay full November payments for all Wisconsin FoodShare members after a federal court ordered the Trump Administration to stop withholding SNAP (known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) payments to states, and directed the administration to use billions of dollars in readily available federal funding to provide food assistance payments to millions of American kids and families, including nearly 270,000 kids in Wisconsin; 
* Declared the theme for the 2025 Capitol Holiday Tree as “The Learning Tree” and invited students to contribute handmade ornaments celebrating and thanking Wisconsin’s educators, child care providers, administrators, custodians, school bus drivers, counselors, librarians, school staff, tutors, mentors, after-school program teachers, and all the heroes in their lives who help them learn and support, educate, empower, and inspire them; 
* Approved a new administrative rule designed to help improve the state’s foster care system by ensuring kids can more easily be placed with family relatives or like-kin caregivers when they are unable to safely remain in their home, and more. 

Gov. Evers has spent his entire career fighting for Wisconsin’s kids and K-12 public schools, first beginning as a science teacher and going on to become a principal, superintendent, and state superintendent before becoming governor. Additional background on Gov. Evers’ and the Evers Administration’s efforts to do what’s best for Wisconsin’s kids during 2025 the Year of the Kid is available below. 

"*Stabilizing Wisconsin’s Child Care Industry and Lowering Child Care Costs for Working Families *"
According to a 2025 survey [ [link removed] ], 90 percent of Wisconsinites, including those without kids, say finding affordable, high-quality child care in Wisconsin is a problem, and over three-quarters of Wisconsinites support an increase in state funding to fix it. In response to this critical issue, Gov. Evers has made investing in the state’s child care industry to help fill available child care slots, cut child care wait lists, and lower the cost of care for working families a top priority of his administration. After months of negotiations with legislative leaders, Gov. Evers secured [ [link removed] ] a more than $360 million investment in child care in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget, including delivering on the governor’s promise to secure direct payments for child care providers—a bright line the governor previously signaled would force him to veto the budget if Republicans failed to pass a budget without it. 

Soon after Gov. Evers signed the 2025-27 Biennial Budget in July, the governor and his administration worked quickly to launch [ [link removed] ] the Child Care Bridge Payment Program, which provides $110 million in monthly direct payments to Wisconsin child care providers through June 2026. The Child Care Bridge Payments Program is similar to the wildly successful Child Care Counts Program, which was launched by Gov. Evers and the Evers Administration in 2020 and that helped more than 5,700 child care providers keep their doors open, ensuring the employment of more than 75,000 child care professionals and allowing providers to continue care for more than 430,000 kids. The Child Care Bridge Payments Program provides the financial stability providers need to stay open, to recruit and retain qualified staff, and to continue providing high-quality care for Wisconsin’s kids. The quick work of the Evers Administration and the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) ensured there were no gaps in direct funding for child care providers caused by the winding down of the Child Care Counts Program. In 2025, Child Care Bridge Payment ensured employment of more than 32,000 child care professionals and allowed providers to continue care for more than 169,000 kids through over $35 million in direct payments to providers.

In addition to the $110 million in direct payments to child care providers, the $360 million investment secured by Gov. Evers in the 2025-27 Biennial Budget included $66 million to fund a new “Get Kids Ready” initiative, the first-ever child care program funded solely by general purpose revenue, or GPR, in Wisconsin state history, $2 million to Wonderschool designed to help child care providers across the state build capacity, $2 million intended to help bolster Wisconsin’s Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies, over $123 million to increase rates under the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program to help lower out-of-pocket child care costs for working families across the state, and $28.5 million for a pilot program to help support expanding capacity across Wisconsin’s child care industry. 

Thanks to the $123 million budget investment to increase rates under the Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program, Gov. Evers, together with DCF, announced [ [link removed] ] in October that Wisconsin Shares families will see an increase in their subsidy amount. With this investment, the maximum Wisconsin Shares subsidy rate will be at or above the price of 75 percent of child care slots. The increase impacted roughly 15,000 Wisconsin Shares families, with the average savings per family being around $174 per month. 

In November, Gov. Evers and DCF also announced [ [link removed] ] the launch of new online tools to help Wisconsinites interested in starting a licensed or certified child care program navigate the regulation process, cutting license processing times nearly in half and helping to bolster the child care industry by making licensure and certification more accessible and more straightforward for interested applicants. 

"*Investing in Wisconsin’s Kids and Public K-12 Schools*"
While the final 2025-27 Biennial Budget did not include the full and significant investment Gov. Evers initially proposed in his executive budget, the final budget continued to build upon the governor’s historic increase in spendable authority for public school districts in the 2023-25 biennium, which included using his partial veto authority to ensure new spendable authority for public school districts would be predictable and substantial. 

As a former teacher, principal, superintendent, and state superintendent, Gov. Evers fought hard to make sure the 2025-27 Biennial Budget provided increased investments for Wisconsin’s kids and public K-12 schools. After Republican lawmakers threatened to provide no new increases for schools, through negotiations, Gov. Evers secured a nearly $1.4 billion increase in spendable revenue for K-12 schools across the state, the largest percent increase in the special education reimbursement rate in state history, over $54 million over the biennium for high-cost special education aid, $30 million to continue providing comprehensive school-based mental health services statewide, modeled on the governor’s successful “Get Kids Ahead” initiative, and $2 million in operations funding for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) in the state budget committee’s Supplemental Fund after Republican lawmakers previously voted to cut 10 percent of the agency’s operating costs in each year of the biennium through the state budget process.

During the back-to-school season, Gov. Evers celebrated [ [link removed] ] his annual statewide back-to-school tour, during which he visited K-12 schools in communities across the state to welcome students, families, educators, and staff back to school for the 2025-26 school year. This year marked Gov. Evers’ 49th back-to-school season. Throughout his back-to-school tour, the governor visited classrooms to talk with students, educators, and staff and highlighted his administration’s work to secure increased investments for Wisconsin’s kids and K-12 schools in the final 2025-27 Biennial Budget. The governor also sent a back-to-school video message to educators, administrators, and staff, which is available here [ [link removed] ]. 

Gov. Evers has long maintained that innovative technology is an important part of modern daily life in the 21st Century, and that it is exceedingly important schools are preparing kids for a 21st-century world, economy, and future. But as technology continues to evolve and expand into schools, the state must evolve with it, and that includes taking pragmatic steps to keep kids safe and protect them from the harmful impacts of new and emerging technology. In response to this effort, in October, Gov. Evers signed [ [link removed] ] a bipartisan bill aimed at creating a statewide ban on cellphone use in the classroom. A report [ [link removed] ] by the Wisconsin Policy Forum showed most schools across the state of Wisconsin already restrict cellphone use at the local level, and there is growing evidence that schools with phone bans foster stronger social connections, improved classroom focus, and better health and safety of students. An additional study [ [link removed] ] found there were reductions in psychological distress among students attending a school with a phone ban.

Additionally, Gov. Evers recognizes the profound impact of the many individuals who work each and every day to ensure Wisconsin’s kids can learn, be safe and well, and have fun while doing it. In November, Gov. Evers announced [ [link removed] ] “The Learning Tree” as the theme for the 2025 State Capitol Holiday Tree and invited students to contribute handmade ornaments celebrating and thanking Wisconsin’s educators, child care providers, administrators, custodians, school bus drivers, counselors, librarians, school staff, tutors, mentors, after-school program teachers, and all the heroes in their lives who help them learn and support, educate, empower, and inspire them. More information on the 2025 Capitol Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony that was held at the Wisconsin State Capitol on Dec. 4, 2025, is available here [ [link removed] ].

"*Stabilizing the UW System and Supporting Wisconsin’s Future Workforce*"
Gov. Evers has spent the last year advocating for increased investments in the UW System to help prevent further campus closures, staff and faculty layoffs, and program cuts and consolidations. During budget negotiations, Republican lawmakers indicated they planned to cut the UW System by tens of millions of dollars [ [link removed] ]—nearly $90 million—in this state budget, prompting Gov. Evers to threaten to veto the budget in its entirety. 

Instead, Gov. Evers negotiated to secure the largest increase for the UW System in nearly 20 years. The final 2025-27 Biennial Budget provided over $250 million for the UW System, including over $100 million to support UW System campuses statewide to ensure UW institutions remain economic and workforce hubs in communities across the state, $7 million to support 24/7 virtual telehealth mental health services to nearly all students across UW System campuses, $54 million to help retain and recruit faculty and staff in high-demand fields of study, nearly $90 million to increase wages for UW System workers, including faculty and staff, and $1 million for UW-Green Bay’s Rising Phoenix Early College High School Program that enables high school students to earn college credits.  

In addition to providing the largest increase for the UW System in nearly two decades, the 2025-27 Capital Budget also made critical investments in capital building projects on campuses across the state, including projects at UW-Madison, La Crosse, Oshkosh, Stout, Milwaukee, Platteville, and Stevens Point, with a nearly $1.2 billion investment. 

Throughout 2025, Gov. Evers visited several UW campuses. In March, Gov. Evers wrapped up [ [link removed] ] a statewide tour of nine UW campuses, where he highlighted his 2025-27 Executive and Capital Budget investments. Additionally, during the 2025 back-to-school season, Gov. Evers visited [ [link removed] ] six UW System campuses across the state to celebrate and welcome educators, students, staff, and administrators back to school for the 2025-26 school year.

Alongside the UW System, Gov. Evers knows that the Wisconsin Technical College System is essential to the future of the state’s economy and workforce, providing high-quality, affordable education and training in high-demand fields, which is why the final 2025-27 Biennial Budget invested [ [link removed] ] $13 million over the biennium in supporting Wisconsin’s technical colleges. From over $8 million in general aid increases to the technical college system and $3 million to ensure students have the materials and resources they need to learn without breaking the bank to $2 million to provide grants to support the adoption and use of artificial intelligence (AI) to prepare our workers to be ready for the future of AI, Gov. Evers has made investing in the Wisconsin Technical College System a high priority in 2025 the Year of the Kid. 

Additionally, the final 2025-27 Biennial Budget signed into law by Gov. Evers included over $6 million to support the Youth Apprenticeship program, which gives high school students the opportunity to earn while they learn and gain skills to build careers in high-demand fields. Investing in this program is critical, as the state’s Youth Apprenticeship program has seen four consecutive years [ [link removed]. ] of record-high enrollment, with 11,344 youth apprentices enrolled in the 2024-2025 school year—a 14 percent increase from the prior year.  

"*Doing What’s Best for Wisconsin’s Kids by Prioritizing Their Health and Safety *"
Gov. Evers recognizes that in order for kids to bring their best and full selves to the classroom and prepare for their futures, kids and families must have access to clean, safe drinking water that is free of harmful contaminants like PFAS and lead. So, Gov. Evers kicked off 2025 the Year of the Kid by approving [ [link removed] ] a new emergency rule to combat lead poisoning statewide and directing another $5 million in federal funds to support the expanded Well Compensation and Well Abandonment Grant Program.  

Later in the year, Gov. Evers announced [ [link removed] ] the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) had finalized the new rule to combat lead poisoning statewide by lowering the lead poisoning threshold to 3.5 µg/dL. By lowering the lead poisoning threshold, more kids and families will be eligible for lead poisoning and intervention resources, including education programming, screening, care coordination, or follow-up services for kids not covered by a third-party payer, and other activities related to poisoning or exposure. 

Another effort of the Evers Administration during 2025 the Year of the Kid to protect the health and well-being of Wisconsin’s kids came early in the year when Gov. Evers announced [ [link removed] ] the creation of the Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention. Joined by violence prevention advocates, local law enforcement, elected officials, students, and community members, Gov. Evers signed Executive Order # [ [link removed] ]254 [ [link removed] ], creating a statewide Wisconsin Office of Violence Prevention, and announced he would be directing $10 million for the office to begin its work and administer grants supporting violence and gun violence prevention efforts statewide. After months of work to stand up the office, in December, Gov. Evers announced the opening of grant applications to support initiatives and programs at school districts, law enforcement agencies, domestic violence organizations, firearm retailers, and local governments, among others, to help prevent violence across Wisconsin. More information on the efforts of the office, as well as how to apply for the first round of grant awards, is available here [ [link removed] ].    

Additionally, this year, Gov. Evers signed [ [link removed] ] “Bradyn’s Law,” Assembly Bill 201, now 2025 Wisconsin Act 48, creating a new crime of sexual extortion in Wisconsin. Gov. Evers signed the bill in honor of late D.C. Everest Junior High School student Bradyn Bohn, whose tragic death by suicide inspired his family to advocate for passing “Bradyn’s Law” to help penalize sexual extortion perpetrators. As defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), “sextortion [ [link removed] ]” is a term used to describe a crime in which an offender coerces a minor to create and send sexually explicit images or video and then uses that material to extort the victim by threatening to release it. In the six-month period from October 2022 to March 2023, the FBI observed an increase in reporting of financially motivated sextortion incidents involving minor victims compared to the same period the previous year of greater than 20 percent. From October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations received over 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors. The sextortion involved at least 12,600 victims—primarily boys—and led to at least 20 suicides. In the wake of this tragedy, the DOJ’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force shared resources [ [link removed] ] for online safety with tips for talking to kids about safe online practices. The task force notes that in 2024, the task force received 237 cybertips related to sextortion, up from 176 in 2023. Furthermore, as of the release of the DOJ’s suggested resources for kids and families in March, the task force had received 103 cybertips related to sextortion, reflecting the national trend of a dramatic increase in online enticement, which is a broad category that includes sextortion cases, being reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline [ [link removed] ], the nation’s centralized reporting system for the online exploitation of children.

Furthermore, amid the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, the Trump Administration delayed critical food assistance for the nearly 700,000 Wisconsinites, including nearly 270,000 kids, who depend on Wisconsin FoodShare for basic food and groceries. Gov. Evers spent weeks urging the Trump Administration to use readily available federal funding and levers to prevent millions of Americans from losing food assistance, and hours after a federal court ordered the Trump Administration to stop withholding SNAP payments to states and directed the administration to use billions of dollars in readily available federal funding to provide food assistance payments to millions of Americans, Gov. Evers announced the Evers Administration immediately moved [ [link removed] ] to pay full November payments for all Wisconsin FoodShare members. After the Trump Administration later sent correspondence suggesting Wisconsin should return FoodShare payments to the federal government [ [link removed] ], the governor issued a strong rebuke replying: “No.”  

Finally, Gov. Evers knows that in order to keep kids safe and well, ensuring the state’s foster care system works for Wisconsin’s kids and families is critical. In December, Gov. Evers announced [ [link removed] ] he approved a new administrative rule designed to help improve the state’s foster care system by ensuring kids can more easily be placed with family relatives or like-kin caregivers when they are unable to safely remain in their home. The move takes an evidence-driven approach to help improve stability and permanent placement, which are critical for kids’ success, by increasing the number of kids and youth who are placed with people who know and love them, as research [ [link removed] ] shows that when a child cannot safely remain in their home, placement with a relative or like-kin caregiver leads to stronger stability and permanency outcomes. 
  An online version of this release is available here [ [link removed] ]. ###

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