Price County's Underage Drinking Fight Runs Into a Wisconsin

Last updated: November 2026

For two years, Price County’s prevention staff have been telling every board, council and stakeholder who would sit still that the alcohol teenagers drink comes from home. The statute book already agreed, and it says so in one sentence. “No person may procure for, sell, dispense or give away any alcohol beverages to any underage person not accompanied by his or her parent, guardian or spouse who has attained the legal drinking age.” Read the qualifier. Wisconsin builds the parental exception straight into the prohibition, then leaves enforcement to a forfeiture that tops out at $500.

Susie Daniels laid out year two of that campaign to the Health and Human Services Board on Oct. 14. She had data, a billboard, 800 pamphlets and a focus group of teenagers who told her they drink to cope with anxiety and depression. What she did not have was an ordinance that closes the gap the state left open.

Quick Answer: Price County’s own school survey found 33 percent of high school students drank alcohol in the prior 30 days, and Daniels told the HHS Board on Oct. 14, 2026 that the 2025 figure landed near 30 percent. Her five-county Strategic Prevention Framework Partnerships for Success grant, funded through SAMHSA and convened at Marshfield Clinic’s request, is in year three of five. In year two the coalition reached more than 70 stakeholders, distributed over 800 pamphlets, and completed alcohol policy inventories in the Town of Lake and the City of Park Falls. Wisconsin Statute 125.07 expressly permits a parent or guardian to furnish alcohol to their own underage child, provided the child is accompanied by them.

What did the HHS Board actually hear on Oct. 14?

Daniels opened by reminding the board she had stood in the same room a year earlier. The grant is a five-year award shared with Oneida, Portage, Forest and Barron counties, and Price County was not a volunteer.

Marshfield Clinic picked the five counties in its service area with the worst underage drinking problem, and Price County made the list. Daniels said the target population is ages 14 to 21, which runs right up to the legal drinking age.

The number that should worry a school board

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey is administered at Price County area schools every two years. In the cycle before the 2025 survey, 33 percent of high school students reported drinking in the previous 30 days.

Well above the state. Wisconsin’s 2025 statewide YRBS puts current alcohol use among high school students at 18.8 percent, and at 21.5 percent for white students. Daniels said the local 2025 figure came in around 30 percent, which still runs roughly 60 percent hotter than the Wisconsin average.

Binge drinking held steadier

Seventeen percent of local high school students reported binge drinking in the prior 30 days in the earlier survey. Daniels put the 2025 figure near 16 percent.

The gap between those two numbers matters. Occasional drinking fell. Heavy drinking barely moved. Whatever the coalition has been doing for two years has not reached the kids who drink the most.

Where the alcohol comes from, according to teenagers

Daniels ran a focus group of local teens. They told her alcohol is easy to get from homes, from parents, from siblings and from anyone over 21. They also told her where it gets consumed: cabins and ice shacks, places with no adult and no consequence.

Of the community stakeholders she surveyed, 44 said they somewhat or strongly agreed that underage drinking is acceptable in Price County. Read that again. Not tolerated. Acceptable. That is the finding that explains why years of prevention programming have moved one number and not the other.

What does Wisconsin law actually let parents do?

Here is the sentence that reframes the entire campaign. Wisconsin Statute 125.07(1)(a)1 reads, in full: “No person may procure for, sell, dispense or give away any alcohol beverages to any underage person not accompanied by his or her parent, guardian or spouse who has attained the legal drinking age.”

Parse the qualifier. The prohibition on supplying a minor does not apply when the minor’s own parent is standing there. That is not an accident of drafting. It is the statute.

The same exception runs through the licensed-premises rules

Statute 125.07(3)(a) bars an underage person from licensed premises “not accompanied by his or her parent, guardian or spouse who has attained the legal drinking age.” Subsection (4)(a)2 applies the identical language to possessing or consuming alcohol on those premises.

Daniels referenced that provision when she told the board a 13-year-old can legally sit at a bar next to a parent and be served. She said it carefully, from the podium, in a room where every supervisor knew it was true and nobody argued.

The one tool that does exist

Wisconsin does have a social host law, and it sits in the same statute. Subsection 125.07(1)(a)3 says no adult “may knowingly permit or fail to take action to prevent the illegal consumption of alcohol beverages by an underage person on property, including any premises, owned and occupied by the adult or occupied by the adult and under the adult’s control.”

What the penalty actually is

A first violation carries a forfeiture of not more than $500. A second violation within 30 months can bring a $500 fine, 30 days in jail, or both. Local ordinances that strictly conform to the state paragraph can add their own forfeiture.

Five hundred dollars is the maximum forfeiture for hosting a teenage drinking party in Wisconsin, the first time. The coalition’s recommendation, delivered as public comment at two July licensing meetings, was that municipalities enforce that provision harder rather than write anything new.

Why did two municipalities hesitate?

Daniels completed a municipal alcohol policy inventory for the Town of Lake and the City of Park Falls, required under the grant. She met with clerks, reviewed existing ordinances, sat in on both boards’ July alcohol licensing sessions and spoke during public comment at each.

Her asks were narrow. Stronger enforcement of the social host ordinance. Signs in licensed establishments stating that alcohol will not be served to anyone under 21.

The tavern problem

One municipality pushed back with a practical objection. If every bar in town did not agree to post the same signage, nobody wanted to be first. There is no enforcement mechanism for a voluntary sign, and there is no penalty for skipping it.

One Park Falls establishment broke ranks anyway. In the two months before the Oct. 14 meeting, a bar posted notice that once food service ends, nobody under 18 is allowed inside. Daniels said she wants to get the owner a certificate. Park Falls handles alcohol licensing through its Common Council, which is where a broader rule would have to originate.

The exchange at the licensing table

At Park Falls’ July licensing meeting, the police chief told the room the department was not seeing problems with underage drinking or with establishments serving minors. A board member responded by asking, in substance, why the community had an underage drinking problem at all then.

A board member who said she has three teenage children put the answer plainly. Parents are the source of most of the alcohol. That exchange happened in a public meeting about liquor licenses, and it is the same finding Daniels got from her stakeholder survey and her teen focus group.

What is the coalition actually changing?

Two school districts took information from the coalition on alternatives to suspension. The idea is to stop punishing a student caught with a vape or alcohol by sending them home, and instead route them toward resources for the underlying addiction. That work continues into year three.

All three districts have run Sources of Strength for seven or eight years, a peer-led program built around connecting students to one trusted adult. About $1,500 of grant money goes to the schools in year three to keep it running.

The coalition got capacity, not just a campaign

Daniels was direct about what the grant bought beyond programming. It gave the coalition standing to name alcohol a priority in its own strategic plan. She noted that funding for youth alcohol work is scarce in northern Wisconsin, and that the grant supplied the organizational footing to pursue it anyway.

What happens when the five years end?

Whether any of it survives past year five is unresolved. The grant expires then. Daniels said the coalition intends to hold the same strategies and build the infrastructure to continue anyway, which is a plan to plan.

The funding nearly vanished in year one. The award was pulled during the project’s first months. Daniels thanked the county board from the podium for continuing to back the work, and said the money came back around April. The coalition has been on solid ground since.

What year three adds

A new partnership with NAMI of the Northwoods will put mental health resources in front of people ages 18 to 21, the part of the target population the schools cannot reach. The billboard south of Park Falls is being replaced with new creative.

The parent-facing piece is called Small Talks, a resource for handling hard conversations about alcohol, vaping, bullying and self-harm. Daniels attended a webinar on it the day before the meeting. If the root cause is what her own survey says it is, that is the only lever the county has that does not require a vote.

Frequently asked questions

Can a parent legally give their teenager alcohol in Wisconsin?

Yes, when the parent is present. Wisconsin Statute 125.07(1)(a)1 prohibits giving alcohol to an underage person except when that person is accompanied by a parent, guardian or spouse who has reached the legal drinking age. The same exception appears in the licensed-premises rules at 125.07(3)(a) and 125.07(4)(a)2.

What is the penalty for hosting a party where minors drink in Wisconsin?

A first offense under the social host provision, 125.07(1)(a)3, carries a forfeiture of up to $500. A second violation within 30 months can bring a $500 fine, up to 30 days in jail, or both. Municipalities may adopt ordinances that strictly conform to the state paragraph.

How much does Price County high school drinking differ from the state average?

Daniels reported the 2025 local figure near 30 percent, against 18.8 percent statewide in the 2025 YRBS. The prior local survey cycle found 33 percent of high school students had drunk in the previous 30 days.

Which counties are in the Partnerships for Success grant with Price County?

Oneida, Portage, Forest and Barron. Marshfield Clinic selected the five counties with the highest underage drinking rates in its service area and asked them to participate. The grant is administered through SAMHSA and is in year three of five.

Is there a pricecounty.fun story on the opioid settlement plan approved at the same meeting?

Yes. The board also approved a $285,050 opioid remediation plan at the Oct. 14 meeting, and that resolution is covered in full separately, including the $92,500 prevention line.

Sources

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