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Iowa House Republicans introduce new AEA plan as senators amend governor’s bill [1]
['Robin Opsahl', 'More From Author', '- February']
Date: 2024-02-14
House and Senate lawmakers are taking vastly different approaches to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ controversial proposal to revamp Iowa’s Area Education Agencies.
Iowa’s AEAs currently provide services to Iowans with special needs from birth to age 21. They also offer general education and media support to school districts. Reynolds’ plan to make changes in the system was met with significant backlash in the early weeks of the legislative session.
Her proposal would allow schools to contract with private companies, work with other school districts to hire specialists, or hire a different AEA to meet their student’s special education needs.
An Iowa Senate subcommittee approved the governor’s bill earlier this month, but a House subcommittee did not advance the proposal.
On Wednesday, the day before a legislative committee deadline, House Republicans released their own AEA proposal. House Study Bill 713 would keep special education funding solely with AEAs.
Where Reynolds’ proposal would send all special education funding directly to school districts instead of AEAs, the House bill would send federal special education funding directly to AEAs. State and property tax funding for special education would go to school districts — which would then be required to use AEAs for those services.
House Speaker Pat Grassley said these changes will provide “certainty for special education.”
“We took Iowans’ feedback that we’ve been having in our meetings and realized how important that was,” Grassley said. “And we feel our plan provides that certainty into the future when it comes to special education.”
The bill also sets out a three-year timeline in which school districts could begin to work with private entities for media and general education services beginning in the 2025-2026 school year. AEAs could continue to provide those services to school districts through “fee for service” contracts.
The changes proposed by the bill would not take effect until the 2025-2026 school year. Grassley said that would address some concerns about governor’s proposal, which would begin changes in the upcoming school year.
In a January news conference, Reynolds said she proposed the bill because of problems identified with Iowa’s special education system. The Guidehouse consulting firm released a report on AEAs that found despite higher per-pupil spending on special education than the national average, Iowa special-education students had test scores below the national average.
In subcommittee meetings, several speakers, including some parents and Iowa superintendents, said they supported the governor’s proposal because changes were necessary to address shortfalls in Iowa’s special education services. Speakers supporting the AEAs asked for more time to examine the causes of these problems.
The House proposal would call for convening a task force to study the AEAs and make recommendations to lawmakers ahead of the 2025 legislative session.
The governor’s bill directed the state Department of Education to take on a larger oversight role over AEAs, including supervision by Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow. The plan would create a Division of Special Education within the department that would take on many of the oversight responsibilities currently conducted internally by the AEAs. The division would be staffed by 139 employees in Reynolds’ plan, funded through $20 million moved from AEAs to the state.
The House proposal would still create a Division of Special Education, but with a smaller scope: Grassley said there would be five Department of Education employees assigned to each AEA region charged with AEA oversight and accountability, as well as 13 employees stationed in Des Moines.
“We want to have accountability through people out in the field working with our schools and our AEAs,” Grassley said.
The bill is scheduled for a subcommittee meeting at noon Thursday, and is on the schedule for discussion by the full House Education Committee later the same afternoon. The quick turnaround comes as Iowa lawmakers are required to pass most policy legislation by the end of the week for it to remain up for consideration.
“We know that there’s still work to be done on some of the details of these bills as they work forward,” Grassley said. “But we also know we’re against the clock right now, and we feel we’ve taken a lot of input to get to the point where we’ve addressed a lot of concerns.”
Senate Education Committee amends governor’s proposal
The Senate Education Committee moved forward Wednesday evening with its version of the Reynolds’ bill, Senate Study Bill 3073, including an amendment making substantial changes.
While AEAs would continue to provide special education, general education and media services, the amendment would gradually shift funding to the school districts. For fiscal year 2025, AEAs would receive funds deducted from school districts’ aid by the Department of Management for special education services, as well as 40% of the calculated amount for media services and for educational services.
In the second year of implementation, AEAs would receive 10% of special education funding, as well as the 40% for media and general education services. The remaining 90% of special education funds, alongside the 60% for media and general education services, would go directly to school districts, which could then use that funding to contract with AEAs or provide the services independently.
Sen. Claire Celsi, D-West Des Moines, said the 40-60 split in funding for media and education services between AEAs and school districts would “not seem to cover the costs for either the AEA or the district to provide services.”
Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, said the measure will not impact services available, as “a vast majority of schools” will continue to chose to work with AEAs to provide these services, but will provide school districts insight into the costs of AEA services — which they currently do not know.
The amendment would also keep oversight responsibilities with the Department of Education and Division of Special Education, as in the governor’s original proposal. However, it would require the department to work with AEAs in developing a plan to transfer current AEA employees tasked with oversight to the Department of Education as needed beginning July 1, 2025.
Sen. Molly Donahue, D-Cedar Rapids, said the amendment was “not much of an improvement from the original bill.” Donahue said the AEA provisions only delay the “power grab” by the Department of Education, and will still hurt special education services available to Iowa students.
“We know that this is gonna hurt rural communities the most,” Donahue said. “They don’t have all the services out there available to them. And if a bigger school district opts out — we know that some of those funds helped make sure that they received the equal services, and so without that, this is still going to damage some ability to provide all students the same services.”
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