Iowa Department of Education issues guidance on school start dates

Aligning school calendars with athletics and college schedules is not sufficient reason to start school before the week of Sept. 1, according to new state guidance issued Wednesday from the Iowa Department of Education.

That ruling comes after a state decision last month to more rigorously enforce a 1983 state law governing school start dates.

The law requires that schools start no earlier than the week of Sept. 1 unless starting at that time would have a 'significant negative educational impact.” The state traditionally has granted automatic waivers to that rule, however, and many Iowa school districts begin classes in mid-August.

The Department of Education on Wednesday clarified what a 'significant negative educational impact” means.

The possibilities that school calendars would be out of sync with sports schedules and college start dates, according to the guidance, are not valid reasons. Other non-academic arguments also would not count, the state said, noting that districts have the flexibility to base their calendars on a required number of instructional hours, rather than instructional days.

Instead, school districts must show using 'valid and reliable measures of local academic achievement and/or learning environment” that starting school in late August or early September has a negative impact on students.

Test scores could be one such measure, said Department of Education spokeswoman Staci Hupp, but the state would not know for sure until it began to process districts' waiver requests.

'It's just that individual circumstances are going to be really the defining point for us,” Hupp said.

Sarah Pinion, superintendent of the Marion Independent School District, said her district had not planned to apply for a waiver, believing it would be difficult to get one approved. Wednesday's communication from the state only confirmed that, Pinion said.

'Every reason that people have been saying is a reason they need the waiver has been discounted,” she said. 'I think it's going to be very difficult for a school district to be able to prove that they need to have a waiver, and to have that waiver approved.”

Other districts, however, are proceeding with waiver requests and keeping backup plans in mind if those requests are not granted.

In the Cedar Rapids Community School District, Deputy Superintendent Mary Ellen Maske said administrators were constructing an argument that low-income students - who make up about half the district's enrollment - would be negatively affected by sports schedules being out of sync with the school calendar. Sports schedules often start in August, though the state guidance indicated that could change.

Many students who live in poverty could not participate in sports before the start of school, Maske said, because they do not have transportation to and from practice. That can affect those students' academic performance, Maske said, because they would not feel as connected to their school.

The Cedar Rapids school board already approved a 2015-16 school calendar that would have classes start on Aug. 17, Maske said. School would start on Aug. 31 if the district does not receive a waiver.

Matt Townsley, the Solon Community School District's director of instruction and technology, said his district also planned to apply for a waiver.

Districts must submit waiver applications for the 2015-16 school year by March 15. The state will respond by April 15.