Bill would set guidelines for disciplining disruptive students

DES MOINES — Iowa lawmakers gave final approval Monday to a bill setting guidelines for disciplining disruptive and violent students in public K-12 schools.

House File 604, which passed the house unanimously, requires and sets up a process for educators and school districts to report threats and incidents of classroom violence and damage to school property to the State Ombudsman for investigation.

The bill requires a teacher to report any threat or assault by a student to a principal or administrator within 24 hours. It also requires the parents or guardians of students involved in the incident to be notified within 24 hours.

The Ombudsman is required to maintain secrecy of the identities of the complainants.

School boards and charter schools would be required to adopt policies for different grade level for how the district will discipline disruptive and violent student. Such policies must provide escalating levels of discipline each time the student makes a threat or becomes violent, and allow for the suspension, expulsion, permanent removal from a particular class or placement of a student in an alternative learning environment, including a therapeutic classroom, when appropriate.

Policies must also provide students access to counseling session or mental health care services, when appropriate, which would require prior written consent from the student’s parent or guardian.

School districts and charter schools would be required to publish and distribute a student handbook each school year that includes information related to the expectations of students in each grade level, including information related to academics, attendance, discipline, health and safety, and daily schedules.

The bill, which will be sent to Gov. Kim Reynolds to await her signature, also requires the Iowa Department of Education to develop and distribute a list of all professional development programs and other training programs in which school district employees are required to participate pursuant to federal or state law.

Gazette-Lee Des Moines Bureau