AEAs aren’t perfect, but proposed bill would create ‘more chaotic, less equitable’ system, Grant Wood chief says

CORRECTION: Deaf education advocate Bob Vizzini was misidentified in a photo where he signs a story involving area education agencies during a legislative forum Saturday about Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposed AEA reform bill.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Thousands of Iowans have rallied in support of Iowa’s area education agencies in recent weeks, responding to a bill introduced by Gov. Kim Reynolds that would overhaul the agencies.

But while AEAs provide valuable resources and training to educators and families across Iowa, they have room to improve, especially in the way they serve the needs of deaf and hard of hearing children. That was one of the messages shared with 12 legislators and about 100 parents, students and educators at a forum at the Educational Leadership and Support Center in Cedar Rapids on Saturday.

Several of the 30 people who spoke at the forum said deaf and hard of hearing children’s needs are not being met — and sometimes are ignored — by AEAs.

Vania Kassouf, a deaf advocate and virtual instructor in American Sign Language, told legislators deaf children have been “robbed of their childhood for years.”

The Grant Wood Area Education Agency, which serves seven counties in Eastern Iowa, uses limited and outdated expertise in making decisions about deaf children, Kassouf said. Families that request for their children to have a sign language interpreter or teacher who knows sign language have been ignored.

Children who are deaf and hard of hearing are not given communication options, and more deaf education specialists are needed in Iowa schools, said Bob Vizzini, deaf education advocate with the Iowa Association of the Deaf.

There are about 2,500 deaf children in Iowa, Vizzini estimates. About half of these children have Individualized Education Plans, a legal document developed for students who need special education created through a team of parents and educators.

Kassouf said she supports the services AEAs provide for children with special needs, but deaf education should be separate from special education.

Deaf and hard of hearing children “are not in school to learn how to hear,” and “deaf people know what is most important to them to lead their lives,” Kassouf said.

Kassouf said Reynolds’ bill is not the answer, and does not address the education and social emotional needs of deaf children.

John Speer, chief administrator of Grant Wood AEA responded to the deaf advocates who spoke Saturday. “Let’s solve this once and for all,” he said, suggesting putting together a group of educators, families and advocates to give their input on solutions.

Speer said the AEAs are “not a perfect agency.” But if the governor’s bill is enacted in its current version, “what we’ll have is a more chaotic, less equitable and more expensive system,” he said.

“I want to paint a picture for you three years from now,” Speer said. “We’ll look back and most of the players who put this into place will be gone. We’ll say, ‘This is the biggest disaster we’ve ever perpetrated on public education in Iowa.’”

Lawmakers should ask ‘What problem am I trying to solve?’

Natalie Clouse’s now 5-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a development condition at four months old that left her deaf, blind and developmentally delayed, she said.

After the diagnosis, Clouse said Grant Wood AEA staff “began showing up on our doorstep to provide services” through Early ACCESS, Iowa’s early intervention system for infants and toddlers under 3 who are not developing as expected or who have a medical condition that can delay typical development.

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This program is delivered by AEAs and is not mentioned in the governor’s bill, leaving educators and families worried about what the future of the program could look like.

“I had no idea how to communicate with a deaf person. I had no idea how to communicate with a blind person. I had no idea how to assist my daughter to learn to sit or move her legs. (The AEA) showed up with resources and ideas week after week,” Clouse said.

“I have spent the last five and a half years advocating on behalf of my daughter for services, equipment, medicine and doctors appointments. Grant Wood and those services were the one thing I didn’t have to fight for. They just came,” Close said.

Kimberly Malcolm, a school social worker at Grant Wood AEA, said she began working with deaf and hard of hearing students about five years ago. Realizing that she needed more tools, she began taking classes through the Iowa School for the Deaf and learning sign language.

“If I’m going to serve my students, I have to meet them where they are,” Malcolm said.

She wishes lawmakers would ask themselves the same questions when considering a bill that would change the way AEAs function: “What is it that I don’t know? What problem am I trying to solve?

Speer said last week’s subcommittee hearings on the bill gave him hope.

"I feel more hopeful today than I have in any of the last 30 because these legislators stood up to a bill that had no input from teachers, administrators... you had the courage to slow it down,“ Speer said.

AEAs ‘made me a better educator’

Terry Schneekloth, a math teacher at City View Community High School in Cedar Rapids, said he has been receiving professional development from Grant Wood AEA for 30 years.

Currently, Schneekloth is doing a book study with a math consultant at Grant Wood AEA that has “invigorated my teaching.”

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“I got kids talking math in my classroom instead of listening to math,“ Schneekloth said. ”I’m proof that you can teach old dogs new tricks, and the AEA does that. It’s made me a better educator.“

Kathy Goedeken, a teacher librarian at West Willow and Madison elementary schools in Cedar Rapids, said the AEA provides students access to online resources that school districts would not be able to afford on their own.

For students who are learning English as a second language, for example, Goedeken said online tools gives them the option of reading or listening to an assignment in a different language and fully participate.

Jordyn Velitchkov, 13, an eighth-grader at Harding Middle School in Cedar Rapids, spoke about the impact the gifted and talented program — for students with above-average academic or creative abilities — has had on her education.

Velitchkov said AEAs create “future leaders.”

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Area Education Agencies provide services tied to gifted and talented education such as professional learning and guidance on development and implementing programs into schools.

Grant Wood AEA also offers a summer enrichment program for high-ability middle school students called College for Kids.

“When I got my first scholarship in sixth grade, I was called a nerd and overachiever and was told I was growing up too fast,” Velitchkov said. “That year I attended my first College for Kids summer program. When I walked into the auditorium, I saw kids who thought it was cool to overachieve just like me. It changed my outlook on learning and helped me find my voice.”

Bill would create a division of special education in Des Moines

Reynolds’ plan would create a division of special education within the Iowa Department of Education that would take about $20 million that currently goes to AEAs and use it instead to hire 139 staff members who would focus on special education and assume oversight of the AEAs.

The bill would centralize much of the oversight and operations of the AEA under the Department of Education. The department’s director would be in charge of appointing AEA chief administrators, combining or dissolving AEAs, and approving AEAs’ budget proposals.

Sen. Molly Donahue, D-Cedar Rapids, said the Iowa Department of Education is “at best not credible at this point because of who’s running it,” she said.

The Iowa Department of Education “cannot perform the duties they are supposed to perform right now,” Donahue said. “We do not need to be adding to their plate. That would definitely hurt our students. They have no special education background.”

“What is a special education administrator in Des Moines going to do to help our students in schools here in Cedar Rapids or Pella or anywhere else in Iowa?” Donahue said.

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Rep. Art Staed, D-Cedar Rapids, said that while the bill proposes giving more control to the Iowa Department of Education, “it’s really” giving more control to Gov. Kim Reynolds.

What would Reynolds’ AEA bill do?

The most recent version of Gov. Reynolds' proposed bill would give schools the ability to opt out of the AEAs’ special education services and seek them from another party. She said the change is necessary as the test scores of Iowa students with disabilities have lagged and the state spends a comparatively high amount on those students without seeing top-level results.

The bill, Senate Study Bill 3073, passed out of a Senate subcommittee on Wednesday. The Republicans on the panel, though, said the governor's bill was not sufficient and would likely see changes.

House Republicans declined to advance the bill out of subcommittee, saying they wanted further conversation before they take action on the bill. House Speaker Pat Grassley says there needs to be a reset in the conversation about the bill.

Republican Rep. David Young of Van Meter, an assistant Republican leader in the House, expressed skepticism about the bill’s future in the chamber. He said there is “not a lot of appetite” for the reforms called for in the proposal, but said Republicans support the teacher pay increases also included in the bill.

While House Republicans balked at the proposal, GOP senators cautiously advanced it, but pledged it would see more changes as it moves forward.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, during a taping Friday of "Iowa Press" on Iowa PBS, said: "Well, in the Senate, we got it through in the subcommittee and so we are continuing to work on it. I think there's a lot of people in our caucus that are excited to make some reforms. There's some that have a lot of questions. And so, I think it really indicates more of just the normal legislative process where the two sides are going to disagree and we're going to have to work with the Governor and find some solution. But I'm optimistic we can do that."

Tom Barton of The Gazette contributed to this report.

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