Branstad says school start date waiver “too lax”

DES MOINES – Some Iowa schoolchildren may be enjoying longer summer vacations next school year.

Gov. Terry Branstad told reporters Monday that the state Department of Education is formulating new rules that likely will alter the practice of automatically granting waivers to school districts that seek to begin fall classes before Sept. 1.

“I believe the present policy has been too lax and has not been fair to the tourism industry in Iowa,” added Branstad, who noted that he recently met with tourism officials who have petitioned the department to place tougher restricts on waiver requests that increasingly are automatically granted.

Iowa law, which Branstad signed in 1983, stipulates that school districts should not start fall classes before Sept. 1, but in the past school year all but eight of Iowa's 348 public schools were granted requests to begin classes in August. Districts must cite a “significant negative educational impact” and hold a public hearing when applying for a state waiver, officials say.

“I believe the Department of Education is intending to move forward with new rules that would change this policy,” the five-term Republican governor told his weekly news conference. He said the proposal would go through the traditional rule-making process with implementation targeted for the 2014-15 school year.

“Frankly, all of the studies and statistics that I've seen show that having an earlier start date has not improved academic achievement,” he added, noting that surrounding states that have much later fall school start dates have outpaced Iowa in student performance measures.

Tourism industry officials have tried unsuccessfully to change the school start date law or convince the state education agency to toughen a waiver process that they say hurts Iowa businesses and attractions when school children return to classes in the middle of August and families curtail travel activities.

During the 2012 legislative session, the Iowa House approved legislation that would have barred school districts from starting fall-semester classes prior to the fourth Monday in August, but the bill stalled in the Senate. Similar past efforts had passed in the Senate but failed to clear the House.

State education officials must respond to a petition brought by tourism industry officials by July 4.

“I think the Department of Ed will be taking action in the near future to start that process,” Branstad said Monday. “This is a rule-making process so they will go through the traditional rule-making process in making this change.”

Joe Royce of the Legislature's Administrative Rules Review Committee said he has not received any notice from the Iowa Department of Education on the school start date issue so the earliest the issue could come before the legislative panel would be at its August meeting.