Iowa Area Education Agencies face ‘comprehensive review’

Changes may be coming to Iowa’s Area Education Agencies that provide expertise to educators and families as Gov. Kim Reynolds and legislative leaders say changes must be made to improve the educational outcomes of students with disabilities.

“National and state data shows Iowa’s students with disabilities have significant proficiency gaps. While the AEAs will continue to serve students with disabilities, changes are necessary to improve student outcomes,” Reynolds said in a statement. “A comprehensive review of AEAs will help identify solutions. Parents can be assured that their children will continue to receive the services they need.”

In an earlier statement to the Northwest Iowa Review, which the governor’s office provided to The Gazette, Reynolds said AEAs have “significantly expanded their scope of services beyond the core mission” and said data shows “significant performance gaps” among students with disabilities despite the Iowa agencies’ spending more per pupil than the national average.

Iowa educators, however, worry about what this means for the future of the agencies after decades of diminished funding from the state. Today, there are nine AEAs across the state and services from them are available from birth to age 21.

John Speer, chief administrator of Grant Wood AEA, there’s been a “steady drumbeat” of Iowa lawmakers interested in education so “it doesn’t surprise use the AEA system would be a part of that discussion.” If changes are to be made to the agencies, Speer said, he hopes they are “not made quickly without due diligence.“

Grant Wood AEA serves 74,000 students in public and accredited non-public schools in seven counties in Eastern Iowa, including Linn and Johnson, and employs about 500 staff. This includes speech pathologists and occupational therapists.

About 70 percent of funding for Iowa’s AEAs goes to support special education services, but the agencies also were created to meet schools’ needs in media and technology and educational services including math, science and literacy, Speer said.

By law, AEAs can spend no more than 5 percent of their budget on administrative costs, Speer said. “Every AEA in Iowa is below that threshold,” he said.

Cindy Yelick, chief administrator of Heartland AEA, which serves more than 80 public and accredited non-public schools in Central Iowa, said if decisions are being made about the future of AEAs, she hopes there are people at the table who “deeply understand our services and are consumers of our services” like public school administrators and parents.

Further decreasing the agencies’ budgets would be “educational malpractice” and an “enormous disservice to school districts across the state,” said Greg Batenhorst, superintendent of the Mount Vernon Community School District.

Some of the AEA staff who work with Mount Vernon teachers and families “feel like our own,” Batenhorst said. “I consider them full members of our team.”

State Sen. Ken Rozenboom, a Republican from Pella and chair of the Senate Education Committee, said he has not seen specifics from the governor’s office. Rozenboom, though, said he agrees with governor’s statement that AEAs have expanded their scope of services and have become too top heavy.

“The function of AEAs was and is primarily helping with special needs children in schools, and the governor has a strong passion” for supporting special education services, Rozenboom said.

Recent Iowa test results show proficiency gaps for students with disabilities compared with overall student results. Those with disabilities scored between 33 to 50 percentage points lower on the statewide math tests than the overall student population.

Rozenboom said academic proficiency scores in math and reading for Iowa students with disabilities have declined over the last 20 years, and that Iowa students with disabilities also perform below the national average and surrounding states.

“My perception is that AEAs are administratively heavy and performance light,” he said. “We need to refocus and direct our efforts to providing education needs for the education of special needs children, which is extremely important.”

Rozenboom said concerns about possibly closing or cutting AEAs are “speculative” and “not accurate.”

House Education Committee Chair Skyler Wheeler, R-Hull, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Carter Nordman, R-Panora, said in a joint statement they’re “supportive of a comprehensive review of our AEA’s to ensure that Iowa students with disabilities are receiving the quality education they deserve.”

The pair said “special education students deserve the very best,” and look forward to learning more about the governor’s proposal.

State Rep. Brent Siegrist, R-Council Bluffs, who served as executive director of the Iowa Area Education Agencies, said AEAs “aren’t afraid of having people look at them and what they do.”

“Certainly, there’s room for improvement in any organization,” he said. “The AEAs serve a very vital function, particularly for the vast majority of our rural schools. It has to be looked at very careful, because it could have a big impact on rural Iowa and the services provided.”

Siegrist noted Iowa’s AEAs have consolidated over time — merging from 15 to nine — and have sustained budget cuts that leaders said are eroding services. Iowa’s nine agencies saw a nearly $30 million decrease for the fiscal year from legislature cuts.

Lawmakers passed Senate File 578, which included a $7.5 million annual cut required by law as well as an additional $22 million reduction agreed on by Republican lawmakers. That is $5 million more than what lawmakers cut to the agencies last year, according to a fiscal analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency.

Rozenboom disputed the notion that Iowa’s AEAs are underfunded. “We’ve reduced the statutory budget and no one has ever complained about that, because everyone knew it was administratively heavy,” he said.

The Grant Wood AEA offers an example of the services to schools and parents the agencies provide. The Grant Wood services include:

Grant Wood AEA also facilitates grant-funded programs like the Child Alliance Response Team, which provides coaching and consultation of behavioral intervention strategies to child care providers to support children ages 5 and younger. The program was funded by Early Childhood Iowa, a statewide initiative.

Jessica Bartelt, a special-education teacher at Washington Elementary School in the Mount Vernon Community School District, said she teaches students with a “wide range of disabilities and needs.”

“It’s impossible for us to be experts in everything,” said Bartelt, who has taught special education for 23 years. She said it would be “scary” to do what she does without the support of Grant Wood AEA staff.

Bartelt also has worked with agency staff as a mother. When her son was born prematurely 11 years ago, an audiologist from Grant Wood AEA supported the family. Today, her son’s hearing is just fine. “He never stops talking,” she said with a laugh.

Cedar Rapids schools Superintendent Tawana Grover said Grant Wood AEA was a critical partner in their search for a new special education director earlier this year.

“It’s very valuable when you have an organization ready to be adaptable to the needs of a school district,” Grover said.

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