Iowa Gov. Reynolds loosens area education agency proposal to allow more services

One week after proposing a major overhaul of Iowa's area education agencies that assist students with disabilities, Gov. Kim Reynolds has proposed loosening a main restriction in her bill that’s caused heartburn for some lawmakers, parents and teachers.

Iowa's nine area education agencies would continue providing general education and media services, if requested by school districts and approved by the Iowa Department of Education, under the proposed change. It will also allow schools to retain their share of AEA funding for general education services.

“AEAs play an important role in our state and that will continue. But their role should be entirely focused on students — not maintaining a system,” Reynolds posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

Reynolds in her Condition of the State address last week outlined a proposal to reform Iowa’s area education agencies that provide expertise to educators and families. Under her proposal, AEAs would be prohibited from offering services beyond special education for students — and school districts could drop their current agency and look elsewhere for the services instead.

Under her proposed bill, filed Jan. 10 as House Study Bill 542 and Senate Study Bill 3073, school districts would be given the option to keep funding they’d otherwise funnel to their AEA and allocate it for special education services as they choose: at an AEA or at a private company.

AEAs would focus solely on students with disabilities, her proposal said, and independent oversight would move to the state Department of Education — not the district-appointed boards overseeing the nine AEAs now.

AEAs would no longer provide other education services, media services and professional development. Her bill, as currently written, would eliminate property taxes that are collected to support AEA functions that are not related to special education. The governor's staff has projected that would be an impact of $68 million in fiscal 2025.

Reynolds Jan. 19 Open Letter to Iowans by The Gazette on Scribd

The state would launch a media services grant program through the Department of Education to support schools, and would shift $2.1 million in professional development funding and $3.38 million in mental health funding to the Department of Education to support local school districts.

The Republican governor said the changes are needed because the state’s nine area education agencies have grown beyond their core mission of serving students with disabilities, and some have become bloated and ineffective since they were created in the 1970s — but still leave districts without choice but to pay for them anyway.

But after meeting with parents, teachers and lawmakers, Reynolds on Thursday proposed an amended version that would allow the AEAs to continue providing general education services and media services. The agencies would continue to provide all special education services they do now, including Child Find and Early ACCESS for children from birth to 3 years of age.

“Student success is my central focus, and the goal of my bill is to ensure Iowa’s students with disabilities receive the world class education they deserve,” Reynolds said in a statement. “ … Schools and parents know their students best, and this bill ensures they are in the driver’s seat in deciding how best to support their students. This model will give schools control over their money and create more transparency in the system, while also ensuring AEAs can provide the education support some schools rely on.”

Parents, teachers and AEA staff and administrators have warned changing the structure of the agencies so quickly would upend services provided to school districts and lead to disastrous outcomes.

They note under the governor’s proposal as written, AEAs would no longer be able to provide experts to schools as they make curriculum decisions, support in implementing new curriculum, mental health support, services for students learning English as a second language and technology and cybersecurity services, among other support.

“We appreciate the willingness of the Governor and legislators to listen to stakeholders served by the AEAs, as well as our staff, on this important piece of legislation,” said a statement Thursday from the Grant Wood Area Education Agency, which serves a seven-county region including Linn and Johnson counties. “We are humbled by the outpouring of support and recognize that at the heart of the matter are critically important services that students, families and educators rely on every day.

“While today’s news signals that policymakers are listening, we have a responsibility to those we serve to press forward in advocating for a statewide support structure that retains the services that children, educators and families deserve,” the statement continued. “We aren’t there yet. We maintain that the current framework by which we deliver services is still the most economical and effective for Iowa, ensuring economy of scale and local control.”

Democrats want details

House and Senate Democrats maintained their opposition to the plan Thursday and cast doubt on Reynolds' changes until they can see the actual text of the proposed amendment, which was still being drafted.

House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, accused Reynolds of having “gotten caught out a little over her skis, and is perhaps seeing what happens when you don't involve anyone in the conversation before you draft a major piece of legislation.”

Konfrst also slammed the governor for not including Democrats in her conversations.

“That's not how you govern,” Konfrst told reporters Thursday. “You work with partners involved. You listen to stakeholders, and you continue the process.”

Konfrst added: “A scalpel approach would have been nice and this is a sledgehammer. This completely dismantles the system. It takes a very broad swipe at the AEAs without a lot of consideration for the services that are provided.”

And Iowans are making that clear to the governor and lawmakers, she said.

Senate Minority Leader Pam Jochum, D-Dubuque, whose late daughter received special education services through the AEAs, said the proposal could disproportionately affect rural areas and lead to higher costs for districts to provide those services themselves.

Mom ‘grateful’ for AEA help

Konfrst and Jochum were joined by Kate Fairfax, a speech-language pathologist and a mother of twins in kindergarten who receive AEA services in the Des Moines area.

Her daughters were born 10 weeks premature and spent a lot of time in the neonatal intensive care unit. The AEA came to their home and worked with the family to make sure the twins were developing appropriately.

One daughter developed brain bleeds, has cerebral palsy and is also deaf.

“And we are just so, so grateful for the AEA and everything they've done for us with Audrey at school,” she said. Through the AEA, her daughter has access to physical and occupational therapists, speech pathology, a teacher of the deaf and an audiologist.

“It was so hard sending her to school … but knowing that the AEA was there supporting her and that we got to work with them as a team with the school district to really train all of her teachers and paraeducators to make sure they knew how to communicate with Audrey best and how to help her succeed in class” has been invaluable, she said.

AEA staff work with her daughter’s teachers and school staff on how to safely transfer her daughter between all of her different equipment. She said her daughter uses two wheelchairs, a walker or a gait trainer.

‘This is about accountability’

House Speaker Pat Grassley, R-New Hartford, said House and Senate Republican have been working with the governor to address concerns they’re hearing from Iowans. And “this is the way the process is supposed to work,” he said.

“We’re trying to find a solution in which we can still achieve better results for our special education students and give more accountability for our school districts when it comes to that money,” Grassley said speaking with reporters Thursday.

“Every school district is going to be different in their needs,” he said. “ … This has not been about eliminating special ed services. This is about accountability.”

“And I think the path we’re going down now does an even better job of that and giving more control to school districts to still be able to access those services, especially in those rural districts,” Grassley said.

Erin Murphy of The Gazette’s Des Moines Bureau contributed to this report.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com