Task force: Too soon to recommend changes for Iowa’s new Area Education Agency law

DES MOINES — After a five-hour meeting Monday, a task force created to make recommendations about Iowa’s Area Education Agency system decided to wait until February to give members time to gather more information and receive more feedback on the impact of a new state law that overhauled funding and operations for the agencies.

The task force, which was created with the new state law, includes 11 public members — stakeholders in the system including AEA and school leaders and state government officials — and six, non-voting legislative members.

Iowa’s nine Area Education Agencies provide special education services, support and training to the state’s K-12 school districts. Statehouse Republicans and Gov. Kim Reynolds earlier this year approved legislation that shifted some funding from the AEAs to school districts and moved oversight of special education from the AEAs to the state Department of Education.

The task force Monday discussed a plethora of education issues, including funding, special education services, costs and more.

The members include teachers, parents of children who receive special education services, superintendents from large and small school districts, AEA leaders and officials from the governor’s staff and state education department.

At the end of the lengthy discussion, the task force members voted to gather more data — about the current state of the AEA system and the impact the new law is having, and about special education — and meet again sometime in February. That timeline, members said, ensures they will be able to make any recommendations in a timely manner during the upcoming 2025 session of the Iowa Legislature.

Members decided against making any more formal recommendations during Monday’s meeting as a majority felt they needed more time to understand the impact of the new state law.

“The most important thing is you give it another couple months to see how this all plays out,” said Rep. Brent Siegrist, a Republican from Council Bluffs and one of two co-chairs of the task force. “I think you saw that people want to make some changes here. We’ve (already) made some significant changes, but we want to make sure they work out best for all the students.

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“So I think us convening after we get more information, particularly for the public members, is essential. And then we may see some new recommendations come March.”

A new AEA law was debated exhaustively and passionately and dominated much of the 2024 legislative session. The idea was proposed by Reynolds, who sought a much more substantial overhaul. But upon signing the bill into law, said the compromise would improve special education for students with disabilities and called the changes “meaningful and necessary reform.”

Opponents and critics of the proposal argued the previous AEA system worked and needed only minor tweaks rather than an overhaul, and that the new law would create uncertainty that harms AEAs and the services they provide.

During Monday’s meeting, a proposal to recommend legislators delay one of the new law’s core provisions — a shift in special education funding — did not pass a vote of the 11 public members.

Starting with the 2025-26 budget year that begins July 1, 2025, 10 percent of special education funding will go directly to Iowa school districts instead of to the AEAs.

Adam Magliari, superintendent of the Mediapolis School District and a task force member, suggested the task force should encourage lawmakers to delay that shift by a year out of concern for the impact it could have on the delivery of special education services to students. The motion failed to get a majority of votes.

“I don’t understand moving at the speed of light with something that directly impacts kids,” Magliari said. “We’ve got to make sure the foundational level of special education services still remains intact.”

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Cindy Yelick, chief administrator of the Heartland Area AEA in Des Moines and a task force member, said she was pleased the task force met and discussed a wide variety of issues — but she also expressed disappointment that the task force took the deliberative approach that she and others had asked policymakers to take while the legislation was being debated during the 2024 session.

“All throughout the last legislative session, that was the thing we were asking for, and a lot of constituents were asking for. It is a very complicated issue and let’s have the amount of time to study and (the) level of data that we need to do that,” Yelick told reporters after the meeting. “The conundrum is, now the task force has made that recommendation. But obviously the legislation has been passed and is enacted. So really, what impact is more study going to have at this point?”

The 2025 session of the Iowa Legislature begins Jan. 13.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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