This week has been filled with a great deal of debate occurring on both the House and Senate floors. A few education bills passed through their respective chamber and have been sent to the opposite chamber. Once bills are voted out of one chamber, they must be passed out of a committee in the opposite chamber to remain eligible for debate. This needs to occur prior to the end of March, when the second funnel arrives. Again, bills can be resurrected later in session if they are identified as an appropriation and/or tax bill or if brought forth by legislative leaders.

SF 455, which is the successor of SSB 1124, passed in the Senate unanimously on a 47-0 vote and has been sent to the House. The bill is designed to address inequities in district cost per pupil and transportation costs.  It provides a modification to the determination of regular program state cost per pupil and regular program district cost per pupil and also establishes a new supplementary weighting for school transportation costs. Currently, there is a gap of $175 between districts with the lowest district cost per pupil (which is equal to the state cost per pupil) and those with the highest district cost per pupil. SF 455 proposes a means of closing this gap by adding an amount to the statewide cost per pupil after the annual calculation of supplemental state aid (SSA). The increase will be phased in over 10 years beginning in fiscal year 2018. At full implementation, all school districts in the state would have a district cost per pupil equal to the statewide cost per pupil. 

SF 455 also establishes a supplementary weighting for the purpose of offsetting transportation costs paid from the general fund. It establishes a supplementary weighting plan for school district transportation costs resulting from the transportation of pupils as required under Iowa Code chapter 285. In addition, it establishes a methodology for calculating the amount of supplementary weighting assigned to each school district.

SF 274 - Computer Science – Passed on the Senate floor with amendments on a unanimous vote of 49-0. The bill has now been sent to the House. The bill ensures that all Iowa students have access to high-quality computer science instruction, without a mandate to school districts. This is accomplished by requiring the State Board of Education (State Board) to adopt computer science education standards and rules establishing high-quality standards for computer science education and also requires the Board of Educational Examiners (BoEE) to establish a computer science teacher endorsement. The bill includes the computer science professional development incentive fund. One of the amendments would allow state, federal, or private funds to be deposited into the incentive fund.  The Department of Education (Department) will convene a diverse computer science work group, who will make recommendations in several areas by November 2017.

SF 240 – Statewide Assessment – Passed in the Senate with amendments on a 39-10 vote and has been sent to the House. One of the amendments included the legislation put forth by the Department earlier in the legislative session regarding the science assessment. The amendment requires that students enrolled in grades 5, 8, and 10 be administered the science assessment, which was a recommendation of the Iowa Assessment Task Force. The bill requires the Department to issue a Request for Proposal by April 30, 2017, for the selection of a statewide assessment to be administered in the 2018-2019 school year. The assessment will align with Iowa Core academic standards and measure English language arts, including reading and writing, mathematics, and science. Potential vendors and assessment providers can collaborate to meet the requirements. 

In my 3/7/17 legislative update, I outlined some of the changes included in the amendment to HF 17, Emergency Medical Procedures and Training Requirements for School Coaches. The successor bill is HF 563, which includes all the changes. The bill will most likely be debated on the House floor next week.   

On Thursday, the Department held a press conference to showcase Iowa schools’ reading efforts are making progress and there has been an increase in the number of students on track to be proficient readers by the end of third grade. Please click here for the policy brief  that was shared during the press conference. 

For your convenience, all of my legislative updates have been placed on the Department’s website. They can be found on the Legislative Information webpage under Legislative Updates.

Next week will most likely be similar to this week, with debating on both chamber floors, and bills being passed between the two chambers. There may even be a few bills that are agreed upon by both chambers which will be sent to the Governor to be signed into law.