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A new dashboard focused on work-based learning experiences that offer high school credits is now available. Located on the Iowa Student Outcomes website, the work-based learning dashboard features a comprehensive overview of the high-quality work-based learning activities available in Iowa. Students, families and school districts are encouraged to visit the dashboard to see where opportunities such as internships, Registered Apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships and other career and technical education work-based learning are being offered in their local and neighboring communities. Iowa is one of the first states in the country to offer an extensive dashboard on work-based learning credit programs that enhance classroom learning by connecting it to the workplace. For more information, contact Kristy Volesky
In the past few months, the Iowa Department of Education (Department) has received an increased number of inquiries regarding international teachers asking for sponsorships. The Department can only sponsor teachers who are selected through the Department's exchange visiting teacher program. Currently, the Department has agreements with Spain and Germany.
The Department will not be able to serve as a sponsor when a nonpublic school or a school district hires a teacher outside the program. The Department partners with the Board of Educational Examiners (BOEE) to ensure exchange visiting teachers are eligible to earn a temporary teaching license while they are in the program. The purpose of the Exchange Visitor Program is to promote cultural and educational exchange between citizens of the United States and those of other countries. The program provides foreign nationals with opportunities to participate in exchange programs in the U.S., and then return to their home countries to share their experiences. Feel free to contact Isbelia Arzola (Exchange Visiting Teachers from Spain program), or Stefanie Wager (Exchange Visiting Teachers from Germany program).
If you are considering offering a contract to an international teacher (outside the Department’s program), you may need to ask the applicant about his/her/their employment status to work in the U.S. prior to signing a contract. You may also need to contact BOEE to learn about the process of obtaining a teaching license for international teachers.
As administrators you all know that there is no right way to cancel school – whether it’s a late start, early out, or school closing altogether you will not make everyone happy. But now that school districts and accredited nonpublic schools have the option of choosing a school calendar based on days or based on hours hopefully this will provide you with more flexibility in making these difficult decisions. Now that you have more flexibility it’s time to revisit our previous guidance to school districts and accredited nonpublic schools on SNOW DAYS/HOURS, make-up days/ hours, and releases for athletic tournaments. Remember, that SNOW DAYS/HOURS and makeup days/hours are only necessary to get to the minimum amount of instructional time required under Iowa Code section 256.7(19) which is 180 days of instruction or 1080 hours of instruction. If you have the minimum amount of days or hours you are not required to make up the time. However, making up hours or days even if not needed is sound educational practice.
Question: May E-learning days be used toward the 1080 hours or 180 day minimum due to inclement weather?
Answer: No, this is not counted as instruction under Iowa Code. 281 IAC 12.1 (8) defines a day of school as a day during which the school or school district is in session and students are under the guidance and instruction of the instructional professional staff and an hour of school as an hour in which the school or school district is in session and students are under the guidance and instruction of the instructional professional staff.
Question: May a school district and accredited nonpublic school lengthen the school day to make up for days or hours missed as a result of inclement weather?
Answer: Days Calendar – No. A school days consist of a minimum of 6 hours of instructional time for all grades 1 through 12. Lengthening the day would not add to your days of school.
Hours Calendar - Yes. A school district or an accredited nonpublic school may add hours or minutes of instruction onto the beginning of the day or the end of the day to make-up time.
Question: May a school district or an accredited nonpublic school make up snow days or hours on weekends?
Answer: Yes. Whether or not you are on a days based calendar or an hours based calendar Iowa Code section 279.10 does not designate what days of the week are official "school days".
Question: A school district or an accredited nonpublic school has parent-teacher conferences planned on a Tuesday and Thursday evening yet to come in the school's calendar. Staff and students will also go to the school on Friday of that same week. May the district or school count the hours spent on parent-teacher conference Tuesday and Thursday night as another day of student instruction on Saturday (a fifth consecutive day, Tuesday through Saturday) -- even though staff and students would not attend school on Saturday?
Answer: Days Calendar – Yes. Iowa Code section 256.7(19)(b) provides for this exception as long as the five consecutive days equals 30 hours of student instruction. Remember, parent-teacher conference time counts as student instruction.
Hours Calendar –NA.
Question: May a school district or accredited nonpublic school add parent-teacher conference time that was not in the original school calendar and count that time toward student instructional days or instructional hours.
Answer: No, because those hours were not included in the schools approved calendar.
Question: May local school boards forgive snow make-up days or hours?
Answer: No, if the district/school is below the minimum of 180 days or 1080 hours. Yes, if the district/school is beyond the minimum without counting the days/hours missed. However, making up hours or days even if not needed is sound educational practice.
Question: May a school district or accredited nonpublic school get a waiver from the Department of Education to NOT make up snow days or hours.
Answer: No. The Department has no such authority.
Question: Must a school district or accredited nonpublic school make up days or hours when weather forces it to start late or let out early?
Answer: Days Calendar - No. Iowa Code section 256.7(19) states that a full day of instruction may be recorded if “emergency health or safety factors require the late arrival or early dismissal of students on a specific day.” However, a local school board could decide voluntarily to make up the time that is lost by late starts and early dismissals. Making up these days – especially if a district or school has had more than a couple of them – is sound educational practice.
Hours Calendar - No. Under the hours calendar a district is not required to make up hours as long as they meet the minimum of 1080 hours. However, a local school board could decide voluntarily to make up the time that is lost by late starts and early dismissals. Making up these hours – especially if a district or school has had more than a couple of them – is sound educational practice.
Question: If "early bird" students come to school on what becomes a "snow day" but no other students are bused to the school, may a day or hour of student instruction be counted?
Answer: No. 281 IAC 12.1(10) states that "A day or hour of attendance shall be a day or hour during which students were present and under the guidance and instruction of the instructional professional staff. In addition, all grade levels of the school or school district must be operated and available for attendance by all students.
Question: Does a school district or accredited nonpublic school have to run the buses to count the day as a day of student instruction or an hour as an hour of student instruction?
Answer: Yes. Not only do the buses have to run, but students also need to be "under the guidance and instruction of the instructional professional staff." All grade levels of the school or school district must be operated and available for attendance by all students. This implies that students must be in classes for some period of time prior to early release. See 281 IAC 12.1(10) and Iowa Code section 285.1(8). OAG #93-11-8.
Question: Do seniors have to make up "snow days"?
Answer: This is a local decision. Iowa Code 279.10 states, "the school district or accredited nonpublic school may excuse a graduating senior who has met district or school requirements for graduation from attendance during the extended school calendar." NOTE, however, that rule 281—IAC 12.1(7) requires that there be a board policy to excuse seniors from making up “snow days.”
Question: If a school district or accredited nonpublic school closes due to health reasons (e.g., influenza contagion), does it follow the "snow days" rules?
Answer: Days Calendar - Yes. Full days that are missed must be made up if the district does not have 180 days of instruction. If a school district or accredited nonpublic school has early dismissal or late start due to emergency health issues, the district may count the day as a full instructional day if on a days based calendar. Remember also that if just a classroom or attendance center is closed for emergency health or safety reasons, while the remainder of the district is in operation, the day may be counted as a day of school
Hours Calendar - Yes. Hours that are missed must be made up if the district does not have 1080 hours of instruction. If a school district or accredited nonpublic school has early dismissal or late start due to emergency health issues, the district may count the hours of attendance if on an hours based calendar. Remember also that if just a classroom or attendance center is closed for emergency health or safety reasons, while the remainder of the district is in operation, the hours may be counted as an hour of school.
Question: May a school district or accredited nonpublic school let out school for athletic tournaments and other competitions and still count the day as a day of student instruction or an hour as an hour of student instruction?
Answer: Days Calendar - Yes, but only if the district keeps each building open and available for attendance by all students, and students in all grade levels are "under the guidance and instruction of the instructional professional staff" as described in 281 IAC 12.1(8). The answer is “no” if an attendance center or district is closed.
Hours Calendar - Yes, but only if the district keeps each building open and available for attendance by all students, and students in all grade levels are "under the guidance and instruction of the instructional professional staff" as described in 281 IAC 12.1(8). The answer is “no” if an attendance center or district is closed.
Question: Can the Governor forgive snow days?
Answer: Under Iowa law, the Governor doesn’t have the legal authority to forgive snow days. State law requires schools to hold class for a minimum of 1,080 hours or 180 school days per school year.
Question: Do school districts need to have a public hearing before making changes to the school calendar in order to meet 1080 hours or 180 days in the event of snow days?
Answer: Iowa Code section 279.10 requires that a School District hold a public hearing on any proposed calendar prior to adopting it. As such, a School District should also hold a public hearing on any proposed changes to the school calendar that are necessary to meet the minimum of 1080 hours or 180 days prior to its adoption. The reason for this is that it allows parents an opportunity to comment on the proposed changes. A public hearing should provide notice and an opportunity to be heard. Districts may locally determine how to accomplish this.
Question: Do schools need to make-up preschool hours missed due to snow days?
Answer: This is a local determination. It is always good educational practice to make-up hours or days of instruction that are missed.
A first-year Spanish course has been added to Iowa e-Learning Central, an online exchange for Iowa educators, students and families.
Developed by an Iowa-certified teacher, the Spanish class complements dozens of high-quality, standards-aligned courses available on Iowa e-Learning Central. The courses are free for districts to use and are designed with flexibility in mind. Teachers can choose courses to offer or select units to use in an existing course, either in-person or online.
“With the addition of the class, it is a great time for districts to turn to e-Learning Central’s Course Exchange,” said Stacie Stokes, a consultant at the Iowa Department of Education. “There, schools that are seeking Spanish classes can post it. Conversely, schools that have extra seats can post that, too.”
The exchange enables districts to reach out to one another. It is designed to:
- Expand a district’s curriculum offerings.
- Fill empty seats.
- Enable students to take courses that either aren’t available in their own districts or when a student’s schedule doesn’t permit them to take a particular course.
The exchange helps match up the schools, but how the sharing happens – online, in person or a hybrid – is up to the schools. Participating districts would need to engage in a 28E agreement.
The Spanish course is the first language added to the World Languages portion of Iowa e-Learning Central. Spanish II and Spanish III are currently in development.
The Iowa Department of Education would like to add other languages eventually and is seeking teachers to create content. If interested, contact Tina Wahlert or Christi Donald.
Director Lebo would like to visit schools that are doing something Innovative. She plans to visit sites in January. If you have classes who are doing some great, innovative projects, please notify your School Improvement Consultant by Wednesday, December 14.
K-12 Public School District Desk Audit
K-12 Nonpublic School Desk Audit
The ESSA requires schools to provide timely notice to parents if the student has been taught for 4 or more consecutive weeks by a teacher who does not meet the applicable certification or licensure requirements for the respective grade level and subject area.
Please share the following link to the superintendent notes and sign up to receive the emails each month.
This link takes you to the to the BEDS Crosswalk. This contains course numbers and the teaching assignments.
In the 2021 legislative session, Governor Reynolds signed House File (HF) 847 into law. The new law required the Iowa State Board of Education to create and the Iowa Department of Education (Department) to administer the Flexible Student and School Support (FS3) program, which replaces the Innovative Waiver formerly available in Iowa Code section 256.11 and rule 281—12.9. If the district plans to have students complete a year's worth of PE during one semester the district must have an approved FS3 waiver. The deadline for the waiver is May 30, 2023. This link provides additional information.
In November, the State Board approved full five year accreditation for Keystone, Prairie Lakes, Central Rivers, Northwest, Green Hills, Heartland, Grant Wood and Great Prairie AEAs. For a copy of the report check out this link. Mississippi Bend will be up for an accreditation visit during the 2023-2024 school year..
The Scanlan Center for School Mental Health (SCSMH) in the College of Education at the University of Iowa works with schools, districts, AEAs, universities/colleges, and key stakeholders across all 99 counties in our great state to support the well-being of preschool – grade 12 students and educators. The SCSMH Clinic, which is now open for referrals from schools, offers post-crisis debriefing and support, as well as short-term individual and group counseling to students, educators, and staff.
Educators and school staff can self-refer for our clinical services by emailing scsmh-clinic@uiowa.edu . School administrators, school mental health professionals, and AEA staff can refer students by emailing scsmh-clinic@uiowa.edu.
See the SCSMH Clinical Services website for more information. For questions, email the Director of Clinical Services, Alissa Doobay,
Release of the district levels of support for differentiated accountability of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA-DA) originally scheduled for November 15, 2022, is unavoidably delayed. District support levels will now be released through CASA on November 29, 2022. The statewide webinar originally scheduled for November 18, 2022, will now be held on December 2, 2022, from 12:00 - 1:00 pm CT. The link to the live Zoom session can be found here. If you have any questions, please contact Barbara Guy
The annual upload for the Secondary Career and Technical Reporting Application (SCTERA) courses in a program begins January 2, 2023 and is to be completed by January 31, 2023 (SCTERA work must be completed before a district can certify their SRI file). A state initiative in Iowa’s Perkins V state plan is the reporting of student participation in work-based learning courses. Please refer to the following resources for how to report your work-based learning courses:
Reporting District Work-Based Learning
The first step is uploading a complete and finished 2022-2023 Student Reporting in Iowa (SRI) file, then following the SCTERA Reporting guidance handbook found here.
Note: SRI cannot be certified until SCTERA is completed. The Bureau of Career and Technical Education will be holding two virtual ZOOM training webinars to walk through the steps on how to complete the report. These training webinars will be held Wednesday, December 14, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. and Wednesday, January 4, 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Click here to register for this webinar.
Drop-in office hours are scheduled for assistance and Q & A. Please contact Matt Eddy or 515-720-8863 with any questions.
January 5, 7:30 a.m. – 8:20 a.m.
January 12, 3:00 p.m. – 3:50 p.m.
January 19, 7:30 a.m. – 8:20 a.m.
January 26, 3:00 p.m. – 3:50 p.m.
For questions about the webinar or SCTERA, contact Dr. Jeffrey Fletcher or 515-321-7309
The new, upgraded IowaGrants.gov platform will officially go live Monday, December 12. To begin the transition to the new platform, IowaGrants will be down from Friday, December 2 at 5:00 p.m. through Monday, December 12 at 8:00 a.m. Users will have no access to either system (old or new) during this time. Please ensure your organization plans accordingly for IowaGrants being unavailable by completing the following steps: Perform any required tasks before the onset of the upgrade. This could include submitting claims or other contract-related activity. Save all login activity and log out by Friday, December 2, 4:59 p.m. Do not attempt to log back into the system until the upgrade has been completed after December 12, 8:00 a.m. Though little impact is anticipated on your organization once the new platform is live, the upgrade will substantially change the appearance of IowaGrants. Notable improvements will include:
- A modern, fresh new look to the platform that powers IowaGrants
- Removal and replacement of the current main menu with content that is dynamic and continuously available to users via a side menu appended to the left side of the screen
- A new dashboard page that will be displayed after login where all workflow requiring your attention will be loaded and accessible
- All content being hyperlinked within each workflow
- The ability to sort all assigned workflows in an ascending or descending format upon any single desired field column header
- Enhanced search navigation options
Click here for a brief preview of the system highlighting some of the new key features. Note: If the video is fuzzy, click the gear icon on the lower right side of the video screens and click Quality to update the video resolution. More information on this transition will be forthcoming.
For more information, contact Dr. Jeffrey Fletcher, Education Program Consultant or (515) 321-7309 or Dr. Amy Stegeman, Education Program Consultant or (515) 868-1675.
As your school district looks to strengthen your work-based learning experiences for students, the Department has a variety of resources and staff support available to enhance district planning and implementation. District level and work-based learning coordinator assistance is available on:
- Building quality work-based learning experiences for students to meet district needs.
- The menu of options available for districts to meet Perkins V work-based learning goals.
- Developing quality work-based learning experiences within CTE programming to meet the expectations outlined in HF2392.
- Opportunities to overcome local barriers for equitable student access to work-based learning experiences for all students.
- How to name and code your work-based learning courses for automated data reporting and recognition.
Steps to identify work-based learning experiences to include in your District Career and Academic Plan.
- For more information, contact Kristy Volesky, Work-Based Learning Consultant or 515-971-0669.
As the districts are entering BEDS reports, district administrators might find these reminders helpful.
Iowa code 294.1 requires that individuals hired as a teacher of record hold a valid license.
Department staff had received questions regarding how the paraeducators in general or TPRA program may be listed in the BEDs report. Paraeducators, with or without certification, are only allowed to serve under the supervision of a licensed teacher. Therefore, they can only be listed as a paraeducator, but they can not be the instructor of the record.
It is the policy of the Iowa Department of Education not to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, sex, disability, religion, age, political party affiliation, or actual or potential parental, family or marital status in its programs, activities, or employment practices as required by the Iowa Code sections 216.9 and 256.10(2), Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. § 2000d2000e), the Equal Pay Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. § 206, et seq.), Title IX (Educational Amendments, 20 U.S.C.§§ 1681 – 1688), Section 504 (Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. § 12101, et seq.). If you have questions or complaints related to compliance with this policy by the Iowa Department of Education, please contact the legal counsel for the Iowa Department of Education, Grimes State Office Building, 400 E. 14th Street, Des Moines, IA 50319-0146, telephone number: 515-281-5295, or the Director of the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education, John C. Kluczynski Federal Building, 230 S. Dearborn Street, 37th Floor, Chicago, IL 60604-7204, telephone number: 312-730-1560, FAX number: 312-730-1576, TDD number: 800-877-8339, email: OCR.Chicago@ed.gov
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