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Today marks the end of week 6 of the legislative session. February 16 also marks the first legislative “funnel”, a procedural deadline by which the vast majority of bills need to be voted out of committee within the Chamber it was introduced in order to remain eligible for consideration in current form.
We saw action taken on the Department’s bills this week ahead of the first legislative funnel.
- Senate Study Bill 3041, related to the process for the investigation of complaints against school employees, advanced out of the Senate education committee on February 14.
- SSB3048, related to the Bureau of Iowa College Aid and the reporting requirements for state-funded scholarship programs, advanced out of the Senate education committee on February 14.
- SSB3050, related to the time in which the board of educational examiners can investigate complaints relating to licensed school employees having inappropriate relationships with students, advanced out of the Senate education committee on February 14, with an amendment that incorporates SSB3042 and SSB3043 into SSB3050. Both of the bills incorporated into SSB3050 are Department bills related to BOEE functions.
All of the Department’s proposed bills this session have passed through committee in one or both chambers. Note that House Study Bill 520, related to repurposing any unspent balance in the therapeutic classroom transportation fund to support additional therapeutic classroom incentive fund grants, was assigned to the House appropriations committee. As an appropriations bill, it is exempt from the legislative funnel and remains eligible for consideration by the full committee.
Also of note this week, the House introduced HSB712 related to school funding by establishing the state percent of growth and the categorical state percent of growth for fiscal year 2025 at 3 percent. Last week the Senate education committee moved SSB3122 (reintroduced as Senate File 2258), which is a shell bill into which the Senate will amend the final growth percentage once agreed upon.
The next legislative funnel is in four weeks on March 15, by which time House bills need to be out of a Senate committee, and vice-versa. Therefore, both the House and Senate will begin floor debate to start moving bills between chambers. At this time, committee work will be light next week, with neither the House or Senate education committee scheduled to meet.
Eric St Clair
Legislative Liaison
Iowa Department of Education
Grimes State Office Building
515-326-0274
eric.stclair@iowa.gov
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