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The Therapeutic Classroom Incentive Grant application for the 2024-2025 school year will open early this spring. The application is being made available prior to the appropriation determination in order to allow more time for LEAs to prepare and submit grant proposals. An estimated cost per pupil will be used in the calculations for the grant application funds worksheet. Grant awards are contingent upon the funds being appropriated and final awards will use actual 2024 cost per pupil calculations. The Therapeutic Classroom Incentive Grant provides competitive grants to public school districts to establish therapeutic classrooms for learners ages 3 to 21 whose emotional, social, or behavioral needs interfere with their ability to be successful in their current educational environment (Iowa Code 256.25). Districts applying for the grant may seek funds to establish new classrooms and/or install critical components into current classroom/programs that they are developing into therapeutic classrooms. Visit the Department’s Therapeutic Classrooms web page for more information.
You can help find Iowa’s next Teacher of the Year! The nominating period for the 2025 Iowa Teacher of Year is now open through April 1.
Submit a nomination form to honor the outstanding teacher in your district. Colleagues, administrators, students, parents and community partners, among others, can complete the nomination form to enter the name of a deserving teacher who is making an impact in an Iowa school.
For this year’s Teacher of the Year selection process, each nomination will be reviewed by a team and nine semi-finalists representing teachers from all regions of the state will be selected as Regional Teachers of the Year. Each of the nine Regional Teachers of the Year will interview in-person with educational leaders for the honor of being selected as Iowa's 2025 Teacher of the Year.
For more information on the Teacher of the Year program, visit the Department’s website or contact administrative consultant Gwen Nagel at gwen.nagel@iowa.gov.
If you have a high school student who would be an ideal student representative to serve on the Iowa State Board of Education, please encourage them to submit an application. The term of the student member starts May 1, 2024, and ends April 30, 2025. The State Board meets at least seven times during that term, with most meetings taking place in the Grimes State Office Building in Des Moines. The application link is here: https://educate.iowa.gov/board-education#student-membership
Applications are due March 22.
As schools enter the peak hiring season, please remember that Business Engagement Consultants (BECs) are located statewide to assist employers with posting jobs, arranging individualized training, and utilizing the Iowa WORKS system. The BECs have contacted all schools in the state and have a wide variety of resources available to support efforts to post open positions. Employers can get direct, one-on-one support from BECs by calling 1-833-469-2967 or emailing iaworks@iwdiowa.gov.
On February 20, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released four new resources with information for students, parents and families, and schools concerning the legal rights of students with disabilities, as well as a data snapshot about education access for students with disabilities drawn from OCR’s 2020-21 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC).
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a federal civil rights law that protects students from disability-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding, which includes almost all public schools and public and private institutions of higher education. Under Section 504, a student with asthma, diabetes, food allergies, and/or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) can be a student with a disability for purposes of Section 504 if the student’s medical condition substantially limits one or more of the student’s major life activities (34 C.F.R. § 104.3(j)(1)(i)). The new resources help students, families and schools understand when and how students with asthma, diabetes, food allergies, and GERD are protected by federal disability rights laws.
The press release, including links to each of the resources mentioned above and CRDC data snapshot. can be found here. Questions may be directed to SueAnn Johnson, Administrative Consultant, Equity Compliance at sueann.johnson@iowa.gov or Eric Heitz, Administrative Consultant at eric.heitz@iowa.gov.
Please help spread the word. The 2024 statewide Iowa Classrooms+Workplaces Summit will be held on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, at the Iowa Events Center, Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center, in Des Moines. Registration is required. To register and for more information, go to: https://iowastem.org/2024Summit. The deadline for registration is April 3. The Summit is open to the public and admission is free of charge thanks to generous sponsors. The day of the event check in starts at 8:30 a.m. with the event running from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Presented by the Iowa Governor’s STEM Advisory Council at the Iowa Department of Education, the Summit brings together Iowans from business and industry, education, nonprofits, trade organizations, professional societies, governmental agencies, elected officials, students and others to amplify the public conversation and set the stage for inspiring networks, making connections and accessing what is possible to establish learning environments that link classroom learning to real-world career opportunities.
Registration is now open for March 2024 courses through the Iowa College and Career Readiness Academy. These Iowa-specific online courses are designed for school counselors, teachers, administrators and other college access professionals. The March session begins on the 11th and runs through May 5. Click here to find the course schedule and registration links.
To register, individuals will need to log into the AEA Iowa Professional Learning website using their current AEA Learning System user name and password. Individuals can register as participants at no cost, or they can select an option to earn license renewal or graduate credit.
Our partners at Iowa Health and Human Services have modified the COVID-19 isolation recommendations on the Childhood Illnesses and Exclusion Criteria for Education and Child Care Settings document that is linked on the Department of Education’s Student Health Condition page. The decision was made to move to a symptom-based approach to isolation that is consistent with other viral respiratory infection recommendations. This change provides a unified exclusion criterion based on individuals with respiratory symptoms, irrespective of the underlying virus. The recommendation for those with respiratory symptoms is to be excluded until fever-free for 24 hours without the use of a fever reducing medication AND respiratory symptoms are mild and improving. The Child Illnesses And Exclusion Criteria for Education and Child Care Settings document has been modified to incorporate the new exclusion recommendations.
Are you aware new school food service directors are required to meet minimum education and work experience standards set by the USDA? If your school district will be hiring a food service director, review the Professional Standards requirements for hiring and annual training. Find a sample job description template for directors that may be a helpful resource.
In addition to hiring standards, annual training is required for school food service directors and staff. Participating in continuing education can build a strong school nutrition workforce to help ensure that school meals are planned, prepared and served to meet USDA regulations, are great-tasting, nutritious and safe every day of the school year.
If you have additional questions, contact your assigned regional school nutrition consultant.
A Final Rule was recently released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), reducing the minimum Identified Student Percentage (ISP) to participate in Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) from 40% to 25%. The State agency intends to implement this change for school year 2024-25. CEP is a USDA National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP) meal service option that allows schools an alternative way of claiming meal reimbursement. CEP allows schools and school districts located in high poverty areas to offer breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students, eliminating paperwork for households and easing administrative burden for schools. However, under CEP, not all meals are automatically claimed at the free federal reimbursement rate. Depending on a school’s student population, there may be considerable ongoing cost for eligible schools to implement CEP and electing to participate may not be a financially viable option.
A CEP school’s Claiming Percentage is based on their Identified Student Percentage (ISP). The ISP is the percentage of students certified for free meals without the use of household applications (for example, through direct certification), compared to total enrollment. The Claiming Percentage is calculated by taking the individual school’s ISP times a factor of 1.6 and this provides the percentage of reimbursable meals served that the school will claim as free (up to 100%). The remaining percentage of reimbursable meals served will be claimed as paid and no meals will be claimed as reduced price. Data from April 1 will be used to calculate the ISP. Eligible Iowa schools interested in operating CEP during school year 2024-25 must notify the State agency no later than June 30. Additional information will be shared with schools in the next several weeks. For additional information on CEP, visit the USDA CEP Resource Center for the Estimator Tool and other resources or contact your regional school nutrition consultant.
Visit and subscribe to the Annual Notices and Deadlines Calendar for a list of state and federal notices and deadlines for all public and nonpublic schools.
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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