The debate over what services Iowa’s nine Area Education Agencies should provide and how changes in funding will affect students dominated the discussion during a new state panel convened to study the agencies.
The Area Education Agency Task Force Study Committee held its first meeting at the Capitol on Monday to make recommendations on the services and oversight of Iowa’s nine Area Education Agencies, following a major AEA overhaul championed by Governor Kim Reynolds earlier came into effect this year.
Some school officials indicated they would prefer the state to delay some of the law’s implementation so there is time to understand the ripple effects of a provision that allows school districts to share a portion of special education funds that currently flow to AEAs.
But in a 6-4 vote among the 17 voting members of the task force present Monday, the panel opted to stay the course and not delay implementation of the new cost sharing until July 1, 2026.
The new state law mandated the convening of a task force to review and make recommendations on the services AEAs provide and their overall structure and oversight.
There are a total of 17 members on the task force, including lawmakers, school superintendents, parents and AEA officials. Only the panel’s 11 audience members have a vote on the recommendations made to lawmakers, the Iowa Department of Education and the State Board of Education.
State Rep. Brent Siegrist, a Republican from Council Bluffs and co-chair of the task force, said Monday’s meeting was the beginning of the process to take testimony and gather more information to make recommendations.
“We need a little more time to figure out what the issues are,” Siegrist said.
Task force mixed on support for flexible financing of special education
Under the new law, 100% of the funding currently going to the AEA for special education can be reallocated.
In the 2025-2026 academic year, each school district may retain 10% of special education funds to be used for special education purposes within the school district, with the remaining 90% remaining with the AEA.
Adam Magliari, superintendent of the Mediapolis Community School District, asked what problems AEAs would have without those funds.
Cindy Yelick, chief administrator of the Heartland Area Education Agency, which serves 53 school districts in central Iowa, said the Heartland AEA could lose about $5.2 million if all districts do not spend their flexible funding portions on the AEA.
“Some services probably shouldn’t be run by the AEAs anymore because, quite frankly, they won’t be able to do that,” Siegrist said.
He later told reporters that he had no specific services in mind to put within AEAs. But he said that crisis services, for example, are rarely used but remain a function of the AEAs, or that if a school district does not contract with AEAs for English as a Second Language training, that service must be provided elsewhere.
A 17-state task force studying Iowa’s nine Area Education Agencies will meet at the Iowa Capitol on Monday, December 9, 2024.
Magliari said there was too much flexibility in how school districts could use the 10% of money that previously went to AEAs and he wanted to see more attention paid to where the money is used.
Jane Dufoe, an education policy advisor in the governor’s office, said districts can continue to funnel those dollars to the AEA if they want, but that superintendents “need to use that 10% to best serve their students as they see fit.” deem necessary.”
Robin Maas, a special education teacher on the task force, said it would take time to understand the impact of the funding changes on Iowa school districts.
“We just have to put on the brakes,” said Maas. “Time needs to be taken to really explore what will that look like? What will that impact be?”
Some are concerned about employee recruitment
As the panel examines the future of AEA services, some task force members raised concerns after the legislative review prompted the departure of hundreds of staff.
Yelick said the Heartland Area Education Agency has lost about 80 staff members, with about half from special education positions and 40 from education services and media positions, which she said is consistent with what the rest of the state is seeing.
Recruitment is a struggle because of the “instability of the system,” Yelick said. Employees concerned about sustainability may have looked for other options outside the AEA system.
“There has been a reduction in the special education workforce, which has resulted in an increase in workload for some practitioners,” Yelick said.
The nine AEAs had reported starting the current academic year with 429 fewer staff members than in the 2023-2024 school year due to the new state law.
Several members raised concerns about fairly supporting services in rural areas under the new law. Because the money is split based on student population, Siegrist says smaller districts get less bang for their buck.
“I think there will be some reduction in services for some of our smaller schools just because of the changes we’ve made,” Siegrist told reporters.
What’s next? The panel will meet again in the spring
The panel asked Department of Education staff for more information in the coming weeks before announcing recommendations, including AEA staffing levels and surveying school districts about which services they consider essential to guide a decision on core services.
Task force members also wanted to know how much state and federal money goes to special education, and how that compares to other states.
The panel set a deadline to receive the requested information by February 1 or as soon as possible. The task force will reconvene before March 1, before a key deadline for lawmakers to advance bills during the legislative session, in case lawmakers need to make adjustments.
After the meeting, Yelick told reporters it would be useful to study how Iowa’s AEA overhaul will affect the state.
“During the last legislative session, that was what we asked for, and a lot of voters asked for it,” Yelick said. “It’s 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.”
Marissa Payne covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. Reach her by email at mjpayne@registermedia.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @marissajpayne.
This article originally appeared in the Des Moines Register: How will Iowa’s AEA overhaul impact special education funding?
