Debate over the services Iowa’s nine Area Education Agencies should provide and how funding changes will affect students dominated the discussion at a new state panel convened to study the agencies.
The Area Education Agency Task Force Study Committee held its first meeting Monday at the Capitol to make recommendations about the services and oversight of Iowa’s nine Area Education Agencies after a major AEA overhaul Gov. Kim Reynolds championed took effect earlier this year.
Some school officials indicated they would favor the state slowing part of its implementation of the law to allow time to understand the ripple effects of a provision allowing school districts to keep a portion of special education funds that currently flow to AEAs.
But in a 6-4 vote of the 17-member task force’s 10 voting members present Monday, the panel opted to stay the course and not to delay implementation of the new cost split until July 1, 2026.
The new state law mandated a task force be convened to review and make recommendations on the services AEAs provide and their general structure and oversight.
There are 17 members total on the task force, including lawmakers, school superintendents, parents and AEA officials. Only the panel’s 11 members of the public have a vote on the recommendations issued to lawmakers, the Iowa Department of Education and state Board of Education.
State Rep. Brent Siegrist, a Council Bluffs Republican and task force co-chair, said Monday’s meeting was the start of process to take testimony and gather more information to make recommendations.
“We need a little more time to figure out what the problems are,” Siegrist said.
Task force mixed on support for flexible special education funding
Under the new law, 100% of funding that currently goes to the AEA for special education may be divvied up differently.
In the 2025-26 academic year, each school district may keep 10% of special education funds to use for any special education purpose within the school district, while the remaining 90% would stay with the AEA.
Adam Magliari, superintendent of the Mediapolis Community School District, asked what issues 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 stands to potentially lose about $5.2 million if all districts don’t put their flexible funding portions toward the AEA.
“Some services probably shouldn’t be operated anymore by the AEAs because frankly they’re not going to be able to do it,” Siegrist said.
He later told reporters he did not have specific services in mind to halt within AEAs. But he said crisis services, for example, are used rarely but remain a function of the AEAs, or if a school district doesn’t contract with AEAs for English as a Second Language training, that service would need to be provided elsewhere.
A 17-member state task force studying Iowa’s nine Area Education Agencies convenes in the Iowa Capitol on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024.
Magliari said there was too much flexibility in how school districts could use the 10% of funds that previously went to AEAs and he wanted more thought given to where money is used.
Jane Dufoe, education policy adviser in the governor’s office, said districts could continue to funnel those dollars toward the AEA if they choose, but superintendents “should use that 10% to best serve their students as they see fit.”
Robin Maas, a special education teacher on the task force, said it would take time to understand the ramifications of funding changes on Iowa school districts.
“The brakes just need to be put on,” Maas said. “There needs to be the time taken to really do a study on what is that going to look like? What is that impact going to be?”
Some concerned about worker recruitment
As the panel explores the future of AEAs services, some task force members raised concerns after the legislative overhaul prompted hundreds of staff departures.
Yelick said the Heartland Area Education Agency has lost about 80 staff members, about half from special education positions and 40 out of 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. Staff who were concerned about sustainability might have looked for other opportunities outside of the AEA system.
“There has been a reduction in special (education) staffing that has resulted in increasing caseloads for some practitioners,” Yelick said.
The nine AEAs had reported they began the current academic year with 429 fewer staffers than they had in the 2023-24 school year because of the new state law.
Several members expressed concerns about equitably supporting services in rural areas under the new law. With money split up based on student population, Siegrist said that gives smaller districts less bang for their buck.
“I think there is going to be some reduction of services for some of our smaller schools, just because of the changes we’ve made,” Siegrist told reporters.
What’s next? Panel to meet again in the spring
The panel requested Department of Education staff follow up in the coming weeks with more information before unveiling recommendations, including AEA staffing levels and polling school districts on what 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 toward special education, and how that compares with other states.
The panel set a deadline to receive requested information by Feb. 1 or as soon as possible. The task force will meet again before March 1, before a key deadline for lawmakers to advance bills during the legislative session, in case lawmakers need to make any tweaks.
After the meeting, Yelick told reporters it is beneficial to study how Iowa’s AEA overhaul will affect the state.
“All throughout the last legislative session, that was the thing we were asking for, and a lot of constituents were asking for,” Yelick said. “It is 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 on Des Moines Register: How will Iowa’s AEA overhaul affect special education funding?