HF 351 – Preschool compulsory attendance
HF 454 – Department of Education’s technical code clean up
HF 472 – Shared operational funding weighting
HF 500 – ECI fiscal audits
HF 533 – Entrepreneurial fund options for school approval
FLOOR ACTION
HF 351 requires that a child enrolled in the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program (SWVPP) be considered of compulsory attendance age and subject to compulsory education laws. This does not lower the compulsory attendance age. Additionally, a parent is allowed the opportunity to withdraw their child from the SWVPP to avoid this new requirement. [4/9: 32-17 (party-line, except for Bertrand, Breitbach, Schneider, Segebart, Zumbach voting “yes”)]
HF 472 relates to school district funding by establishing a supplementary weighting program for shared operational functions of school districts and area education agencies. A committee amendment added school nurses to the list of positions that are eligible for the supplemental weighting under this program. [4/8: 50-0]
HF 500 relates to Early Childhood Iowa (ECI) initiative requirements for area boards. The bill requires annual fiscal audits for all local ECI boards. The bill also provides for elected officials that serve on ECI boards to allow a designee to attend and/or vote in their place on local ECI boards. [4/9: 49-0 (Kapucian excused)]
FLOOR & COMMITTEE ACTION
HF 454 is the technical cleanup bill for the state Department of Education (DE). It contains these provisions:
• Nonvoting member – creates the opportunity for the student member of the State Board of Education to serve a two-year term if selected as a sophomore.
• Educational expenses for American Indians – Eliminates an outdated reporting requirement. Other mechanisms are now in place to monitor the expenditures of funds.
• District student counts – Clarifies that if a school district provides supports for a grade 9-12 student in an accredited nonpublic school and those services are covered by federal funds, the district cannot double-dip and also count the student in certified enrollment. This is only clarifying current practice.
• Project Lead the Way (PLTW) supplemental weighting – Takes the language passed last year authorizing PLTW courses for supplemental weighting and pulls that language into its own section of the supplemental weighting section of IC 257.11(3).
• SBRC Hearing Minutes – Updates language to current practice by allowing the DE to archive Internet postings.
• Student Counts – clarifies that if a school district provides supports for a grade 9-12 student in an accredited nonpublic school and those services are covered by federal funds, the district cannot double-dip and also count the student in certified enrollment.
• Custodian of funds – Requested by the Treasurer’s Office and is a clarification of federal Perkins funds. This reporting requirement between the Treasurer’s Office and the Legislature is unnecessary and redundant.
• GED Tests – Matches the current federal language used to describe the GED assessments.
• AEA Budgets – Adjusts timelines for submission of AEA budgets to match current practice, which is driven by when the information is available. This adjustment to timelines will not impact any other portion of the process.
• Administrative expenditures – When this section was implemented, it included a phase-in period for AEAs to bring their expenditures for executive administration down to 5 percent of the total budget. The phase-down language is being removed because the section is fully implemented.
• Exceptions – Several sections cleans up that DE says fund transfers to sub-recipients can be completed by using Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) versus a paper check. Many old sections of Code do not have this accommodation built in.
• Gifts to schools – Adds the district’s permanent fund to the list of possible funds to deposit gifts to schools.
•Tuition billing – Adjusts the deadline for billing related to tuition. It is not possible for districts to comply with the June 15 deadline and moving this to July 15 matches current practice without disrupting any other deadlines or processes.
• PPEL – Eliminates references to the schoolhouse levy, which was already phased out of Code. This simply cleans up these sections to remove references to that levy. Adjusts Code to reflect support for the bundling concept supported by the Department’s Declaratory Order on the issue. Bundling allows for the clustering of certain low-cost items to get them to a composite cost of $500 or more, thereby allowing them to be covered by PPEL funds
• Bus driver background checks – Removes the reference to every five years. The new process is to check the registry every time a renewal occurs.
• Eliminates six references of old and unimplemented sections of Code.
A committee amendment removed a House amendment requiring financial literacy to be part of a GED test. This is not possible because graduating high school students don’t have to take a financial literacy exam and there is no financial literacy test developed or available to include in the GED. [4/4: Short Form; 4/9: 49-0 (Kapucian excused)]
HF 533 sets up a mechanism for a student activity group to raise funds and transfer those funds, with permission from their local school board, into a newly established for entrepreneurial education fund. The entrepreneurial education fund would allow students to enhance their experience and entrepreneurial education by investing in start-up companies and products. There is no additional liability for the local school, except for the original investment of funds approved by the school board. There is no requirement for a local school student group to establish an entrepreneurial education fund. A committee amendment clarifies dissolution of the entrepreneurial education fund if a school or student group wishes to end their investment opportunities and that any money left in the entrepreneurial education fund would revert to the student activity group that originally started the entrepreneurial education fund. [4/4: Short Form; 4/9: 49-0 (Kapucian excused)]