During the state legislative session, the IAA sends out a bi-weekly legislative update. In these emails you'll get an update on what's going on at the State Capitol, and in Congress, as well as actions you can take to advocate for afterschool!
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Congress Considers More COVID-19 Relief
Congress has passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the CARES Act and is considering additional coronavirus response and recovery legislation that will likely address unemployment, the Payroll Protection Program, and additional aid for states. The COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly impacting families, youth, and the afterschool program providers who serve them. These concerns should be top of mind for Congress and the administration when negotiating coronavirus relief legislation. The Afterschool Alliance is asking afterschool providers to contact their members of Congress to share how their programs have been impacted and what is needed. Click
here
to contact Congress and share your stories.
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Legislature Adjourns
The state legislature wrapped up their business in two quick weeks and adjourned for the year over the weekend. Legislators primarily focused on passing budget bills at status quo levels due to reduced revenues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Bills passed by the legislature now move to the Governor's desk who has 30 days to either sign or veto legislation.
Check out the sections below for updates on the bills that passed and highlights on this year's appropriations. Looking for more detailed analysis on this year's budget bills? Click
here
for information.
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NCSL Blog: Leveraging Afterschool to Help Students Catch Up, Keep Up
At the end of May, the National Conference of State Legislatures
held a virtual meeting for state legislators and staff around COVID learning loss and how summer and afterschool programs can be leveraged to help students catch up and keep up. Presenters on this webinar shared research about the anticipated social emotional learning and academic learning loss that is expected due to COVID-19. They also provided research and stories about how afterschool can help combat this learning loss through providing a safe, supervised, and supportive environment for youth and reinforcing school-day learning.
The presentation also outlined ways that states can support afterschool's response to COVID learning loss. One example involves allocating a portion of state's federal CARES K-12 monies for summer and after school opportunities. Click
here
to read the blog, access the recording and slides, and learn more about the ways that states can support afterschool programming.
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Helpful Links
Click
here
to find your legislator. You can search by address, city, school district, county, or zip code.
To find bios, contact information, and photos of all the legislators, go to the
Legislators page
on the Iowa Legislature website. Select either "
Senators
" or
"
Representatives
"
on the left-side menu to see a complete list of all members, including links to their information page and district map.
For a complete list of Senate and House committees and members, click
here
.
For a full list of Senate and House leadership, click
here
.
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Relates to the provision of behavioral health services including via telehealth in a school setting.
Passed House with amendment on 6/4 and passed Senate on 6/5. The bill will now be sent to the Governor.
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Relates to the education of students with characteristics of dyslexia and to the preparation and licensure of practitioners for such instruction.
Passed House with amendment on 6/10 and passed Senate on 6/11. Signed by the Governor on 6/17.
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Relates to classroom management and related practitioner preparation procedures for reporting classroom violence and assaults, to corporal punishment, and establishing a grant program and fund for creation of therapeutic classrooms.
Passed House on 6/10 with amendment and passed Senate on 6/11. The bill will now be sent to the Governor.
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Relates to the Future Ready Iowa Act and other efforts to strengthen Iowa's workforce, including an apprenticeship training program, a child care challenge program for working Iowans, computer science educational standards, a scholarship program, and the senior year plus program.
Passed Senate on 6/11 and passed House on 6/12. The bill will now be sent to the Governor.
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Establishes an exception to the number of children allowed to be present for child care at any one time in a child development home under certain conditions.
Passed Senate on 6/13 with amendment and passed House on 6/13. The bill will now be sent to the Governor.
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Omnibus Appropriations Bill.
The bill provides status quo funding for FY 2021 for the majority of the General Fund and other fund appropriations for State agencies' operations and programs. Awaiting Governor's signature. Highlights of the bill include:
- An increase of $1.5 million for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Block Grant--Family Investment Program (FIP).
- An increase of $16.5 million for the Children's Health Insurance Program, also known as the Healthy and Well Kids in Iowa (Hawk-i) Program. Increase reflects Hawk-i Forecasting Group's estimate.
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Relates to classroom management and related practitioner preparation procedures for reporting classroom violence and assaults, to corporal punishment, and establishing a grant program and fund for creation of therapeutic classrooms.
Includes $2.6 million in appropriations:
- $500,000 for the Department of Education to develop, establish, and distribute standards and expectations relating to behavior in the classroom, restraint of a student, professional development relating to educating individuals in the least restrictive environment, and research-based intervention strategies.
- $1.6 million to the Department of Education for the Therapeutic Classroom Incentive Fund.
- $500,000 to the Department of Education for reimbursement funding to school districts for the transportation of students to therapeutic classrooms.
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