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SAI Weekly Legislative Update – January 31, 2025
Week 3!! Another busy week at the Capitol.
First, I want to thank all of you that were able to attend the Day on the Hill, co-sponsored by SAI, IASB and the AEAs. Several of the SAI staff were very involved in getting things accomplished for the event and we felt like it went very well. The highlight for me was seeing the 21 displays that showcased great things going on in Iowa schools. Many students attended and shared their projects/initiatives. Several legislators and staff came and talked to the students, and I think we accomplished our primary purpose.
The House Education committee passed several bills onto the floor for debate this week.
HF 1 — This bill would allow non-public students to participate on public school teams in certain situations.
HF 10 — A bill to correct a timing/calendar issue for a specific district as it pertains to a disillusionment of the district.
HSB 30 — Would require all students to pass the Naturalization (Civics) test in order to graduate.
HSB 31 — START DATE! August 23rd or the first Wednesday after the Iowa State Fair (whichever comes first) would be the earliest start date allowed.
HSB 32 — School silent periods; requires public schools and charter schools to display the national motto, the state motto, and requires public schools to start the day with two minutes of silence.
HSB 33 — Online Assessments; allows any school delivering instruction over the internet to administer any state summative assessment online. Includes requirements on the timing and on proctors for doing such assessments online.
HF 34 — Would require districts to send out waiver information with any information about immunizations. Also, they would need to post it on the school website.
HF 88 — This bill removes some of the restrictions on home-schooling and doubles the tuition tax credit.
HSB 2 — Provides a potential exemption for students in military training in regards to the chronic absenteeism legislation.
HSB 5 — Would prohibit districts from serving food that contains certain ingredients.
HSB 46 — Defining grooming behavior. Adds building trust or emotional connections with a student for the purposes of exploitation to the definition of grooming behavior.
HSB 47 — School threat assessment teams. Requires public and private schools to create threat assessment teams to assess threats, to coordinate actions, and to intervene. Allows school districts to enter into agreements with other districts to create such teams. Authorizes the sharing of information and establishes civil immunity for persons who report information to teams.
The Senate Education Committee met on Thursday and passed the following bills to the floor:
SF 16 — This is a bill that assists one district with a dissolution timeline issue.
SSB 1022 — This allows some positions that are shared (operational sharing) to be exempt from the cap of 21. (SROs, social workers, and career counselors).
SSB 1023 — This bill attempts to provide clarity on activity participation for students that are in online schools.
SSB 1028 — This is the (slightly trimmed down) Baby Olivia bill from last session that would require certain types of videos to be used in instruction about pregnancy, etc.
SSB 1053 — 2% SSA for FY 26********************
The last one is the most important and disappointing. Their talking point is this is what the state can “afford” and is sustainable. We are hopeful that the House is able to propose a larger increase and get the Senate and Governor to agree.
There were also a large number of bills that went through a subcommittee. Here are some of the more important ones:
SSB 1030 — Civic test (same as HSB 30).
SSB 1036 — Another start date bill. Probably the best language of all of them.
HSB 44 — Requires districts to include career curriculum in 5th and 6th grade.
HF 60 — Addresses districts that have been hit by natural disasters and allows for budget adjustments.
HF 80 — Prevents consequences for staff or students if they use the wrong pronouns or salutation in addressing others.
SSB 1027 — Allows for teacher Recruitment and Retention policies and to use the Management Levy.
SSB 1065 was also introduced. It is the Governor’s electronic device bill and also includes a requirement for instruction regarding the impact of social media.
It is possible/probable/likely……that I missed some. Other than the Governor’s bill, these are just the ones that have had subcommittee review, so far.
If you have the opportunity, contact legislators with your concerns about 2% SSA. We appreciate that they have it moving quickly and hope they will settle it soon, but a number below the inflation rate and the CPI-U is not a good tradeoff for getting it done quickly.
Final Thought:
Seeing the student displays and interactions at the Day on the Hill this week helped me to remember our “why”. Why you do what you do, and why I do what I do. It's about kids and the impact we can have on them, both directly and indirectly. It should be easy to remember that, but sometimes it isn't. Thanks to all of you that were there and helped make it a great day.
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