Opinion: HSB 542 vs Iowa’s AEAs

By Caitlin DeMoss

Heartland AEA Professional Learning Registrar

On Jan. 9, Governor Reynolds delivered her Condition of the State Address. In this address, she unveiled her plans for Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs), with a goal of shifting the nine agencies’ focus to solely be on Special Education Services. Although AEAs do provide these services to school districts and families throughout the great state of Iowa, there is so much more that the AEAs provide as support to Iowa’s education system. Before starting at Heartland AEA, I admit that I knew very little about the agency. Sure, I knew that they were there to support special education students; however, as I’ve spent the past five years of my career with Heartland, my eyes have been opened to the good work all AEAs do throughout the state. My hope is that by the end of this article, I can share the reasons why it is so important to keep our AEAs intact and continue doing their good work throughout Iowa’s school districts.

So what is an AEA?

Established in 1975, AEAs were created to provide equitable, efficient and economic services and serve all public and accredited non-public schools. Even before a student enters the education system, AEAs provide services through Early ACCESS to give children and families the building blocks and skills to meet milestones and lifelong goals.

With Governor Reynold’s proposed bill, it poses a potential threat to the quality of education our children will receive. By removing everything, except Special Education services, Governor Reynolds would be eliminating vital educational services, media and technology support with this direct reduction of resources available to students and their teachers.

In addition to student resources being drastically eliminated, their educators, who play the most significant role in shaping young minds, will lose professional learning opportunities that AEAs provide. Including curriculum support, library resources, graphic design, printing needs and clerical infrastructure at school and district levels. Not to mention invaluable trainings for people entering the education system as new teachers, paraeducators getting their certification or substitute teachers being authorized to support the districts. Our districts require coverage when their teachers need to take professional development classes or simply need time off.

At the school and district level, AEAs provide the necessary tools for their staff, including Cybersecurity support, School Improvement Planning, Technology Infrastructure Supports and, heaven forbid, Crisis Emergency Support Services. These are merely a few services that our AEAs provide, reaching beyond Special Education Services, which is what the proposed bill would eliminate.

Area Education Agencies offer so much to the schools and districts they support. Eliminating the vast majority of education services per Governor Reynolds’s proposed bill would be undisputedly detrimental to our state’s education system. Small, rural schools will unfortunately bear the brunt of this proposed legislation. With the removal of AEA-provided education and technology support from the services available for their districts, our rural schools will struggle to meet the needs of their students, exacerbating existing disparities in educational opportunities. Not only this, but it’ll put a financial burden on schools, with inadequate funding to replace the services that are being lost.

If this bill is passed, the outcome goes beyond the classroom, affecting entire communities and an entire generation of bright, young Iowans. We are investing in the future of our society through education and this proposed bill completely jeopardizes the future success and wellbeing of young Iowans. We must consider the long-term consequences and work towards a solution that prioritizes the needs of our students, families and educators.

Our AEA’s need to stay intact, not only for rural schools but for each and every one of our schools within the great state of Iowa. Now is the time for a call to action, to let our voices be heard to our state representatives. To share our stories about how our region’s AEA’s have been there, whether it through supports with a NICU baby who needed just a little extra support to meet their feeding goals, the little kindergartner who has trouble with their ‘R’s’ and is working with an amazing Speech Language Pathologist, a seasoned teacher who is growing their own education by attending professional development to take back to their students, the librarian who is getting new digital resources or even books for her students to read, the new teacher receiving support as they eagerly shape young minds and to the Administrators who get that peace of mind knowing that their AEA will support them when the most tragic may happen.

Our AEAs have always been there for our schools, districts and our communities, now it is our time to be there for them. Contact your state representatives and tell them to vote no on this bill. Find your legislator here: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/find