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News

26 Jan, 2024
Each week during the Iowa legislative session, we will be focusing on one bill that could impact the lives of Iowans with disabilities. You can check them out here. We've already done them on the Governor's AEA proposal (House Study Bill 511 and Senate Study Bill 3011), Rep. Chad Ingel's comprehensive post-secondary transition scholarships bill (House File 252), and Sen. Brad Zaun's bill to make prescriptions accessible to people who are visually impaired or blind (Senate file 2022). There are more to come each week, so watch for them on Mondays here .
10 Jan, 2024
Governor Kim Reynolds wants legislators to make big changes in the way special education, mental health, substance use, and disability services are delivered locally in Iowa. She is asking legislators to pass bills that would: Allow local schools to decide how to pay for special education services. Special education funds would go to the schools, and they could hire their own Area Education Agency (AEA), an AEA in a different part of the state, another organization that does these services, or contract with professionals to provide services directly. The AEAs would be competing for this work, and schools no longer have to contract with their region's AEA. There was no mention of how this would impact special education services for children in private schools, and how those services would be paid. The state take over administration, so oversight would be through the Department of Education. The Governor wants to do this all over the next year. Direct the Department for the Blind to again provide accessible media materials for students with visual disabilities and help local schools create new materials as needed . This was a successful program that was ended last year. Local schools were on their own to purchase accessible materials, but were given no additional money to do so. This would return things to the way they were before. Break up the 13 Mental Health and Disability Services (MH/DS) Regions. The Governor's plan will consolidate the current substance use and mental health regions together into seven Behavioral Health Regions . The Iowa Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) would contract with a lead agency to administer services for substance use treatment and prevention, gambling addiction treatment, and mental health core services. The services to individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities that are currently managed by the MH/DS regions would go to HHS's Aging & Disability network, which would be expanded to include more Aging & Disability Resource Centers. The Governor said she knows families will be concerned about the changes to special education. She also said that something needs to be done to make sure families throughout the state have the same opportunities for quality special education services. The Governor said: There is a 41% gap in students with disabilities compared to overall student scores. Iowa ranks 30th in 9 of the 12 national assessments for students with disabilities. Iowa spends $5,331more per student on special education than the national average. Iowa is the only state that requires schools use one support agency for special education services. Education funding must be done early in session, so we will probably see a bill very soon. If you have questions, concerns, thoughts on this, you can use our Take Action Center to email your legislators .
Sarah Young Bear Brown, an advocate for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, testifies at Capitol
02 Oct, 2023
The Governor's Boards & Commissions Review Committee posted its final recommendations and wants nearly half of Iowa's boards and commissions to be eliminated.
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8am Legislative Forum-Waterloo

9am Office Hours-Ankeny

9am Legislative Forum-Grundy Center

9:30am Coffee and Conversation-Wapello County

10am Coffee Chat-West Des Moines

3pm Listening Post-West Des Moines

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8am Discuss Iowa's 94th District-Eldridge

8am Lattes with Latham-Stratford

8am Legislative Coffee-Guthrie Center

9am Legislative Forum-Iowa Falls

9am Legislative Forum-Wilton

9am Coffee Hour-Pleasant Hill

9:30am Coffee and Issues-Ida Grove

9:30am Legislative Forum-Dubuque

10am Legislative Forum-Quasqueton

10am Legislative Forum-Onawa

10am Office Hours-Ankeny

10am Legislative Forum-Jackson County

11am Political Forum-Webster City

11am Legislative Forum-Louisa County

11am Legislative Forum-Des Moines

11am Office Hours-Des Moines

1:30pm Community Conversation-Marshalltown

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10am Legislative Forum-Algona

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11am Office Hours-Des Moines

8pm Office Hours-Des Moines

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6pm Town Hall-Des Moines

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8am Friday Forum-Des Moines County

9am Office Hours-Ankeny

12pm Legislative Update-Ankeny

1pm Legislative Update-Mason City

4:30pm Legislative Forum-Cedar Valley

6pm GOP Legislative Forum-Ida County

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8am Legislative Forum-Glenwood

8am Discuss Iowa's 94th District-Eldridge

8:30am Legislative Forum-Emmetsburg

8:30am Coffee & Conversation-Oskaloosa

9am Eggs & Issues-Spencer

10am Legislative Forum-Bettendorf

10am Legislative Coffee-Grinnell

10am Legislative Forum-Storm Lake

10am Legislative Forum-Wayne County

10am Legislative Coffee-Denison

11am Legislative Check-In-Iowa City

5pm Meet Your Legislator-Greene County

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8:30am Coffee and Conversation-Marion

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8pm Office Hours-Des Moines

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4pm Brews & Views-Dubuque County

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8am Friday Forum-Des Moines County

9am Office Hours-Ankeny

9:30am Coffee and Conversation-Wapello County

11am Legislative Forum-Lee County

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8am Discuss Iowa's 94th District-Eldridge

9am Legislative Coffee-Council Bluffs

9am Legislative Check-In-Iowa City

10am Legislative Forum-Storm Lake

10am Legislative Forum-Jasper County

10am Legislative Forum-Elk Horn

10am Legislative Forum-Estherville

10am Legislative Forum-Linn County

11:30am Legislative Forum-Monona

4pm Farm Bureau Legislative Forum-Hampton

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8am Legislative Forum-Corydon

8am Mid-Session Forum-Quad Cities

9am Office Hours-Ankeny

10am Legislative Forum-Chariton

12pm Legislative Forum-Osceola

12pm Legislative Forum-Osceola

12pm Legislative Forum-Monticello

12pm Legislative Forum-Jones County

12pm Public Forum-Monticello

2pm Legislative Forum-Leon

2pm Legislative Forum-Iowa City

4:30pm Policy on the Rocks-Cedar Rapids

4:30pm Legislative Forum-Cedar Velley

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8am Discuss Iowa's 94th District-Eldridge

8:30am Coffee & Conversation-Oskaloosa

8:30am Eggs & Issues-Lyon County

8:30am Eggs & Issues-Fort Dodge

9am Legislative Forum-Camanche

9am Eggs & Issues-Spencer

10am Legislative Forum-Bellevue

10am Legislative Coffee-Harrison County

10am Town Hall-Sioux City

11am Legislative Forum-DeWitt

11am Legislative Forum-Okoboji

11am Political Forum-Webster City

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8pm Office Hours-Des Moines

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9am Office Hours-Ankeny

9:30am Listening Post-Marshalltown

11am Capitol Chat

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8am Legislative Forum-Malvern

8am Discuss Iowa's 94th District

8:30am Talk with Officials-Windsor Heights

9:30am Legislative Forum-Johnson County

9:30am Community Conversation-Marion

10am Legislative Forum-Bettendorf

10am Legislative Forum-Bettendorf

10:30am Talk with Officials-Urbandale

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11am Office Hours-Des Moines

8pm Office Hours-Des Moines

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9am Office Hours-Ankeny

9:30am Coffee and Conversation-Wapello County

3pm Listening Post-West Des Moines

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8am Friday Forum-Waterloo

9:30am Legislative Forum-Dubuque

9:30am Legislative Forum-Dubuque

9:30am Coffee & Issues-Ida Grove

10am Office Hours-Ankeny

10am Legislative Forum-Onawa

10am Legislative Coffee-Grinnell

11am Office Hours-Des Moines

1pm Legislative Forum-Ankeny

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