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The Iowa Legislature is working on the reform of Iowa Area Education Agencies, or AEA’s. AEA’s currently provide special education services to students with disabilities among other services to districts, and the proposed bill would allow districts to contract private companies or make other changes to provide special education.

State Representative Brooke Boden tells KNIA News the Iowa House of Representatives recently sent back a proposal to continue debate and restructure the bill, and one of the biggest concerns from parents she has heard is with reform comes the elimination of services provided by AEA’s.

“My goal here is to get everybody around the table, to calm down those fears, to make sure everybody understands, we are not going to be dropping services to kids at all. This is more about should this direction of leadership remain under just the AEA purview, the way that the money funnels, and with these failures, or should it shift more to the DE (Department of Education) where we have a little bit more oversight, we can ask what’s going on, we can follow that money, and we can make sure kids are reaching those goals. So, I totally understand the concern. I know it is very important to parents, and I think that’s why the House took a step back for a minute and we are just trying to re-evaluate.”

To listen to the full interview, tune in to today’s Let’s Talk Indianola.