Capitol Highlights

Greetings from Capitol Hill:
Funnel Week
This week was the second and final funnel of the session. This means that if a bill is not passed in one chamber and through committee in the other chamber, it is no longer eligible for debate. This is not true for tax and budget bills as we have the 2018 deappropriations bill due and the 2019 budget left.
Bills Passed in the Iowa House:
HF2458
The Future Ready Iowa bill was high on Governor Reynolds priority list for this legislative session. This bill was passed out of the House and will go to the Senate for approval before it becomes law. This bill creates a program for small and medium sized apprenticeship sponsors, a volunteer mentor program to support future ready programs, a list of high demand jobs, an education grant program, etc. I believe that the Future Ready Iowa program is a benefit to our youth because of the ability for high-school students to attend college level classes during the summer, which would lower the financial burden of college on families. Hopefully this legislation will take root in our community colleges. They have the best credentials to make this work.
HF2441
HF2441 provides more flexible funding for At-Risk and Dropout Prevention funds, Professional Development funds, and Student Activity funds. It removes the Department of Education from the approval process for At-Risk and Dropout Prevention plan adoption in order to give local school boards the ability to create programs that meet their needs. The At-Risk program tries to work with students before they decide to drop out of high school and is funded by a local property tax levy. The Dropout Prevention fund works to try and bring already dropped out individuals back into the school system using the local property tax levy. This bill also increases the allowable expenses from At-Risk dollars to include other staff like administrative, counselors, and psychologists. This bill passed the Iowa House and I believe that this bill is beneficial because it gives local school boards more of an ability to decide what is needed in their school districts.
HF2399
The Eldora State Training School bill passed out of the Iowa House of Representatives. This bill recognizes Eldora as the State Training School for court-committed male juvenile delinquents. The Eldora State Training School works to provide treatment and educational services within a structured setting to males between 12 and 18 who are classified as delinquent based off of criminal acts, not mental illness. The bill classifies the training as humane, disciplined confinement to these males in order to protect them from the community and vice versa.
HF2462
The DHS Medicaid Efficiency Bill was passed out of the House. This bill requires MCO’s to pay providers within contract specific timelines and provide reasons for denials of claims. MCOs will have to correct system configuration errors within 90 days of noticing the error and reprocess within 30 days following the discovery. It also requires DHS to develop and require MCO’s to use a standardized provider enrollment form to be used for credentialing.
Committee Bills:
SF2318
I was assigned by the Education chair to be the chair of the SF2318 subcommittee. This bill would allow for a student to take high school level classes prior to 9th grade for high school credit. The teacher and school must be accredited and in the school system the class is offered in order for it to count as high school credit. If the teacher is accredited but outside the school system, then the school system may allow credit to the student. An example of this bill that I think of would be an eighth grader taking Algebra I and counting this as high school credit. In this case, that student would have more classes open in high school to take dual credit courses that would be beneficial toward that student’s college credit.

Lake Mills Graphic

204 N. Mill Street
Lake Mills, IA 50450

Office Number: (641) 592-4222
Fax Number: (641) 592-6397

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