Iowa has nine regional AEAs that provide special education services, learning materials, professional development, direct services to children with disabilities, and more, to kids, families and educators across the state. The Iowa Legislature made major changes to that system in 2024.
School districts now have control over all of the media and educational services money that previously flowed to AEAs, allowing them to buy services from an AEA under the new "fee for service" model, from another vendor, or use the money for something else.
Starting this school year, districts receive 10% of the special education funding that previously went to AEAs, leaving 90% with the AEAs. School districts can use the money to buy additional services from their AEA or use it for in-house special education personnel.
Hundreds of AEA employees left their jobs or got laid off last year as the new policy was being considered and then took effect. The AEA system as a whole started the 2024-2025 school year with 429 fewer employees than the year before.
Stan Rheingans, chief administrator of Keystone AEA and Central Rivers AEA, said staff went through "a pretty low point" last year, but hope has returned.
"The AEA system has played an important role in the educational structures in Iowa, and it looked like maybe that was going to go away, but I don't believe that," he said. "I think we've evolved and changed. And it'll be a different role, it'll be a scaled back role. But I think our employees who have remained with us feel a new energy and see a path forward."
Central Rivers AEA had 541 staff members in the 2023-2024 school year, and it started this school year with 481 employees. At Heartland AEA, staff numbers dropped from about 750 to 600.
Heartland AEA Chief Administrator Cindy Yelick said her organization is learning to work in different ways with fewer people while still providing services to students and teachers. She said there are many resources still available to schools, but the way they access them, or the frequency of service, could change.
"I do think we're still experiencing change, but we're really hopeful that we've gotten through the kind of the biggest wave of the change," Yelick said. "And this year, we'll be really focused on implementation, supporting staff in schools."
With the AEAs receiving less special education funding than before, Rheingans said he is focused on providing exactly what is required by each student's Individualized Education Program — that's a legal document developed for each student who needs special education.
"That sometimes means stretching our folks a little bit further, a little bit more windshield time as they travel between districts," he said.
Some small school districts struggle to pay for AEA media and education services
AEA and school district leaders said they continue to see a difference in how the law is affecting small and large school districts.
Rheingans said a small district in his area wanted to purchase 10 days of professional development related to literacy, but could only afford five days. He said under the old model, which pooled districts' resources, they would have made that work.
Barb Schwamman is superintendent of Osage Community School District and Riceville Community School District, which have about 1,000 and 400 students, respectively. She said the AEAs are more stable now, but she is not getting all of the media and education services that her districts want.
"The worst part now is that our decision making is kind of being driven by some scarcity, not strategy," Schwamman said.
She said her districts have cut back on some professional development, and one district stopped receiving weekly deliveries of learning materials and other AEA resources. Schwamman said they are using some money that used to go to the AEAs to help cover increasing insurance costs and teacher salaries.
Recent state laws aimed at improving math and reading skills require more professional development, she said.
"Usually it's the AEA that's helping train the teachers," Schwamman said. "But now if the AEA is not who's training your teachers, you have to budget and pay for that at a time again when your budgets are really tight. So it's becoming increasingly tougher out in the rural areas."
At the Iowa City Community School District, which has more than 14,000 students, Superintendent Matt Degner said the AEA law has provided more funding flexibility to fill district needs.
"It's allowed us to pay for additional positions in the district, or even to compensate for the lack of adequate, timely funding from the state — to try to help our budget situation as inflation costs continue to increase year over year, and we don't necessarily see that same increase in state funding," he said.
Degner said the district has been able to obtain the services it wants from its local AEA while expanding in-house services. But he said he's concerned about how rural school districts will fare under the new law.
Too soon to know how this will affect student outcomes
Degner said he previously heard concerns from parents of kids with disabilities about all of the turnover among AEA staff, but he said that has stabilized and he's no longer receiving those complaints.
Overall, he said it would be hard to quantify the impact of the law because there are so many things that affect student achievement, but he said there have been changes in what he's hearing from the AEA and DOE when it comes to special education.
"I do think there's a renewed and increased focus on some of those student outcomes and how we achieve those goals for our students that we know are critically important," Degner said.
Yelick said it's too early to see the potential impact of the AEA changes on student achievement.
"I do think this has caused us to assess and focus, so there is the potential there," she said. "But I think it would be really too early to make a prediction on what the impact will be."
Copyright 2025 Iowa Public Radio