IEP Reviews Prior to Implementation

Recently the State Directors of Special Education issued specific guidance to all AEAs regarding their practices to review electronic IEPs after they have been submitted and prior to implementation. A summary of that guidance is provided below. For more information click here. If you have questions please contact your Partnership Director.

Effective immediately, all area education agencies will limit the scope of their IEP review processes, in order to expedite the “implementation” of electronic IEPs. Prior to “implementation” of IEPs, AEA staff (i.e. Secretaries, Special Education Program Assistants) will engage only in: a) data reviews to ensure the accuracy and completeness of state and federal reporting information; b) perfunctory editorial reviews to correct obvious or flagrant errors in spelling, punctuation, syntax, and grammar; and c) weighting reviews to assign weighted enrollment factors based on the services and supports identified in IEPs. AEA staff will not engage in compliance or quality reviews prior to “implementation.” AEAs may choose to conduct “focused” reviews according to local needs and/or priorities, but these reviews must not interfere with the “implementation” of IEPs.

Superintendents: February HAA Meeting Agenda

Click here for a pdf or here for a word document of the agenda for the Heartland Administrators' Association (HAA) meeting which will be held February 2 at the West Des Moines Learning Resource Center from 9:00-11:50 a.m.

HEART Update Completed

By the time you read this, we hope that a new version of HEART is up and running. The installation has been a little rocky. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the delays in the upgrade. A temporary web page has been set up to download an overview of changes and an updated HEART administrator’s manual. In addition, this page contains directions and supports for preparing to import DIBELS data into HEART. Click on the following link to access the web page.

http://www.aea11.k12.ia.us/educators/assessment/temp/

If you have questions or encounter problems with HEART or with the DIBELS data work, please contact Connor Hood at (515) 270-9030 or chood@aea11.k12.ia.us.

Child Nutrition Support Provided by Martin Brothers

Over the last year, you may have heard that the legislature amended the Iowa Code to include the following language:

“The board of an area education agency or a consortium of two or more area education agencies shall contract with one or more licensed dietitians for the support of nutritional provisions in individual education plans developed in accordance with chapter 256B and to provide information to support school nutrition coordinators.”

There has been some confusion in recent weeks that each AEA had hired a dietician, and that schools could contact these individuals for nutritional information. The AEAs did not hire dieticians, rather the AEA system contracted with Martin Brothers (which serves as the Iowa Educators Consortium’s main food service vendor) for their dieticians to provide nutritional support to schools.

If your school has a general nutritional request, you may call Martin Brothers at 1-800-847-2404 and ask for Mary Sell or Renee Steffens.

Solution Tree to Consider coming to Iowa

Solution Tree is considering hosting a Professional Learning Community Institute in Iowa. The DuFours as well as other national presenters would be part of the institute. Please visit the Solution Tree website at http://www.solution-tree.com/Public/Main.aspx for examples of past institutes. In order for them to make the decision to host an institute in Iowa, they need some indication as to the level of participation. We know that you do not have enough information to make a commitment, but we would like to know if you would consider sending teachers and/or administrators to the institute. Click here to answer a few questions regarding the interest you might anticipate for your district.

If you have questions, please contact Sharon Kurns, Heartland AEA Director of Professional Learning and Leadership at (515) 270-9030 or skurns@aea11.k12.ia.us.