Our Mission
- To improve the learning outcomes and well-being of all children and youth by providing services and leadership in partnership with families, schools and communities.
Our Goals
- Increase learning growth for students
- Decrease the gap in achievement
- Increase annual graduation rates
- Increase gateways to post-secondary success
Heartland AEA is pleased to announce the hiring of Kristi Upah as the Agency’s new Chief Student Services Officer. Upah, a 26-year Heartland AEA staff member, will replace Randy Allison, who has served as the Acting Director of Special Education for the past two years.
As the Chief Student Services Officer, Upah will advocate for an appropriate and effective education for all children and youth while fulfilling the responsibilities of the Heartland AEA Director of Special Education. She will collaborate with all work groups at Heartland AEA and with the families, schools and communities Heartland AEA serves. She will be the Agency’s liaison to the Iowa Department of Education for special education and related services and will represent Heartland AEA in the statewide AEA Special Education Directors’ Network.
Upah has devoted her career to serving students and educators in the Heartland AEA service area. Since 1993, she has served as a school psychologist, Staff Development Specialist for School Psychology, Supervisor of School Psychological Services, Assistant Director of Innovation & Accountability and Regional Director.
As a regional director, Upah has provided coordination and leadership for the provision of AEA services to districts and schools within Boone and Story counties. Other responsibilities during this time have included coordination of special education job-alike groups and providing direct support to job-alike facilitators and lead teams, facilitation and participation in professional development design and delivery workgroups (PBIS, Behavior Capacity Building, Math Capacity Building, Child Find Professional Learning Cadre) and participation in agency special education leadership workgroups.
Upah earned her PK-12 Administrator/Supervisor of Special Education Endorsement from Drake University, a Ph.D. in psychology with a school psychology emphasis from Iowa State University, a specialist degree in school psychology from Iowa State and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Iowa State.
She will begin her new duties on July 1, 2019.
Illustrative Mathematics (IM) has recently authored curriculum for grades 6 - 8, as well as algebra, geometry, and algebra 2. Please complete the following survey by April 19 to gauge your district's interest in using IM curriculum in the 2019-20 school year. Two teacher trainings are available; one for grades 6 - 8, and one for algebra/geometry/algebra 2. If there is sufficient interest in teacher trainings, Heartland AEA will coordinate the trainings. Additional information about the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum can be found here: https://www.illustrativemathematics.org/curriculum/.
Last fall, Hanover Research, a global market research and analytics firm, asked you to provide input on the services of Heartland AEA. The firm recently released results of its independent survey of Iowa’s educators regarding the services of Iowa’s Area Education Agency (AEA) system.
Key findings of the survey revealed that educators are extremely satisfied with AEA services overall in the areas of special education, educational services, instructional services, media and technology. Some services received well over 90 percent customer satisfaction rates, including audiology/hearing, due-process mediation, licensure, audio/video production, and graphic design.
Two areas of growth indicated by the survey were behavioral help services and mental health services, which are growing concerns in schools statewide. AEA personnel, along with Iowa school officials, met with state legislators this legislative session to secure additional funding for these issues, in particular.
Feel free to review the Hanover Research executive summary regarding the survey.
Thank you for providing input on our services! As always, contact any of your building’s AEA representatives if you have questions or need assistance.
This year Iowa’s AEAs again will be subsidizing the costs for schools to upgrade their DE-provided FAST subscriptions to include math and behavior assessments for the 2019-20 school year, and are expanding the potential grades available for schools. This year schools will have the option to use the expanded assessment suite in math and behavior for K-6, and will have the additional option to include grades 7 and 8. This option is available both to schools that purchased the expanded assessment suite in 2018-19 and those that want to use for the first time in 2019-20. Please refer to this FASTBridge program document for more information about pricing, registration, billing, training and ordering materials.
The March 29, 2019 Iowa AEA Legislative Update is now available.
The April 2019 AEA System Update for Superintendents includes information about FASTBridge registration and the transfer of Mandatory Reporter Curriculum Responsibilities.
Heartland AEA is pleased to introduce the new statewide AEA Professional Learning Registration System to you!
As you’ve heard, this system is a one-stop shop to register for all the professional learning activities available through all nine of Iowa’s AEAs and AEA Learning Online. As Heartland AEA transitions to this new system, we will be running two catalogs for a short time: a Spring Catalog and a Summer Catalog. After summer, all courses will be listed in the AEA Professional Learning Registration System.
- Courses beginning prior to June 1, 2019, are listed in our Spring Catalog in the Universal Registration System (old Heartland AEA system).
- Courses beginning after June 1, 2019, can be found in the Summer Catalog in the new AEA Professional Learning Registration System.
Logging In
Your AEA Login is the same email and password you use to log into the AEA Learning System (e.g. Mandatory Reporter, Bloodborne Pathogens). Once you are logged in, click on the Courses tab to search the catalog.
Online Payment Options
- Visa or MasterCard
- Purchase Order issued by an Iowa school district
- Split payment: a portion of the fee is paid with a purchase order (school district) and the remainder is paid with a credit card (participant)
Transcripts
- Transcripts for courses starting after June 1, 2019, will be available in the statewide system when the course has ended.
- Transcripts for courses that started prior to June 1, 2019, will be available for you to download from our former registration system until Fall 2019.
- After the historical data has been transferred to the statewide system, your complete transcript will be available.
New Statewide Refund Policy:To receive a full refund, you must withdraw at least eight calendar days before the first day of class. After that, there will be no refunds. To withdraw from a course, click on the withdrawal icon next to the course under “My Courses.” If there are extenuating circumstances, contact the sponsoring AEA’s Professional Learning Office.
If you have any questions about registering in the new system, contact the Professional Learning Department.
Parents and caregivers of students with special needs: join us for “Conversation & Coffee,” our monthly morning coffee group! Learn about community resources and upcoming events and network with parents who have similar experiences and challenges.
Mark your calendar for these Spring 2019 meeting dates!
- April 18, 2019
- May 16, 2019
Conversation & Coffee meets the third Thursday of each month from 9:30 - 11 a.m. at the 100th Street Corner Café in Urbandale. RSVP appreciated but not necessary: Kari Paulsen, Family & Educator Coordinator, Heartland AEA, at kpaulsen@heartlandaea.org or (515) 270-9030 ext. 14493.
The April 2019 School Leader Update from the Iowa Department of Education is now available.
