A hot topic issue this legislative session has been on the early start date for school districts.

Current Iowa law doesn’t allow for school districts to start before September 1st.  School district could apply for an early start waiver and the Department of Education (DE) automatically allowed districts to begin before September 1st.

At the beginning of the session, the DE said it would no longer accept automatic waivers for districts and released criteria for districts to meet if they still wanted to start their school years early.  Now the only way for a district to be granted an early start waiver is if it can show a significant negative educational impact by starting after September 1st.

District 47 State Representative Chip Baltimore says a bill in the House is aiming to change the current law from September 1st to August 23rd as the earliest date a school district can start their school year.  Another part of the House bill is removing waiver authority from the DE to allow districts to start before the proposed date.

Baltimore believes August 23rd is a fair compromise.

“That seems to have some bipartisan support amongst all of the interest groups.  I think the tourism and State Fair and agricultural groups can live with that.  I think the school boards and school administrators can live with that.”

Baltimore hopes that the bill will be signed into law before school districts have to decide on their school calendars for the upcoming school year.