The Iowa Senate passed a couple of bills last week aimed at public school districts.

District 24 Senator Jerry Behn says they passed House File 2422, which deals with educating and training coaches and contest officials on the signs and symptoms of concussions. The bill would require the school district to have a policy in place and if a student shows any symptoms of a concussion, they must be removed from the contest and evaluated by a licensed physician before the student can participate in the sport.

“A coach can be somewhat-you know if you have a game on the line-we want to relieve them of the worry of having to try and make that decision themselves. By putting a protocol in place, it takes the subjectivity out of it and makes it much more objective. I think that’s a safer way to deal with it for the kids.”

Behn says the Senate passed another House bill last week with House File 2467. The bill would allow school districts to offset school meal debt if the district has made a reasonable effort to collect the debt. Behn points out that the bill doesn’t allow the school district to publicly identify students who have lunch debt.

“It’s not fair to hold a child accountable for the parent not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. So we wanted to be careful of all of that and yet help that school out so that they don’t have to foot the bill and put it on the back of the taxpayer.”

Both bills have yet to be signed by Governor Kim Reynolds.