During the second funnel last week, both legislative chambers discussed bills that were started in the other.

Iowa House Representative for District 23 Ray Sorensen says that an Office of the Chief Information Officer funding bill from the Senate passed through his Economic Growth and Technology Committee, and that there were several bills that passed through the Education Committee, which he sits on. Senate File 250 extended the deadline for use of some grant funds for schools through June 30th, the end of the fiscal year, to September 30th, so that those funds could be disbursed during the summer to help pay for summer activities.

Sorensen tells Raccoon Valley Radio that Senate File 252 was a bill that was fairly small and easy to pass, and pertained to pregnant students in colleges and universities.

“It’s a bill that requires institutions to make reasonable accommodations to a pregnant student, allow the student to complete the course of study or research that they’re doing. And looking into it, we kind of found out that a lot of universities are already doing what we’re asking them to do. This was just something that (was) just looking to put in code and make sure that that was something that pregnant students would continue to have those rights and those requirements to make sure they have those reasonable accommodations.”

Sorensen mentions a third bill, Senate File 496 that came over, and has be amended by the House to include some items that hadn’t made it through the Senate earlier this session. The bill originally included parent and school board empowerment sections, but will now also have sections relating to inter-district enrollment, alternative teacher licensing, and policy from a Seizure Safe School bill that Sorensen drafted earlier this session. He advises that this is not the final draft of the bill, and that it will most likely have several more changes before it is passed.