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Legislative Alert!
We anticipate SF 2088 to be debated tomorrow or possibly even tonight.
I am sure you remember that this is the Government reorganization bill that includes changes to Empowerment.
Representative Tyler Olson (D - 38) has offered an amendment to SF 2088.
Every Child Counts is in support of this amendment -H-8076.
The amendment contains the provisions recommended by the LEAN event to restructure community empowerment, rather than those adopted by the Senate, along with several changes that address issues that have been raised subsequent to the LEAN event as issues that legislation should address.
Here are some other highlights:
Location of Early Childhood Board:
The amendment places the Early Childhood Board in the Department of Management, where the State Empowerment Board is currently and as the LEAN event recommended. It further changes the designation of the Department from being the "lead agency" of the coordination center to "providing administrative support" for implementation. The Senate bill establishes the Department of Education as the lead agency.
Membership of Early Childhood Iowa Board:
The amendment calls for 15 citizen members and 6 designated agency representatives on the Early Childhood Iowa Board. The LEAN event had called for 14 community members and 6 designated agency representatives. The Senate bill calls for 6 agency reps and 3 community members. The House did amend in committee to 7 citizens.
Continues the work of the orginal Early Childhood Iowa Stakeholders:
Early Childhood Iowa has been involved in broad-based state-community and public-private early childhood systems building, administered within the Department of Public Health. The Stakeholders are eliminated in the Senate File.
Unique Student Identifier:The amendment requires programs and services funded under Early Childhood Iowa funds to cooperate with the Department of Education and local education agencies in assigning unique student identifier numbers for program participants, subject to adhering to all applicable state and federal confidentiality provisions.
Fiscal Agent:The amendment adds an additional duty of the Early Childhood Iowa Board to establish criteria to ensure effective fiscal management with fiscal agents that can meet those criteria for all area Boards.
These are just a few of the highlights . Every Child Counts has put together a more detailed description of the amendment. You can download it here.
Several Legislators have signed on to this amendment and they include:
Please take time to thank them and Rep. Tyler Olson for their support!
Now, we need you to contact your legislator in the House and ask him/her to support the Representative T. Olson amendment - H-8076 to SF 2088 (state gov reorg bill). Please refer to the above talking points and the document.
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Thank you for all you do for the children and families in Iowa!
Sheila |
