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Legislative Alert!
Today the House completed debate on SF 2088 (state govt reorg bill). This bill already passed the Senate a couple of weeks ago. On Friday, Representative Tyler Olson (D - 38) offered an amendment (with Empowerment/Early ChildhoodIowa changes) to SF 2088 and it passed with a voice vote. Every Child Counts supported this amendment -H-8076.
Since the bill has now passed both Chambers, it now heads back to the Senate. Remember that when SF 2088 started in the Senate, Sen. Boettger (S-5030) offered an amendment to keep Empowerment in the Dept. of Management and it actually passed once before a Motion to Reconsider was filed and there was another vote - this time with the amendment failing. You can see the Senators who originally voted for the amendment here (page 215).
We now need you to contact your Senator and ask him/her to support the House amendment (Empowerment/Early Childhood Iowa language) to SF 2088.
The amendment contains the provisions recommended by the LEAN event to restructure community empowerment along with several changes that address issues that have been raised subsequent to the LEAN event as issues that legislation should address.
You need to make sure your Senator knows that by supporting the changes the House made they are not supporting the status quo. Unfortunately, that is the argument we are facing. Some items to point out:
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.
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.
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.
It is important that your Senator hear from you with the most accurate information possible.
Keep up the good work!! |
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Thank you for all you do for the children and families in Iowa!
shansen@cfpciowa.org |
