Greetings!

 The Legislature adjourned Sine Die on Thursday, June 30th around 3:30 p.m.  It was a very quick end to a seemingly never ending, historic session.  Many of Every Child Counts' legislative priorities were addressed.   The Governor has 30 days to sign the bills and make any veto decisions.  Also, many of the appropriations bills are not enrolled yet (means the amendments/conference committee report language are not included in the actual bills) as they were bounced back and forth in the last hours of session.  Below are some highlights of the bills with the information that I have available at this time.  Things might change.  I hope to have a more complete breakdown once bills are enrolled and the Governor has taken his action on the bills.

HF 645 (Education appropriations):   

Click here to see "final" budget numbers for Four Year Old Preschool, Shared Visions and ECI.   

$825,000 for professional development 

HF 649  ( Health and Human Services appropriations):

ECI Early Childhood Funding  - $6,350,000 ( same as last year)

Child Care Assistance - $53,237,662 ($32,325,964 last year)- 0f this amount, $432,452 for CCR&R and $936,974 for QRS.

Child Care Assistance (federal) - $16,382,687- of this amount, $200,000 for educational opportunities for providers. 

hawk-i Outreach - $128,950 (same as last year) 

HOPES - $739,318 ($738,203 last year)

There are also some changes in policy language:

HF 645: 

• ARRA infant and toddler quality dollars - affecting ECI areas with contracts.  Check out the language on p. 93 here (in conference committee report). The issue with the language is that the contracts expired on June 30th. Unsure how this is moving forward at this time.

• It is the intent of the general assembly that  priority for home visitation program funding be given  to programs using evidence-based or promising models   for home visitation. (This language is also in HF 649). 

SF 533:

• Child Abuse Iowa Task Force: The Conference Committee recommends requiring Prevent Child Abuse Iowa to convene a task force to provide recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly by January 16, 2012, for the prevention of sexual abuse of children.

• Establishes session law that prohibits school districts from using more than 5.0% of preschool formula funding for administration of the Program.

• Increase in  the EITC from 7% of federal EITC to 10% of federal EITC (let's hope the Governor doesn't veto this AGAIN)!

I know I probably missed something but this is what I have so far. I will work on a more complete update once the Governor has signed the bills.

Once again, I want to thank you for all you do!  Your advocacy made a huge difference this year. We started out the session with deep, deep cuts to many important programs but ended with a much better budget. It still is frustrating that so many programs did receive cuts when the state is sitting on a nearly 1 billion dollar surplus, but we have survived to fight another year!  Please remember to thank your legislator for their work and continue sharing the story of our most vulnerable population - our children!

Thank you,

Sheila