Iowans fear AEA changes

In late December, comments made by Gov. Kim Reynolds about the future of Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEA) worried educators.

In an e-mail to The N’West Iowa REVIEW, Reynolds stated AEAs will go through a “comprehensive review.”

“Iowa’s Area Education Agencies were created 50 years ago to address the needs of students with disabilities, but over the years, they’ve significantly expanded their scope of services beyond the core mission,” she said.

Iowa’s AEAs were established in 1974 by the Iowa Legislature “to identify and serve children from birth to age 21 who require special education services,” according to a publication by the state of Iowa.

Today, there are nine AEA regions serving a total of 477,726 students in the state. Union County is part of the Green Hills AEA, whose website says they partner “with 43 public school districts and six non-public accredited schools within a 17-county area in Southwest and South Central Iowa, serving over 39,000 students.”

Educators and parents around Iowa think that a review might create negative results for the AEA, including a possible disbanding of the organization.

“It scares me to death that she’ll disband it. My hope is that all she’ll do is do some changing until we get somebody else in there who can reestablish,” retired AEA audiometrist Deb Norman said.

AEAs form a vital part of the education system, as many school districts wouldn’t be able to afford the help provided on their own.

“AEAs provide a lot of support for our school district in special education primarily,” Creston schools superintendent Deron Stender said. “That would be where we lean on the heavily for diagnoses with their technical assistance and evaluation. They have the staff that we can’t afford to hire independently.”

Almost every student in the Creston school system has utilized AEA services at some point. Norman explained that children in preschool through third grade have their hearing tested by the AEA each year.

“We would screen 8,000 kids a year or more [in their AEA district],” Norman said. “The AEAs have been magical, really, for the kids. It isn’t just the disadvantaged kids, the ones who have issues and problems and learning disabilities.”

While people often associate AEA services with children with disabilities, there are a wide variety of services offered. AEA helps serve children with autism, English-language learners, a variety of issues with mental health and those with vision, hearing and speech issues, as well as children in the talented and gifted program.

Because of the depth of services the AEAs provide, a disbanding of the program would bring many changes to schools.

“They haven’t said anything about what school districts are going to have to do,” Stender said. ”[Disbanding] will reduce the tax on our taxpayers, but it will have a significant impact on the services we provide.”

While Creston families could still find treatment options in Council Bluffs or Des Moines if the AEA disbanded, it wouldn’t be as accessible as it is now.

“Parents are going to have to pay more to probably go to professionals in Des Moines that will charge them $150 for a hearing appointment rather than getting it done by your local audiologist for free,” Norman said. “It’s like going backwards in society.”

Norman explained this isn’t the first time the state legislature has looked to make changes to the AEAs. In 2010, the state consolidated the AEA districts, turning 15 districts into nine.

“They started making us merge. All that did was bring in a head administrator to help the administrator. They doubled their salaries, added extra people up on the top and got rid of some people on the bottom and it really didn’t save any money,” Norman said.

In May 2023, the state legislators voted to cut the AEA budget by more than $22 million in 2024.

Between those cuts and the recent worries regarding the future of the AEA, there has been an outpouring of support on social media for the program.

“Please stand your ground for our AEA’s. At this point, nothing is off the table and there have been comments about dissolving them entirely,” Facebook user Suzie Maas said. “Please share your stories. Please let them know that the AEA’s matter. We tend to work in the background, supporting schools and advocating for students. Now it’s time to share the stories of our AEAs; they need to understand what we do and why we are needed.”

Facebook user Jamie Osterbuhr agreed, adding that Iowans should “call and email and tell [your legislators] ALL students deserve the best.”