DES MOINES, Iowa — The state’s nine area education agencies have been bracing for the impact of changes to funding passed by Iowa lawmakers last session.

House File 2612 was passed and signed into law by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds in late March this year. The immediate changes from the law saw 60% of funding for media and educational services in control of local school districts. Next year, 10% of special education funding will be in school district control, 90% of the funding will be given to AEAs.

“It will potentially have an impact on generations of students and children to come,” said Cindy Yelick, the Chief Administrator of the Heartland AEA.

Four hundred staff members from all nine area education agencies have either been let go or left their positions over the last year. Heartland has seen a reduction in staff by 80. The reduction was evenly split between special education staff and non-special education staff.

“The future isn’t clear. But I think it’s important to remember our role is to serve kids and our role is to support families,” said Yelick. “And we will not back away from that. One of the things that has been just really powerful is that our staff is so focused on that as their driver and their mission even though we’re in the face of a really monumental change, they haven’t lost sight of that.”

The AEA task force met for six hours on Monday; comprised of superintendents, teachers, families and AEA officials. The group will meet again in early March, which will just be months away from the first changes for special education funding. More data was requested on the work that AEAs do across the state and what staff training might be necessary.

“Change is really hard. And when you are focused on making sure that kids are getting everything you can possibly give them, it’s been tough,” said Yelick. “It’s hard to say to a family, you know, we’re not going to see you as often. It’s hard to tell a teacher that we’re not going to be able meet with them as frequently as we did or help them in the same way that we have been historically, just because of staffing, because of changes in guidance from the department on what our role is in special education.”