The Iowa House and Senate have passed HF 2170 unanimously yesterday afternoon. This bill makes clarifications for schools choosing hours and includes the waiver for nonpublic school start dates. Last year, the ed reform bill made changes to start date language and non publics were inadvertently left out of the waiver process. This bill corrects that mistake. We do not have any reason to believe the Governor will not sign the bill.
We will email our schools when we know what the waiver request should look like and who should receive it. If your school is not on our email list, please visit our action center and sign up your administrator and/or general school email address now.
We are being told the waiver deadline is being extended past March 1 this year but we highly recommend having next year’s calendars ready now and be ready to submit a waiver request today or tomorrow should you hear from IACS. Let us know if you have questions!
*UPDATE* We got word from the Dept. that the deadline for start date waivers this year is June 13 – the same day BEDS reports are due. We’ll email schools with details soon.