Proposed legislationeducationThe agenda

HELP Act

Helping Every Learner Progress

An Act relating to area education agency services and funding, making appropriations, and including effective date and applicability provisions.

Page one

The short version

What's broken, what the bill does, and what it costs, in plain English. If you read one thing, read this.

If your child needed a speech pathologist in Moravia or Moulton, Iowa's Area Education Agencies made sure our schools could provide one. By sharing resources across nine regional agencies, a town of 600 received the same high-level specialists as a large suburb.

Out here, that's Great Prairie AEA, which serves all four of our counties.

In 2024, the Legislature passed HF 2612 of the 90th General Assembly, and my opponent voted for it.

That bill redirected media and educational services funding away from the agencies starting in school year 2024-25. As that school year began, Iowa's AEAs reported 429 fewer staff members than the year before. A year later, in July 2025, it let districts move 10 percent of their special education money away from them.

Our kids and our rural schools deserve better.

I believe we should restore full funding for AEA services and keep special education resources dedicated to the agencies and specialists who already know our students.

Local districts and regional AEAs should determine how to work together, not politicians in Des Moines.

The HELP Act (Helping Every Learner Progress) does that. It sends the special education, media and educational services money back to the AEAs directly, the way it went before House File 2612. It ends the yearly state cut to AEA aid and brings back the AEA staff training money that bill eliminated. Each district and its AEA decide together what services our kids get, and the AEA can't bill a district for help the state already paid for.

It costs the state $34.7 million to $34.8 million a year in new money: $32.5 million to end the yearly cut, and $2.2 million to $2.3 million to bring back the AEA staff training money.

It also sends school aid the formula already pays back to the AEAs instead of into district budgets: up to about $71.4 million to $73.9 million a year for media and educational services, plus the special education share districts now control. Districts get those services back without being billed for them. They do lose the option to spend that money on other things. But we should be funding our schools properly in the first place, so districts aren't squeezed into choosing between their AEA and anything else our kids need. My school funding bill, the PACE Act, starts there: each year's raise in school aid can be no smaller than the rise in prices the year before.

We'll know it worked when the AEAs' own staff numbers come back. The bill makes every AEA publish them each year, so you can check.

Restore our AEAs. Fully fund our public schools.

That's the whole bill in brief. The rest of this page is the detail behind it, for anyone who wants to dig in.

See where it goes

Where the AEA money goes

How to read this Money starts on the left and flows right along the streams; the moving dots show which way. A thicker stream carries more. Point at or tap a box or a stream to see the amounts.

Each stream is drawn to the amounts in the analysis below, for the first school year the bill would cover. A hatched edge is a range. The stream running back to the state is the yearly cut. The media and educational services stream includes the share for students in nonpublic schools, so less than that leaves district budgets, and no published figure says how much less. Not drawn: the rest of the special education support money, which districts already have to spend at their AEA, because the analysis doesn't estimate it.

The same numbers, side by side

Already in the budget today
Cut from AEA aid
New state money

Today

Media and educational servicesState of Iowa to School district budgets
$71.4 million to $73.9 million
Special education support shareState of Iowa to School district budgets
$15.9 million to $16.6 million
Yearly cut to AEA aidArea Education Agencies to State of Iowa
$32.5 million
Special education oversightState of Iowa to Department of Education
$10 million

Under this bill

Media and educational servicesState of Iowa to Area Education Agencies
$71.4 million to $73.9 million
Special education support shareState of Iowa to Area Education Agencies
$15.9 million to $16.6 million
Ending the yearly cutState of Iowa to Area Education Agencies
$32.5 million
AEA staff training moneyState of Iowa to Area Education Agencies
$2.2 million to $2.3 million
Special education oversightState of Iowa to Department of Education
$10 million

The analysis

What it costs, and what we don't know yet

For anyone who wants the costs and the tradeoffs. Every figure is a range where the future is uncertain, and every one links back to where it came from.

The math

What it costs and who pays

Already in the budget today

Media and educational services
$71.4 million to $73.9 million
Special education support share
$15.9 million to $16.6 million
Special education oversight
$10 million

New state money

Ending the yearly cut
$32.5 million
AEA staff training money
$2.2 million to $2.3 million

Under this bill, stream by stream. Each bar starts at zero, and they all share one scale. A pale band is a range; the analysis below says how it was built.

New state money: $34.7 million to $34.8 million a year from the general fund, starting with the school budget year that begins July 1, 2027, in the bill's text. Under the Pay As You Go Act's scorecard the money starts a year later, in 2028-29, when the voucher savings that pay for it begin. Almost all of it is the cost of ending the statewide cut to AEA aid, which current law sets at $32.5 million a year. If lawmakers change that cut before then, the cost changes by the same amount. The rest brings back the AEA professional development supplement, $2.2 million to $2.3 million a year once its last amount of $2.1 million is grown to that year by the growth rates the Legislature sets.

The Department of Education's special education oversight money doesn't add to the cost. Current law sets aside $10 million a year of the AEA cut for the department, starting July 2027. The bill ends the cut and appropriates the same amount to the department directly, so the department gets what current law already gives it.

The bigger sums aren't new money. They're school aid the formula already pays, sent straight to the AEAs again instead of through district budgets:

Media and educational services: up to about $71.4 million to $73.9 million a year statewide. Since July 2025, nearly all of it has gone to districts, which can spend it on anything in their general fund. That figure includes the share for students in nonpublic schools, which the state can already pay to AEAs under Senate File 2201. The bill doesn't pay that share twice, so the net amount leaving district budgets is the figure minus the nonpublic share. No published figure breaks out that share, so we can't state the net amount.
Special education support: districts now receive all of it. They have to buy most of it back as services from their AEA, and they can spend up to 10 percent on special education help from someone other than the AEA. That share comes to $15.9 million to $16.6 million a year statewide. It is still special education money, not general fund money. The bill sends all of it to the AEAs.

Who pays for that part is school districts, in money they now control. In return they get those services without a bill from the AEA.

How the ranges were built. The amounts for each line come from the Legislative Services Agency's final fiscal note on Senate File 2201, the school aid bill passed in 2026, which estimates each line for the budget year that began July 1, 2026. Our model, published with the bill, carries them one year forward and draws the two things nobody knows yet: the growth rate lawmakers will set in 2027, and how enrollment moves. Each range covers nine in ten of the model's runs, from a fixed seed, so anyone can re-run it and get the same answer. As a consistency check, the same agency's earlier figures from its House File 2612 fiscal note, grown forward, give $70.2 million to $73.6 million for media and educational services. Both notes come from the same agency and the same base data, so this only shows the two agree with each other. It is not a second, independent estimate.

Not counted here: what each district in our area gains or loses (that takes the state's school aid file, which we haven't pulled yet), and any new AEA cut a future Legislature writes into its budget bills.

Open questions

What we don't know yet

We can't say HF 2612 caused every one of the 429 fewer AEA staff. That number is the drop from one fall to the next, which the AEAs reported to legislators and Democratic lawmakers released in August 2024. Staff started leaving in January 2024, when the governor first proposed the overhaul, before any bill passed. It's timing. The special education change came after that count, too: letting districts spend part of their special education money outside the AEA took effect in July 2025, so it can't explain the staff count from August 2024. I also couldn't find the AEAs' own submissions online, so the figure rests on news reports of them.

I couldn't find a staff-loss number for Great Prairie AEA. Iowa Public Radio reported Great Prairie among the AEAs with the highest staff turnover in school year 2023-24. Turnover counts people who left, though, not how many fewer staff the agency ended up with.

Money alone may not bring the specialists back. If the people aren't there to hire, the staffing numbers this bill makes every AEA publish will show it, and I'll say so. Then the state should go after the shortage itself, by helping AEAs recruit and train specialists, instead of calling the job done.

Who gives something up

The tradeoffs

The same bill, HF 2612, raised teacher pay floors in two steps. Starting pay went to at least $47,500 in 2024-25, then $50,000 from July 2025, and teachers with at least twelve years went to at least $60,000, then $62,000. The state paid for both: $66.3 million more in 2024-25, and another $26.4 million in 2025-26, according to the fiscal note. That was long overdue, and this bill leaves it alone. Better teacher pay and full AEA funding can stand together, and this bill keeps both. The next step is keeping our veteran teachers, which is what the PACE Act's raises for experienced teachers are for.

The staff departures began after the governor's announcement in January 2024, before the bill passed or took effect. Iowa Public Radio reported hundreds of workers leaving from the time she first proposed the changes. Whatever started it, the way to bring people back is the same: pay the AEAs directly again, so they can plan and hire, and publish the staff numbers every year so anyone can see whether it's working. This bill does both.

When the bill passed, the Legislative Services Agency projected that direct state payments to AEAs would drop from $244.9 million in school year 2023-24, to about $10.8 million in the school year that began in July 2025, with the rest going to districts, which can still buy AEA services with it. Later law changed how the cut is taken: under Senate File 659 and now House File 2800, it comes out of the special education support money calculated for districts, most of which must be spent on AEA services. So that projection is not today's figure. Buying services back piece by piece is the problem, though. A small district that used a fraction of a speech pathologist's time shouldn't have to shop for it. The state should pay the AEA directly, where the specialists are, and under this bill it does.

The agency called House File 2612's funding changes a reallocation between AEAs and districts. The governor has said districts that want to use their AEA the way they did before can keep doing that. The clearest cut in the bill itself was ending the $2.1 million supplement for AEA staff training. Keeping the old arrangement shouldn't depend on how tight each district's budget is that year. Under this bill it doesn't: the money goes to the AEA, and the district and its AEA decide together what it buys. It also brings the staff training money back.

The yearly state cut to AEA aid is older than HF 2612. A $7.5 million cut has been in law since July 2002, and budget bills added more on top in most recent years: the total was $29.6 million in school year 2023-24, and $32.5 million in 2024-25, the first year HF 2612 applied. SF 659 kept it at $32.5 million in 2025-26, and HF 2800 made $32.5 million permanent. So putting the money back the way it flowed before HF 2612 would still leave a cut. This bill goes further and ends it. That's a choice, and it's the reason the bill costs new money. I think it's the right one. If the state wants the AEAs to do the job, it should pay for the job in the open, not trim it back every budget.

Some districts now spend the media and educational services money on other needs, and under this bill they'd lose that choice. We should be funding our schools properly in the first place, so districts aren't squeezed into choosing between AEA services and whatever else their kids need. That's the job of the PACE Act, my school funding bill: it ties school aid to inflation, so each year's raise can be no smaller than the rise in prices the year before. It doesn't replace this money dollar for dollar, and it doesn't promise more than lawmakers would have given anyway in a year they were generous.

The draft text

The draft bill language

For legislators, reporters and anyone who wants the legal wording. This is our draft, written the way Iowa bills are written, so you can see exactly what we mean. If I'm elected, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office, the Legislative Services Agency, writes the version that gets filed, and the wording will change. Page one and the costs above are the commitment.

Read the draft bill language

Proposed legislation

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to area education agency services and funding, making appropriations, and including effective date and applicability provisions.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

Section 1. NEW SECTION. Area education agency services —— direct payment and full funding. This section joins chapter 257.

1. For purposes of this section, unless the context otherwise requires:
a. “Budget year” means a budget year beginning on or after July 1, 2027.
b. “Services funds” means, for a school district, the amount calculated for the school district for special education support services under section 257.10, subsection 7, the amount calculated for the school district for media services under section 257.37, and the amount calculated for the school district for educational services under section 257.37.
2. Notwithstanding section 257.35, subsection 1, for each budget year the department of management shall deduct the services funds of each school district from the state aid due to the school district pursuant to this chapter, in addition to the amounts section 257.35 requires to be deducted, and shall pay the services funds to the area education agency serving the school district at the same times as other payments to area education agencies are made under section 257.35. Section 257.35, subsection 1, paragraph “b”, applies to amounts deducted under this subsection. Amounts deducted under this subsection are in lieu of, and not in addition to, any amount deducted for the school district for the same budget year for media services or educational services for students enrolled in nonpublic schools under the provision of section 257.35 enacted by 2026 Iowa Acts, Senate File 2201, section 20, as amended by 2026 Iowa Acts, House File 2800, section 88.
3. Notwithstanding section 257.10, subsection 7, and section 257.37, services funds paid to an area education agency under this section shall be used by the area education agency to provide special education support services, media services, and educational services, as applicable, to the students of the school districts it serves and to the students of accredited nonpublic schools it serves as provided in chapter 273. A school district shall not use services funds for any other purpose.
4. Notwithstanding section 257.35, subsection 2, the reduction in state aid under that subsection shall not apply for any budget year. However, if the cost of this subsection for a budget year is reduced under the pay-as-you-go scorecard, the reduction in state aid under section 257.35, subsection 2, applies for that budget year in the amount of the cost reduced.
5. a. For each budget year, each area education agency shall receive an area education agency professional development supplement equal to the area education agency professional development supplement district cost the area education agency received for the budget year beginning July 1, 2023, increased for each later budget year by the categorical state percent of growth established for that budget year under section 257.8.
b. There is appropriated from the general fund of the state to the department of education for each budget year an amount necessary to pay the supplements under paragraph “a”. The use of the supplements shall comply with the requirements of chapter 284.
6. For each fiscal year beginning on or after July 1, 2027, there is appropriated from the general fund of the state to the department of education ten million dollars for division of special education general supervision, oversight, compliance, employee salaries, support, maintenance, and miscellaneous purposes within the area education agency regions and the department of education main office. This appropriation is in lieu of the appropriation made from the reduction under section 257.35, subsection 2.

Sec. 2. NEW SECTION. Area education agency services —— local agreements and staffing reports. This section joins chapter 273.

Each area education agency and the board of directors of each school district it serves shall decide together, in a written agreement approved by the area education agency board and the school district board, the special education support services, media services, and educational services the area education agency will provide to the school district’s students and how those services will be delivered. The agreement may be amended at any time with the approval of both boards.
Notwithstanding section 273.2, subsection 13, an area education agency shall not charge a school district for special education support services, media services, or educational services paid for by the direct payments to area education agencies enacted by this Act.
Notwithstanding section 273.2, subsection 3, paragraph “b”, an area education agency may furnish evidence-based professional development services that a school district requests in its agreement under subsection 1.
Each area education agency shall include in the annual report required under section 273.2, subsection 14, and shall publish on its internet site, the number of full-time equivalent positions filled and the number vacant, as of October 1 of the current school year and of the previous school year, for each of the following: speech-language pathologists, school psychologists, school social workers, audiologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, special education consultants, media services staff, and all other staff.
This section does not limit the duties of the department of education under chapter 256B.

Sec. 3. PAY-AS-YOU-GO SCORECARD. This Act is subject to the pay-as-you-go scorecard.

Sec. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE. This Act, being deemed of immediate importance, takes effect upon enactment.

Sec. 5. APPLICABILITY. This Act applies to school budget years beginning on or after July 1, 2027.

EXPLANATION

The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.

This bill relates to area education agency (AEA) services and funding.

It reverses the changes to AEA payments made by House File 2612 of the 90th General Assembly, and it ends the yearly statewide reduction in AEA state aid.

The bill creates a new Code section in chapter 257. For budget years beginning July 1, 2027, and later, the department of management pays each AEA directly the amounts calculated for its school districts for special education support services, media services, and educational services, as it did before HF 2612 changed those payments. That money must be spent by the AEA on those services. A school district may no longer spend up to 10 percent of its special education support money on special education services from a provider other than its AEA, or spend media and educational services money on anything else. The direct payment replaces, and is not added to, any payment the department of management makes to the AEA for the same services to nonpublic school students under Senate File 2201 of the 91st General Assembly. The reduction in Code section 257.35 (area education agency payments) no longer applies.

The bill restores the AEA professional development supplement. It also appropriates to the department of education, directly, the ten million dollars a year for special education oversight that current law takes out of the AEA reduction.

The bill also creates a new Code section in chapter 273. Each AEA and each school district it serves decide together, in a written agreement, which services the AEA provides and how. An AEA may not charge a district for services paid for by the direct payments, and may provide the professional development a district asks for. Each AEA must report and publish its filled and vacant positions by type every year. The department of education keeps its special education duties under chapter 256B.

The bill is subject to the pay-as-you-go scorecard, which a separate bill would create. In any fiscal year, the bill’s cost to the general fund is limited to the savings the scorecard counts against it. If the scorecard reduces the cost of ending the statewide reduction in area education agency aid for a budget year, that much of the reduction applies that year.

The bill takes effect upon enactment and applies to school budget years beginning on or after July 1, 2027.

Sources

Where every number comes from

For anyone checking our work. Each figure with the site it came from and the day we checked it, and each law the bill cites.

Show every source

Figures

nineBy sharing resources across nine regional agencies, a town of 600 received the same high-level specialists as a large suburb.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
600By sharing resources across nine regional agencies, a town of 600 received the same high-level specialists as a large suburb.www2.census.govchecked 2026-09-27
all fourOut here, that's Great Prairie AEA, which serves all four of our counties.gpaea.orgchecked 2026-09-27
10 percentA year later, in July 2025, it let districts move 10 percent of their special education money away from them.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
429As that school year began, Iowa's AEAs reported 429 fewer staff members than the year before.iowacapitaldispatch.comchecked 2026-09-27
$50,000Starting pay went to at least $47,500 in 2024-25, then $50,000 from July 2025, and teachers with at least twelve years went to at least $60,000, then $62,000.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$66.3 millionThe state paid for both: $66.3 million more in 2024-25, and another $26.4 million in 2025-26, according to the fiscal note.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$26.4 millionThe state paid for both: $66.3 million more in 2024-25, and another $26.4 million in 2025-26, according to the fiscal note.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$244.9 millionWhen the bill passed, the Legislative Services Agency projected that direct state payments to AEAs would drop from $244.9 million in school year 2023-24, to about $10.8 million in the school year that began in July 2025, with the rest going to districts, which can still buy AEA services with it.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$10.8 millionWhen the bill passed, the Legislative Services Agency projected that direct state payments to AEAs would drop from $244.9 million in school year 2023-24, to about $10.8 million in the school year that began in July 2025, with the rest going to districts, which can still buy AEA services with it.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$2.1 millionThe rest brings back the AEA professional development supplement, $2.2 million to $2.3 million a year once its last amount of $2.1 million is grown to that year by the growth rates the Legislature sets.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$32.5 millionIt costs the state $34.7 million to $34.8 million a year in new money: $32.5 million to end the yearly cut, and $2.2 million to $2.3 million to bring back the AEA staff training money.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$10 millionCurrent law sets aside $10 million a year of the AEA cut for the department, starting July 2027.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$47,500Starting pay went to at least $47,500 in 2024-25, then $50,000 from July 2025, and teachers with at least twelve years went to at least $60,000, then $62,000.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$29.6 millionA $7.5 million cut has been in law since July 2002, and budget bills added more on top in most recent years: the total was $29.6 million in school year 2023-24, and $32.5 million in 2024-25, the first year HF 2612 applied.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$32.5 millionA $7.5 million cut has been in law since July 2002, and budget bills added more on top in most recent years: the total was $29.6 million in school year 2023-24, and $32.5 million in 2024-25, the first year HF 2612 applied.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$32.5 millionSF 659 kept it at $32.5 million in 2025-26, and HF 2800 made $32.5 million permanent.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$7.5 millionA $7.5 million cut has been in law since July 2002, and budget bills added more on top in most recent years: the total was $29.6 million in school year 2023-24, and $32.5 million in 2024-25, the first year HF 2612 applied.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$60,000Starting pay went to at least $47,500 in 2024-25, then $50,000 from July 2025, and teachers with at least twelve years went to at least $60,000, then $62,000.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
$62,000Starting pay went to at least $47,500 in 2024-25, then $50,000 from July 2025, and teachers with at least twelve years went to at least $60,000, then $62,000.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27
voted for the billRep. Harris on the first passage of House File 2612 in the Iowa House.legis.iowa.govchecked 2026-09-27

Laws cited

HF 2612The 2024 AEA law (enrolled; signed March 27, 2024). Sent 60 percent of media and educational services money to districts in FY 2025 and all of it from FY 2026, usable for any district general fund purpose (Secs. 30 and 32, pp. 24-30). Sent special education support money to districts from FY 2026 and required at least 90 percent of it to be spent on services contracted from the AEA; the rest must still go to special education support services, from any provider (Secs. 27 and 30, pp. 22-25). Eliminated the AEA professional development supplement (Secs. 23-26, 28-29 and 33) and put AEAs under Department of Education oversight for special education (Secs. 2, 5, 7 and 9). legis.iowa.gov
SF 6592025 standings bill (enrolled). Moved the $7.5 million AEA reduction onto district special education support amounts and added a one-year $25 million reduction for FY 2026 (Secs. 5-6, p. 3). Left HF 2612's routing in place. legis.iowa.gov
HF 28002026 standings bill (enrolled). Set the reduction at $32.5 million a year from FY 2027 and appropriated $10 million of it to the Department of Education from FY 2028 (Sec. 10, p. 5); quarterly AEA payments from FY 2027 (pp. 27-29). Left HF 2612's routing in place. legis.iowa.gov
SF 22012026 school aid bill (enrolled; cover "Senate File 2201 - Enrolled"). Sets the 2 percent growth rates for FY 2027 (pp. 1-2) and, in Sec. 20 (p. 10), adds Code 257.35 subsection 21A: from FY 2028 the Department of Management "may deduct" the media and educational services amounts attributable to nonpublic students and pay them to AEAs. HF 2800 Sec. 88 (p. 28) moves 21A's start to FY 2027. legis.iowa.gov
chapter 257Financing school programs (the school aid formula). Section 1 of the bill joins it.legis.iowa.gov
chapter 273Area education agencies. Section 2 of the bill joins it.legis.iowa.gov
chapter 256BSpecial education, including the Department of Education's oversight duties HF 2612 added. The bill leaves them in place.legis.iowa.gov
chapter 284Teacher performance, compensation and career development; governs how professional development supplement money is used.legis.iowa.gov
257.8State percent of growth and categorical state percent of growth, used to grow the restored professional development supplement.legis.iowa.gov
257.10District cost; subsection 7 is special education support services district cost, with HF 2612's 90 percent contracting rule.legis.iowa.gov
257.35Area education agency payments; subsection 1 sets what the state pays AEAs directly, subsection 2 the statewide reduction. The 2026 session changed it after Code 2026 was printed: HF 2800 rewrote subsection 2 ($32.5 million a year) and struck subsections 3 to 20, and SF 2201 added subsection 21A (the nonpublic-student share of media and educational services money). legis.iowa.gov
257.37Funding media and educational services; since HF 2612, money not paid to an AEA may be used for any district general fund purpose.legis.iowa.gov
273.2AEA powers and services. Subsection 3(b) lets an AEA provide evidence-based professional development only if the service is on the Department director's list or the director approves it. Subsection 13 requires AEAs to charge reasonable costs consistent with current market rates; subsection 14 requires an annual report on services and their cost. legis.iowa.gov