Bill Text: IA SF199 | 2019-2020 | 88th General Assembly | Introduced


Bill Title: A bill for an act relating to voluntary diversity plans under the state's open enrollment law. (Formerly SSB 1034.)

Spectrum: Committee Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-02-17 - Committee report, approving bill. S.J. 324. [SF199 Detail]

Download: Iowa-2019-SF199-Introduced.html
Senate File 199 - Introduced SENATE FILE 199 BY COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION (SUCCESSOR TO SSB 1034) (COMPANION TO HF 6 BY FISHER) A BILL FOR An Act relating to voluntary diversity plans under the state’s 1 open enrollment law. 2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA: 3 TLSB 1044SV (1) 88 kh/jh
S.F. 199 Section 1. Section 282.18, subsection 3, Code 2019, is 1 amended to read as follows: 2 3. a. The superintendent of a district subject to a 3 voluntary diversity or court-ordered desegregation plan, as 4 recognized by rule of the state board of education, may deny a 5 request for transfer under this section if the superintendent 6 finds that enrollment or release of a pupil will adversely 7 affect the district’s implementation of the desegregation 8 order or diversity plan , unless the transfer is requested 9 by a pupil whose sibling is already participating in open 10 enrollment to another district, or unless the request for 11 transfer is submitted to the district in a timely manner as 12 required under subsection 2 prior to implementation of the 13 adoption of a desegregation plan order by the district. If a 14 transfer request would facilitate implementation of a voluntary 15 diversity or court-ordered desegregation plan order , the 16 district shall give priority to granting the request over other 17 requests. 18 b. A parent or guardian , whose request has been denied 19 because of the district’s implementation of a the desegregation 20 order or diversity plan, may appeal the decision of the 21 superintendent to the board of the district in which the 22 request was denied. The board may either uphold or overturn 23 the superintendent’s decision. A decision of the board 24 to uphold the denial of the request is subject to appeal 25 to the district court in the county in which the primary 26 business office of the district is located. The state board 27 of education shall adopt rules establishing definitions, 28 guidelines, and a review process for school districts that 29 adopt voluntary diversity plans. The guidelines shall include 30 criteria and standards that school districts must follow 31 when developing a voluntary diversity plan. The department 32 of education shall provide technical assistance to a school 33 district that is seeking to adopt a voluntary diversity plan. 34 A school district implementing a voluntary diversity plan prior 35 -1- LSB 1044SV (1) 88 kh/jh 1/ 2
S.F. 199 to July 1, 2008, shall have until July 1, 2009, to comply with 1 guidelines adopted by the state board pursuant to this section . 2 c. The board of directors of a school district subject 3 to voluntary diversity or court-ordered desegregation shall 4 develop a policy for implementation of open enrollment in 5 the district. The policy shall contain objective criteria 6 for determining when a request would adversely impact the 7 desegregation order or voluntary diversity plan and criteria 8 for prioritizing requests that do not have an adverse impact on 9 the order or plan . 10 EXPLANATION 11 The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with 12 the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly. 13 This bill eliminates implementation of a voluntary diversity 14 plan as a reason to deny open enrollment of a pupil. Under 15 current law, a school district subject to a voluntary diversity 16 plan or court-ordered desegregation may deny a request for 17 open enrollment of a pupil from one district to another if the 18 superintendent finds that the enrollment or release of the 19 pupil will adversely affect the district’s implementation of 20 the voluntary diversity plan or court-ordered desegregation. 21 The bill further eliminates provisions directing the state 22 board of education to adopt rules establishing definitions, 23 guidelines, and a review process that school districts must 24 follow when adopting a voluntary diversity plan and provisions 25 requiring the department of education to provide technical 26 assistance to school districts seeking to adopt a voluntary 27 diversity plan. 28 The bill also strikes obsolete language. 29 -2- LSB 1044SV (1) 88 kh/jh 2/ 2
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