Relating to the responsibilities and authority of school districts or school corporations, accredited nonpublic schools, area education agencies, community colleges, and board of regents institutions, and including effective date provisions

The division requires the person who performs the child’s dental screening to submit the information regarding completion of the screening on a form to the department of public health, and provides that the form may be submitted to the department in written or electronic form. Under the division, the school must ensure that the parent or guardian of a student enrolled in kindergarten or grade nine has received information about the state’s dental screening requirements and about resources that are available to satisfy the requirements. Use of Environmentally Preferable Cleaning Products in School District, Community College, and Regents Institution Buildings. The division strikes requirements that school districts, community colleges, and regents institutions conduct an evaluation and assessment regarding implementation of an environmentally preferable cleaning policy and purchase only cleaning and maintenance products identified by the department of administrative services as being environmentally preferable or that meet nationally recognized standards. A provision establishing a process by which school districts, community colleges, and regents institutions could opt out of compliance is stricken. Vision Screenings. The division replaces a provision that requires a parent or guardian of an elementary school child to ensure that evidence of the child’s vision screening is provided to the school in which the child is enrolled with a requirement that the evidence of vision screening be provided to the department of public health by the person providing the screening. Blood Lead Testing. The division strikes language requiring the department of public health to adopt rules for a requirement that children receive a blood lead test before enrolling in any elementary school; strikes a requirement that a parent or guardian provide evidence to a school district that the parent or guardian’s child was tested for elevated blood lead levels by age six; strikes a provision requiring the school district and nonpublic school to ensure that the parent or guardian has complied and if not, to provide the parent or guardian with community blood lead testing information; and strikes a requirement that the school district and nonpublic school furnish the department with a list of children enrolled in kindergarten. Instead, the bill requires the parent or guardian, or the person authorized by the parent or guardian to test the child for elevated blood lead levels, to submit a record of the testing to the department of public health in written or electronic form; requires that the school districts and nonpublic schools ensure that the parent or guardian has received community blood lead testing program information; and requires the department to work with school districts, nonpublic schools, and the local childhood lead poisoning prevention programs to assure that children are tested. A requirement that the parents, guardians, and legal custodians of children under competent private instruction submit evidence to a school district that the child has been tested for elevated blood lead levels has been replaced with a requirement that the parents, guardians, and legal custodians ensure that the child has been tested. School Nurse Requirement. The bill strikes the requirement that school districts work toward a goal of having one school nurse for every 750 students. Student Eye Care. The division strikes a provision requiring that every parent or guardian of a child registered for kindergarten or preschool be provided with a student vision card provided by the Iowa optometric association and approved by the department of education with a goal of each child reaching an eye examination by age seven. DIVISION II —— AREA EDUCATION AGENCY BOARDS —— POSTING OF NOTICE OF PROPOSED BUDGET. Division II strikes a provision that requires area education agency (AEA) boards to give notice of a public hearing on the agency’s proposed budget by publication in an official county newspaper in each county in which a school district located within the AEA locates its principal place of business. DIVISION III —— SCHOOL DISTRICTS —— MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS. Teacher Librarian Requirement. The bill strikes obsolete provisions. School Bus Rules. The division strikes a provision requiring school boards to have rules regulating the loading and unloading of pupils from a school bus stopped on the highway during inclement weather. Schoolhouse and Site Fund Deposits. The division also provides an exception to a provision that requires a school district to deposit in the physical plant and equipment levy moneys received from the condemnation, sale, or other disposition for public purposes of schoolhouses, school sites, or both schoolhouses and school sites. Under the exception, the board of directors of a school corporation organized under Code chapter 274 may take action to deposit such moneys in any proposed account of the school corporation if the board holds a public hearing on the proposal prior to taking action. The board must publish notice of the time and the place of the public hearing between to days before the hearing in a newspaper of general circulation located within the corporation’s boundaries.14(3), the board of directors of a community college has the powers and duties prescribed for the boards of directors of school districts under Code chapter 279. Publication of Notice Prior to Loan Agreement. The division strikes a provision requiring a school corporation to publish notice in a newspaper of general circulation prior to entering into a loan agreement for an equipment purchase. School District Reporting Requirements. The division also strikes a provision requiring a school district to collect information from parents or guardians of kindergarten students regarding preschool attendance, factors identified by the early childhood Iowa office, and other demographic factors; and requiring the school district to report community strategies results, the early childhood assessment results, and the preschool information collected to the department of education each year. Also stricken is a requirement that the department review the information and submit its findings and recommendations annually in a report to the governor, the general assembly, the early childhood Iowa state board, and the early childhood Iowa area boards. Charging for Registry Checks. Currently, school districts are prohibited from charging employees for the cost of registry checks. The bill provides that a school district may charge an employee for the cost of the registry checks, not to exceed the actual cost. Obsolete language relating to school employee registry checks is stricken. Energy Audit Results. The division also repeals a Code provision that requires the boards of directors of school districts to file with the economic development authority the results of an energy audit of the buildings owned and leased by the school district.