Providing for a statewide course numbering system for postsecondary and concurrent enrollment courses and for a statewide course numbering system fund

This bill, subject to an appropriation of funds by the general assembly for such purpose, requires the state board of regents and the department of education, in cooperation with the Iowa association of independent colleges and universities and the boards of directors of the community colleges, to develop, coordinate, and maintain a statewide course numbering system for postsecondary and concurrent enrollment education in school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, public postsecondary educational institutions, and accredited private institutions, to improve program planning, increase communication among all delivery systems, and facilitate student acceleration and the transfer of students and credits between the schools and postsecondary institutions. The state board of regents is principally responsible for maintaining the system. The state board of regents, the director of the department in collaboration with the community colleges, and the Iowa association of independent colleges and universities are directed to appoint faculty committees representing faculties of public postsecondary educational institutions and accredited private institutions to an ongoing statewide course numbering system faculty task force charged with recommending a single level for each course, including postsecondary career education courses, included in the statewide course numbering system. The task force must meet at least annually to review the system. The bill describes what characterizes an upper or lower level course and requires that the regents, the state board of education, the community colleges, and the accredited private institutions approve the levels for the courses. The system shall include the courses at the recommended levels. The registration process at each public postsecondary educational institution and each accredited private institution shall include the courses at their designated levels and statewide course numbers. Accredited private institutions shall participate in the system, bear the associated costs, and meet the terms and conditions for institutional participation in the system. The state board of regents and the state board of education, in cooperation with the Iowa association of private colleges and universities and the board of directors of the community colleges, must adopt a fee schedule that includes the expenses incurred through data processing, faculty task force travel and per diem, and staff and clerical support time, and differentiates between the costs of initial course inclusion and the costs of system maintenance. Decisions regarding initial course inclusion and subsequent course maintenance must be made within one year after submission of the required materials and fees by the institution. The state board of regents may select a date by which new courses must be submitted and may delay review of courses submitted after that date. Any student who transfers among institutions participating in the system must be awarded credit by the receiving institution for courses satisfactorily completed at the previous institutions. Credit must be awarded if the courses are judged by the task force to be academically equivalent, including equivalency of faculty credentials, regardless of the public or private control of the previous postsecondary educational institution. The award of credit may be limited to courses that are entered in the system. Credits awarded shall satisfy institutional requirements on the same basis as credits awarded under the participating postsecondary educational institution’s current course catalog. The state board of regents and the state board of education shall each adopt rules for purposes of administering the statutory provisions relating to the system. The regents’ rules shall provide for the conduct of regularly scheduled course purges and must include waiver provisions that allow course continuation if a participating institution has reasonable cause for having not offered a course in five years and an expectation that the course will be offered again within the following five years. A statewide course numbering system fund is created in the state treasury under the control of the state board of regents. The fund consists of any moneys appropriated by the general assembly for the system and all fees deposited into the fund. Moneys in the fund are appropriated to the state board of regents for purposes of coordinating and maintaining the system. Moneys remaining in the fund do not revert at the close of a fiscal year but are available for expenditure for the following fiscal year. Interest or earnings on moneys deposited in the fund are credited to the fund.