Bills › 90th General Assembly
Establishing the school counselor grant program to be administered by the department of education and making appropriations
Topics:State budgetK–12 education
Where it is now
- Done: IntroducedFebruary 22, 2023
- Stopped: SubcommitteeDied when the General Assembly ended
- Next: House committee
- Next: Passes the House
- Next: Senate committee
- Next: Passes the Senate
- Next: To the Governor
- Next: Signed into law
Died when the session ended The 2024 session adjourned on April 19, 2024, the General Assembly’s last regular session. Bills that didn’t pass both chambers died. What’s a funnel?
What’s in it
AI summary Iowa is creating a new grant program to help school districts hire more counselors. Districts can apply for this money if they have more than one counselor for every 300 students. The state will provide funds to help pay for these new staff members over a five-year period.1
Read the official explanation
5 million to the program in FY 2023-2024. The bill provides that the program is to increase the number of school counselors who are employed by school districts. The bill authorizes a school district to apply to the department for a grant to employ additional school counselors who hold the proper endorsement issued by the board of educational examiners if, at the time of application, the ratio of the number of school counselors employed by the school district to the number of students enrolled in the school district exceeds one school counselor to 300 students. The bill prohibits a school district from applying for more than two grants under the program in one year. The bill provides that the amount of a grant the department may award to a school district under the program shall not exceed $125,000 over a five-year period for each additional school counselor employed by the school district. The bill also provides that beginning the year the department awards a grant to a school district under the program, the school district shall allocate one-fifth of the amount of the grant annually to cover the costs associated with employing each additional school counselor. The bill establishes that moneys awarded under the program shall be used to supplement, not supplant, existing public funding used by a school district for similar purposes. The bill establishes a school counselor grant program fund in the state treasury to be administered by the department. The bill appropriates the moneys in the fund to the department for the program. The bill requires the state board of education to adopt rules to administer the program.