15H.10  Volunteer mentor program.
  1.  Subject to an appropriation of funds by the general assembly for this purpose, the commission shall establish a volunteer mentor program to support implementation of the future ready Iowa skilled workforce last-dollar scholarship and the future ready Iowa skilled workforce grant programs created in sections 256.228 and 256.229. The commission, in collaboration with the department of workforce development and the college student aid commission, shall adopt rules pursuant to chapter 17A to implement and administer the volunteer mentor program, and shall establish standards, guidelines, and expectations for a productive and appropriate relationship between mentors and mentees, including helping students meet the future ready Iowa skilled workforce last-dollar scholarship program or future ready Iowa skilled workforce grant requirements, as appropriate; identify work-based learning opportunities; and make career-related connections that are advantageous to persons participating in the volunteer mentor program.
  2.  The prospective volunteer mentor shall have successfully passed a background investigation conducted by the division of criminal investigation of the department of public safety and a check of the national sex offender registry.
  3.  The commission shall enter into written agreements with prospective mentors and mentees under the program. Under such an agreement, prospective mentors and mentees agree to abide by the standards, guidelines, and expectations established by the commission pursuant to subsection 1.
  4.  The commission, in collaboration with the department of workforce development and the college student aid commission, and in cooperation with an eligible institution as defined in section 256.228 or 256.229, as appropriate, shall assign a student, who is a recipient of a future ready Iowa skilled workforce last-dollar scholarship under section 256.228 or a future ready Iowa skilled workforce grant under section 256.229, who requests the assignment of a mentor, and who enters into an agreement under subsection 3, to a mentor appropriate to the prospective mentee’s field of study whenever possible.
  5.  The commission shall maintain, and regularly update, a list of the mentor and mentee pairings and the dates of inception of the mentor and mentee pairings.
  6.  Notwithstanding section 8.33, moneys appropriated to the department for allocation to the commission for purposes of this section that remain unencumbered or unobligated at the close of a fiscal year shall not revert but shall remain available to be used for the purposes designated in this section until the close of the succeeding fiscal year.
2018 Acts, ch 1067, §6, 15; 2023 Acts, ch 19, §25
Referred to in §84A.1B, 256.228, 256.229