231.32  Criteria for designation of area agencies on aging.
  1.  The department shall designate an area agency on aging for each planning and service area. The designation shall continue until an area agency on aging’s designation is removed for cause as determined by the department, until the time of renewal or the annual update of an area plan, until the agency voluntarily withdraws as an area agency on aging, or until a change in the designation of planning and service areas or area agencies on aging is required by state or federal law. In that event, the department shall proceed in accordance with subsections 2, 3, and 4. Designated area agencies on aging shall comply with the requirements of the federal Act.
  2.  The department shall designate an area agency on aging to serve each planning and service area, after consideration of the views offered by units of general purpose local government. An area agency on aging may be:
  a.  An established office of aging which is operating within a planning and service area designated by the department.
  b.  Any office or agency of a unit of general purpose local government, which is designated to function only for the purpose of serving as an area agency on aging by the chief elected official of such unit.
  c.  Any office or agency designated by the appropriate chief elected officials of any combination of units of general purpose local government to act only on behalf of such combination for such purpose.
  d.  Any public or nonprofit private agency in a planning and service area or any separate organizational unit within such agency which is under the supervision or direction for this purpose of the department and which can and will engage only in the planning or provision of a broad range of long-term living and community support services or nutrition services within the planning and service area.
  3.  When the department designates a new area agency on aging, the department shall give the right of first refusal to a unit of general purpose local government if:
  a.  Such unit can meet the requirements of subsection 1.
  b.  The boundaries of such a unit and the boundaries of the area are reasonably contiguous.
  4.  Each area agency on aging shall provide assurance, determined adequate by the department, that the area agency on aging has the ability to develop an area plan and to carry out, directly or through contractual or other arrangements, a program in accordance with the plan within the planning and service area. In designating an area agency on aging within the planning and service area, the department shall give preference to an established office of aging, unless the department finds that no such office within the planning and service area has the capacity to carry out the area plan.
  5.  Upon designation, an area agency on aging shall be considered an instrumentality of the state and shall adhere to all state and federal mandates applicable to an instrumentality of the state.
86 Acts, ch 1245, §1013
C87, §249D.32
C93, §231.32
2003 Acts, ch 141, §8; 2009 Acts, ch 23, §24; 2009 Acts, ch 41, §230; 2009 Acts, ch 133, §218, 219; 2010 Acts, ch 1069, §66, 147; 2012 Acts, ch 1028, §1, 3; 2013 Acts, ch 18, §21; 2018 Acts, ch 1049, §7, 8; 2023 Acts, ch 19, §583; 2024 Acts, ch 1161, §147
Referred to in §231.23
Section amended