House Study Bill 635 - Introduced SENATE/HOUSE FILE _____ BY (PROPOSED DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION BILL) A BILL FOR An Act concerning instruction provided through the Iowa 1 learning online initiative. 2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA: 3 TLSB 5212XD (4) 86 je/sc

S.F. _____ H.F. _____ Section 1. Section 256.42, subsection 7, Code 2016, is 1 amended to read as follows: 2 7. The department may waive for one year the provisions 3 of section 256.11, subsection 5 , which require that specified 4 subjects be offered and taught by professional staff of a 5 school district or school, if the school district or school 6 makes every reasonable and good faith good-faith effort to 7 employ a teacher licensed under chapter 272 for such a subject, 8 and the school district or school proves to the satisfaction 9 of the department that the school district or school is unable 10 to employ such a teacher. The specified subject shall be 11 provided by the initiative. The specified subject may instead 12 be provided by the school district or school if all of the 13 following conditions are met: 14 a. The course content is provided through an online learning 15 platform by a licensed teacher with online learning experience. 16 b. The course content provided is aligned with school 17 district or school standards. 18 c. The course is not offered by the initiative pursuant to 19 this section, or the course offered by the initiative lacks the 20 capacity to accommodate additional students. 21 d. The course is the sole course per semester that 22 the school district or school is providing instead of the 23 initiative pursuant to this subsection. 24 EXPLANATION 25 The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with 26 the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly. 27 Current law permits the state department of education to 28 waive a requirement that specified subjects available through 29 the Iowa learning online initiative be offered and taught by 30 professional staff of a school district or school if the school 31 district or school makes every reasonable and good-faith effort 32 to employ a teacher licensed for such a subject, and the school 33 district or school proves to the satisfaction of the department 34 that the school district or school is unable to employ such a 35 -1- LSB 5212XD (4) 86 je/sc 1/ 2

S.F. _____ H.F. _____ teacher. The specified subject can only be provided by the 1 initiative. 2 This bill provides that if the department grants such a 3 waiver, the specified subject may be provided by the district 4 or school instead of the initiative if certain conditions 5 specified in the bill are met. 6 -2- LSB 5212XD (4) 86 je/sc 2/ 2