SF 547 (LSB 1103SV (3) 89)

SENATE FILE 547

BY  COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION

(SUCCESSOR TO SF 304)

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to applicant priority and grant award amounts under the teach Iowa scholar program.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 261.110, subsections 2 and 4, Code 2021, are amended to read as follows:
   2.  An Iowa resident or nonresident applicant shall be eligible for a teach Iowa scholar grant if the applicant meets all of the criteria specified under, or established in accordance with, subsection 3. Priority shall be given first to applicants seeking to renew their grant awards and who continue to meet the original priority criteria under which such applicants’ first awards were received; then to applicants who are graduates of approved practitioner preparation programs, by academic year, with the most recent academic year graduates given priority; then to applicants who are minority persons and residents of Iowa; then to applicants who are residents of Iowa. A person is ineligible for this program if the person receives a forgivable loan under section 261.111 or loan forgiveness under section 261.112.  For purposes of this section, “minority person” means the same as defined in section 15.102.
   4.  A selected applicant who meets all of the eligibility requirements of this section shall be eligible for a teach Iowa scholar grant for each year of full-time employment completed in this state as a teacher for a school district, charter school, area education agency, or accredited nonpublic school. A teach Iowa scholar grant shall not exceed four seven thousand five hundred dollars per year per recipient. Grants awarded under this section shall not exceed a total of twenty thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars per recipient over a five-year period. If a selected applicant has received a federally guaranteed Stafford loan under the federal family education loan program or the federal direct loan program, a federal direct plus loan, or a federal Perkins loan, the selected applicant may elect to have the commission make payment under the program directly to the selected applicant’s student loan holder.
    Sec. 2.  Section 261.110, subsection 3, paragraph b, Code 2021, is amended to read as follows:
   b.  The applicant is preparing to teach in fields including but not limited to science, technology, engineering, or mathematics; English as a second language or special education instruction; or is preparing to teach in a hard-to-staff subject as identified by the department; or is preparing to teach in a school district in which more than ten percent of the students enrolled are minority persons. The department shall take into account the varying regional needs in the state for teachers in these subject areas when applying the criterion of this paragraph. The department shall annually identify and designate hard-to-staff subjects for the purpose of this paragraph. The eligibility of an applicant who receives a teach Iowa scholar grant and who is preparing to teach in a hard-to-staff subject as identified by the department shall not be affected in subsequent years if the department does not continue to identify that subject as a hard-to-staff subject.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   This bill modifies the teach Iowa scholar program, under the college student aid commission, to give first priority to applicants seeking renewal of their grant awards, then to applicants who are graduates of approved practitioner preparation programs, then to applicants who are minority persons, with subsequent priority to residents of Iowa, and raises the annual grant limitation from $4,000 to $7,500 and the total grant limitation over a five-year period from $20,000 to $37,500. Currently, priority is given to residents of Iowa.
   Currently, the Code section establishing the program directs the commission to establish eligibility criteria that includes but is not limited to criteria listed in the Code section. The bill adds to the list of criteria that an applicant is preparing to teach in a school district in which more than 10 percent of the students enrolled are minority persons.