Bill > HF2124

This bill mandates that the Department of Education (DE), under the direction of its director, must approve, coordinate, and oversee how school districts, area education agencies (which are regional service providers for schools), and merged areas (groups of school districts) use electronic data and information processing. A key part of this is requiring the development and use of a single, comprehensive statewide data collection system for all school districts, accredited nonpublic schools, and area education agencies, which must meet specific standards including facilitating state and federal reporting, improving information sharing between schools, protecting student and staff data confidentiality, allowing for electronic transfer of student records, ensuring compatibility with existing school information systems, validating data accuracy before submission, enabling communication within the system, and being hosted by the software developer to reduce the burden on schools and the DE. Furthermore, the DE is required to modernize its own electronic systems and procedures by July 1, 2027, to ensure timely disbursement of funds, improve communication with other state agencies and various types of schools (including charter schools and innovation zone schools, which are schools with more flexibility), and to better identify student needs and prepare them for the workforce. This modernization includes deploying a portal with features like data validation, cross-district enrollment checks, embedded communication tools, an automatically updating data dictionary, and a calendar of key dates, also to be hosted by a software developer.

Education

https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=91&ba=HF2124