Des Moines, Iowa — The Republican who leads the Senate Education Committee is championing a plan to get rid of the state mandate that Iowa schools have at least one school nurse and a teacher librarian on staff.
That’s Senator Amy Sinclair of Allerton. Her proposal also would get rid of the mandate that schools collect data on whether students have had vision and dental screenings as well as a blood test to see if they suffer from lead poisoning. Melissa Peterson, a lobbyist for the Iowa State Education Association, suggests the bill sets up a system of haves and have-nots.
School administrators say school nurses help administer prescription medications for students and there might be legal liability for schools that get rid of their nurses. Sharon Guthrie, executive director of the Iowa School Nurse Organization, says a quarter of Iowa schools did not have a nurse on staff before the the state mandate took effect.
Karla Krueger, a professor in the University of Northern Iowa’s College of Education, is urging legislators to maintain the mandate for school librarians. She says teacher librarians have contact with every student in their school.
Emily Piper, a lobbyist for the Iowa Association of School Boards, says most of the ideas in the bill came from school boards seeking more local control.
A Republican senator who joined Sinclair in supporting the bill says he’s interested in reducing administrative costs in schools and he sees this bill as one way to do that.
Meanwhile, Sheldon Community Schools Superintendent Cory Myer says the local control angle sounds good to him.
Myer says he’s not sure how much traction this bill will get and where, if anywhere, it will end up. But if it does end up passing, he says he doubts anything will change for Sheldon students.
Myer has served as Superintendent at Sheldon since July 1st.
