For nearly 50 years, Iowa’s Area Education Agencies (AEAs) have provided a wide range of services designed to help students succeed. What made AEAs unique was the way we connected general education supports with special education services. This “braiding” of services meant that teachers, families, and students had access to a full team approach – whether the need was related to reading, technology, behavior, or complex learning challenges.
Every service we have offered has been important, and each played a role in helping students and schools thrive. That history is something we value deeply.
But today, things look different. Recent legislation changed how AEAs are funded and required us to make hard choices. With fewer resources available, we must focus on the services where we are most needed and our impact is greatest. For Central Rivers AEA, that means special education now represents the bulk of our work. Since we are almost exclusively funded by funds to support students with special needs, our ability to serve students in the general education setting is now limited to the available resources that individual school districts have to purchase them…