School start date issue still up in the air

Despite outspoken criticism from school administrators and state lawmakers, a new plan that would enforce strict start date rules on Iowa’s K-12 schools moved forward last week.

     The Iowa Department of Education released guidelines detailing its new policy for early start date waivers on Jan. 21. State law mandates that schools begin classes no sooner than the first week of September, but state officials had ignored those rules and automatically granted early start date requests for many years.

     That tradition came under fire in December following an announcement from Gov. Terry Branstad. The governor directed the Department of Education to stop automatically granting the requests beginning this year, which raised alarms for a majority of school districts across the state.

     Read the full article in the January 28 edition of the Hampton Chronicle.