At Cedar Rapids roundtable, Rob Sand hears concerns about AEA reforms

CEDAR RAPIDS — Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand on Monday launched a new statewide tour focused on education and community issues, beginning with a roundtable in Cedar Rapids that centered on recent state reforms to Iowa’s Area Education Agencies and their impact on special education services.

Sand, a Democrat running for governor in 2026, was joined by his mother — a retired Keystone AEA physical therapist — along with former AEA staff and teachers who shared concerns about what they described as diminished collaboration under the new system.

The discussion marked the first stop of what Sand’s campaign called an effort to build on his recently completed 100 Town Hall Tour, where he visited all 99 counties to hear directly from Iowans. Now, his team said, Sand is shifting from listening to working on solutions “to fix the issues Iowans care most about, together.”

Statehouse Republicans and Gov. Kim Reynolds last year approved legislation that shifted some funding from the AEAs — which provide special education services, support and training to schools and families — to school districts, and moved oversight of special education from the AEAs to the state education department.

Reynolds said the changes were needed to improve transparency and student outcomes, arguing AEAs had “grown beyond their core mission.” Supporters said the law would modernize services and ensure accountability.

Earlier this year, Iowa’s Area Education Agencies said they were working to strengthen services and outcomes for students with disabilities following last year’s reforms. In new reports, AEAs outlined plans to expand professional development for special education teachers, increase time spent by AEA staff in schools, and create statewide leadership teams to standardize best practices across regions.

AEA officials said the changes also aim to improve the “Child Find” process that identifies students in need of special education.

“Gov. Reynolds pursued AEA reform last year to improve the quality and effectiveness of special education for students with disabilities,” said Mason Mauro, deputy communications director for the governor’s office. “Since the bill was signed into law, the Department of Education and AEAs have developed a strong partnership focused on meaningful collaboration and consistently high-quality services and supports.”

Participants say reforms weakened collaboration and access

Panelists said legislative changes enacted last year have disrupted a system that once emphasized cooperation and embedded expertise.

Before the reforms, AEAs offered a relationship-based support model, participants said, where staff were routinely in schools, building trust with educators and offering quick, informal consultations. That model, several argued, has largely disappeared.

“Now it’s fee-for-service,” said Ann Langenfeld, of Iowa City, resulting in districts being charged up to $900 a day for support, which has discouraged teachers and administrators from reaching out for quick advice or help.

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That means schools think twice before calling, said Langenfeld, who worked for 17 years with Iowa City Schools as a reading teacher and in staff development before serving as an elementary principal. She later joined Grant Wood AEA, where she worked for five years before taking early retirement last spring. Langenfeld now operates her own school improvement consulting business.

Former Grant Wood AEA administrators and staff said the changes have left educators hesitant to seek assistance unless a problem is severe, which in turn delays interventions for students. Small and rural districts, they said, have been hit hardest — lacking the funding and in-house expertise to replace what AEAs once provided.

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Loss of ‘interconnectedness’

Retired AEA professionals at the table described a loss of “interconnectedness” and reduced opportunities for informal problem-solving across schools. Staff reductions — from roughly 30 to seven literacy consultants at Grant Wood AEA — have stretched the remaining personnel thin, limiting how often they can visit classrooms or provide on-site coaching, said Keith Stamp, a retired regional administrator with Grant Wood AEA.

Stamp, a former social studies teacher and high school principal, said the decline is especially troubling for students’ learning outcomes.

“To me, one of the hugest concerns I have is, ‘What is this doing, particularly for students who have learning barriers, what are they learning?’” Stamp said. “I heard from superintendents that the so-called ‘Child Find’ part of special education has kind of remained moderately the same. But, the huge need is, ‘What are kids learning afterwards?’ And that part has just fallen off.”

Stamp said those losses have made it harder for schools to sustain professional learning and apply best practices in classrooms.

Oxford parent Megan Dial-Lapcewich described her family’s positive experience with the state’s early-intervention program for infants and toddlers with developmental delays, before the recent AEA reforms.

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Dial-Lapcewich said the process of getting speech therapy support for her son was “wonderful” — simple to navigate and deeply personal. “I really had to do zero work,” she said. “The specialist came to our house, in his own space, with his own toys, and she taught us how to keep working with him day to day.”

She praised their service coordinator, who covered large stretches of the Grant Wood AEA region despite heavy caseloads and travel demands, saying the in-home visits made therapy both effective and accessible. But now, with her son aging out of Early ACCESS and likely to need additional help, Dial-Lapcewich said she worries about what that will look like under the new system. “It wasn’t stressful before,” she said. “I don’t want it to become stressful now.”

The consensus among those gathered was that the reforms, while intended to increase efficiency and accountability, have instead fragmented support systems and raised barriers for schools and families.

Solon schools find flexibility, tailoring funds to local needs

Solon Community School District Superintendent Davis Eidahl, however, told The Gazette that his district has adapted well to the new structure, describing the changes as “pretty positive.”

“We’ve utilized the reform to best fit our needs,” Eidahl said, noting Solon still directs about 90 percent of its special education funds to the Area Education Agency because of the expertise it provides in compliance, occupational therapy and speech services. The district retains 10 percent for “specialized training, resources and program review,” including early literacy, trauma-responsive care and math professional development.

“We flow as much money that comes to us right to the AEA when it comes to special education services,” he said.

Eidahl said Solon continues to work closely with Grant Wood AEA and purchases literacy and media services from it, while using retained funds to target specific local needs.

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“When it comes to that other pot of money, the educational services,” he said, “we feel we’ve got a more unique way of early childhood literacy instruction. And so we utilize a consultant that they have at the AEA who has a lot of knowledge and expertise in that area. We actually purchase a lot of that literacy service through the AEA.”

Eidahl said Solon uses its retained funds for targeted initiatives driven by local data — and to continue reading recovery, which he described as “the only research-based early childhood reading program with strong evidence of effectiveness.” The district’s approach, he said, balances collaboration with the AEA and local autonomy.

“This allows us to really, as a district, to make some local decisions too and earmark our money to what we feel is going to best move the needle for achievement with our students,” he said.

Sand: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’

Sand told attendees that the stories shared at Monday’s event will inform his campaign’s broader conversations about education and community investment.

As governor, he said he will work to stabilize the program and “get funding back where it can be most effective in these kids’ lives.”

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Sand said the changes never reflected public demand and disrupted a system that had been widely respected across Iowa and nationally.

“I think that this is one of those situations where your first guiding principle should be, if it ain't broke, don't fix it,” Sand said, adding that of all the town halls he’s done across the state over the years as state auditor and a candidate, “Never once did I have a person approach me at a town hall or anywhere, or send us an email saying, ‘I have a mild concern about the AEAs’ — nobody, not once.’”

Sand said lawmakers should have focused on Iowa’s pressing economic and health challenges — not dismantled a system that “was a model for the rest of the country.” He noted that Iowa ranks near the bottom nationally for personal income growth and leads the nation in cancer rate increases, yet legislators “decided to play 52-card pickup with people’s lives” instead of addressing those problems.

Republican leaders pushed back on Sand’s remarks, defending the AEA overhaul as necessary to improve accountability and student outcomes.

“It’s alarming that Auditor Sand would call the previous AEA system a ‘model for the rest of the country,’” said Melissa Saitz, communication director for Iowa House Republicans. “Iowa was spending over $5,300 more per pupil on special education funding than the national average while ranking 30th or worse in nine of the 12 national assessments on special education performance.”

Saitz said the AEA reforms gave school districts more flexibility and more money, provided more accountability, increased teacher salaries and raised pay for paraprofessionals who provide support inside the classroom.

“The previous system was failing students and Rob Sand seems to think that’s OK as long as it serves the bureaucracy,” she said.

State officials said the Department of Education has taken steps to strengthen special education oversight and collaboration with AEAs after the enactment of House File 2612. The department said it has restored its Division of Special Education, now staffed with more than 60 regionally based professionals embedded in AEAs and schools to help support students, families and educators.

According to the governor’s office, these specialists focus on evidence-based instruction, academic and behavioral interventions, student engagement and transition planning, and ensuring compliance with special education law.

The department said the restored division has rolled out several statewide initiatives, including a Special Education Policy and Practice webinar series, a leadership course for administrators, and a foundational course for first-year and conditionally licensed special education teachers. It also launched a Specially Designed Instruction Practice Coach Network to help schools strengthen classroom supports and instructional practices.

State officials said the department continues to meet regularly with AEA and district leaders to coordinate improvement efforts and align special education policies and practices statewide.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com