The Iowa Senate Education Committee moved ahead multiple bills Monday without discussion or dissent from its members. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
The Iowa Senate Education Committee approved legislation Monday to change state law defining bullying in schools, keeping it alive ahead of this week’s committee deadline.
The panel also sent five other bills to the Senate floor dealing with topics ranging from national guard scholarships to attendance policies. The anti-bullying legislation was the only bill that did not receive unanimous support during the meeting.
House File 865 would redefine “harassment” and “bullying” as “repeated and targeted” actions. The bill removes from current law a list of 17 traits or characteristics of a targeted student that would fall under bullying, including gender identity, sexuality, race, political belief and familial status.
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Sen. Sandy Salmon, R-Janesville, said schools have used the current list of possible traits and characteristics to say their hands are tied when instances of bullying have not fallen under what is in Iowa code, leading to confusion and unequal treatment of students.
“These changes to the law ensure that all students are protected no matter what their particular traits or characteristics are,” Salmon said. “This removes any confusion schools may have about what constitutes bullying, and simplifies and clarifies the issue.”
Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines, voiced two concerns over the legislation, the first with changing the definitions of bullying and harassment.
“That’s a problem for me, because we should have a zero tolerance policy on bullying of any kind in our schools,” Trone Garriott said. “That’s the concern I hear from parents, is that schools are not taking bullying seriously and they’re not reporting it.”
Trone Garriott also took issue with removing the list of characteristics for schools to look toward for reporting bullying. She said the list is broad and not limiting for schools, and being able to identify specifically what the bullying is about is helpful for school response and for research into larger trends.
While Sen. Mike Zimmer, D-DeWitt, agreed with Trone Garriott’s point about specified characteristics being a good resource for schools, he said defining bullying as being targeted and repeated would be helpful in allowing school staff to take the direction of their interventions with students that makes the most sense for the situation.
The bill passed with a vote of 11-5.
This was the committee’s first meeting since the week of the first “funnel” deadline in the Iowa Legislature on March 7, with the second funnel only days away. Most policy bills have to receive approval from one chamber and a committee in the opposite chamber to remain eligible for debate after this week. Budget and tax bills are exempt from the funnel and bills that do not make the deadline could be revived as amendments to other bills.
More education action
Most of the bills passed out of the committee Monday saw no dissent from members.
Bills passed unanimously without discussion included House File 117, which would establish a new scholarship program for National Guard members earning certification rather than a degree and House File 392, allowing public and nonpublic schools grades K-12 to apply for a year-round academic calendar.
Zimmer expressed his support for House File 393, also passed unanimously, which would change how performance grades for attendance centers are calculated by no longer counting instances where a student has dropped out then came back to school more than once.
Trone Garriott also raised concerns about House File 870, but voted for it alongside the rest of the members. She said she worried the legislation, which would change Iowa’s compulsory attendance law to include exemptions for students attending religious instruction, is duplicative as there are already religious exemptions for teaching in Iowa code.
Several bills deferred
Sen. Lynn Evans, chair of the education committee, said three bills were deferred and would likely be brought up again at the committee’s Thursday meeting.
Senate File 269, passed out of subcommittee just hours before, would bar state universities from requiring diversity, equity and inclusion or critical race theory content in academic courses. House File 703 would change information provided to students by state loan programs and financial aid advisors and House File 189 would set requirements for public school districts with nonpublic school students wishing to participate in extracurricular athletics.
