Section 281.31.5. School district duties related to competent private instruction.

         31.5(1) Reports.

            a.               The secretary of a public school district shall make available reporting forms developed by the department of education and shall receive reports as to competent private instruction, maintaining one copy in the district and forwarding one copy to the area education agency as required by law.

            b.               The secretary of the district shall provide forms to any accredited nonpublic school located within the district for the purpose of reporting the nonpublic school’s student enrollment data as required by law. The district secretary shall notify the appropriate school districts of nonresident students enrolled in accredited nonpublic schools within the district.

            c.               The district shall review the completed form to ascertain whether the person filing has complied with the reporting requirements of the law and these rules. Specifically, the district shall determine from the report that the person providing the instruction is either the child’s parent, guardian, custodian or a person with a valid Iowa practitioner’s license appropriate to the age and grade level of the child; that the designated period of instruction is at least 148 days per academic year; that immunization evidence is provided for children placed under competent private instruction for the first time; and that the report is timely under these rules.

            d.               The district shall annually report to the department of education by June 30 the names of all resident children who are subject to an annual assessment and who either failed to make adequate progress or whose parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian failed to comply with the assessment requirements of the compulsory attendance law.

            e.               The district shall report noncompliance with the reporting, immunization, attendance, instructor qualifications, and assessment requirements of the compulsory attendance law and these rules to the county attorney for the county of residence of the child’s parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian.

            f.                Upon the request of a parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian of a child of compulsory attendance age who is under competent private instruction, or upon the referral of a licensed practitioner who provides instruction or instructional supervision of a child of compulsory attendance age who is under competent private instruction, or upon any other evidence that the child may require special education, the district shall refer a child who may require special education to the area education agency division of special education for evaluation.

            g.               The district may request a parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian of a child of compulsory attendance age providing competent private instruction to the child under Iowa Code section 299A.3 as amended by 2013 Iowa Acts, House File 215, section 88, (private instruction by nonlicensed person) to provide the information required by this subrule; however, the parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian is not required to do so, pursuant to Iowa Code section 299A.3 as amended by 2013 Iowa Acts, House File 215, section 88, and subrule 31.2(3).

         31.5(2) Testing assistance.

            a.               If a standardized test has been requested by the child’s parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian, the district shall administer the standardized test to the child, delegate the test administration to the appropriate area education agency, or allow the child’s parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian to procure standardized testing through a correspondence or other school accredited by an accrediting agency approved by the federal Department of Education, or through any testing service authorized by the publisher of any test approved by the state department of education for assessment purposes. No fee is charged to the parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian for such assessment.

            b.               If a student has been administered an approved standardized test by a correspondence or other school accredited by an accrediting agency approved by the federal Department of Education, or by any testing service authorized by the publisher of any test approved by the state department of education for assessment purposes during the academic school year for which testing is required and the administration of the test has met the terms or protocol of the test publisher, a copy of the test result report, from which test results not required under law may be redacted, may be submitted to the resident district by the parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian of the child being tested, in satisfaction of the annual assessment option. The submitted test results shall be accompanied by a certification statement signed by the test administrator to the effect that the publisher’s protocol or terms required for test administration have been met.

            c.               The administration of the annual achievement evaluation shall not constitute a dual enrollment purpose under Iowa Code section 299A.8 as amended by 2013 Iowa Acts, House File 215, section 94, and this rule.

         31.5(3) Finance.

            a.               A public school district may count a competent private instruction student for purposes of its certified enrollment only under the following circumstances:

             (1)             A resident student or the student’s parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian has requested dual enrollment, in which case the student is counted as authorized by law. However, if the student is receiving special education services or instruction, the student shall qualify for additional weighting pursuant to the provisions of Iowa Code section 257.6; or

             (2)            The school district provides an Iowa licensed practitioner to instruct or to assist and supervise parents, guardians, or legal or actual custodians providing competent private instruction and the child has been enrolled in the district’s home school assistance program.

            b.               Dual enrollment of a child is not required solely for purposes of accessing the annual achievement evaluation, and the administration of the annual achievement evaluation shall not constitute a dual enrollment purpose.

         31.5(4) Provision of instructional materials.

            a.               A school district shall not make monetary payments, including cash and cash equivalents, or give publicly funded resources, directly or indirectly to the parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian or to a child receiving competent private instruction. A school district shall not purchase texts or supplementary materials for or on behalf of a child receiving competent private instruction if such texts or supplementary materials are not appropriate for use by regularly enrolled students of the school district.

            b.               A district may provide to children receiving competent private instruction available texts or supplementary materials on the same basis as they are provided to enrolled students and shall provide available texts or supplemental instructional materials on the same basis as they are provided to enrolled students when a child is under dual enrollment or in a home school assistance program. If a fee, such as a textbook or towel rental fee, is charged to regularly enrolled students for participation in a class or extracurricular activity, that fee may also be charged to dual-enrolled students on the same basis as it is charged to enrolled students, but only for the specific class or extracurricular activity.

            c.               The parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian who provides competent private instruction to a child of compulsory attendance age may access the services and materials available from the area education agency by requesting assistance through the school district of residence. The AEA shall make services and materials available to the child on the same basis as they are available to regularly enrolled students of the district if the child is dual enrolled or enrolled in a home school assistance program. The district of residence shall act as liaison between the parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian of a child who is receiving competent private instruction and the area education agency.

         31.5(5) Home school assistance programs. A school district or accredited nonpublic school may offer an assistance program for parents, guardians, or legal or actual custodians providing private instruction to a child of compulsory attendance age. A district or accredited nonpublic school may impose additional requirements upon children enrolled in its home school assistance program.

A parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian seeking to enroll a child in a home school assistance program in a school district or accredited nonpublic school must file the report of competent private instruction, items 1, 3, and 5 thereof.

An assistance program offered by a school district or accredited nonpublic school shall, at a minimum, meet state licensure standards for accredited school personnel in designating a practitioner to provide instruction or instructional supervision for a competent private instruction program, including special education instruction, and shall meet the applicable provisions of rule 281—31.4(299,299A). All district personnel who provide or supervise instruction to children enrolled in the district’s home school assistance program shall be appropriately licensed to the grade levels of the children instructed. A district shall not employ as a home school assistance program instructor a person who currently holds only a substitute authorization issued pursuant to rule 282—22.2(272).

A home school assistance program is not dual enrollment, but the parent, guardian, or legal or actual custodian of a child enrolled in a home school assistance program may request dual enrollment in addition to enrollment in a home school assistance program.

         31.5(6) Driver education. The public school district shall offer or make available to all resident students, including those receiving competent private instruction on an equal basis with students enrolled in the district, an approved course in driver education, as required by Iowa Code section 321.178(1)“c” as amended by 2013 Iowa Acts, House File 215, section 99.

[ARC 1246C, IAB 12/11/13, effective 1/15/14]