By Sabine Martin, Des Moines Register
- The law requires Iowa public schools to allow private school students to compete on their sports teams.
- Private school students can participate in any public schools’ sports programs under several guidelines, including if the student lives within the district or in a contiguous school district.
Iowa public schools will be required to allow private school students to compete on their sports teams under a bill that Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed into law.
House File 189 grants private school students mandatory access to participate in public schools’ sports programs if the student lives within the district or in a contiguous school district and if the private school has not offered that sport for the two previous years.
The law requires guardians to cover any fees for their students’ sports programs, and public schools can’t charge private school students a fee larger than that paid by public school students.
Some Iowa Democrats decried the law during session debate with concerns that it allows private school students more access to public schools’ taxpayer dollars, citing the education savings account law that Reynolds signed in 2023.
The law made each Iowa student eligible for $7,988 in state funding to pay private school costs, including tuition and fees.
“When you start going down this path that ‘I want my money so that I can send my student to a private school but then I want to turn around so that I can have access to everything else,’ it doesn’t work that way,” said Sen. Mike Zimmer, D-DeWitt, on the Senate floor.
But Iowa Republicans House Republicans said in March that some districts ended their public-private school student-athlete agreements since the education savings accounts became available.
“You’re already sending a bus, you already have your coaches, and I think sometimes we just lose sight that we look at everything through dollars and cents and not to the experience that these young athletes and the skills that they’re going to gain for future productivity in their lives and problem-solving skills and also relationship skills that they’re going to get being part of a team,” said Sen. Tim Kraayenbrink, R-Fort Dodge.
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