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![handle is hein.sag/sagia0023 and id is 1 raw text is: The Honorable Thomas G. Courtney
March 12, 2012
Office of the Attorney General
State of Iowa
Opinion No. 12-3-1
*1 March 12, 2012
SCHOOLS: Telecommunications; Online Curriculum. Iowa Code 4 256.7 (2012). Dillon's Rule would not prohibit the use of
telecommunications for private companies to deliver educational courses to studnts open-enrolled from other school districts as
long as all statutory requirements are met. (Miller and Pottorff to Courtney, State Senator, 3-12-12)
The Honorable Thomas G. Courtney
State Senator
State Capitol
L-O-C-A-L
Dear Senator Courtney:
Our office is in receipt of your letter dated February 10, 2012, in which you asked that we issue an opinion on the legality of a
program under which two Iowa school districts have contracted with two different private, for-profit, out-of-state companies to
provide online classes. You have informed us that students are open enrolled in the school districts for these online programs
operated through the Cumberland, Anita, Massena (CAM) community school district and the Clayton Ridge community school
district in Guttenberg. Further, you state that the school districts will receive full state funding of $6,000 per pupil rather than
$1,800 per pupil through the home school - assistance program (HSAP). You question the legality of the existing contracts with
these companies and ask that we opine on the authority of the school districts to have moved forward with these programs without
first obtaining the express authorization of the General Assembly. We are limiting our response to your question concerning the
authority of the school districts to provide an online learning curriculum under existing statutes and we express no opinion on any
legislation being proposed by the Department or by legislators.
In assessing the authority of school districts to enter into contracts for these online programs we apply Dillon's Rule. We have
observed that public school districts, as creatures of statute, are not vested with home rule authority. Both our opinions and
opinions of the Iowa courts have consistently held that schools are subject to Dillon's Rule, i.e., the only powers which may be
exercised by a school board are those expressly conferred upon them by statute or necessarily implied from those express
powers. Op. Atty. Gen. # 00-2-4(L). See Sioux City Comm. Sch. Dist. v. Bd. of Pub. Instruction, 402 N.W.2d 739, 741 (Iowa
1987); Burnett v. Durant Comm. Sch. Dist., 249 N.W.2d 626, 627 (Iowa 1978); Silver Lake Consol Sch. Dist. v. Parker 238 Iowa
984, 990, 29 N.W.2d 214, 217-18 (1947). With this principle in mind, we look to specific statutes for that authority.
Statutory Framework
The Iowa General Assembly in 1987 did not directly grant authority to school districts to use telecommunications to instruct
students. Rather, it granted very broad authority to the State Board of Education to give this authority to Iowa's school districts.
Two sections of the Iowa Code are the source of this authority:
*2 [T]he state board shall:
7. Adopt rules under chapter 17A for the use of telecommunications as an instructional tool for students enrolled in
kindergarten through grade twelve and served by local school districts, accredited or approved nonpublic schools, area
education agencies, community colleges, institutions of higher education under the state board of regents, and independent
colleges and universities in elementary and secondary school classes and courses. The rules shall include but need not be
limited to rules relating to programs, educational policy, instructional practices, staff development, use of pilot projects,
curriculum monitoring, and the accessibility of licensed teachers.
a. When curriculum is provided by means of telecommunications, it shall be taught by an appropriately licensed teacher.
The teacher shall either be present in the classroom, or be present at the location at which the curriculum delivered by
means of telecommunications originates.
b. The rules shall provide that when the curriculum is taught by an appropriately licensed teacher at the location at which
the telecommunications originates, the curriculum received at a remote site shall be under the supervision of a licensed
teacher. The licensed teacher at the originating site may provide supervision of students at a remote site or the school
district in which the remote site is located may provide for supervision at the remote site if the school district deems it
necessary or if requested to do so by the licensed teacher at the originating site. For the purposes of this subsection,
supervision means that the curriculum is monitored by a licensed teacher and the teacher is accessible to the students
receiving the curriculum by means of telecommunications.
c. The state board shall establish an advisory committee to make recommendations for rules required under this](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.sag/sagia0023&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)