List of school districts in Iowa explained
This is a list of school districts in Iowa, sorted by Area Education Agencies (AEA).Districts are listed by their official names, though several schools use "Schools" in their name or website rather than "Community School District"., this list has not been expanded to include former school districts.
School districts have several classifications. They are counted as separate governments by the U.S. Census Bureau. Iowa has no school systems dependent on another layer of government.[1]
Background
In the early 1900s the state had 4,873 school districts. The state government passed the Consolidated School of Law of 1906 and this figure fell to 4,863 in 1908, 4,839 in 1922, and 4,558 in 1953.[2] That year some additional laws were passed that contributed to reducing this further, and so this fell further to 458 as of July 1, 1965; that year another law made providing a high school mandatory for a school district, which meant school districts that had one room schoolhouses were required to consolidate.[3] The deadline for such mergers to be finalized was April 1, 1966, with mergers themselves to occur on July 1 of that year.[4]
By July 1, 1980, the number of districts was down to 443.[5] In 1984, there were 437 school districts in the state that operated high schools.[6] In 1990 the total number of school districts was 430.[5] In fall 1995 the number of school districts operating high schools was down to 353, and in 1995 670 was the median enrollment K-12 of an Iowa school district.[6] An Iowa Department of Education consultant named Guy Ghan referred to the 1990s school district mergers as the "third wave".[7]
The total number of school districts was 365 on July 1, 2005.[5] In the 2016–2017 school year there were 333 school districts, an 11% decrease from the same figure in 2000.[8]
Circa the 1980s school districts began agreements to share resources, such as particular employees, or "whole grade sharing" (where students of one or more grade levels are sent to a different school district to get their education). In 2005 Tom Vilsack, the Governor of Iowa, proposed that requirements for school districts to have certain numbers of students or sharing employees as ways of reducing local government spending, though Vilsack never enacted those requirements. In 2007 Josh Nelson of The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier wrote that "Lately, consolidation hasn't been as big of an issue compared to previous years."[3]
By 2016 population losses in rural areas have fueled further school district consolidations.[9] By 2017 there had been school districts that had formed from different generations of school consolidations.[10]
Central Rivers AEA
Black Hawk County
Bremer County
Buchanan County
Butler County
Cerro Gordo County
Chickasaw County
Floyd County
Franklin County
Grundy County
Hancock County
Hardin County
Marshall County
Mitchell County
Poweshiek County
Tama County
Winnebago County
Worth County
Wright County
Grant Wood AEA
Benton County
Cedar County
Iowa County
Johnson County
Jones County
Linn County
Washington County
Great Prairie AEA
Appanoose County
Davis County
Des Moines County
Henry County
Jefferson County
Keokuk County
Lee County
Louisa County
Lucas County
Mahaska County
Monroe County
Van Buren County
Wapello County
Wayne County
Green Hills AEA
Adair County
Adams County
Carroll County
Cass County
Clarke County
Decatur County
Fremont County
Harrison County
Mills County
Montgomery County
Page County
Pottawattamie County
Ringgold County
Shelby County
Taylor County
Union County
Wayne County
Heartland AEA
Audubon County
Boone County
Carroll County
Dallas County
Guthrie County
Jasper County
Madison County
Marion County
Polk County
Shelby County
Story County
Warren County
Keystone AEA
Allamakee County
Chickasaw County
Clayton County
Delaware County
Dubuque County
Fayette County
Howard County
Winneshiek County
Mississippi Bend AEA
Cedar County
Clinton County
Jackson County
Louisa County
Muscatine County
Scott County
Northwest AEA
Cherokee County
Crawford County
Ida County
Lyon County
Monona County
O'Brien County
Osceola County
Plymouth County
Sioux County
Woodbury County
Prairie Lakes AEA
Buena Vista County
Calhoun County
Clay County
Dickinson County
Emmet County
Greene County
Hamilton County
Humboldt County
Kossuth County
Palo Alto County
Pocahontas County
Sac County
Webster County
Wright County
See also
References
Reference notes
Further reading
External links
Notes and References
- Web site: Iowa. U.S. Census Bureau. 2024-11-01.
- Web site: DISTRICT NAME CHANGES. Iowa Department of Education. https://web.archive.org/web/20051003132858/http://www.state.ia.us/educate/directory/doc/dist_name_change.doc. 2021-03-07. 2005-10-03.
- Web site: Nelson. Josh. School ties . The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. 2007-03-11. 2021-04-25.
- Deadline nears for non-high-school areas. Cedar Rapids Gazette. 1966-03-20. B1. NewspaperArchive.
- Web site: REORGANIZATION & DISSOLUTION ACTION SINCE 1965-66. Iowa Department of Education. 2021-03-04. 2020-09-27. https://web.archive.org/web/20200927104330/https://educateiowa.gov/sites/files/ed/documents/DistrictReorganizationHistoryThroughFY21.pdf. dead.
- News: Siebert. Mark. Survival of the littlest. The Des Moines Register. 1995-09-17. 1B, 8B.
- News: Bloom. Elizabeth. Consultant thinks school consolidation phase nearing an end. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. 1995-10-29. B4.
- Web site: Patane. Matthew. How we got here: School consolidation leads to 11 percent drop in number of districts. The Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 2018-04-30.
- Web site: Vujicic. Aleksandra. More rural Iowa school districts plan to close their doors. The Des Moines Register. 2016-05-29. 2021-03-07.
- Web site: Duffy. Molly. Iowa school districts cope with when to consolidate - and when to stand alone. The Gazette. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 2017-02-20.
