Spencer, Iowa (NorthwestIowaNow.com) == As the Iowa State Legislature gets ready to meet in session again, senators and representatives are returning to their districts to learn more about the needs of their school districts. Wednesday night the Spencer School Board was joined by State Senator Lynn Evans, State Senator David Rowley, as well as State Representative John Willis and State Representative Megan Jones.

School board members asked questions and gave feedback about recent education laws and standards. The chronic absenteeism law has some students and their families reacting to authoritative measures to withdraw their students and begin homeschooling. Jones says the current absenteeism law, formerly called the truancy law, is here to stay, but the verbiage will be cleared up so there is less confusion.

School board members also asked about the future of AEA (Area Education Agencies) and said although Spencer doesn’t have as much of a need for their services, they know the rural communities rely on the AEA and simply gave their support to keeping AEA strong in Northwest Iowa.

Evans is a former educator, and now sits on the education committee, and says his focus going forward is to improve preschool literacy, and early childhood education. Wills and Rowley agreed their shared goal is to have Iowa Education back at number one in the nation in the next 5-10 years.

The lawmakers return to Des Moines now to start meeting in committee and soon the general session will open up.