Mar 15, 2023, Dubuque (IA) Telegraph Herald: schools to excuse autism treatment absences https://www.telegraphherald.com/news/tri-state/article_e7004650-c2ac-11ed-8346-a36f402ada9c.html
The Iowa House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously voted in favor of a bill from a local lawmaker that would require schools to excuse absences for children out of school for autism-related treatment.
"This bill comes from my district, which has seven high schools,” Iowa Rep. Steve Bradley, R-Cascade, the bill’s sponsor, said on the House floor. “Of those seven high schools, six have excused autism-related treatment. One doesn’t. That one school has sent truancy notices to parents via the sheriff’s department.”
Before House debate, Bradley told the Telegraph Herald that he took issue with the school — which he would not name — for considering such students truant and the method by which parents were informed. …
The bill would require school boards to create a local policy to implement the requirement that they excuse the absences for autism care.
Iowa Rep. Lindsay James, D-Dubuque, said that she, too, was happy to have supported the bill, which she said would give parents more flexibility in caring for their children….
