IOWA: Over 100 severely disabled students educated outside state; "growing need"

May 19, 2025, Des Moines Register: Students’ growing need for out-of-state care driving up costs for Iowa’s school districts

Roughly 400 miles from her family's generational farm in Clarion, Nicole Woodley feels she can finally breathe. 

In February, Woodley visited her two teenage sons at a residential behavioral health facility across the Iowa border, where the pair had been living for more than a year to receive care for their serious mental health conditions.

There, she met two other Iowa mothers who were also visiting their children at the out-of-state facility. 

Indeed, more than 100 students just like Woodley’s children were being educated outside Iowa — some for the same reasons as hers. Woodley understands the challenges parents face when trying to get their children the help they need, including from their local school district.

“Even though the state was saying there's no place for this child to even live in this state, the school could still say ‘but we could educate him just fine here,’” she said. 

Families and school districts across Iowa are struggling with a growing youth mental health crisis since the coronavirus pandemic. In April 2022, 69% of U.S. public schools saw an increase in mental health concerns among students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. 

Experts say Iowa lacks wraparound services for children and adolescents, and parents and guardians often struggle to navigate the behavioral health system to find help. In the worst-case scenarios, a growing crisis at home has necessitated the need for children to leave the state for mental health services.

That was the case for Woodley’s two sons, whose conditions deteriorated to the point it was no longer safe for either of them to live at home. Though residential placements outside of Iowa are typically a last resort, parents like the Woodleys say there are few avenues available in the state to obtain intensive behavioral health services for youIowa’s school districts often play a key role in coordinating and paying for the educational expenses related to out-of-state placements.  . . .

However, some school officials say shouldering this effort comes with a dire financial strain. Many school districts are already struggling with tight budgets and staffing shortages that make it challenging to meet students’ special needs, including mental health-related conditions. 

Woodley said she believes those budgetary constraints created additional challenges in seeking out a higher level of behavioral health care for her children. So much so, that Woodley and her husband sought a court order to finally urge officials at the Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Community School District in north central Iowa to agree to cover their sons' educational expenses.

A bill recently passed by Iowa lawmakers could ease the financial burden for schools in the future. But when it comes to retaining qualified staff, money is not a solution on its own.  

“Money doesn't lead to special ed,” said Deron Stender, superintendent of Creston Community School District, a rural district in southwest Iowa. “I would say a lot of people that are in special ed, if they have another license, within two to three years it's pretty common for them to be leaving to go and use their other licensure, really, to escape the challenges that exist in special education.” 

Why were more than 100 students sent out of state?

Data reported this past winter to the Iowa Department of Education shows 110 students were placed out-of-state during the 2024-25 school year.  

The exact reasons for these placements were not clear because the state does not track the placements by specific disability category, including mental health, said Heather Doe, Iowa Department of Education spokesperson.   

No one person can unilaterally decide whether a child should be sent out of state to be educated. It is often a mix of school officials, the student’s individualized education program (IEP) team, medical professionals and the child’s family who decide a student needs specialized care. 

That can include children with severe autism or other disabilities. In some cases, a behavioral health provider may recommend a higher level of care that is not available in the state.  

If the decision to send a student out of state is the school’s decision, then that school district is billed for residential and educational expenses to house and teach that student, according to Doe.  

Iowa parent says scarce finances created hurdles for their sons’ mental health care 

Woodley and her husband, Grant Woodley, have adopted five children from the state’s foster care system, including her two teenaged sons who are living outside of Iowa. She requested no identifying information about her sons, including the location of their current residential placement, be published. 

Though the family faced many challenges in finding adequate behavioral health services, she said the Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Community School District, a rural school of 1,033 students where her sons attended classes, was one of them.  . . .

The first instance happened with her now-17-year-old son, who is diagnosed with autism, reactive attachment disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity and other conditions.  

Woodley said the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services and his insurance company agreed he needed placement out of state after he was rejected by every residential care facility in Iowa.

However, she said the school would not budge, forcing her to seek a child-in-need-of-assistance case in 2024 through their county attorney to facilitate educational services. 

Woodley said she again turned to the courts in February 2024 after her now-14-year-old son was accepted at the same out-of-state residential care facility as his brother. He is diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder.  . . .

Nelson said the school district follows the Iowa Department of Education’s guidance when considering placement outside of a resident school district for eligible students, adding that “placement decisions are made on an individual basis by that student’s IEP team.” 

Iowa law allows taxpayers to pick up special education deficits 

In rural Iowa, there are 345 students for every one psychologist or school counselor, according to the 2023 Why Rural Matter report. This is above the national average of 310 rural students for every one psychologist and/or school counselor.  

The average cost to educate a student in Iowa is about $7,972 per student, said Margaret Buckton, a lobbyist for the Urban Education Network and Rural School Advocates of Iowa. It can cost roughly $18,677 to educate a student in special education.   

The cost to educate a student out of state can run into tens of thousands of dollars for a single school year.

In the case of Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, the district has paid a collective $112,915.44 for its out-of-state placements during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, Nelson said. He wouldn't say how many students that included.  

At Creston, an estimated $72,000 was spent on educational services provided by a Texas school over one school year, said Stender.   

Creston schools’ special education program runs a deficit of about $800,000 a year, he said. Iowa law does allow school officials to levy taxpayers to help cover those deficits, he said. . . .

Some financial relief for the cost of out-of-state placements could be on the way for Iowa schools. A bill proposed by Gov. Kim Reynolds and recently passed by the Iowa Legislature would change how the costs associated with out-of-state placements are covered.

“I look forward to signing this bill, removing burdens on public schools to better position Iowa students for growth and success,” Reynolds said in a statement. 

House File 787 would distribute the cost for out-of-state placements across the state, rather than put the cost entirely on the resident school district, Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, said during Senate debate on May 9.  

Both of Woodley’s sons have improved significantly since they left Iowa more than a year ago, thanks to the intervention of the staff at their residential care facility, she said. Their older son is expected to move to a habilitation home in Iowa soon. 

“It’s finally given us the peace that we needed, because our kids’ needs are being met now,” she said. 

Regardless, Woodley said she wishes school officials would be willing to advocate for students like her sons. 

“I think it's all about funding, from what I can tell,” she said. “I can't see behind the curtain, but it’s expensive to have a kid with really complex care needs.”