Please read!!

I contacted Amy Vybrial at the DE for more clarity in the guidance around the 8th grade plan/IHAPI and her response is listed below. I know you are all experiencing pressure from vendors (as am I) and I am holding them off for now. Here is Amy's response:

The best guidance I can give at this time is to wait. 

·         District administrators and counselors should resist the urge to feel pressured by vendors.  If and when there are changes to Iowa Code Chapter 279.61 administrators, principals, AEAs, professional school counselors, and CTE teachers will be informed (via the superintendent’s letter, School Leader Update, letters from Director Wise, etc).

o   Department approved career information software systems/tool information will be forthcoming in 2016.

·         IHAPI/Xap will be not be funded in 2017, however the product is available for the 2017 academic year. 

o   Districts may choose to stay with the current vendor while researching other vendor options.  See the IHAPI home page for contact information.

The Department is assembling a career standards team to review and approve standards for career information systems/tools.  Vendor products, that meet the standards and technical specifications decided by the career standards team, will be added to a Department approved list of vendors from which districts may choose, beginning in academic year 2016-2017. 

When this work is completed it will be posted on the Department web site and forwarded to AEA contacts and counselor contacts.

Please call me with any questions.

Kind regards,

Amy Vybiral

Education Program Consultant

Iowa Department of Education

Division of Community Colleges

515-281-3169-Office Phone

515-242-5988 - Fax

Amy.vybiral@iowa.gov