Iowa City district outlines staff injury data, new district support team and planned CBA policy changes

Iowa City Community School District Superintendent Matt Geithner told the board that the district will continue a multi-session review of services and supports after staff presented data showing staff injuries tied to intentional student contact.

Nick (district staff presenting employee accident data) said, "last year, we had a 139 total instance of intentional student contact," and that 106 of those were unique individuals. He added that six bites required outside medical attention and that special education paraprofessionals, behavior interventionists and special education teachers accounted for roughly 75% of reported injuries.

The board was told the accident-reporting dataset derives from workers— compensation filings and uses Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)-style categories. Presenters said not every accident report had a matching behavioral referral in Infinite Campus; where a match existed, most incidents involved students with individualized education programs (IEPs). "In the cases that we have that, this is what the report would tell you," the presenter said when showing matched data.

District leaders described steps to improve reporting and response: nurses now notify human resources when a staff injury occurs; administrators were reminded to create corresponding behavior events in Infinite Campus when an injury is related to intentional student contact; and staff are being encouraged to report incidents even when an event may have felt routine.

Chase and Eliza outlined a newly formed district support team that meets monthly to monitor cross-dataset trends and coordinate building-level follow-up. The team will review office referrals, major office referrals by grade and building, suspensions and reentry meetings, Panorama SEL screener participation and trends, FAST academic screening results, attendance and truancy spikes, special-education eligibility and service-delivery utilization, chapter 103 seclusion and restraint reporting, BIP completion and implementation rates, PPE requests and deployment, and staff accident reports.

Eliza said the team has already taken two actions based on early data: creating a kindergarten-focused team after finding kindergarten accounted for more than 25% of office referrals districtwide, and proactively contacting a principal at a building with an unusually high number of referrals to offer support.

On discipline policy, Laura described a draft revision to the Comprehensive Behavior Approach that would add a clearer section for physical aggression against staff and align level definitions. She said board policy 503.8 currently uses an inverted ordering compared with the district CBA and that the district plans to revise 503.8 to mirror the CBA. Laura summarized the intended draft guidance for a Level 1 incident as "acts causing or attempting to cause serious bodily injury to staff or aggression requiring emergency response or medical attention beyond basic first aid."

Board members asked whether more incidents might exist than the 139 reported. Presenters cautioned the district can only act on what is reported and estimated roughly 60% of accident reports had a matching behavioral event in Infinite Campus; the district is working to close that gap. Directors also questioned onboarding and retention for paraeducators and behavior interventionists. Ashley said behavior interventionists receive district-level onboarding, essential-skills coaching and 1:1 coaching; paraeducator supports now include an optional, paid cohort professional development program of up to 12 hours and variable building-level orientation.

The presenters described a simple Google form staff can use to request PPE; the district said it now fills equipment requests quickly and provides training when needed. The board discussed community perception concerns; the administration reported resistance tends to be about comfort rather than optics.

On using suspensions for younger students as a brief way to regroup adults and prepare reentry plans, administration said they are not recommending a punitive default but will bring options to the board for discussion. Superintendent Geithner said the district will present proposed language and seek board feedback in winter and expects a draft revision for policy 503.8 for the board—s January review.

The work session closed with a motion to adjourn; the board verbally recorded "Aye."