Decorah School Board Votes to Initiate Termination of Service Agreement with Clinicare

DECORAH, Iowa—The Decorah Community School District Board of Education voted to move forward with terminating its current service agreement with Clinicare at the end of the school year, citing regulatory concerns tied to staffing qualifications and special education compliance, while leaving open the possibility of a future partnership under revised terms. The action came during a special board meeting on Monday, where district leaders outlined mounting concerns raised by the Iowa Department of Education and the Board of Educational Examiners regarding services provided at Crossroads Academy, a program operated by Clinicare that has served students in the region for more than two decades. Superintendent Tim Cronin said the issue centers on whether instruction for students with individualized education programs, or IEPs, is being delivered by properly licensed staff, a legal responsibility that ultimately falls on the sending school districts. "When you have a student with an IEP, it's your responsibility to make sure that child's instruction is delivered by a licensed person," Cronin told the board. Crossroads Academy operates as a nonpublic, nonaccredited school, a status that allows flexibility in hiring but creates complications when public school districts place students there for specialized services. While the program has historically been used by Decorah and other northeast Iowa districts through a consortium arrangement, recent scrutiny revealed gaps in how licensure requirements were applied to staff working with special education students. According to Cronin, the state's Board of Educational Examiners warned that failure to ensure properly licensed instruction could constitute a potential ethics violation, not for Crossroads staff, but for administrators in the districts placing students in the program. "That's the concern for the member school districts," he said, noting that superintendents in the region expressed alarm after receiving the notice. District officials emphasized that Clinicare had already taken steps to address immediate staffing concerns, allowing students to remain at Crossroads through the end of the current academic year. However, board members said the uncertainty surrounding compliance and oversight made it necessary to formally notify Clinicare of termination by the end-of-March contractual deadline. The letter approved by the board serves as a procedural safeguard, ensuring the district is not locked into the existing agreement for the 2026–27 school year while it evaluates alternatives. "What can't happen is we don't do the letter, and then we get into May and this isn't going to work," Cronin said. Board members characterized the move as a way to preserve flexibility rather than a final decision on future services. Options under consideration include continuing with Clinicare under a revised agreement, developing an in-district program, or collaborating with other districts to create a new service model. "There will be work that continues to figure out how services will be met," Board President Cindy Goodner said. The discussion directed attention to the complexity of the district's obligation to provide appropriate special education services while relying on a program it does not directly control. Because Crossroads is operated independently by Clinicare, participating districts have limited influence over hiring and staffing decisions, even though they remain legally accountable for compliance. Board members acknowledged the difficulty of the situation, balancing the disruption of potential program changes against the need to ensure students receive services from properly certified educators. "It's important that the programming that our kids are getting is by people that are accredited or certified to do it," Goodner stated. The termination, if finalized, would take effect at the end of the current 2025-2026 school year. In the coming months, district leaders plan to work with regional partners and state officials to determine how best to deliver services for students who would otherwise attend Crossroads.