There’s a school move taking place in Davenport that’s drawing some concern from state officials. 

It’s a story you’ll only see here on Local 4 News.  

A spokesperson for the Iowa Education Department tells us over the past week some students were taken out of Keystone Academy, a school for kids with disabilities and behavioral needs.

They were moved to general public schools. 

State educators say they haven’t heard about a transition plan to help those students adapt.  

Local f4 News is learning that concerns from the state education board about Keystone Academy go beyond the recent move of students and have caught their attention months ago.  

A state spokesperson says they first raised a warning flag when visiting the district back in the spring,  s after Davenport schools were found in violation of seven areas of their special education program. 

Amy Williamson says when Iowa Education Department members got to the district, they realized that students who didn’t have disabilities were being sent to Keystone Academy if they were acting up in class. 

Williamson explains why that’s a problem. 

“The issue with that is that when you send a student who does not have a disability to a different school than their own school, where they have a different curriculum, really, that’s an out of school suspension. The district wasn’t counting these as an out of school suspension,” says Williamson, bureau chief for school improvement at the Iowa Department of Education.

Williamson says the district is allowed to use Keystone for out-of-school suspensions, but they have to document them as such. 

Staff must also tell the board when a certain student finds themselves at Keystone multiple times. 

Williamson also stressed that there needs to be a transition plan when students go back to their original schools.

She says with a different curriculum and peers, they can’t expect kids to automatically adapt to new surroundings.