The Iowa Senate gave the final approval for a bill allowing Iowa’s regent universities to sue their accredditors if they lose accreditation for following state law on Thursday. 

The bill, House File 295, would allow the universities to bring suit themselves or ask the Iowa Attorney General to bring suit against the accrediting body. 

Many accrediting bodies require certain DEI programs within universities to receive their accreditation. Previous legislative efforts to ban DEI carved out exceptions for requirements for accreditation purposes. 

If a college loses accreditations, it could impact students’ financial aid and change if their degree is officially recognized by employers or licensing boards.

Senate Democrats worried the bill’s removal of all references to the independent Higher Learning Commission, which was changed to any federally recognized accreditor, removes the requirement that colleges and universities use a high quality accreditor. 

“[The Higher Learning Commission] holds the highest standards, It is really the gold standard, as has been said, of accreditation, and it is one of the key features which has helped to increase and hold high the standards of education in the state for colleges and universities,” Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, said. “If we open the door to colleges beginning to shop around for the lowest common denominator, if you will. I think that that is, over the long term, going to contribute to the deterioration of higher education in Iowa.” 

Iowa Senate Republicans argued that the bill helps universities fight back and there would not be any issues related to accreditation and that the Higher Learning Commission is a federally recognized accreditor. 

The bill passed along party lines on Thursday and will now head to the governor’s desk for her approval before becoming law. 

Iowa House passes constitutional amendment allowing for minors to testify via video 

The Iowa House gave the final approval to a state constitutional amendment that would allow minors to testify via video if they are testifying against their abuser. 

Under the proposed amendment, to protect children under the age of 18 and any witness with a mental illness, intellectual disability, or other developmental disability, the right of an accused to confront such witnesses may be limited by law. 

After its passage in both the Iowa House and Senate the resolution will be referred to the next general assembly for adoption before being submitted to a public vote for ratification. 

Iowa House lawmakers send bill requiring fetal health and development curriculum to governor’s desk  

The Iowa House advanced a bill requiring instruction on pregnancy and fetal development be added to curricula for Iowa students grades four through twelve. 

Senate File 175 passed the Iowa House Thursday in a nearly party line vote, 60-31. A similar bill was introduced last legislative session, but did not receive final approval. 

Under the bill, students in grades four through twelve would be required to learn age-appropriate and research-based instruction in human growth and development including a high-definition ultrasound video showing early fetal development. 

Schools would also be required to show students in grades four through six a high quality, computer generated or animation that depicts “the humanity of the unborn child” by showing human development beginning at fertilization. 

The bill requires the instruction and information presented to Iowa students is research based and age-appropriate. In the bill’s language, research-based is defined as “complete, unbiased information” verified by scientific and recognized as medically accurate and objective. 

The bill faced pushback from Iowa’s Democratic representatives, who argued the animated video is not scientific or research based. 

Iowa Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, introduced an amendment to allow parents to opt their children out of watching the videos. The amendment did not pass. 

She said she believes one of the videos required is not based on science. 

“I believe parents deserve a choice on whether their child will see a video that may or may not be factual, be based on science,” she said. 

Wessel-Kroescehell said the video is inaccurate and misleading, and the bill puts partisan political ideology at the front of Iowa’s classrooms. 

“Surely Iowa’s parents and students deserve honesty,” she said. “We should be assured that when we send our children to public schools, they will be taught science, not ideological indoctrination.” 

The animated video is not research based, she said, and the narration assigns a fetus traits such as playing, exploring, and sighing, which a fetus is not capable of. 

Iowa Rep. Elinor Levin, D-Iowa City, who comes from an education background, spoke against the bill. 

She said the bill tells educators who have studied and reviewed curriculum that their skills, time, and expertise are no longer needed. 

“Why are we, as the legislature, trying to go around the expertise that educators bring to Iowa schools, once again?” she said. “I don’t understand it, I genuinely don’t.” 

Iowa Rep. Helena Hayes, R- New Sharon, who managed the bill on the House floor, said the bill gives “face and form to the unseen.” 

She said the bill insists that the information presented to students is research based, and not about politics. 

“Let us all acknowledge that the womb is the first classroom,” she said. “And what is learned there about resilience, about vulnerability, about human potential, is just too precious to leave out of our schools.” 

House approves reforms to the state’s natural disaster response and regulations

Iowa House lawmakers gave final approval to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposal to better prepare the state for the next natural disaster on Thursday. 

Reynolds’ proposal, Senate File 619, would exempt disaster assistance payments from state taxes, fill depleted disaster relief funds, provide fraud protections for homeowners in the insurance claims process, and finance disaster mitigation projects. 

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The bill now heads to the governor’s desk for her approval. Following the passage of the bill Reynolds said she is looking forward to signing the bill to help protect Iowans from future emergencies. 

“Iowa faced devastating tornadoes and historic flooding in Spring 2024, leaving families, farms, businesses, schools and entire communities in peril,” Reynolds said in the news release. “Our state was granted three presidential disaster declarations in just two months’ time, and our relief programs were vital for helping us rebuild.” 

Iowa House sends bill requiring high schoolers take civics test to graduate to governor 

Iowa House lawmakers gave final approval of a bill Thursday that would require Iowa high schoolers to take, and pass, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Naturalization Test to graduate.  

The bill, Senate File 369, passed mostly along party lines on Thursday, 60-33. 

Rep. Elinor Levin, D-Iowa City, said that the bill would not help make more civically engaged students, rather it would create a barrier for students to graduate. 

“This bill is a bad idea. It doesn’t meet the moment,” Levin said. “It doesn’t engage students. Instead, it puts in front of them 100 question multiple choice tasks that may scare them because it may stop them from graduating.” 

Rep. Bob Henderson, R-Sioux City, said that the bill would help create more civically engaged students by requiring them to study the 100 test questions that consist of facts about the federal government and U.S. history. 

“When the founders of our country established a system of education that we have for our country they voiced one and only one purpose for it, to develop good citizens for our country,” Henderson said. “They knew that our citizens needed to be educated because the country would be in the hands of them.” 

Iowa House unanimously passes bill adjusting truancy, chronic absenteeism procedures

The Iowa House unanimously passed a bill to alter how the state handles truancy and chronic absenteeism Thursday. 

Senate File 277, passed 93-0, requires the director of Iowa’s Department of Education to consult with the Iowa county attorneys association to develop a policy for county attorneys to reference when navigating issues with truancy and chronic absenteeism. 

The bill moved by the statehouse Thursday adds undergoing military entrance processing, engaging in military service, and traveling to attend a wedding or funeral to the list of current exceptions to absence rules. 

Under the law, absences related to these activities will not be included when determining whether a child is considered to be a truant. 

The bill expands how a school official notices a child’s parent or guardian of absenteeism to include electronic mail, electronic message, or deliver the notice in person instead of only certified mail. 

The bill also provides that a school official is only required to call for a school engagement meeting if they determine the child’s absences negatively affect the child’s academic progress. Current law requires if a child is absent from school for 15 percent or more of the days or hours in a grading period, a school official is required to attempt to find the cause by calling for a school engagement meeting. 

The bill will now be sent to the governor’s desk for final approval.