IowaSF 237991st General Assembly (2025–2026)SenateWALLET

A bill for an act relating to victim protections including victim counselors, protective orders, sex offender registration, rights of sexual abuse victims, mental competency and civil commitment, restitution, and victim rights, and including effective date provisions. (Formerly SSB 3089.) Effective date: 07/01/2026, 07/01/2027.

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

6 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 1 costs, 2 mixed.

Longer evidence protection for assault victims

Police must store sexual assault kits somewhere clean and dry for at least 20 years, even without a criminal complaint. Kits from minor victims must be kept for their lifetime. Disposal requires at least 60 days’ written notice, written county attorney approval, and a tracking-system entry within 48 hours afterward. Agencies must grant victims’ written requests to preserve kits or useful evidence longer. Beginning July 1, 2027, rights notices explain access to exams, kit status and location, results, and preservation requests. Results can be withheld if sharing them harms an ongoing investigation. Agencies must verify victims’ addresses, and victims must report contact changes.

Stronger privacy rules for victim counseling

The law protects victim counseling information and work products from forced disclosure, with limited exceptions. Courts cannot disclose the victim center’s location or counselor’s identity. Victims can waive the privilege in writing; courts can order disclosure through the law’s process, including its perjury exception. The privilege excludes chain-of-custody proof and evidence of the victim’s appearance at injury or the counselor’s first contact afterward. Qualifying counselors must work through a victim center, hold its certification, and work under its direct services supervisor. Their main role must be helping victims, and they must complete at least 20 hours of approved training.

Victims can seek lifetime protective orders

Prosecutors can seek protective orders at sentencing for listed sexual offenses, human trafficking violations, and the specified forcible felony. These orders cover the period when the criminal court has authority over the offender. After that authority ends, victims can petition for protection using the qualifying conviction as grounds. The court can rely on the conviction’s facts and issue an order without requiring the victim to appear. It can set any length, including the victim’s lifetime; orders last until expiration or change on the victim’s motion.

New evaluation and commitment rules for defendants

Competency hearings must be set within 14 days after notice. Before the hearing, either party has 10 days after notice to request an independent psychiatrist or doctorate-level psychologist. The requesting party chooses and pays the evaluator; proceedings pause until the evaluation is complete. After notice of the report, courts must schedule a hearing within 14 days and arrange transport for jailed or inpatient defendants. Release-eligible defendants can seek bond review after an initial finding that restoration is unlikely within a reasonable time. Courts consider likely voluntary participation in a second evaluation when setting release terms. If the court finds restoration unlikely, it must end the competency commitment. For forcible-felony charges, it must start civil commitment proceedings, where the charge counts as a recent overt act.

Faster reporting required for sex offenders

Listed sex offender registration and reporting deadlines shrink from five to three business days. Covered changes include residence, employment, school attendance, temporary lodging, activity in another jurisdiction, and other required information. Registered offenders must report employment or vehicle changes in person to the sheriff where they principally live. Reports include employer contact details and plate numbers and descriptions for vehicles they own or regularly drive. Related deadlines for sheriffs, courts, and releasing agencies to send registration information also shrink to three business days.

New priorities for victim restitution payments

Beginning July 1, 2027, restitution plans pay victims’ financial losses first, then Category A obligations, then Category B obligations. Repayment to the Crime Victim Compensation Program moves from Category B to Category A, alongside fines, penalties, and surcharges. Those repayments no longer have a separate step in the specified payment-application order. Category B priorities remain public agencies, court costs, appointed-lawyer fees, local anticrime groups, and victim-related Medicaid costs. These changes affect who receives offender payments first, not the dollar amount owed.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY
Affiliation unavailable

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 167 • No: 13

Senate vote • 4/16/2026

Passed Senate

Yes: 47 • No: 0

House vote • 4/13/2026

Passed House

Yes: 78 • No: 12

Senate vote • 3/17/2026