All Roll Calls
Yes: 111 • No: 17
IowaSF 248891st General Assembly (2025–2026)SenateWALLET
A bill for an act relating to early childhood and family services, including the creation of an early childhood and family services system, making appropriations, convening an early childhood Iowa interim study committee, and including applicability, retroactive applicability, and effective date provisions. (Formerly SF 2462, SSB 3111.) Effective date: 06/02/2026, 07/01/2026. Applicability date: 07/01/2025.
Sponsored By: COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Signed by Governor
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
10 provisions identified: 6 benefits, 1 costs, 3 mixed.
Home visiting authorized for young families
Beginning July 1, 2026, Iowa’s Department of Health and Human Services may establish the HOPES-HFI home visiting program. It serves families from pregnancy through preschool, supporting child health, development, and parenting while working to prevent abuse and neglect. If established, the program must operate at least partly through local organizations using evidence-based home visiting models. The law authorizes the program but does not require its creation or guarantee access.
Child abuse prevention funding changes hands
Effective June 2, 2026, Iowa must review affected child abuse prevention contracts and fiscal year 2025–2026 grants. The department must work with administrators, local groups, and grant recipients to move funding and services into the new family system. Beginning July 1, 2026, uncommitted prevention fund balances remaining on June 30, 2026, move to the new system fund. Also beginning July 1, $10 from each existing vehicle registration fee supports child abuse prevention, without increasing the fee. That allocation is no longer limited to primary and secondary prevention programs under the former law. Unused registration-fee money remains available through the next fiscal year and cannot be transferred or used for other purposes.
Child care ratings remain voluntary
Beginning July 1, 2026, Iowa’s Department of Health and Human Services must provide ratings for each type of child care facility. Provider participation remains voluntary. The department no longer has to work with Early Childhood Iowa to design and run the rating system. The law does not change child care eligibility or provide household payments.
Federal funding supports local childhood services
Beginning July 1, 2027, Iowa must share additional federal Title IV-E home visiting money if it receives those funds. The money supports coordination of services for children ages zero through five in areas that requested a home visiting transfer. The required shares are 25% in fiscal year 2027–2028, 15% in 2028–2029, and 5% in 2029–2030. This requirement ends June 30, 2030; no total dollar amount is specified.
New statewide support system for families
Beginning July 1, 2026, Iowa creates a statewide support system for children under 19 and their families. It coordinates prevention, early help, and ongoing family resources, but does not guarantee each family a specific service. Each district gets a council with 10 department-appointed members to advise on access and local needs. A dedicated fund, created June 2, 2026, pays for the system and keeps year-end balances and earnings. No total funding amount is specified.
Child welfare funds stay available longer
Effective June 2, 2026, with retroactive application to July 1, 2025, Iowa sets rules for remaining pooled service funds. Money committed at June 30, 2026, stays available for existing initiatives or contracts through June 30, 2027, unless the department decides otherwise. At June 30, 2027, remaining committed money not further committed by the department transfers to it. Uncommitted pool money at June 30, 2026, is divided between the department and juvenile court services. Their shares reflect pool contributions from July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2026. Those divided funds remain available for child welfare and juvenile justice services until spent.
Tax filers can support abuse prevention
Beginning July 1, 2026, Iowa individual and joint tax filers can voluntarily designate at least $1 for child abuse prevention. The contribution comes from a tax refund or payment and goes to the new family services fund. Filers must first satisfy liabilities recorded by the Iowa Department of Revenue. The choice cannot be reversed, and the contribution is reduced if the refund or payment is too small.
Home visiting continues as contracts change
Beginning July 1, 2026, when a local board requests a home visiting transfer, the state must keep current recipients’ care uninterrupted. The state must seek board input, work with its director on provider selection, and require the provider to notify the board. Existing board contracts must end when legally allowed, or at their current term’s end, without renewal or extension. Boards and their agents cannot make, renew, or extend contracts lasting or requiring work beyond the transfer date. Amounts owed to the board for earlier home visiting services remain due, and its fiscal agent must collect them. The law does not say families owe these amounts.
Family service records gain privacy safeguards
Beginning July 1, 2026, Iowa must collect and use child welfare, Medicaid, and family service data to run the system. Uses include planning, cost estimates, payments, and compliance reviews. System participants must use common methods to track outcomes and performance. The department must create individual service records with unique identifiers where possible and follow federal and state privacy laws. These data rules do not change service eligibility.
Local child welfare contracts face limits
Effective June 2, 2026, Iowa repeals the framework for decategorization, which pools child welfare and juvenile justice funding. The transition rules apply retroactively to July 1, 2025. Juvenile court services must end covered contracts funded through its pool contributions on June 30, 2026, without renewal or extension. Money remaining under those contracts returns to juvenile court services. Except for transition exceptions, boards and other entities cannot execute new pool-funded contracts after June 2, 2026, or contracts extending beyond June 30, 2027. The department must seek stakeholder input and review termination terms, considering whether continuing or taking over contracts prevents service interruptions.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsor
COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Affiliation unavailable
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
House vote • 5/2/2026
Passed House
Yes: 83 • No: 2
Senate vote • 5/1/2026
Passed Senate
Yes: 28 • No: 15
Actions Timeline
Signed by Governor.
6/2/2026SenateReported correctly enrolled, signed by President and Speaker, and sent to Governor.
5/18/2026SenateNOBA: Final
5/13/2026legislatureMessage from House.
5/2/2026SenateImmediate message.
5/2/2026HouseExplanation of vote.
5/2/2026HousePassed House, yeas 83, nays 2.
5/2/2026HouseSubstituted for HF 2795.
5/2/2026HouseRead first time, passed on file.
5/2/2026HouseNOBA: Senate Floor
5/1/2026SenateMessage from Senate.
5/1/2026HouseImmediate message.
5/1/2026SenatePassed Senate, yeas 28, nays 15.
5/1/2026SenateAmendment S-5244 filed, adopted.
5/1/2026SenateNOBA: Senate Full Approps
4/15/2026SenateCommittee report, approving bill.
4/9/2026SenateIntroduced, placed on Appropriations calendar.
4/9/2026Senate
Bill Text
As Introduced
Enrolled
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