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Paid family leave for Iowa state workers among bills signed into law by Gov. Reynolds
Also signed into law were a ban on DEI positions in local government and a requirement that Iowa high school students pass a civics test
May. 27, 2025 6:30 pm, Updated: May. 27, 2025 10:01 pm
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DES MOINES — New parents who work in state government will for the first time have paid family leave under legislation signed into law Tuesday by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.
The bill was among 17 signed into law Tuesday, according to legislative records online.
Reynolds for three years pushed for a paid family leave program for state workers. Currently, there is no paid family leave program for state employees.
Under the program, new mothers working in state government who give birth get four weeks of paid leave, while new parents who do not give birth are entitled to one week of paid leave.
The new law also provides four weeks of paid leave for state employees who adopt a child and allows some state employees who have accumulated 10 days of sick leave to convert some of that leave into vacation time.
Iowa joins 24 other states and the federal government by offering a paid family leave program, according to the governor’s office.
“Iowa is a pro-family state, and with this legislation, we can finally give parents the flexibility to take time away from work to focus on prioritizing their newborn children,” Reynolds said in a social media post Tuesday after a private bill-signing ceremony.
House File 889 passed the Iowa Legislature with broad, bipartisan support: it passed the Iowa House by an 87-2 vote on March 20 and the Iowa Senate by a 44-1 vote on May 14, the final day of the legislative session.
Prohibition on DEI positions in local government
Cities, counties and community colleges are prohibited from using funds on positions designated for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts under a bill Reynolds signed into law.
House File 856 is an expansion of a 2024 law that barred Iowa public universities from funding DEI efforts.
At one point in the legislative process, the bill also would have prohibited private colleges and universities that participate in the Iowa Tuition Grant Program from funding DEI offices and officers. But that section of the bill was amended out before its final passage.
The bill passed the Iowa Legislature mostly on party lines, with Republicans supporting and Democrats opposing: 34-16 in the Senate and 59-32 in the House.
Civics test requirement for high school graduates
Iowa high school students will be required to pass the same test given to those who apply for U.S. citizenship before they can graduate from high school under a bill Reynolds signed into law.
Under Senate File 369, Iowa high school students are required to take and pass the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services naturalization civics test. Students in ninth through 12th grades must answer at least 60 questions correctly on the most recent version of the 100-question, multiple choice exam to graduate from high school or receive a high school equivalency diploma.
Students who fail can retake the exam as many times as needed.
Senate File 369 passed the Iowa Senate, 38-7, on April 14, and the Iowa House, 60-33, on April 17.
Establishing license for pediatric palliative care centers
House File 933, named “Mason’s Law,” would create a pediatric palliative care license to establish residential care facilities for those under 21 with chronic and life-threatening illnesses who are expected to have shortened life expectancy. Under the legislation, these facilities would be limited to 12 patients at a time.
Currently, no states have established licenses for PPCCs and the three states with facilities create them under other licenses.
The law is named after a 7-year-old from Grinnell who needed to be put in hospice after his five-year-long battle with cancer. His family moved into a care center in Minneapolis to live out his final days due to the lack of PPCCs in Iowa.
The legislation passed both the Iowa House and Senate unanimously.
Other bills signed into law
Reynolds also signed into law Tuesday:
- House File 299, which would require K-12 schools and licensed child care centers to disclose vaccine exemption information on their websites and include it in information given to parents and guardians when registering kids for school.
- House File 306, which expands the existing law that prohibits any person, other than a parent or guardian of a minor, from exposing minors to obscene materials by adding stricter penalties for multiple offenses. Under the new law, a second offense would be an aggravated misdemeanor, which is punishable by confinement for up to two years and a fine of between $855 and $8,540; and a third offense would be a Class D felony, punishable by confinement of up to five years and a fine of between $1,025 and $10,245.
- House File 865, which changes the definition of bullying and harassment in public schools by removing a reference to perceived traits and characteristics, and instead define it as “repeated and targeted” behavior that create a hostile school environment.
- House File 835, which requires school districts to have at least one employee in each school who has met training requirements necessary to administer or assist with the self-administration of anti-seizure treatments.
- House File 615, which makes intentional misrepresentation of a service animal or service-animal-in-training a simple misdemeanor without a warning. Previous law included three elements for charging someone with intentionally misrepresenting a service animal, including receiving a prior warning or an individual not knowing their animal was not a service animal; the new law strikes those elements.
- Senate File 608, which updates the state’s grain indemnity fund.
Gazette Deputy Bureau Chief Tom Barton and Lee Des Moines Bureau Chief Maya Marchel Hoff contributed to this report.
Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com
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