The Iowa House of Representatives passed HF389 recently, making updates to the mandatory reporting law in Iowa Schools. State Representative Brooke Boden tells KNIA News she helped craft the bill after it was brought to her attention by constituents, and ensures that teachers are designated as true mandatory reporters even when the perpetrator is another educator. Boden said the previous law left a gap when the abuser was a colleague and was leading to conflicts of interest in an investigation.

“Now DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services) would be called as the investigating authority. They would come in and be much swifter than the current process, they would figure out if we had bad actors and there was truly abuse happening. They have to do that within 20 days to make that assessment. If they find that that is the case, then while they are doing that investigation that employee would be put on leave, because we have got to get bad actors out of school.”

The bill passed unanimously in the Iowa House. Hear more on today’s Let’s Talk Indianola.