A bill for an act establishing the state public defender’s pilot project to implement innovative models of child welfare legal representation as the project to preserve families.
HF 2356 makes Iowa's temporary child welfare legal representation pilot program permanent as the "Project to Preserve Families" (PPF). It allows the state public defender to implement this program statewide (previously limited to 16 counties) for indigent families involved in child welfare cases. The program uses innovative legal approaches - such as team-based representation - to help keep families together, reduce trauma for children, and generate cost savings for communities. The public defender must coordinate with other agencies, study outcomes, and adopt rules to administer the PPF through 2025.
Bill status
signed
all 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Feb 2026
Committee Review
House Passage
Feb 2026
Senate Passage
Mar 2026
Signed into Law
Apr 2026
Introduced Feb 9, 2026
Signed Apr 9, 2026
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Enrolled
→
Enrolled with Governor's Action
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1 edit
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Apr 9, 2026
MINOR
The document was converted from a raw, line-by-line legislative markup format into a clean, standard text format suitable for public reading. No substantive policy changes, such as new laws, funding amounts, or eligibility rules, were added or removed.
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The formatting of the text was changed from a list of individual words to standard paragraph structure, and the layout of signatures and certification blocks was cleaned up for readability.
Floor votes · Senate Mar 23, 2026
How they voted
46–0
Passed · 3 other
Total votes 49
Mar 23, 2026
D
Democratic15
93% Yea
R
Republican34
94% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea
All Nay
Mixed
No data
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
14
Key actions
3
Committee
0
Apr 9, 2026
Signed into law
Signed by Governor.
lower
Mar 23, 2026
Upper · Passed
Passed Senate, yeas 47, nays 0.
upper
Feb 26, 2026
Lower · Passed
Passed House, yeas 90, nays 0.
lower
Feb 9, 2026
Introduced
Introduced, placed on calendar.
lower
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors
Sponsors
No sponsor information available.
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