Iowa
Opponents of Iowa book ban law critique proposed administrative rules
DES MOINES – A handful of Iowans expressed their opposition to a state law, and its proposed administrative rules, that bans certain books from school libraries during a public hearing Wednesday.
Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the law — Senate File 496 — last year that bans books with descriptions or visual depictions of any of a defined list of sex acts from school libraries. It also prohibits any instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation before seventh grade and requires school districts to notify a student’s parent if the student requests to change their name or pronouns, among other provisions.
Penalties for the law were set to take effect Jan. 1, but a federal judge temporarily blocked the most controversial portions last week after multiple groups sued state officials over the law.
Commenters on Wednesday said the proposed administrative rules did not go far enough in clarifying the intent of the legislation and would lead to far too many books being removed from school library shelves. Iowans will have another opportunity to comment on the proposed rules at 10:30 a.m Thursday at the Grimes State Office Building in Des Moines.
In his order blocking the law until litigation is settled, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Locher called its mandates “wildly overbroad.”
“The sweeping restrictions in Senate File 496 are unlikely to satisfy the First Amendment under any standard of scrutiny and thus may not be enforced while the case is pending,” Locher wrote in the ruling.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Attorney General Brenna Bird said last week they were disappointed in the ruling and vowed to continue defending the law.
“Instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation has no place in kindergarten through sixth grade classrooms,” Reynolds said. “And there should be no question that books containing sexually explicit content — as clearly defined in Iowa law — do not belong in a school library for children.”
What do the rules say?
Thomas Mayes, the Department of Education’s general counsel, noted the injunction during Wednesday’s public hearing and said “any action that the state board takes in response to this public comment is, of course, bound by any current law.” Should the law be allowed to take effect, the proposed rules would govern how schools must implement it and how the state would enforce penalties.
While the rules are mostly in line with the text of Senate File 496, they clarify that a “reference or mention of a sex act in a way that does not describe or visually depict” the act is not prohibited from school libraries.
The rules also apply only to a library that a school has direct control over, and schools with libraries that serve multiple grades must ensure that students have access only to material appropriate for their grades.
On the portion prohibiting instruction on gender and sexual orientation, the department stipulated that a “neutral statement regarding sexual orientation or gender identity” does not violate the rules.
The rules state a school board would receive a written warning on the first violation, and on the second violation, the superintendent and employees of the school could receive disciplinary action.
Commenter calls rules ‘weak and meaningless’
Five people, all opposing the law and current rules, spoke at the first of two public hearings on the proposed rules Wednesday.
Sara Hayden Parris, a member of Annie’s Foundation, a group that opposes library book restrictions, said the rules are “weak and meaningless,” and the legislation was “poorly written” and discriminatory.
She pointed to the judge’s injunction as evidence the law violates the First Amendment and said the rules do not go far enough in clarifying what is and is not allowed in school libraries.
“Even with the proposed rules, the law has a staggeringly broad scope, such that the dictionary and Iowa Code are likely prohibited books in Iowa schools,” she said. “There was no way the board could have successfully provided meaningful clarifications surrounding SF 496.”
Iowa Republicans have repeatedly defended the law as a measure to remove pornography and graphic sex from school libraries.
Republican House Speaker Pat Grassley said in a statement when the law was challenged in court that Republicans stand behind it.
“The sexualization of children in schools does not have a place in Iowa,” he said. “This is a responsible and reasonable law that I believe all Iowans could get behind if the far left and the media would stop playing politics and accurately represent what is actually in the law.”
School advocate requests stronger language
Margaret Buckton, a lobbyist for the Urban Education Network and Rural School Advocates of Iowa, said at the hearing the department should add more clarification to the rules to ensure that classic literature that does not feature graphic sex is not removed from school library shelves.
Buckton said the sex act prohibition should be altered to ban “vivid or pornographic descriptions or graphic depictions of a sex act.”
She said that would make a clearer distinction between what is and is not allowed in school libraries.
“After passage of the legislation, the education committee chairs, the leaders of the House and Senate and the governor have all stated that the legislation was intended to prohibit pornography and obscenity in school libraries,” Buckton said. “The way the bill is drafted, it prohibits anything that is short of those definitions. Or it’s vague, and we don’t know.”
After the second round of public comments Thursday, the proposed rules will go before the Legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee. The committee is set to meet Monday, the first day of the legislative session, to review the rules.
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Mark Roering returned to Iowa City Regina 30 years after serving as an assistant coach, and in just two seasons, he has transformed the Regals into one of Class 2A’s most dangerous teams.
“I was a senior in college. I just had finished playing baseball myself and was doing high school in the summers. Had one of those magical seasons here losing in the state finals,” Roering said. “I was just ready for something new.”
Prior to being hired at Iowa City Regina in 2024, Roering coached nine seasons at Dowling Catholic, where he helped the Maroons reach the state tournament six times. Regina was below .500 in three of the four seasons before his arrival. His first season at the helm, Regina went 22-6.
“I think the biggest difference is practice. Everybody is so much more locked in. Really that just comes from him. He gets on us everyday, he has to make the drive and hour and a half every day so we want to give that back to him for all the time and effort he’s put into us,” junior Trey Streb said.
Streb also described Roering as a very emotional coach who cares deeply about the team and winning.
The Regals’ bats have become a significant threat. Regina ranks fifth in the state and second in Class 2A with a .379 batting average and has the fourth fewest strikeouts among state teams.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced and it’s been super competitive and it’s nice to be with people who want to win and will do whatever it takes to win,” senior Emmett Burke said.
The team already sits at 20 wins with eight regular season games remaining.
Roering said the transformation comes when players start believing they can win in any situation.
“Winning is contagious just like losing is contagious,” Roering said. “Kids they start believing and it gets really dangerous you know that they can win no matter what situation they’re in.”
The turnaround has positioned the Regals to make a postseason run. With only one senior on the roster, the team could remain a threat next season.
“No matter what, we’re going to fight and we’re not going to roll over. We’re going to do what we need to do to win,” Burke said.
“We’re big competitors. We don’t accept defeat and I think that’s one of my favorite parts about this team,” Streb added.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) -Water and wastewater utility rates in Iowa City will increase starting July 1, following a city council decision on May 19.
The water utility rate will increase by 3%, while the wastewater rate will increase by 5%.
The increases are part of a funding model to help recover the costs of providing water and wastewater services to Iowa City residents.
The new rates will take effect in tandem with Iowa City’s 2027 fiscal year and apply to customers served by the Iowa City Water Division and the Iowa City Wastewater Division.
The city said the rate adjustment supports its continued provision of safe and reliable water service.
To learn more about the city’s utilities, visit their website.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
Thrive Iowa launches in Warren County and across the state
The new program aims to reduce barriers to families seeking help from local organizations.
Thrive Iowa, a new initiative from the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, has officially launched in a number of counties across the state with the goal of helping struggling Iowa families connect with local resources and build a network of support in their community.
On June 23, Warren County celebrated its own program site launch as one of eight initial sites. Other counties that are celebrating their own site launches are Cass, Lee, Black Hawk, Webster, Buena Vista, Fayette and Clayton. A site is officially launched once it has enrolled a minimum of 20 participants, Iowa HHS Director of Communications Danielle Sample said in a statement.
The eight sites serve 11 counties in total, with services also available in Henry, Madison, and Van Buren counties, according to the Thrive Iowa website.
What is Thrive Iowa?
The initiative is focused on serving families, such as parents, caretakers, and pregnant individuals, according to the program’s website. To be eligible to receive help from the program, families must be living in Iowa, be a U.S. citizen or legal resident, and have an income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level.
The 2026 federal guidelines consider a family of four to be at the 200% threshold if they make $66,000 or less annually.
The program also outlines 13 core areas of well-being where it offers support. These include housing, recovery, employment, transportation, education, mental health, physical health, safety, dental, financial stability, food, child care and legal assistance.
The overall goal of the program is to reduce barriers to accessing support for families by doing the work of finding the right organization to meet their needs for them. Instead of having to reach out to multiple sources, a family can visit the program’s HopeHub, a case management system, to create a free account and receive a referral. Once referred, the individual is connected with a Thrive Navigator who will create a personalized plan and build local connections to assist the family.
Thrive Iowa is modeled after Restore Hope, an Arkansas-based nonprofit that began in 2015 to reduce the number of individuals in incarceration and the foster care system through community-based approaches. In addition to Iowa, this model is also used in Tennessee and Canada, according to the organization’s website.
The Iowa program plans to expand to other counties in the near future, Sample said. In July, Iowa HHS will begin onboarding more participating organizations and counties, expanding the program to serve 22 counties.
Warren County launch pledges to take families from crisis to careers
At the Warren County launch, the county’s initiative coordinator, Sarah Downard, was joined by Iowa State Rep. Brooke Boden, Ben Segebart, senior pastor at Indianola Freedom Fellowship Church, Sue Wilson, executive director of WeLIFT Job Search Center in Indianola, and Paul Chapman, executive director of Restore Hope.
Downard said the Warren County site is currently serving over 20 families.
To a room of around 75 community members and local organizations at The Hive event venue in Indianola, the five speakers emphasized the importance of the mission behind Thrive Iowa, which is collective impact and helping build strong communities through supporting the families that live there.
The group also invited the whole room to sign the site’s declaration of participation in the program, which stated the goals of the program and a pledge to work together to help take families from crisis to career.
“When families are struggling, we feel the impact everywhere,” Boden said. “We see this in our schools, our health care systems, our workplace, and our communities.”
Isabelle Foland is a communities reporter for the Register. Reach her at ifoland@registermedia.com.
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