This bill modifies Iowa's education and tax laws to ensure public funding for educational programs excludes religious instruction. It defines "property" to exclude facilities used for sectarian teaching, worship, or religious training, and requires courses for high school students taking college credit to be nonsectarian. School districts must verify comparable nonreligious courses aren't available before allowing students to enroll in eligible college courses at community colleges. Textbook funding for nonpublic schools must be for nonreligious materials, and districts must annually approve courses for academic rigor. The bill affects public school districts, community colleges, and accredited nonpublic schools in Iowa.
SF 2003 prohibits Iowa public school districts, charter schools, and innovation zone schools from offering any program, curriculum, test, survey, questionnaire, promotion, or instruction related to gender theory or sexual orientation to students in grades seven through twelve. The bill amends existing education laws to extend a current prohibition (previously limited to grades K-6) to cover all middle and high school students. Key mechanisms require schools to comply with this restriction when developing or implementing human growth and development instruction, including health education standards. The policy change directly affects school curricula and instructional materials in the specified grades.
This bill prohibits Iowa public school districts, charter schools, and innovation zone schools from offering any program, curriculum, test, survey, questionnaire, promotion, or instruction about gender theory or sexual orientation to students in grades seven through twelve. It extends an existing ban that previously applied only to kindergarten through sixth grade to cover all middle and high school students. The law requires schools to remove such content from their human growth and development curriculum, which must instead focus on age-appropriate, research-based topics like health, safety, and disease prevention as outlined in other sections of the law. This is a direct policy change affecting school curricula in 7th-12th grades across participating schools.
HF 150 prohibits Iowa public school districts from using standards-based grading for students in grades six through twelve. The bill defines standards-based grading as a method that evaluates students on mastery of specific, smaller learning objectives within subjects, rather than traditional letter grades or points. If passed, school districts would be required to switch to alternative grading systems for middle and high school students. The bill is currently under review by the education subcommittee after being introduced in January 2025.
SF 335 prohibits public schools, community colleges, and state universities from including sexual orientation or gender identity instruction in curricula and restricts diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. It allows parents or school employees to file lawsuits against school districts to stop alleged violations, with the school district facing a $50,000 civil penalty per violation if sued successfully. The bill also requires school administrators to report known violations of these restrictions to the district. These provisions apply to all public K-12 schools, community colleges, and state universities governed by the Iowa Board of Regents.
