House File 572 - Introduced
HOUSE FILE 572
BY EHLERT, McCONKEY, KRESSIG,
and BROWN-POWERS
A BILL FOR
1 An Act relating to implicit bias training required for the
2 licensure or certification of certain persons and facilities
3 providing care to children.
4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:
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1 Section 1. Section 237.5A, subsection 1, Code 2021, is
2 amended to read as follows:
3 1. As a condition for initial licensure, each individual
4 licensee shall complete thirty hours of foster parent training
5 offered or approved by the department. Foster parent training
6 shall include but not be limited to implicit bias training.
7 However, if the licensee has completed relevant training or has
8 a combination of completed relevant training and experience,
9 and the department deems such training or combination to be
10 an acceptable equivalent to all or a portion of the initial
11 licensure training requirement, or based upon the circumstances
12 of the child and the licensee the department finds there is
13 other good cause, the department may waive all or a portion of
14 the training requirement. Prior to renewal of licensure, each
15 individual licensee shall also annually complete six hours of
16 foster parent training. The training shall include but is not
17 limited to physical care, education, learning disabilities,
18 referral to and receipt of necessary professional services,
19 behavioral assessment and modification, self-assessment,
20 self-living skills, implicit biases, and biological parent
21 contact. An individual licensee may complete the training as
22 part of an approved training program offered by a public or
23 private agency with expertise in the provision of child foster
24 care or in related subject areas. The department shall adopt
25 rules to implement and enforce this training requirement.
26 Sec. 2. Section 237A.12, subsection 1, paragraph a, Code
27 2021, is amended to read as follows:
28 a. The number and qualifications of personnel necessary
29 to assure the health, safety, and welfare of children in the
30 facilities. Rules for facilities which are preschools shall
31 be drawn so that any staff-to-children ratios which relate to
32 the age of the children enrolled shall be based on the age
33 of the majority of the children served by a particular class
34 rather than on the age of the youngest child served. Rules for
35 facilities shall require personnel to receive implicit bias
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1 training.
2 Sec. 3. Section 237C.3, subsection 2, Code 2021, is amended
3 to read as follows:
4 2. Standards established by the department under this
5 chapter shall at a minimum address the basic health and
6 educational needs of children; protection of children from
7 mistreatment, abuse, and neglect; background and records
8 checks of persons providing care to children in facilities
9 certified under this chapter; mandatory implicit bias training
10 for persons providing care to children in facilities certified
11 under this chapter; the use of seclusion, restraint, or other
12 restrictive interventions; health; safety; emergency; and the
13 physical premises on which care is provided by a children’s
14 residential facility. The background check requirements shall
15 be substantially equivalent to those applied under chapter 237
16 for a child foster care facility provider.
17 EXPLANATION
18 The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
19 the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
20 This bill relates to implicit bias training required for the
21 licensure or certification of certain persons and facilities
22 providing care to children.
23 The bill adds implicit bias training as an additional
24 training subject that an individual child foster care licensee
25 applicant or current foster care licensee must receive in order
26 to obtain or renew a child foster care license.
27 The bill directs the department of human services to create
28 rules that require child care facility personnel to receive
29 implicit bias training. Child care facilities include child
30 care centers, preschools, and registered child development
31 homes. Child care facilities do not include unregistered child
32 care homes.
33 The bill directs the department of human services to
34 add mandatory implicit bias training standards for persons
35 providing care to children in a children’s residential
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1 facility. Under current law, minimum standards related to
2 children’s residential facilities include basic health and
3 educational needs of children; protection of children from
4 mistreatment, abuse, and neglect; background and records checks
5 of persons providing care to children in certified children’s
6 residential facilities; the use of seclusion, restraint, or
7 other restrictive interventions; health; safety; emergency; and
8 the physical premises on which care is provided by a children’s
9 residential facility. Children’s residential facilities are
10 24-hour private care facilities designed to serve children who
11 were voluntarily placed in the facility for reasons other than
12 an exclusively recreational activity and who are not under
13 the custody or authority of the department of human services,
14 juvenile court, or another governmental agency.
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Statutes affected:
Introduced: 237.5A, 237C.3