State human services officials told lawmakers Thursday they plan to rework a major consolidation of early childhood governing boards, but they offered nothing in writing before legislation moved out of an Iowa Senate subcommittee.
More than 50 people attended the subcommittee for Senate Study Bill 3111, legislation from HHS proposing the creation of a statewide Early Childhood and Family Services (ECFS) system while repealing the existing Early Childhood Iowa (ECI) program, transferring funding and oversight duties currently performed by ECI bodies to the new ECFS system.
When a House subcommittee met earlier in February to discuss the companion to this bill, House Study Bill 623, lawmakers decided to table the bill.
The HHS officials who spoke at Thursday’s Senate subcommittee shared their plan to address some of the concerns brought up by advocates and legislators during the House meeting. During that meeting, HHS officials were told “we need to go back to the drawing board,” Nick Crawford, the legislative director for HHS, said.
The department is prepared to do so through an amendment, Crawford said, and told the subcommittee “the Early childhood and Family Services bill language you have in front of you today is a work in progress, and it’s not the language HHS intends to move forward.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t have that language with us — that exact language with us today to share with you all, but rather a framework of options for the Legislature to consider,” Crawford said.
One of the biggest changes proposed in the bill is a move from the current structure of 34 ECI area boards, which oversee funding for local initiatives and services for pre-kindergarten children, into seven ECFS district advisory councils. Though not defined, department officials said these “health and human services districts” would follow the regions laid out in the state’s Behavioral Health Services System established in 2024.
Realigning the ECI system was a conversation started in the 2025 legislative session, when Gov. Kim Reynolds put forward a “continuum of care” child care package, which included this regionalization proposal. That measure was approved in the Senate, but ultimately failed to pass the House. In 2025 subcommittee meetings, many child care providers and advocates said they were concerned the larger district structure would hinder small and rural communities’ ability to address their local needs — a concern also shared by some ECI state board members in meetings after the legislative session.
Advocates, community leaders, and people with nonprofits who came to the meeting to voice their opposition to the measure expressed frustration over the lack of communication to the public about the bill’s planned new language.
Dean Kluss, a Wright County supervisor who serves on the board of Building Families, the ECI board for the local region of Wright, Hamilton and Humboldt counties, said he found it “disturbing” that a new proposal was unveiled at the subcommittee without prior notification or language to review. However, he said he still believed the bill, if amended, would cause problems in Iowa rural communities.
“I’m glad that there’s changes to legislation, don’t get me wrong about that,” Kluss said. “But there is no way that Hamilton County — in a region that goes all the way down to the Missouri border and includes Polk, Dallas and Story County — is going to have the same kind of local care.”
Emily Westergaard, the ECI state board chair, said the ECI areas and local boards are meeting needs of vastly different communities — and that having smaller areas allows for these bodies to better address their communities’ needs, while ensuring smaller and rural communities are not overlooked.
“The needs and also the funding in Polk County are very different from the needs and the funding available up in the lakes region, which is up near Okoboji,” Westergaard said. “… And so, the ECI system looks at, those other areas that maybe don’t have as many resources, how do we support them so that those kids and families are getting what they need?”
Janée Harvey, HHS division director of Family Well-Being and Protection, shared some details on the planned changes to the bill at the meeting. She said ECI areas for local service would remain as-is, and ECI local boards would remain in their current form and continue coordinating activities within their designated areas. The ECI state board would also be kept, continuing to provide oversight and management of ECI areas.
However, the bill would change to the “School Ready Fund” currently allotted through the ECI system that funds family support services and parent education programs, as an area that would go to HHS authority and oversight. This change would be to ensure contracts for vendors home visitation programs through this program are “evidence-based” models. In addition to ensuring parents are getting best outcomes from these services, Harvey said this change would allow the state to become eligible for more federal funds through the Family First Act.
Westergaard said there is roughly $28 million appropriated to the system of 34 local ECIs. Of that amount, roughly $15 million goes toward home visitation services, Westergaard said — contracts that would be assumed by the state if the proposed amendment moves forward.
The amendment proposal will also still ask lawmakers to direct HHS to develop ECFS districts. Harvey said, “the money as it related to ECI, we are still asking for legislators to move forward the bill that requires us, HHS, to develop Early Childhood and Family Services districts.”
She said regional ECFS boards would allow community leaders to come together and find ways to collaborate.
“We want advisory boards in each of those districts to guide and understand what is working, and where does there need to be supplemental funding, or where are there gaps?” Harvey said. “We want that board to be made up of professionals, committed individuals, people with lived experiences — in fact, I think an ECI director should probably sit on those boards, that’s what we would want. We want a tethering between the district work and the local ECI area, because they should be in conversation with one another.”
Iowa Capital Dispatch requested clarification and a response from Iowa HHS about whether other funding capacities would be transferred from the current boards to the new system. Iowa HHS did not respond to requests for comment at the time of this article’s publishing.
Westergaard said members of the ECI state board were told Wednesday outside of the proposed shifts in oversight of the “School Ready Fund,” funding oversight currently given to ECI boards would not change.
Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines, said she appreciated the department’s efforts to make changes to the bill. However, she said, she did not believe needed communication and collaboration with child care providers, local leaders and other parties took place, especially as the department officials presented
“This is the public’s opportunity to give feedback, and they don’t have anything to respond to,” Trone Garriott said. “I, as a legislator, do not have any proposed language to reflect on. So I cannot be supportive of a concept, when we do not have actual language to respond to, because the details are really important.”
Sen. Kara Warme, R-Ames, said she understood people’s requests to “hold this back,” but said she would support recommending amendment and moving the bill to the full Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Lawmakers are nearing the first “funnel” deadline of the session, which requires most bills to pass a committee in either chamber by the end of next week to remain eligible for debate.
“I understand that it’s really hard to vote on something that’s not in front of us, and I recognize that,” Warme said. “Here we are. This is the deadline that we have.”
