DES MOINES, Iowa — In 2023, the Petek family filed a civil rights complaint against the Urbandale School District after they said the district did not take proper action in a situation involving their disabled student Keaton Petek.

A teacher at the Urbandale elementary school, Amanda Delzell, was placed on administrative leave after attempting to report what she considered abuse. Delzell was later fired by the district. It’s this situation that has Paige Petek and Pam Gronau seeking a change in Iowa code.

“It’s my understanding that a full formal investigation where the parent should have received a report showing what they had found in their investigation was never done, it was never given to them. And so that was where the huge red flag came in and I said this has to change,” said Pam Gronau, a concerned parent with three students attending a central Iowa school district.

Under current state law, teachers are mandatory reporters, except for when the abuse is at the hands of an educator. This allows school districts to take the lead in abuse allegations, which means the information surrounding an incident could be kept private. Gronau is advocating for a bill that will take alleged abuse investigations out of the hands of the school districts and into the hands of the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.

“As a parent, you want to make sure you send your children to the school … you want to know that they’re safe when they’re there. And in most cases, I think, most of our schools are doing the right thing. But we can’t let there be even one opportunity for the right thing not to be done. We need to ensure that we are protecting our kids at all costs,” said Gronau.

The bill sets up districts the department would open across the state to handle these investigations. The Legislative Services Agency projects that the DHHS will conduct around 600 investigations per year, and would need seven new full-time employee positions to handle the cases. The projected cost is over $700,000 in year one and $656,000 in year two. Though the bill passed through the Iowa House unanimously in a 96-0 vote, Gronau is concerned that the fiscal implications may hold it up in the Iowa Senate.

The bill was recently placed in unfinished business, which means it could or could not pass and be signed into law this session. Gronau is urging Iowans to reach out to their elected officials and ask them to advance this bill along in the process.

“We need to protect our students in the state of Iowa and there shouldn’t be a cost taken on their protection,” said Gronau.

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