{"id":2646519,"date":"2026-08-18T12:52:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnew-iowa-law-empowers-teachers-to-take-back-their-classrooms-from-violent-students\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T12:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:58:10","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnew-iowa-law-empowers-teachers-to-take-back-their-classrooms-from-violent-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnew-iowa-law-empowers-teachers-to-take-back-their-classrooms-from-violent-students\/","title":{"rendered":"New Iowa Law Empowers Teachers To Take Back Classrooms"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaignnew-iowa-law-empowers-teachers-to-take-back-their-classrooms-from-violent-students%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2646519&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>New education legislation in Iowa, signed into law by Governor Kim Reynolds on June 1, aims to strengthen school discipline by allowing teachers to implement disciplinary actions for both violent and nonviolent student disruptions. The law responds to concerns from educators about the previous policies that limited their ability to manage classroom behavior effectively, especially amid rising violence and safety issues reported over recent years. Teachers, parents, and advocates highlighted instances of violence and inadequate responses from school administrations, raising alarms about student safety and the well-being of staff.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation empowers educators by giving them legal protections to address disruptive behavior and encourages dialog with superintendents and parents without fear of retaliation. It also seeks to counteract previous policies that, under the Obama-era \u201cDear Colleague\u201d letter, <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >discouraged strict disciplinary measures due<\/a> to concerns over racial disparities.These policies,along with federal funding restrictions,led many schools to avoid enforcing rules,often resulting in unaddressed violence and inadequate consequences for misconduct.<\/p>\n<p>Experts like Jennifer Weber and policymakers acknowledge that enforcing clear expectations and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/twelfth-grade-math-scores-are-worst-ever-thanks-to-equity\/\" title=\"Twelfth Grade Math Scores Are Worst Ever, Thanks To &#039;Equity&#039;\">traditional disciplinary measures<\/a> can improve student behavior and safety. The law aligns with broader efforts to restore order in classrooms, reversing the effects of recent policies that prioritized racial equity over discipline. Iowa\u2019s move reflects a wider trend among states to re-establish discipline standards and prioritize student safety,emphasizing the importance of authority,accountability,and appropriate consequences in educational environments.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>As families prepare for the upcoming school year, new education legislation in Iowa passed this summer allows teachers to enforce disciplinary action in response to behavioral problems.<\/p>\n<p>On June 1, Gov. Kim Reynolds, R-Iowa, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legis.iowa.gov\/legislation\/BillBook?ga=91&#038;ba=SF2428\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.legis.iowa.gov\/legislation\/BillBook?ga=91&#038;ba=SF2428\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">signed<\/a> Senate File 2428 into law. The new bill is \u201can Act relating to education,\u201d that allows for \u201cthe discipline of students enrolled in school districts, charter schools, and innovation zone schools who cause violent or nonviolent disruptions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Iowa State Rep. Skylar Wheeler, the Chair of the Education Committee, served as the floor manager for the act in the Iowa House of Representatives. Wheeler said headway for the new legislation started in 2023, after a \u201csignificant amount of teachers and paraprofessionals\u201d from Iowa\u2019s metro areas came to the state Capitol to \u201cspeak about the issue of classroom behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was hearing horrifying stories from people that had taught in a number of different schools who felt like their voices weren\u2019t being heard,\u201d Wheeler told The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>Wheeler mentioned one teacher at an inner city school in Des Moines who testified to fights in the hall every day and yet the school reported having zero behavioral problems or violent incidents.<\/p>\n<p>This allegation of behavioral incidents being swept under the rug is backed up by several other stories reported in the local news.<\/p>\n<p>One teacher, Tim Rogers, left the Iowa City Community School District because of violence from students and the district\u2019s lack of action on his behalf.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI know when I was done at four years there, I was wanting to get out of teaching because of my experiences there and how I was treated by some of the students and what the administration did not do to back me up,\u201d Rogers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/2025\/09\/24\/people-concerned-school-districts-dont-protect-their-teachers-violent-incidents\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/2025\/09\/24\/people-concerned-school-districts-dont-protect-their-teachers-violent-incidents\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">told<\/a> the school board.<\/p>\n<p>In hearings during the spring, veteran teachers <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs2iowa.com\/newsletter-daily\/teachers-advocate-for-help-as-iowa-bill-aims-to-address-classroom-violence\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/cbs2iowa.com\/newsletter-daily\/teachers-advocate-for-help-as-iowa-bill-aims-to-address-classroom-violence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">testified<\/a> to being \u201ckicked, punched, bitten,\u201d and having their \u201clives threatened\u201d by violent children.<\/p>\n<p>Iowa City parent Angela Stobel said her first grade son witnessed another student attempt to strangle a teacher. The school board did not inform parents about the occurrence until the end of the year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is not okay for me not to know that happened to my son and to be able to talk to him about it,\u201d Stobel said. \u201cSo whatever policy stopped me from knowing, just to even discuss with him what had happened that day and what he had seen \u2026 I think that needs to change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since the 2021-2022 school year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legis.iowa.gov\/docs\/publications\/DF\/1305759.pdf\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.legis.iowa.gov\/docs\/publications\/DF\/1305759.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">student violence<\/a> in Iowa public school classrooms has<br \/>led to 1,714 injuries, 1,138 incidents of property damage, and 1,967 assaults.<\/p>\n<p>The Educators School Safety Network revealed in its 2023-2024 <a href=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/55674542e4b074aad07152ba\/t\/66d9b80ac6c56e5e935cfb1a\/1725544460728\/2023-2024+Violence+in+schools+report.+The+Educator%27s+School+Safety+Network+www.eSchoolSafety.org.pdf\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/static1.squarespace.com\/static\/55674542e4b074aad07152ba\/t\/66d9b80ac6c56e5e935cfb1a\/1725544460728\/2023-2024+Violence+in+schools+report.+The+Educator%27s+School+Safety+Network+www.eSchoolSafety.org.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> on violent threats that \u201cthe number of violent incidents has increased more than 300% from the first year of data collection in 2016-2017 to the most recent school year 2023-2024.\u201d In that same period, the data shows an 83 percent increase in actual incidents of violence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not going to be weak, we\u2019re not going to be soft, we\u2019re not going to sweep things under the rug,\u201d Wheeler told The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>Wheeler says the new legislation is meant to mitigate violent behaviors by empowering teachers to meet with their superintendents, parents, or schoolboards about these issues and give them protection in law so they can speak up without retaliation.<\/p>\n<p>  \u201cI think we have a lot of schools where this wasn\u2019t a problem,\u201d Wheeler told The Federalist. \u201cBut clearly we were having issues and weren\u2019t getting solutions and we had teachers that didn\u2019t feel safe to teach in specific schools so we were losing teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Erika Donalds, chair of Education Opportunity at America First Policy Institute, said she was \u201cencouraged\u201d to see Iowa pass the new law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe old, Obama-era policies led to chaos in the classroom and prevented student learning. Civil rights enforcement was weaponized to strip teachers of control in their classrooms. Iowa\u2019s new law gives teachers their power back, they can again decide whether the disruptive student can come back to class, or if they need to be removed,\u201d Donalds said in a statement to The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>Iowa is not unique in dealing with behavioral problems but is one of the more recent states seeking to reverse the damage caused in their school systems by DEI policies. <\/p>\n<p>Teaching children that their actions have consequences might sound like a common-sense school disciplinary policy, but up until last year many schools across America had stopped enforcing the rules for fear of having federal funding removed.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cDear Colleague\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/laws-and-policy\/civil-rights-laws\/race-color-and-national-origin-discrimination\/dear-colleague-letter-nondiscriminatory-administration-of-school-discipline-rescinded\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">letter<\/a> put forth by the Obama Administration in 2014 made it very challenging for schools to discipline students because there was such an emphasis on racial disparities.<\/p>\n<p>In April 2025, President Donald Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/fact-sheets\/2025\/04\/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-reinstates-commonsense-school-discipline-policies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">issued<\/a> an executive order reinstating \u201ccommonsense non-discriminatory education policies\u201d to ensure that \u201cschool discipline policies are based on objective behavior, not DEI.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer Weber, education policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute, shared the devastating effects and challenges she witnessed while working as a behavioral analyst in schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw all the red tape that was happening and a lot of it stemmed from the Obama administration. Schools would spend a lot of federal grant money on these alternative discipline approaches,\u201d Weber told The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>New York City alone spent $97 million across 10 years investing in alternative approaches to behavior-based discipline, but Weber said it was not effective.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead of providing students with consequences for misbehavior, it put students into a so-called \u2018restorative mediation circle\u2019 to talk about their feelings,\u201d Weber told The Federalist. <\/p>\n<p>But Weber said the restorative circle wasn\u2019t a consequence and was often seen as a reward because as a result of their poor behavior, students received one-on-one attention or got out of time in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBehavior is behavior. By trying to make it such a racial issue, it resulted in a lot of schools changing policies to cover up incidents and not suspend kids for fear of facing consequences from the state,\u201d Weber told The Federalist. \u201cSchools were afraid of losing funding and getting in trouble if their data showed that black kids were getting suspended more than white kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In one school Weber consulted with, she witnessed a child throw a Chromebook at a teacher\u2019s head. The teacher had to leave by ambulance and be taken to the emergency room. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cTen minutes later the kid is back in the classroom and faced little to no consequences,\u201d Weber said. \u201cThink about what that\u2019s teaching the kid and the message it\u2019s sending to other kids. \u2018I can hurt my teacher and get away with it.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Weber said that in terms of education and behavioral policy, there\u2019s nothing more equitable than setting expectations for students in the school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you actually hold them to a boundary or expectation, that\u2019s how you show them that they belong and that you care,\u201d Weber told The Federalist. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely not a one size fits all but I think its got to match and look at why the behavior is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Weber mentioned working with a troubled black student who was frequently sent in to the principal\u2019s office for behavioral issues. Instead of using the \u201crestorative circle\u201d method, Weber and other teachers applied a traditional behavior-based disciplinary approach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were able to teach him the rules, expectations, and consequences and he was the first one of his whole family to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/l-a-mayor-says-new-program-giving-50-savings-accounts-to-first-graders-is-about-racial-justice\/\" title=\"L.A. Mayor Says New Program Giving  Savings Accounts To First...Graders \u2018Is About Racial Justice\u2019\">graduate high school<\/a>,\u201d Weber said. \u201cHe had a complete turnaround. As soon as he realized that we actually cared about him and that\u2019s why we were enforcing the rules, he became a role model.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Wheeler aims for the new legislation to accomplish just that, while also making provisions for students with special needs who may need a more creative solution to behavioral issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead of talking about this DEI crap we should be asking how do I control my classroom? How do I get these kids to understand that I\u2019m the authority figure and that they need to be respectful to myself and to their peers?\u201d Wheeler told The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>Wheeler said the Iowa legislators pulled some examples from other state legislation like Alabama and Louisiana, but primarily worked with local stakeholders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe state doesn\u2019t need to do everything in this case,\u201d Wheeler told The Federalist. \u201cWe just need to empower the law as much as we can to empower teachers with the ability to speak up and have protection in law so they can speak up without retaliation.\u201d <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Libby Bandelin is a reporting and editing intern at The Federalist with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.   A recent graduate from Dordt University, she earned her B.A. in communications with an emphasis in journalism and a minor in criminal justice.   In college, she served as chief editor for her student newspaper, and her writing won third place in the 2026 Cordell Prize.  She&#8217;s also attended journalism intensives with WORLD newsgroup and Alliance Defending Freedom.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Iowa law empowers teachers to discipline students effectively<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4334,"featured_media":2646520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/pexels-pavel-danilyuk-8423401-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[84326,5152,52018,84325,84324],"class_list":["post-2646519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-classroom-management","tag-education","tag-educational-reform","tag-iowa-law","tag-teacher-empowerment"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/pexels-pavel-danilyuk-8423401-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2646519"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2646523,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646519\/revisions\/2646523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2646520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2646519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2646519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2646519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}