Iowa Code Title VI. Human Services [Chs. 216-255A] § 232.103B. Child in need of assistance cases--transfer of jurisdiction pursuant to bridge modification order

1. A juvenile court may close a child in need of assistance case by returning jurisdiction of the child's custody to the district court through an order modifying issues of legal custody, physical care, and parenting time if all of the following criteria have been met:

2. When the criteria specified in subsection 1 are met, any party to a child in need of assistance proceeding in juvenile court may file a motion with the juvenile court for a bridge modification order as described in subsection 1. Such motion shall be set for hearing by the juvenile court no less than thirty days but not more than ninety days from the date of filing of the motion. The juvenile court, on its own motion, may set a hearing on the issue of the bridge modification order if such hearing is set no less than thirty days from the date of notice to the parties.

3. Bridge modification orders shall only address legal custody, physical care, and parenting time. All other matters, including child support, shall be filed by separate petition in district court, and shall be subject to existing statutory requirements.

4. Upon transferring jurisdiction, the clerk of court shall docket the bridge modification order in the current district court custodial order court file. The clerk of court shall not assess any filing fees or other court costs. The juvenile court shall follow the previously designated listing of the parties as petitioner and as respondent for the purposes of the bridge modification order.

5. The district court shall take judicial notice of the current child in of assistance case related to the bridge modification order, as well as any prior child in need of assistance cases relating to any prior bridge orders in any hearing related to the case. Records that are copied or transferred from the juvenile court file shall be subject to section 232.147 and other confidentiality provisions of this chapter for cases not involving juvenile delinquency. Such documents shall be disclosed, upon request, to the child support recovery unit without a court order, subject to any statutory confidentiality provisions.

6. Nothing in this section shall be construed to require the appointment of counsel for the parties in the district court action.