1. The juvenile court may close a child in need of assistance case by transferring jurisdiction over the child‘s custody, physical care, and visitation to the district court through a bridge order, if all of the following criteria are met:

 a. The child has been adjudicated a child in need of assistance in an active juvenile court case, and a dispositional order in that case is in place.
 b. Paternity of the child has been legally established by one of the methods enumerated in section 252A.3, subsection 10, or by operation of law due to the established father’s marriage to the mother at the time of conception, birth, or at any time during the period between conception and birth of the child.
 c. The child is safely placed by the juvenile court with a parent.
 d. There is not a current district court order for custody in place.
 e. The juvenile court has determined that the child in need of assistance case can safely close once orders for custody, physical care, and visitation are entered by the district court.
 f. A parent qualified for a court-appointed attorney in the juvenile court case.
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Terms Used In Iowa Code 232.103A

  • Child: includes but shall not be limited to a stepchild, foster child, or legally adopted child and means a child actually or apparently under eighteen years of age, and a dependent person eighteen years of age or over who is unable to maintain the person's self and is likely to become a public charge. See Iowa Code 252A.2
  • Child: means any person under the age of eighteen years. See Iowa Code 232.68
  • Child in need of assistance: means a child who has been found to meet the grounds for adjudication pursuant to section 232. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
  • Court: shall mean and include any court upon which jurisdiction has been conferred to determine the liability of persons for the support of dependents. See Iowa Code 252A.2
  • Court: means the juvenile court established under section 602. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
  • following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute mean the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See Iowa Code 4.1
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Juvenile: means the same as "child". See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Parent: means a biological or adoptive mother or father of a child; or a father whose paternity has been established by one of the methods enumerated in section 252A. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Party: means a petitioner, a respondent, or a person who intervenes in a proceeding instituted under this chapter. See Iowa Code 252A.2
  • Petition: means a pleading the filing of which initiates formal judicial proceedings in the juvenile court. See Iowa Code 232.2
  • Petitioner: includes each dependent person for whom support is sought in a proceeding instituted pursuant to this chapter or a mother or putative father of a dependent. See Iowa Code 252A.2
  • Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
  • Respondent: includes each person against whom a proceeding is instituted pursuant to this chapter. See Iowa Code 252A.2
  • state: means the general interest held by the people in the health, safety, welfare, and protection of all children living in this state. See Iowa Code 232.90
  • year: means twelve consecutive months. See Iowa Code 4.1
 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 order under subsection 1. Such motion shall be set for hearing by the juvenile court no less than thirty days nor more than ninety days from the date of filing the motion. The juvenile court, on its own motion, may set a hearing on the issue of a bridge order if such hearing is set no less than thirty days from the date of notice to the parties.
 3. The juvenile court shall designate the petitioner and respondent for the purposes of the bridge order. A bridge order shall only address matters of custody, physical care, and visitation. All other matters, including child support, shall be filed by separate petition or by action of child support services, and shall be subject to existing applicable statutory provisions.
 4. Upon transferring jurisdiction from the juvenile court to the district court, the clerk of court shall docket the case. Filing fees and other court costs shall not be assessed against the parties.
 5. The district court shall take judicial notice of the juvenile file in any hearing related to the case. Records contained in the district court case file that were copied or transferred from the juvenile court file concerning the case shall be subject to section 232.147 and other confidentiality provisions of this chapter for cases not involving juvenile delinquency, and shall be disclosed, upon request, to child support services without a court order.
 6. Following the issuance of a bridge order, a party may file a petition in district court for modification of the bridge order for custody, physical care, or visitation. If the petition for modification is filed within one year of the filing date of the bridge order, the party requesting modification shall not be required to demonstrate a substantial change of circumstances but instead shall demonstrate that such modification is in the best interest of the child. If a petition for modification is filed within one year of the filing date of the bridge order, filing fees and other court costs shall not be assessed against the parties.
 7. Nothing in this section shall be construed to require appointment of counsel for the parties in the district court action.
 8. A court-appointed attorney shall be paid by the state public defender‘s office for work done relating to a bridge order.
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