Today the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) announce their new website, https://hhsalignment.iowa.gov/, to communicate updates to the public, media and stakeholders about the health and human services alignment assessment.

Over the next nine months, IDPH and DHS will embark on a health and human services alignment assessment with a contractor, Public Consulting Group (PCG), to identify shared program goals and align and integrate programs, practices and policies to improve delivery of services and most effectively leverage funding. The agencies will update the website regularly.

In March, the American Rescue Plan Act authorized State WIC Agencies to enhance the WIC benefit for a period of four months, expanding the vegetable and fruit voucher for children over the age of one and women to $35.00 each month, per participant. This dollar amount is a significant increase from the previous monthly benefit.

Today, Governor Reynolds signed new legislation that will allow an adopted adult whose original birth certificate was substituted with a new certificate after an adoption, to apply for and obtain a non-certified copy of the original certificate of birth, which will include biological parent information. The new
law will also allow an entitled person to apply for the adult adoptee’s original certificate prior to adoption if the adoptee is deceased.

Today Director Garcia sent the following letter to school superintendents, child care providers and local public health departments regarding updated COVID-19 guidance:

Dear Education and Child Care Professionals,

I write to you today to underscore the continued importance of supporting children as we navigate this recovery phase of our COVID-19 response. From the beginning, this response effort has been grounded in mitigating risk and protecting our vulnerable populations, realizing that completely eliminating risk was never an option. We appreciate the difficult position school administrators and child care providers, who are not necessarily health professionals, have had to navigate. Your efforts over the last year have required patience, grace, and flexibility. For that, we are tremendously grateful.

Following U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) EUA approval on May 10, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) adopted CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recommendation that endorsed the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and its use in 12- through 15-year-old adolescents.