Iowa Code

Iowa Code § 232.51 (2026)

Disposition of child with mental illness

✓ current as of July 2026

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1. If the evidence received at an adjudicatory or a dispositional hearing indicates that the child is mentally ill, the court may direct the juvenile court officer or the department to initiate proceedings or to assist the child’s parent or guardian to initiate civil commitment proceedings in the juvenile court and such proceedings in the juvenile court shall adhere to the requirements of chapter 229.

2. a. If prior to the adjudicatory or dispositional hearing on the pending delinquency petition, the child is committed as a child with a mental illness and is ordered into a residential facility, institution, or hospital for inpatient treatment, the delinquency proceeding shall be suspended until such time as the juvenile court either terminates the civil commitment order or the child is released from the residential facility, institution, or hospital for purposes of receiving outpatient treatment.

b. During any time that the delinquency proceeding is suspended pursuant to this subsection, any time limits for speedy adjudicatory hearings and continuances shall be tolled.

c. This subsection shall not apply to waiver hearings held pursuant to section 232.45. [C79, 81, §232.51] 83 Acts, ch 186, §10055, 10201; 86 Acts, ch 1186, §5; 96 Acts, ch 1129, §62; 2011 Acts, ch 10, §1; 2012 Acts, ch 1019, §85, 86; 2013 Acts, ch 130, §31, 35 Referred to in §229.26 \n

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 3 cases, 1978–1997 · leading case: In the Interest of S.M.D., 569 N.W.2d 609 (Iowa 1997).

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In the Interest of S.M.D., 569 N.W.2d 609 (Iowa 1997). · cites it 12× “Iowa Code § 232.51 (emphasis added). Although they sharply disagree on its meaning, both S.”

State v. Greiman, 344 N.W.2d 249 (Iowa 1984). · cites it 2× “Iowa Code section 232.51 provides in part: If the evidence received at an adjudicatory or dispositional hearing indicates that the child is mentally ill, the court may direct the juvenile probation officer or the department to initiate proceedings or to assist the child’s parent…”

Burns v. Siebenmann, 266 N.W.2d 11 (Iowa 1978). “33, he could not ignore § 232.51, which governs responsibility for costs.”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.