Des Moines, Iowa (NorthwestIowaNow.com) — Governor Kim Reynolds has wrapped up the 2026 legislative session, signing a final stack of bills that will directly hit Northwest Iowa families, schools, and landowners.

In education, local school districts must now establish advanced mathematics pathways, automatically placing high-scoring middle school students into early algebra tracks. Meanwhile, students heading to Iowa Lakes or Northwest Iowa Community College will see a major shift, as traditional non-credit remedial classes are replaced by credit-bearing courses with mandatory, side-by-side tutoring.

For local landowners and farmers, a new law modifies how property owners can protest local city or county zoning changes. A separate wildlife bill provides new rules for handling nuisance beaver dams on agricultural land, alongside updates to deer depredation programs.

Finally, the Governor approved the MEGA program, a massive tax incentive package aimed at drawing billion-dollar industrial projects to certified rural sites, putting a heavy focus on regional electric grid capacity.