WINTERSET (AP) -- A 10-year-old girl who was locked in her bedroom with no light, no furniture and no food on and off for more than a year will remain in state custody, county officials said.

The girl's father, Jon Neely, 38, and his girlfriend, Kimberly Holtmyer, 36, who have pleaded not guilty to charges of child endangerment, signed documents agreeing to leave the girl in foster care, Madison County Attorney Martin Ramsey said Wednesday.

The documents also affect custody of Holtmyer's teenage son.

Ramsey said state child welfare officials "will continue monitoring and doing studies on Mom, Dad and the children and make recommendations as to how things should be for the future."

Those findings will be presented at a July 6 court hearing, he said.

A hearing Wednesday determined that both children were "in need of assistance," finding that the children were unsafe and the state must intervene, said Roger Munns, Iowa Department of Human Services spokesman.

Neely and Holtmyer remain free under $26,000 bond each pending trial July 12.

The children were placed in foster care in February after authorities visited the home and found Neely's daughter locked in a room emptied of furniture, except for a television cabinet. There was no carpeting, aluminum foil covered the windows and light bulbs had been removed.

When found, she weighed just 59 pounds, 30 pounds below average weight for a child her age.

The girl's foster parents, who attended Wednesday's hearing, declined to comment.

The girl attended Winterset Elementary last year, and school officials because increasingly concerned that she was losing weight. She started classes last fall, but her father pulled her out in October, saying she was going to be home schooled.

School officials called police after the child didn't show up for a required test in January.

The girl's mother lives in Germany and is expected to come to Iowa sometime in the future, said her attorney Ryan Ellis, of Indianola.