Chalkbeat

Should students have cell phones in class? Indiana just said no — with a few exceptions.

2024-03-12T13:47:01+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Indiana students will need to put their phones away during class starting next school year, under a new law that requires districts to ban communication devices from classrooms.

Senate Enrolled Act 185 bans “any portable wireless device.” The bill — which was signed into law Monday by Gov. Eric Holcomb and takes effect in July — requires districts, including charter schools, to adopt policies banning several types of devices during class time.

Lawmakers and advocates hope the ban improves student engagement, behavior, and mental health, all of which they say have declined since cell phones became a common sight in students’ hands. They’re part of a national push to enact bans on cell phones in schools.

“Even as adults, we’re distracted by using our cell phones,” said Sen. Jeff Raatz, a Republican and the bill’s author, in a Feb. 14 meeting of the House Education Committee.

Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming cell phone ban, including exceptions to it, what schools have previously done to limit cell phones, and concerns about it.

How does the new cell phone ban work?

Under the new law, school districts will need to adopt policies banning communication devices during instructional time. That includes phones, tablets, laptops, and gaming systems, as well as any other devices that can provide communication between two parties.

Exactly how that will be done is up to each individual school district. Students might be required to put their phones in locked pouches or designated places in the classroom.

It will be up to school boards to adopt these policies this summer.

However, the law says a student can use their device:

if a teacher allows it for educational purposes during instructional time.
if a student needs to manage their health care, as for blood sugar monitoring, for example.
in the event of an emergency.
if the use of the device is included in their Individualized Education Program or 504 plan.

The law does not define what constitutes an emergency.

The exception for instructional time is important for students in dual credit programs, said Mary Jane Michalak, vice president of legal and public affairs at Ivy Tech Community College, because it will allow them to access two-factor authentication.

Why do people want a cell phone ban?

Lawmakers attempted to ban cell phones in schools over two decades ago, said Rep. Vernon Smith. However, the law was reversed due to safety concerns.

The rapid adoption of phones between 2010 and 2015, coupled with the development of more attention-grabbing apps, has led students to spend more and more time on their phones, said Evan Eagleson, regional advocacy director for ExcelinEd, during testimony.

Eagleson said studies have shown students spend seven to nine hours a day on their phones, receiving around 237 notifications — a quarter of which occur during class time.

Since COVID, teachers report that student behavior and mental health issues linked to cell phones have spiked, said John O’Neal of the Indiana State Teachers Association in testimony.

“It’s becoming a major problem,” O’Neal said. “Students aren’t motivated in class because they’re distracted by their devices.”

How do educators and parents feel about it?

While schools already have the power to ban cell phones, such prohibitions have largely been left to the discretion of individual teachers, the bill’s supporters said, creating inconsistency from classroom to classroom.

A statewide law provides consistency and helps to enforce existing local policies, said Terry Spradlin, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association, during testimony on the bill.

Education groups that supported the new law include the Indiana State Teachers Association, the American Federation of Teachers, the Indiana School Boards Association, and the Indiana Association of School Principals.

While the bill saw little opposition from advocates or lawmakers, some noted the potential increase in school discipline for students who try to circumvent their districts’ new policies. The enforcement of the ban, as well as any potential consequences for students who violate it, will be up to school districts.

Parents, too, have expressed concerns about being able to reach their students in the event of a school emergency.

How have schools tried to limit cell phones?

Spradlin said school districts’ existing guidelines on cell phone use typically ban the devices from classrooms, or leave it up to teachers. They often permit cell phone use during lunch and passing periods.

But a few Indiana districts have recently moved to ban cell phones during the school day. Fort Wayne Community Schools announced in February that it would pilot “phone-free schools” at two of its middle schools and two of its high schools this spring.

Students will be required to put their phones in locked pouches, which will be unlocked at the end of the day.

Hammond and Martinsville schools also adopted policies at the beginning of this school year requiring students to put their phones away.

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect the law includes both traditional public school districts and charter schools.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Bill would require charter school leaders to disclose family, business ties with building owners

2024-01-31T19:55:37+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

Charter school leaders would have to publicly disclose if they have a family or business connection to the owners of their school building under a new proposal in the Indiana Statehouse.

It’s the latest call for charter school oversight and transparency following federal charges that could mean decades in prison for the former leaders of the Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy.

The operators of the now-closed schools allegedly inflated the enrollment by thousands of students and accepted more than $44 million in state funding, according to a federal indictment filed earlier this month. The state money was allegedly funneled through several for-profit companies owned by the schools’ founder, Thomas Stoughton, and then paid out to himself, his family, former IVS and IVPA Superintendent Percy Clark, and others, the indictment said.

A Chalkbeat Indiana investigation in 2017 found ballooning enrollment and conflicts of interest at the two schools, among other problems. A lawsuit from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita to recoup $154 million in state funds from school leaders and others is ongoing as well.

The proposal to beef up charter oversight is an amendment to House Bill 1243, which addresses various education topics. The amendment says that a charter school shall annually post on its website “information for the immediately preceding school year regarding whether there is a familial or business relationship between the organizer, owner, or operator of the charter school and the owner of the charter school’s building.”

The amendment was authored by Democratic state Rep. Ed DeLaney, who represents Indianapolis. The bill — which includes DeLaney’s amendment — passed the House Wednesday and now goes to the Senate.

“It is clear that we need to tighten reporting requirements on the financial activities of charter schools,” DeLaney said in a statement Tuesday after his amendment was added to the bill.

He said the amendment is part of his “step-by-step” approach to require more oversight of charter schools, especially as they grow, and to fight against misuse of public money.

He pointed out that if a school district rented a school building from or contracted with the family member of the superintendent, that would be wrong, and the same goes for charters, given that they are public schools and use public funds.

“We must require transparency so the public knows who is benefitting from rent for the buildings that charter schools are using,” DeLaney said in his statement.

DeLaney is one of several lawmakers who’ve called for more oversight and transparency from charter schools and their leaders.

Sen. Andrea Hunley, a Democrat who represents parts of Indianapolis, filed a bill about charter authorizers, which approve or reject applications for new charter schools. They are also tasked with providing the kind of oversight that elected school boards handle for traditional public schools.

Hunley’s bill would restrict the power to approve and oversee new charter schools in Indianapolis to two government authorizers: the Indiana Charter School Board and the Indianapolis Charter School Board. That would halt charter authorizing in the city by other groups, including authorizers housed at Ball State University and Trine University.

Hunley’s bill follows a Chalkbeat Indiana report on charter school accountability that found roughly a third of brick-and-mortar or blended-model charter schools in Marion County have closed since 2001.

However, the bill, SB 173, is unlikely to advance. It was referred to the Senate education committee, but is not on the agenda for the committee’s last scheduled meeting before the deadlines for bills to advance out of their respective chambers.

You can track HB 1243 and SB 173 on the General Assembly’s website.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. She also covers access to higher education and Warren Township Schools. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Bill would restrict charter authorizing powers in Marion County

2024-01-03T23:07:31+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

A proposed bill would restrict the power to approve and oversee new charter schools in Indianapolis to two government authorizers: the Indiana Charter School Board and the Indianapolis Charter School Board.

Under the legislation pitched by Democratic state Sen. Andrea Hunley, a former Indianapolis Public Schools principal, several other authorizers that are active in the state would no longer be allowed to approve charter schools in Marion County.

Authorizers are institutions that have the power to approve or reject charters for new schools, and provide oversight that an elected school board would for traditional public schools. In Indiana, they can be tied to school boards, the state and Indianapolis charter boards, or certain universities.

Authorizers outside of Marion County don’t fully understand the city’s landscape, Hunley said, and are not sufficiently accountable to the city’s constituents or families. Restricting authorizing power to the city and state charter boards, she argued, would provide more local accountability, while also allowing Indianapolis charter schools to choose from more than one authorizer.

Most charter schools in Indianapolis are authorized by the Indianapolis Charter School Board, which is part of the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation. But the city’s charter schools have also historically been authorized by the state charter board, by Ball State University’s Office of Charter Schools in Muncie, and by Education One, the authorizing arm of Trine University in Angola.

Hunley cites questions about accountability

Chalkbeat’s analysis found that at least three of the schools that closed since 2001 had sought and won approval from a different authorizer, after they or a sister school faced scrutiny from their initial authorizer. Those schools received their second approval from either Ball State University or Education One.

Hunley said the Chalkbeat report raises questions about whether authorizers are providing adequate oversight and quality control in Indianapolis.

“It’s really a problematic process that’s been allowed to happen,” Hunley said. “I think now we’re seeing the reality of how damaging, destabilizing that can be for kids.”

Last year, two Indianapolis charter schools closed in the middle of the school year, sending parents and students suddenly searching for other school options. One was authorized by the Indiana Charter School Board and another by Ball State.

Other schools have been approved by one authorizer after being rejected by another in the application phase. Last year, for example, Education One granted Purdue Polytechnic approval to operate a third campus in Indianapolis after the Indianapolis Charter School Board rejected the charter amid intense local public pushback.

Under Hunley’s bill, charter school operators throughout the state seeking authorization from higher education institutions would also be required to meet with school district leaders in the area where the proposed charter school would operate to discuss their proposal, their financial stability, previous performance of any current schools in the operator’s portfolio, and capacity for growth.

School districts would then make a nonbinding recommendation to the authorizer on whether to approve the school.

The bill would protect charter schools as a whole by ensuring that only high-quality schools are opened, Hunley argued. Some charter schools in her district are doing well, she said, but the general image of charter schools suffers when some close due to mismanagement, underenrollment, or other reasons.

“We don’t want to say in any way all charter schools are bad,” she said. “They aren’t.”

Charter proponents oppose bill

Advocates for charter schools defended the sector’s record of accountability and quality.

Lindsay Omlor, executive director of Education One, said in an email that the authorizer is highly present in all 15 of its charter schools. Staff conduct routine site visits and attend all school board meetings, Omlor said, and annual stakeholder survey results show a satisfaction rate of at least 95% over the last seven years.

“We already follow all statutory requirements for notifying districts and conducting a public hearing, etc. when we are considering an application for a new charter school,” Omlor said. “Point being, we are doing this work in accordance with the law, and based on the feedback we receive from our stakeholders, we know we are doing it well.”

The Indiana Charter School Network, which represents the state’s charter schools, is also opposed to the bill.

“We do not support any limitation on authorizer options in Marion or any county,” Marcie Brown-Carter, the group’s executive director, said in an email. “We do not support placing additional steps into the authorization process for school districts when they are already free to participate in public hearings, and many times do.”

The mayor’s Office of Education Innovation said through a spokesperson that it’s too early to comment on the proposed legislation but that it plans to follow the issue closely. Ball State University and the Mind Trust, which has helped spread charter schools throughout Indianapolis, also declined to comment Wednesday afternoon.

The legislative session begins on Jan. 8.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

The 2024 legislative session has started in Indiana. Here’s what to expect.

2024-01-08T22:28:46+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

After several years of focusing on how teachers teach, Indiana lawmakers appear to have largely shifted their attention this year to concerns about students’ academic performance and behavior stemming from the pandemic’s disruptions.

Banning cell phones from classrooms, holding more kids back, and improving student discipline and absenteeism have all emerged as priorities for the 2024 legislative session, which began Monday, when Gov. Eric Holcomb also laid out his education policy agenda.

It’s a short session in an even-numbered year, meaning lawmakers have less time to consider bills, and no budget to put together. Legislative leaders have also said to expect a quieter session after several years of major curriculum changes affecting things like literacy, as well as divisive and high-profile bills about critical race theory and book bans.

But that doesn’t mean those types of cultural issues won’t get any attention.

On Monday, Sen. Jeff Raatz, the GOP chair of the Senate Education and Career Development Committee, along with Republican Sen. Gary Byrne introduced a bill to require local school boards to approve curriculum materials for sex education classes. They would also have to publicize certain information about those classes, such as what is taught and whether the lessons separate or integrate male and female students.

Here’s what to expect from policymakers this year that could mean big changes for students, families, and teachers.

A focus on reading and third grade retention

Holcomb and Republican lawmakers agree there’s a need to reinvigorate the state’s policy to hold back third graders who don’t pass the state reading test, known as the IREAD.

While retention has long been Indiana law, data from the state education department shows that a growing number of these students have moved on to fourth grade regardless of whether they have what’s known as a good cause exemption, like if they have special education or English language learner status.

Studies on retention have demonstrated mixed results, often showing positive academic effects but negative social-emotional effects. A recent study of Indiana data from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University found that retention did not affect attendance or student discipline.

A renewed focus on retention would be the next phase of the state’s ongoing efforts to improve literacy, which have included new laws enacted last year mandating instruction rooted in the science of reading.

“We want to make sure folks aren’t put at a disadvantage in grades 4, 5, 6 and on when they haven’t mastered that reading skill,” Holcomb said Monday.

But teachers, Democratic lawmakers, and education advocates have expressed skepticism over more retention. They say that policies that encourage personalized attention and intervention could better boost students’ reading performance.

“We can’t just hope that we can put 29 or 32 first graders in a classroom and believe the outcomes are going to be the same for schools that are able to staff at a class size of 18 to 20,” said Keith Gamble, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, in a November press conference.

Additional early learning programs, including universal preschool, would improve literacy rates more than “holding kids back and bottleneck schools,” said House Minority Leader Phil GiaQuinta, a Fort Wayne Democrat, in his opening remarks on Monday.

Lawmakers had yet to file a bill focusing on retention as of Monday. Senate bills must be filed by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, while House bills must be filed by 2 p.m. on Thursday.

Holcomb also called for a new requirement for schools to administer the state reading test, the IREAD, in second grade — an option that the state department of education has offered since last year.

Almost 46,000 second graders in over 700 schools took the IREAD early, allowing their schools to offer targeted interventions in third grade for those who didn’t pass.

Holcomb’s agenda also included new summer reading programs for students who don’t pass the IREAD, as well as ongoing testing for students who don’t demonstrate reading proficiency after third grade.

The state department of education has previously said that there’s little data tracking whether students who don’t demonstrate reading skills by third grade ever catch up.

Senate Bill 6, which Raatz also introduced Monday, would charge the department with developing a method to identify older students who don’t have reading skills.

Laws on attendance, cell phones, antisemitism expected

Legislative leaders have also suggested that they’ll crack down on absenteeism, which has spiked nationwide, as well as consider a ban on cell phones in schools.

While those key pieces of legislation have yet to be released, several bills have already been filed that offer a look into what lawmakers may discuss, including one to require armed intruder drills in schools.

The House Education Committee will meet for the first time on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m., with three bills on the agenda:

House Bill 1001 aims to make changes to last year’s legislation on career scholarship accounts, including allowing students to use their scholarship funding to obtain drivers’ licenses. It would also allow students to use funds earmarked for college courses for job training.
House Bill 1002, a repeat bill, aims to codify the state’s policy against antisemitism and discrimination on the basis of religion at educational institutions.
House Bill 1042 would allow the state to use any remaining balance in the next generation Hoosier educators scholarship fund for additional funding for transition to teaching scholarships.

The Senate education committee had yet to schedule a meeting as of Monday.

Meanwhile, the teachers union has called on lawmakers to help fix growing student discipline issues by creating a pilot program on social-emotional learning, as well as a statewide commission to improve student discipline, including absenteeism.

The union also wants to see increased education funding — a tough sell to lawmakers during a non-budget year — in order to boost wages for education support professionals and reimbursements to schools for textbooks that were made available to families for free last year.

More early learning and higher education options

Outside groups like the Indiana Chamber of Commerce have again called for lawmakers to focus on early learning and child care as a critical component of workforce development.

But while the Republican-controlled legislature has taken incremental steps to expand access to child care in recent years, they remain reluctant to commit to sweeping changes like a universal preschool program championed by Democratic lawmakers.

Holcomb called for several deregulatory initiatives likely to gain traction with lawmakers, including lowering the minimum age for infant and toddler caregivers from 21 to 18, and making it easier for K-12 teachers to also work as substitutes in early education.

In higher education, Holcomb outlined several potential initiatives that would allow students who have some credit hours — even those who have left school — to earn associate degrees. Another would require state universities to consider creating three-year degree programs.

One bill already filed by GOP Sen. Blake Doriot would require state educational institutions to publish information about job placement and average wages for different degree programs.

The House and Senate will meet again Tuesday afternoon, with committee hearings throughout the week.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Few students signed up for career scholarships, as lawmakers look to expand the law

2024-01-10T19:19:06+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

Just over 200 Indiana students received state funding for job training in the first year of the state’s Career Scholarship Accounts program, state officials said Wednesday, as lawmakers consider expanding the allowed uses for the money to include paying to get a driver license.

These accounts were the centerpiece of Republican lawmakers’ plans to “reinvent high school,” during the last legislative session, and allowed students to access state funding for workforce training outside of their schools. Advocates said the law would open more doors for students whose schools didn’t offer certain training programs, while critics said it lacked transparency, and could affect funding for high schools’ career and technical education programs.

State officials anticipated that 1,000 students in grades 10-12 would participate in the program during its first year, with each one eligible to receive up to $5,000 for job training and related expenses. Lawmakers appropriated $15 million over two years for the scholarship accounts.

While 574 students applied for the program, around 40% were rejected because they did not have job training lined up, said representatives from the Indiana Treasurer’s Office during a hearing of the House Committee on Education on Wednesday. The program is jointly administered by the treasurer, the Indiana Department of Education, and the Commission on Higher Education.

The 234 students who were approved for scholarship accounts received an average of $3,200 each for curriculum and course material, they said, for a total allocation of $1.17 million.

A total of 30 organizations have been approved as providers for job training, including Indiana University, Ball State, and Ivy Tech, according to the higher education commission.

Lawmakers are considering a bill during this year’s session that would make changes to the law, including allowing students to use the funding to obtain driver’s licenses so they can commute to job training — something that advocates say would encourage participation.

House Bill 1001, authored by Chuck Goodrich, a Noblesville Republican, also seeks to allow students to use scholarships earmarked for attending college after high school for job training instead — a proposal that was rejected last year.

Proponents of the driver’s license provision said that allowing students to use the funding for licenses would open the program to those who otherwise could not get to work sites. The original career scholarship bill provided funding for transportation, but did not specify driver’s licenses.

“Driver’s licenses are a big barrier to growing the program. Kids couldn’t get to where they needed to get,” said Abhi Reddy, legislative counsel at the Treasurer’s Office.

However, Rep. Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat, noted that offering funding for driver’s licenses through one program might motivate students to drop academic paths in favor of pursuing a job training scholarship.

The education committee rejected DeLaney’s amendment to remove the provision allowing students to use college scholarship funds — like the 21st Century Scholarship aimed at low-income students — for job training.

It also turned down a separate amendment authored by DeLaney that would’ve required that students be paid for the work they do during their job training opportunities.

“The potential for abuse is all through this bill, and this is one example where the abuse would directly affect the student,” DeLaney said.

HB 1001 passed the education committee and will move to the House.

You can track this bill on the General Assembly’s website.

This story has been updated with a total allocation for career scholarship accounts from the treasurer’s office.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Here’s what’s in Indiana lawmakers’ proposal to hold back more third graders

2024-01-12T19:09:34+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

Starting next school year, thousands of Indiana third graders could be held back if they don’t demonstrate key reading skills under a new bill from GOP lawmakers.

Senate Bill 1 — authored by Sen. Linda Rogers, Sen. Jeff Raatz, and Sen. Brian Buchanan, along with 28 Republican co-authors — seeks to bolster the state’s retention policy and is the centerpiece of GOP lawmakers’ education agenda this year. It’s the newest phase of an ongoing effort to improve the state’s early literacy rates. Last year, lawmakers passed a sweeping new law requiring reading instruction to be based on methods rooted in the science of reading that have gained traction nationwide.

Around 80% of Indiana third graders passed the statewide reading test, known as the IREAD-3, in 2023 — a number that has remained stubbornly flat since the pandemic. The Indiana Department of Education wants 95% of third graders to pass the reading test by 2027.

While third grade retention has been part of Indiana policy for over a decade, schools have increasingly avoided actually holding students back, according to data from the Indiana Department of Education, especially since the pandemic. Guidance from the department in 2021 encouraged schools to consider a student’s “overall academic performance” in determining whether retention is necessary.

In 2023, of the 13,840 third graders who did not pass the IREAD, just 412 stayed in third grade for another year, while the rest moved on to fourth grade.

The state has offered “good cause exemptions” for students with disabilities or those who are English language learners that let students who don’t pass the IREAD. But recent state data showed that most students who moved on to fourth grade did not have an exemption, and were instead “socially promoted” to the next grade.

Of those third graders who moved on to fourth grade in 2023, around 5,500 received such exemptions, and nearly 8,000 did not.

The GOP bill would remove language from statute that students “might require retention as a last resort.” Instead, it would require that students repeat third grade if they don’t demonstrate proficiency on the IREAD or meet one of a few exceptions.

It would also require schools to identify and remediate students who are at risk of not passing the test by offering summer school, as well as science of reading-based instruction through eighth grade. Schools would also need to monitor students who fail the IREAD beyond third grade and retest them until they reach proficiency or move into seventh grade.

Students with disabilities and those who are English language learners would still be exempt under the bill, which would add a new exemption for those who demonstrate proficiency in math. Those who have already been retained once would not be retained again.

Around 72% of students who did not pass the IREAD in 2023 came from low-income families. Approximately 43% are white, 25% are Hispanic, and 24% are Black, according to department of education data.

In an email Friday, Secretary of Education Katie Jenner indicated the education department supported the measures outlined in Senate Bill 1, including “creating a strong definition of retention for the first time to ensure significantly fewer third grade students who cannot read are promoted to fourth grade.”

But the retention proposal has encountered skepticism from teachers, education advocates, and Democratic lawmakers, who say the state should focus on non-punitive measures and individualized support for students.

In a panel Thursday hosted by the Indiana State Teachers Association, literacy researchers said improving early education, including preschool and kindergarten, play a significant role in improving literacy. Also key, they said, is ensuring that schools have sufficient resources, teachers, and time for quality reading instruction.

You can track this bill on the General Assembly’s website.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana lawmakers: Bills on absenteeism, third grade retention will mark 2024 session

2023-11-21T22:51:06+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Indiana lawmakers want to catch their breath.

After two consecutive sessions of headline-grabbing legislation that put the state in the national spotlight for trying to restrict what could be taught in classrooms, and expanding vouchers to nearly every student, legislative leaders say the public should expect a more measured approach to the 2024 session, which begins Jan. 8.

Without a budget to put together during the short session, which ends in March, lawmakers will instead “build on recent achievements,” like last year’s sweeping expansion of work-based learning for high schoolers, House Speaker Todd Huston said on Organization Day Tuesday, when lawmakers preview the upcoming session.

Lawmakers also intend to further tackle literacy issues — after passing a law last year to require the science of reading — specifically by addressing Indiana’s third grade retention laws. Currently, Indiana requires retaining students who don’t pass the state reading test unless they meet certain criteria.

“Passing them along is a terrible disservice to the student,” Huston said in his Tuesday remarks.

Lawmakers will also consider a proposal to address antisemitism on college campuses, Huston said.

While leadership aims to have a quieter “transition year,” there’s no guarantee that the controversial social issues that have marked the last two sessions will take a backseat in 2024. Indeed, without a budget to pass, lawmakers may have more time to bring forward bills like the “divisive concepts” bill that headlined the last short session in 2022.

Next year’s elections will also factor into lawmakers’ decisions. All 100 seats in the Indiana House of Representatives and half the seats in the state Senate will be up for election. Republicans hold a supermajority in both chambers.

“Lots of bills will be filed,” Huston said at an Indiana Chamber of Commerce event Monday.

Here’s what lawmakers have said to expect on education policy next year.

Literacy, careers, and absenteeism in the spotlight

Huston and Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray each said this week that their caucuses would focus on addressing literacy. Last year, the legislature passed landmark laws mandating curriculum and teacher training based in the science of reading, and forbidding instruction that uses models like “three-cueing.”

Huston and Bray indicated that legislation this year would focus on keeping students who don’t pass the state reading exam in third grade. Current Indiana law requires schools to retain those students unless they’ve been retained twice before, or if they’re English learners or have disabilities and receive approval from their educators to advance to the fourth grade.

Lawmakers will also look to expand last year’s laws on work-based learning, which allow students to receive Career Scholarship Accounts for workforce training outside of their schools. Huston said his caucus would once again push to allow students to use state scholarships earmarked for postsecondary education for work-based training as well.

Further tweaks to allow for more applied learning and apprenticeships could be coming as well.

At a legislative preview event Monday hosted by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, Huston and Bray also highlighted the need to address chronic absenteeism, which remains higher than before the pandemic.

“Anything good we do in the education system, for those kids who aren’t there, they’re not going to have success,” Bray said.

Bills about divisive social issues could return

In recent years, Indiana lawmakers have attracted national attention for a series of controversial education-related bills, including one to ban the teaching of “divisive concepts” related to race that failed in 2022, and another that banned “harmful materials” from school libraries that passed in 2023.

Lawmakers have also passed legislation aimed at transgender youth, including one that prohibits transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams in 2022, and another that bans health care providers from providing gender-affirming services to anyone under 18 in 2023.

Leaders of the Democratic caucus said lawmakers should leave such issues alone during the 2024 session.

“We don’t need to bog down this session with [critical race theory] and how we feel about affirmative action,” said Senate Minority Leader Greg Taylor, an Indianapolis Democrat.

One piece of controversial legislation likely to make a comeback is the push to make school board elections partisan. Previous versions of the bill have divided lawmakers and drawn public backlash, but momentum for the idea grew between 2022 and this year.

Chamber calls for more action on child care

In a legislative preview event Monday, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce called for the state to once again focus on access to child care as an avenue toward economic development.

Lawmakers passed several laws on child care last year, including expanding eligibility for the On My Way Pre-K program and approving a third-party review of child care regulations, with the intent to streamline administrative burdens on providers.

The Chamber of Commerce called for an acceleration of this review, as well as other changes, like allowing child care workers to automatically qualify for child care vouchers.

This summer, the interim committee on Public Health, Behavioral Health and Human Services also approved a draft report of recommendations centered on testimony from child care providers who raised concerns about the affordability and access.

Bray referenced this report Monday when discussing how the Senate may tackle the child care question in 2024.

Lawmakers can begin filing bills now before reconvening in January.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana bill allowing chaplains in public schools advances despite constitutional concerns

2024-01-24T21:43:36+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

Indiana lawmakers advanced two bills on Wednesday that could further blur the lines between religious instruction and public schools, despite concerns that they might put schools in legal jeopardy.

Senate Bill 50 would allow schools to bring in chaplains as volunteers or employees to provide counseling to students and educators, while House Bill 1137 would require principals to let students leave campus for religious instruction under certain conditions.

Both bills passed their respective chambers’ education committees Wednesday despite questions about whether they maintain appropriate boundaries with respect to religion in public schools. Proponents say that neither bill requires students to receive religious instruction.

Under Senate Bill 50, school chaplains could provide only secular counseling unless the students or their parents gave permission for nonsecular guidance — prompting concerns from the ACLU of Indiana about violations of students’ constitutional rights.

Sen. Stacey Donato, a Logansport Republican who wrote the bill, described the proposal as another tool to address students’ social-emotional needs while alleviating the workload on the state’s school counselors. Indiana has one school counselor for every 694 students, according to one report from last year from the American School Counselor Association, which recommends a ratio of one for every 250 students.

The bill, which passed along party lines, received support from education groups, including the Indiana School Boards Association, the Indiana School Counselors Association, and the Indiana Urban Schools Association, who all said the bill provided clear guidelines for chaplain positions.

Last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation allowing unlicensed chaplains to work in state public schools. Donato’s legislation says the chaplains must have master’s degrees and at least two years of counseling experience under the provisions of the bill, and would have to pass a criminal background check.

Their communication with students would be confidential, though Donato said she will amend the bill to require that they report child abuse or neglect.

The ACLU of Indiana raised concerns about violations of the U.S. Constitution’s establishment clause, which prohibits the government from establishing a religion. Similar concerns were echoed by Democratic lawmakers.

They also raised several questions, such as whether the chaplains would be school employees, what would happen if a student practiced a different religion from the chaplain, and what would happen if a student’s parent requested that they receive religious counseling against the student’s wishes.

Sen. Andrea Hunley, an Indianapolis Democrat, also said the bill didn’t specify how a parent would be notified if a student gave permission on their own for the chaplain to provide religious instruction — a departure from lawmakers’ recent efforts to ensure schools notify parents when students request to use different names or pronouns.

Republican lawmakers defeated an amendment to require parental permission for religious counseling, as well as another to require that the religious counseling be nonsecular.

Clergy members did not immediately throw their support behind the bill.

Chaplains may not have training in child development and psychology, and may not be qualified to act as counselors, said Gray Lesesne, dean and rector at Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, who opposed the bill. And the provision protecting communication between a student and school chaplain as confidential could violate boundaries, he said.

“Even if I were to dispense secular advice to a young person as a chaplain, they would have a difficult time separating me from my role and calling and could interpret that as religious counseling whether I intend it to be or not,” he said.

Bill would change off-campus religious instruction rules

House Bill 1137, meanwhile, would bolster an existing Indiana law that allows students to leave school grounds for religious instruction for up to 120 minutes per week, subject to their principals’ discretion.

Under the bill, principals would be required to allow students to leave. The principals would work to determine an appropriate time to do so in collaboration with parents and religious organizations. In order to leave for religious instruction, students must not be listed as chronically absent.

The bill received broad support from lawmakers and advocates for religious instruction, who said many parents wanted to provide students religious teaching during the school day.

While the bill passed unanimously out of committee, Democratic lawmakers and representatives of public school organizations raised concerns about its impact on student absenteeism and academics.

With several religious organizations potentially pulling students out of the school day, the bill takes away principals’ discretion to keep academic time intact, said Christopher Lagoni, executive director of the Indiana Small and Rural Schools Association.

Furthermore, Rep. Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat, said it empowered religious organizations to pressure public schools into allowing students to leave — and put schools at risk of lawsuits.

Still, advocates for the bill said releasing students for religious instruction — a concept protected under U.S. law — allowed students to take religious lessons during times that didn’t conflict with academic courses or after-school extracurricular activities.

“A lot of parents want the ability to send a message to their students, this is how important it is to our family that you have religious instruction,” said Joel Penton, founder of LifeWise Academy, a national organization that provides Bible-based education to public school students off-campus during the school day.

Dennis Gutwein, a board member at the West Central School Corporation, said students at his district took LifeWise classes during library hours, but that the librarian allowed them to visit at other times during the day, like during study hall.

Committee members also added an unrelated amendment to House Bill 1137 that seeks to bolster civic education in the state by creating a seal to recognize excellence in civics for students, teachers, and schools.

Both HB 1137 and SB 50 will advance to their respective chambers.

You can track HB 1137 and SB 50 on the General Assembly’s website.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana lawmakers advance bill to hold back more third graders who don’t pass reading test

2024-01-17T22:44:34+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

A bill to hold back and provide more support to third graders who can’t read proficiently passed the Senate Education and Career Development Committee Wednesday along party lines.

Senate Bill 1 would reinforce the state’s policy of holding back students who fail the state’s reading test, while also requiring schools to identify and give remediation to those who are at risk of not passing the exam.

Under the provisions of the bill, schools would also need to track students’ reading skills beyond third grade, and provide reading instruction rooted in the principles of the science of reading through eighth grade.

The legislation continues the state’s recent focus on improving students’ literacy and reading instruction. Last year, Indiana lawmakers enacted a law requiring schools to adopt research-backed curriculum based in the science of reading. The state also prohibited schools from using a reading instruction method known as three-cueing.

Sen. Linda Rogers, a Republican from Granger who authored the bill along with 30 other GOP lawmakers, denied that her proposal amounted to a “retention bill.” She said that retention would continue to be a last resort after other intervention methods — like early identification and summer school for young students who lack key reading skills — have been exhausted.

Still, Rogers called retention a “necessary policy” for students who can’t read by third grade, and who don’t have a qualifying exemption like a disability.

“While some may say that retention is not good for a child, what really isn’t good is to move that student on without foundational reading skills,” Rogers said.

Details of the legislation surfaced last week. In 2023, out of 13,840 students who did not pass the third grade reading exam (known as the IREAD), just 412 stayed in third grade for another year.

The bill has support from GOP policymakers as well as several statewide education advocacy groups like RISE Indy and the Indiana School Boards Association. Advocates said the measures are necessary to address Indiana’s stagnating literacy rates. Around 1 in 5 students did not pass the IREAD in 2023 — a number that has remained about the same for three years.

But teachers, parents, and other education experts expressed skepticism about increased retention, saying that it would negatively affect students’ social-emotional well-being and long-term outcomes.

“Painting with broad strokes is dangerous,” said Rachel Burke, president of the Indiana Parent Teacher Association, who told lawmakers Wednesday that mandatory retention would have harmed her daughter. “She just needed more time, and it didn’t need to be in third grade.”

How retention and remediation would work

If the bill passes, beginning in the 2024-25 school year, students would have three attempts to pass the test — in second grade, third grade, and the summer after third grade. Those who don’t pass would be eligible for summer school focused on literacy, and their parents would be notified of their skill level, as well as any interventions needed.

Students who don’t pass the IREAD in third grade, or don’t have an exemption, would repeat a year. Qualified exemptions under the bill include having a disability or an individualized education program that specifies that retention is not appropriate; being an English learner who has received less than two years of language services; and passing the statewide math test — though these students would receive extra support in reading in fourth grade.

A repeated year must look different than a student’s first year of third grade, said Kymyona Burk, former state literacy director at the Mississippi Department of Education who spoke at the hearing. (Mississippi has attracted attention for its dramatic gains on national tests, including reading assessments.) Students should be placed with teachers who have a proven record of teaching reading, and need intensive literacy interventions throughout the year.

Burk noted that data from Mississippi showed that among students who were on the borderline of passing the statewide test, students who were retained performed higher in the long-term than those who moved on to fourth grade instead.

“We can prevent reading difficulty in children. We have to make sure that we are identifying them early and providing them with support much earlier than third grade,” Burk said.

A long-term decline in literacy

In testimony supporting the bill, Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said literacy has declined in Indiana for over a decade. But retention rates have also declined, as the state softened its policy on holding students back and allowed for “social promotion.”

“This was not just a COVID challenge. It would almost be easier if it was purely due to COVID,” Jenner said.

Asked why students are struggling to learn to read, Jenner pointed to absenteeism as one possible cause. Of the 20% of students who did not pass the IREAD in 2023, nearly one-quarter were considered chronically absent, meaning they missed 18 or more days of school. Among students who passed, chronic absenteeism was around 9%, she said.

“We can invest all the dollars we want but if you’re missing school, then your teachers can only do so much to get you there,” Jenner said.

Without a clear understanding of the reasons for the decline, some speakers said lawmakers should refrain from adopting any sweeping solutions.

“In order to prescribe a solution to the problem we need to understand what caused the problem in the first place,” said Joel Hand, speaking on behalf of the American Federation of Teachers Indiana and the Indiana Coalition for Public Education.

Concerns about student well-being

Public testimony in opposition to the bill focused on concerns that a broad mandate would supersede local control and parental input on when and how a student should be retained.

Other speakers expressed concern that a retention mandate would disproportionately affect students who are learning English, and thus exacerbate existing disparities.

Studies on retention frequently find positive academic outcomes among students who have been held back, but mixed or negative social and emotional effects, including more behavioral issues and higher dropout rates

State policy should focus on solutions proven to be most effective, said Vincent Edwards, who authored a Ball State University analysis on retention that found a slight positive effect for retained students. More effective solutions could include additional staffing or early learning programs.

“We need to focus on what we feel really confident about instead of what is at best marginally positive,” Edwards told lawmakers.

The committee rejected an amendment by Sen. Andrea Hunley, an Indianapolis Democrat, to delay the implementation of the bill until the 2025-26 school year.

Committee members discussed but did not yet vote on Senate Bill 6, a companion bill by GOP Sen. Jeff Raatz to identify older students who can’t read proficiently.

Senate Bill 1 will now head to the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

You can track this bill on the General Assembly’s website.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana school funding bill would give money to families to create ‘a la carte’ education

2024-01-18T23:19:24+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

A school funding bill heard in Indiana’s legislature Thursday proposes to radically reshape the state’s education system by allowing families to use state money to pay for a wide range of services and effectively customize their children’s education.

The bill, Senate Bill 255, is on hold until next year, when lawmakers take up issues tied to the state budget. But its backers say it’s the start of a conversation about expanding school choice in the state, far beyond the scope of existing voucher programs.

For now, few details are available about how the program would work. But depending on how it takes shape and how many students participate, it could have a major impact on K-12 schools, graduation requirements and postgraduate paths, and give Indiana one of the most relaxed school choice policies in the country. And it would add to the financial pressures on public school systems that already stand to lose funding to voucher programs, while they try to improve low reading scores and college-going rates.

Lawmakers have already made nearly all Indiana children eligible for private school vouchers, on the premise that parents should be empowered to determine how educational dollars are spent.

But critics say these voucher programs aren’t reaching the students they were originally intended to help — those from low-income backgrounds who are attending failing schools.

Families could choose programs a la carte

Indiana’s existing voucher programs allow students to use state funding for private school, or for special education services outside of public school. A new program also allocates funding for career training.

Under the new proposal, those programs would be combined into a new program, with relaxed requirements that allow families to use state funding to purchase classes and services a la carte from schools, tutors, and other approved organizations.

So a student could take a chemistry class at a public school, a math class at a private school, and music lessons with a professional musician, said Indiana State Treasurer Daniel Elliott, who spoke in support of the bill at the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday.

Lawmakers at Thursday’s hearing listened to concerns about the bill from a wide array of groups, including the Indiana School Boards Association, the Indiana Association of School Principals, the Indiana Catholic Conference, and home-schooling advocates.

The bill’s fiscal note estimates that state expenditures would increase by $46 million just for the cost of migrating students from the existing voucher programs to the new funding pool.

Author Sen. Ryan Mishler, a Republican from Mishawaka, said he wanted to begin the conversation about the proposal this year and expects it to continue through the summer.

Mishler notably voiced opposition to last year’s expansion of the school voucher program, citing concerns about a lack of accountability at private schools. In introducing the bill, he said he hoped to offer even more flexibility to Indiana parents.

Elliott agreed.

“If we really want to make a difference, we need to give parents more than two choices,” said Elliott. “We need to give them the option to create their child’s unique educational pathway.”

How the money would move

The grant program in Senate Bill 255 would function like an expanded version of the existing Education Scholarship Account program, which allows families of students with disabilities to use funds on services outside their schools. It would replace the education scholarships, the state voucher program, and the new Career Scholarship Accounts established last year.

Under the bill, students enrolled in a public school could receive 50% of the foundation grant amount — around $3,000 in 2023 — to spend on services outside of their school’s jurisdiction, likely making an impact on their school’s funding. Students enrolled in private school would receive 90% of the foundation grant amount.

They could use the funds to pay for expenses like tuition and fees at a private school, services for a disability, extracurricular activities provided by a school, apprenticeships, and transportation.

While home-schooled students were included in the bill draft, Mishler and Elliott said they would change the bill to exclude them from the funding and the accompanying requirements of state oversight.

Lawmakers raised questions about the additional cost, as well as the increased workload for the treasurer’s office, which would administer the combined program.

Schools may need to price their classes at a credit hour rate, according to Elliott. And parents would be responsible for transporting their children to different schools and classes.

Sen. Shelli Yoder, a Bloomington Democrat, said the transportation issue raised concerns about equity, as parents who can’t drive their children to different schools likely wouldn’t be able to benefit from the program.

Elliott said that it’s likely very few families would take advantage of the program.

Currently around 90,000 students attend private schools in Indiana, compared with over 1 million students who attend public schools. Recent data shows that voucher use grew by 30% over last year, compared with a 5% increase in private school enrollment, suggesting that most of the beneficiaries of vouchers are families whose children are already in private schools.

For the career scholarship accounts, just over 200 students received vouchers in the first year. The program, which offers students state funding to take career training courses outside their schools, is a centerpiece of GOP lawmakers’ plans to “reinvent high school” in 2023.

Senate Bill 255 is not expected to be heard again in the 2024 session.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana bill would make schools disclose details about sex ed classes

2024-01-31T21:45:32+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

Indiana lawmakers on Tuesday advanced a bill requiring schools to seek school board approval for their sex education materials, as well as publicize information about who teaches the courses and when.

Sex ed is not required in Indiana schools, despite evidence linking such courses to improved behavioral outcomes among teens. Schools are required only to teach lessons about HIV and AIDS, and if they do choose to offer additional sex ed, they must emphasize abstinence.

Still, many schools do offer sex ed, sometimes contracting with outside organizations that offer lessons on consent and healthy relationships alongside reproduction and contraception.

The legislation from two GOP lawmakers marks the latest attempt by the Indiana legislators to shape how schools should approach sex, sexuality, and gender. Last year, they restricted the teaching of human sexuality in the earliest grades. And a state law that took effect last school year requires schools to disclose students’ requests to use different names or pronouns, prompting criticism from the LGBTQ community and mixed reactions from districts.

Supporters of the bill say it’s appropriate for schools to be especially sensitive about sex ed in particular, and that the proposal could defuse political tensions. Critics say it could shut down conversations related to sexuality and run afoul of federal law. Observers pointed out that some of the bill’s provisions are already part of state law.

Under Senate Bill 128, schools would need to seek approval from their school boards before using curriculum materials related to sex ed. They would also have to share details like which grade levels will receive sex ed lessons and when, whether male and female students will be taught together, and whether the class is led by a male or female instructor.

The bill would also require schools to post all this information on their websites.

The bill passed the Senate Education and Career Development Committee on Wednesday on an 8-5 vote, with GOP Sen. Dan Dernulc joining the four Democrats on the committee in voting no.

The bill was authored by Sen. Gary Byrne and Sen. Jeff Raatz, chairman of the Senate education committee.

Byrne said publishing the information would help parents decide whether they want to allow their children to take the lessons. Indiana already allows parents to opt their students out of sex education.

Byrne said the bill targeted sex ed — and not other subjects — because of the sensitive nature of the subject and families’ differing views on when it should be taught.

“I think putting the local school boards in the driver’s seat is an issue that makes good sense,” Byrne said.

The bill received support from the Indiana School Boards Association for strengthening local control and parental engagement. But Terry Spradlin, the association’s executive director, said its provisions requiring school board approval and public posting of curriculum were already part of Indiana law.

Other supporters said the bill could prevent turmoil at school board meetings by making board members aware of what’s being taught.

But critics of the bill, including advocates for gender diversity and sex education, said school boards already have the ability to review and approve curriculum. They also say a state mandate could create an additional burden on teachers and school administrators and ultimately serve as a deterrent to offering sex ed at all.

“This is a bill requiring every school district in the state to now hold hearings on very volatile issues in which a small number of folks can come and take over those meetings, that also allows a small number of school board members to inject their own political beliefs into sex education,” said Chris Daley, executive director of the ACLU of Indiana.

Daley also called the proposal an unfunded mandate.

Emma Vosicky of Gender Nexus, a group that advocates for gender diverse people in Indiana, said the ambiguous language of the bill could create a chilling effect on broader discussions of gender, including on children’s books about LGBTQ families.

Furthermore, the requirement to approve things like the gender of the person teaching a sex ed course leaves districts at risk of violating federal mandates prohibiting sex discrimination, she said.

Sen. Shelli Yoder, a Bloomington Democrat, said that requirement could also be discriminatory toward teachers who identify as a gender other than male or female.

Tammy Carter, CEO of Lifesmart Youth, a nonprofit organization that provides sex ed to 26,000 students in 122 Indiana schools, said the bill’s requirements are redundant, as the organization already meets with school boards and parents and posts its full curriculum material on its own portal.

Additionally, the bill would force her organization to release proprietary information to schools to post online under the bill, Carter said.

Other efforts have sought to expand access to medically accurate sex education, especially in the wake of Indiana’s near-total abortion ban.

Both GOP and Democratic lawmakers have previously authored bills to require schools to provide information about conception and contraception if they choose to teach sex ed. These bills have not been taken up, and similar bills have not been filed this year.

You can track SB 128 on the General Assembly’s website.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana lawmakers want more parental help, wraparound services to reduce young students’ absenteeism

2024-01-31T23:53:56+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

Too many students in Indiana are missing school. And Indiana lawmakers have struggled to find a fix for the issue of absenteeism.

Finding a balance between punitive and proactive measures to fix absenteeism where it’s highest — in the earliest grades and in high school — has evaded Indiana lawmakers trying to grapple with the state’s absenteeism rates, which peaked during COVID and still remain high in Indiana and nationwide.

With Senate Bill 282, which members of the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development approved unanimously on Wednesday, they seek to begin to address the bell curve of absenteeism.

“There are younger students that have truancy issues, and there are older students. Trying to wrap your arms around that 900-pound gorilla I found to be absolutely impossible,” said said Sen. Stacey Donato, a Republican from Logansport and the bill’s author.

GOP lawmakers flagged absenteeism as a priority for their agenda this year. But they had yet to bring a bill forward before Wednesday, the last opportunity for bills to be heard in the education committee before midway deadlines.

The proposals targeting each side of the bell curve are different.

First, it prescribes steps that schools must take to contact the parents of truant elementary students and provide them information and wraparound services to help improve attendance.

The bill also urges the bipartisan Legislative Council to further study absenteeism this summer — including ways to promote school attendance and age-appropriate consequences for habitually truant students — which will help address absenteeism among older students, Donato said.

“We’re going to do our absolute best to get those children the services that they need, the parents the services that they need, and work with those children to get them to school so that they can learn to read,” Donato said.

Donato ended up heavily amending her original bill, which in its initial form prescribed both punitive and preventative measures that schools could use to curb habitual truancy.

It would have referred more students to juvenile courts, which could have assessed fines of up to $1,000 to parents of truant students and assigned community service to the students themselves.

Absenteeism is ‘far beyond’ scope of one bill

Under Donato’s revised bill, schools would be required to notify parents of elementary students in writing of their student’s absences, their responsibility to ensure their student’s attendance, and the possible consequences for failing to do so, like juvenile court intervention. Schools would need to hold attendance conferences with parents no more than five days after the student’s fifth unexcused absence in a 10-week period.

The revised bill also mandates that schools create behavior plans to improve students’ attendance, and offer counseling to address any underlying issues keeping them from attending school.

Donato’s amended bill received support from a wide array of groups, including the Indiana Teachers Association, the Indiana School Social Workers Association, and the Indiana School Boards Association. They said they would have opposed the bill as originally written.

“This is an issue that goes far beyond what any one bill could possibly fix,” said Joel Hand, representing the School Social Workers Association. “But this is a step in the right direction.”

You can track SB 282 on the General Assembly’s website.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Bills on literacy, cell phones, sex ed, and civics are advancing in the Indiana Statehouse

2024-02-07T20:27:55+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

The first half of the 2024 legislative session in Indiana has come to a close, and the dust is settling on the bills that cleared their original chamber.

Bills prioritizing reading instruction are again the top of lawmakers’ agenda and will likely become law, as the state tries to address stagnating reading scores. They build on lawmakers’ efforts last year to require instruction based on the science of reading in schools.

A bill allowing schools to ban cell phones from K-12 classrooms also advanced. But as the session has progressed, lawmakers have significantly altered other bills tackling absenteeism and behavior issues in schools, admitting these are tricky problems to solve.

Lawmakers have largely steered clear of controversial social-issue legislation that marked the last two legislative sessions. But bills on publicizing sex ed curriculum and further blurring the lines between public schools and religious instruction drew concerns.

The bills now head to the opposite chamber where they may have further amendments. The 2024 session must end by March 14.

Here are some of the key bills to watch in the second half of the session.

2024 bills addressing Indiana curriculum and instruction

Senate Bill 1 would tighten the state’s policy for holding back and remediating young children who don’t demonstrate reading skills. The most recent amendments to the bill would create a policy for parents to appeal a remediation recommendation. Meanwhile, Senate Bill 6 requires the Indiana Department of Education to identify older students who don’t read proficiently.

Senate Bill 50 would permit chaplains to serve in public schools as counselors providing secular support. An amendment to the bill allows them only to provide religious support if a parent or emancipated minor gives permission. House Bill 1137, meanwhile, requires principals to allow a student to leave for off-campus religious instruction at their parents’ request.

Senate Bill 287 would require schools to teach cursive, and directs the state department of education to develop an internet safety curriculum, while House Bill 1243 would establish a computer science curriculum requirement.

Senate Bill 128 would require schools to seek school board approval for their sex ed curriculum, and publicize the materials plus information about who teaches the courses and when.

House Bill 1137, along with Senate Bill 211, would establish a civics seal and expand civics education to the youngest grades.

House Bill 1073 would require schools to install video cameras in special education classrooms, and allow parents to review recordings in certain situations.

These bills target cell phones, mental health, intruders

Senate Bill 211, along with House Bill 1380, would define charter school corporations as a collection of charter schools operated by a single organizer — a change that raised concerns about financial transparency following last month’s federal indictment of former virtual charter officials.

Senate Bill 185 would allow schools to adopt policies banning cell phones from the classroom, though the policies must include exceptions for emergencies, health needs, and cell phone use at the direction of a teacher or under an individualized education program.

Senate Bill 282 originally laid out preventive and punitive measures schools could use to address truancy, but the bill was amended to focus only on preventive measures in elementary schools while a summer study committee considers how to improve older students’ attendance.

Senate Bill 214 would require schools to post links to mental health resources for students, and Senate Bill 141 would require counselors to spend a certain amount of time providing services to students.

House Bill 1104 lays out requirements for schools’ armed intruder drills, including that students can’t be subject to drills that include sensory components.

Funding bills could affect referendum revenue

Though 2024 is not a budget year, several bills moved forward that could affect funding for schools and students.

House Bill 1001 would allow students to use Career Scholarship Accounts to obtain their drivers’ licenses. It will also expand the uses for two kinds of college scholarships, allowing students to put them toward career training.

House Bill 1376 restricts school referendums to general elections or municipal elections only.

House Bill 1380 includes a number of potential funding changes.

It would prohibit schools from charging a fee for transfer students.
It would expand the Indiana Learns program that gives students up to $1,000 for tutoring beyond 2026.
It would require that Innovation Network schools receive 100% of their state tuition support dollars and prohibits school districts from charging them for goods and services if that amount is more than the charter receives in revenue from non-referendum operating fund property taxes.

Senate Bill 270 would clarify that schools must close underutilized buildings and make them available to charter schools for $1.

Some higher education bills take aim at Indiana’s universities

Many of the bills aimed at higher education this year would assert more legislative control over the state’s colleges and universities.

Senate Bill 48 originally would have required colleges to compile information about jobs and pay related to their degrees. But when colleges reported that they already have much of this information, lawmakers amended the bill to require schools to prominently post links to it instead.

Senate Bill 8 would require all high schools to offer the College Core. It would also require colleges and universities to explore the possibilities of conferring associate degrees and offering three-year degree programs.

Senate Bill 202 includes many changes to colleges’ boards, tenure, and diversity policies.

It would prohibit colleges from offering tenure to faculty who have failed to support a culture of “free inquiry,” and create complaint procedures aimed at faculty who have shared political opinions unrelated to their academic discipline.

House Bill 1002 codifies a definition of antisemitism and prohibits religious discrimination at the state’s schools.

Deregulation bills focus on child care, youth employment

Senate Bill 2 removes several child care regulations and makes employees of childcare centers eligible for childcare subsidies.

Senate Bill 147 also offers tax exemptions for for-profit childcare operators, as well as businesses that provide on-site childcare to employees.

House Bill 1093 is not strictly an education bill, but would relax regulations on when teenagers are allowed to work.

The 2024 bills that didn’t make it, but might in 2025

Several bills that didn’t pass this year offer a clue into what lawmakers might tackle during next year’s budget session and during summer study committees.

House Bill 1219 sought to create a mastery-based education pilot program, and along with Senate Bill 165, measure the educational time that students must receive in minutes instead of days.

Senate Bill 255 would have dramatically expanded Indiana’s choice program and allow families to choose where they would spend state dollars to create customized programs. The bill was heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee, with chair Sen. Ryan Mishler saying it would return next year.

House Bill 1262 originally laid out several punitive measures schools could take to address student behavior. The bill passed the House education committee with lawmakers promising to amend the bill to send the issue for further study instead. But it died on the House floor after a disagreement over what kind of committee should study the issue.

Correction: This story has been updated to clarify that charter schools would not be charged for goods and services if the cost exceeds the amount they receive in non-referendum operating fund property taxes in House Bill 1380.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

How the reading retention bill moving through Indiana Statehouse impacts English learners

2024-02-23T17:30:22+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

A bill that would hold back more third graders in Indiana has raised alarms among teachers of English language learners, who say the retention mandate ignores research on language acquisition, and could violate federal law.

Senate Bill 1 — a priority bill for GOP lawmakers this year — requires schools to remediate young students who don’t demonstrate reading skills and retain most third graders who don’t pass the state reading test, the IREAD3. It’s part of a legislative effort to address the state’s literacy scores, which have declined for more than a decade.

The bill has passed the Senate and is heading for a full vote in the House with support from the Indiana Department of Education.

The bill includes “good cause” exemptions to retention for several groups of students, including English learners who have received services for less than two years and whose teachers and parents agree that promotion is appropriate.

But advocates for English learners say that the exemption for this population doesn’t align with what research says about how long it takes for students to learn a new language.

With a growing population of 93,000 English learners in Indiana, and a history of shortages of educators licensed to teach language learners, advocates worry that English learners will be denied an appropriate education if they’re retained. The state also has an increasing number of immigrant students, some of whom will need language services.

Advocates also say the provision conflicts with the state’s implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which gives students six years to demonstrate proficiency in English before their schools face a penalty. Federal law also states that English learners should not be retained solely on the basis of their English language proficiency and that they are entitled to age-appropriate curriculum and participation in school programs.

State officials who support the bill, however, say it does not conflict with federal law or state rules.

Sen. Linda Rogers, the bill’s co-author, said in a statement that the language conforms with federal guidance, and that the bill’s authors “worked to ensure that was the case as the legislation was being written.”

And the Indiana Department of Education said in a statement that federal guidance requires school districts to help students become English proficient and participate in regular classes “within a reasonable period of time.”

Per the bill, that reasonable amount of time is two years to make sure EL students aren’t retained only because of “their lack of English proficiency and before they have been provided with meaningful opportunity and academic instruction,” the IDOE statement said.

But learning a new language can take anywhere from five to 14 years, said Patricia Morita-Mullaney, a professor of language and literacy at Purdue University and past president of the Indiana Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, or INTESOL.

English learners who are retained under the provisions of Senate Bill 1 could sue the state for failing to meet federal requirements, Morita-Mullaney said.

“Indiana is setting itself up for an enormous class action lawsuit,” Morita-Mullaney said.

Meeting the needs of English learners

Historically, most of Indiana’s young English learners were U.S. citizens who had attended American schools since kindergarten, Morita-Mullaney said. A large percentage then could become eligible for retention in third grade, when they are in their fourth year of receiving English language services — an insufficient amount of time, she said.

The effect would be a penalty for the child, instead of the school as currently outlined by ESSA, she said.

Current Indiana law exempts English learners from retention.

In addition to concerns about violating federal law, holding students back based on their English proficiency has a negative impact on their content knowledge, said Donna Albrecht, a professor of ENL/ESL at Indiana University Southeast and a member of the advocacy team at INTESOL. Instead, teachers should be trained in methods that teach content and language at the same time.

“It’s not that they weren’t taught to read; they’re learning two languages. It takes more time,” Albrecht said. “By the time they reach fourth and fifth grade, they’re surpassing their monolingual peers.”

Of the 2,819 English learner students who failed the IREAD-3 statewide in 2023, 1,922 received a good cause exemption from retention, while 897 did not. Most of the latter — 868 students — were promoted to fourth grade anyway. Such “social promotion” has increased in Indiana schools over the last decade.

Retaining hundreds more students will affect both urban districts like Indianapolis Public Schools, which has a large population of English learners, as well as small, rural districts where these students make up a large share of the population, Morita-Mullaney said.

In both cases, schools will need to staff additional third grade classrooms with teachers who are prepared to teach English learners, Morita-Mullaney said. Indiana schools have struggled to find enough qualified teachers for English learners — another federal requirement.

“They’ll move teachers to third grade, or they’ll bring in new people who have never been in high-stakes testing environments before,” Morita-Mullaney said.

Improving Senate Bill 1 for English learners

There are 93,625 English learners in all grades statewide in 2023-24, according to Indiana Department of Education data.

To improve the bill for English learners, INTESOL recommends changing the exemption language to reference scores on Indiana’s assessment for English learners — WIDA.

Under the organization’s proposed language, students who score less than a 5.0 proficiency level on WIDA, the score needed to exit the English learner programs and join the general student body, would be eligible for an exemption if they fail IREAD3.

On average, students gain half a level of proficiency per year on the assessment, said Albrecht. But even students who gain a full level of proficiency each year may not be ready to pass the IREAD-3 in third grade if they started learning English in kindergarten.

It’s not clear from available state data at what WIDA level students can typically pass the IREAD-3, Albrecht added. Comparing data has been challenging due to years of changes in state and federal testing, Morita-Mullaney said.

The state Department of Education said WIDA measures English language proficiency at grade level, as mandated by ESSA, while IREAD3 measures reading proficiency overall.

Advocates pushed back on this interpretation saying WIDA focuses on all parts of language, but IREAD is designed to test reading for native speakers.

Bill author Rogers also said that retention would not conflict with Indiana’s ESSA plan.

“The legislation highlights early identification of students that may not be reading proficient by the end of third grade. These students will be provided remediation and summer school aligned with the Science of Reading,” Rogers’ statement said. “The goal is not to retain anyone that doesn’t have a good cause exemption and ensure that ‘Every Child Learns to Read.’”

Previously, proponents said that retention will remain a last resort for students after they have more intervention and multiple attempts to pass the test. Still, retention is a necessary step in some cases, they said, giving students another year to develop literacy skills.

Both Rogers and Secretary of Education Katie Jenner have said they don’t believe very many students will be retained after receiving increased intervention.

“This is a crisis for our state right now and we have no time to waste,” Jenner said at a Wednesday meeting of the House Ways and Means Committee.

The bill is scheduled for a second reading in the House on Monday.

You can track Senate Bill 1 on the General Assembly website.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

How an Indiana bill to recognize great civics education became a bill to allow chaplains in school

2024-02-26T23:22:02+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

Lawmakers have altered bills originally designed to recognize Indiana schools and students for civic education to instead cover chaplains in schools, internet safety, and student discipline.

Previous versions of Senate Bill 211 and House Bill 1137 included a requirement for Indiana to establish a civics seal recognizing schools, students, and teachers for excellence in civics at a time when Indiana’s civic participation is declining. The bills would have also brought civic education to the earliest grades through reading materials.

But lawmakers have dramatically rewritten the bills during the legislative process, which is nearing its end on March 14.

House Bill 1137 began as a bill to require schools to release students for religious instruction at their parents’ request, which House lawmakers amended early in the session to include a new civic seal recognition.

But after the bill passed the House, lawmakers on the Senate Education Committee stripped the bill of language related to civics, and added instead a provision to allow chaplains to serve in schools. Senate Bill 50, which passed the Senate but has yet to be heard in the House, includes similar language about chaplains.

The House bill’s provision on chaplains has also been changed by senators to address concerns that it allowed children to receive religious guidance without their parents’ knowledge. In the most up-to-date language, only emancipated minors and parents of unemancipated minors could give permission for religious instruction. Chaplains would otherwise have to provide secular guidance only.

Another amendment to House Bill 1137 adopted by senators would require chaplains to disclose to parents any communication with their students, at parents’ request.

But critics, including the ACLU and Democratic Sen. J.D. Ford, still say school corporations that employ chaplains could run the risk of violating the U.S. Constitution’s establishment clause.

Meanwhile, House lawmakers changed Senate Bill 211 to remove the civic seal language. Instead, they added a provision to require the Indiana Department of Education to establish a civics proficiency designation for schools “to further develop student understanding of civil society, constitutional government, and the democratic process.”

The House has also amended the bill to require the Department of Education to approve an internet safety curriculum on cyberbullying and dangerous online behavior. Another amendment would allow school personnel to remove disruptive students and bar them from returning to the classroom.

A House amendment by Rep. Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat, on Monday would have banned Attorney General Todd Rokita from operating the Eyes on Education portal — a website for parents and others to file complaints against teachers and schools over lessons on politics, race, gender, and sexuality.

Another amendment by Democratic Rep. Carey Hamilton from Indianapolis would have required members of the General Assembly to spend time shadowing public school teachers.

These amendments from DeLaney and Hamilton were rejected for not being germane to the bill.

“Every session, we pass new laws, requirements, and restrictions that impact teachers in their work with students and I think it’s incredibly important for us to be informed about what their work looks like,” Hamilton said.

House Bill 1137 and Senate Bill 211 are advancing to a final reading in their respective chambers. If they pass, they’ll head to the governor’s desk. You can track each bill on the General Assembly website.

Correction: Feb. 27, 2024: A previous version of this story referred to J.D. Ford as a state representative. Ford is a state senator.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

How a revised Indiana absenteeism bill could affect students and parents

2024-02-27T17:44:17+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

Indiana House lawmakers have amended a Senate bill focused on chronic absenteeism to require school districts to prohibit habitually truant students from participating in extracurricular activities.

They also altered Senate Bill 282 to add instructions that school officials must report habitually truant students to the prosecutors’ office, and that prosecutors must notify parents that they’ve filed affidavits related to their students’ absenteeism.

But in a policy change not directly related to absenteeism, legislators also amended the bill on Tuesday to provide new protections for teachers who are targeted by unsubstantiated complaints from parents.

Policymakers signaled before the start of this session, which ends March 14, that they wanted to address high rates of chronic absenteeism in Indiana schools. But lawmakers have struggled to articulate how they want to address the issue comprehensively.

The Senate bill primarily deals with student absenteeism. It would require schools to meet with parents and offer wraparound services to address elementary students’ absenteeism.

But an amendment by Democratic Rep. Tonya Pfaff in the last House education committee meeting of the 2024 session added protections for school employees facing unsubstantiated complaints of misconduct.

If an allegation were dismissed or found to be unsubstantiated, a principal would have to inform the school employee and the student and their parent of this decision in writing.

Furthermore, principals would have to inform the parent or student making the allegation that a second unsubstantiated complaint within a year could result in the student being moved to another classroom, or the parent being barred from after-school activities for up to six months.

Pfaff’s amendment passed with bipartisan support.

The changes are similar to an amendment in another bill this session that would allow school employees to remove disruptive students from the classroom and prohibit them from returning.

Lawmakers scuttle plan to study older students’ absenteeism

House lawmakers also removed language from SB 282 that would have asked lawmakers to study the issue of absenteeism over the summer. The bill’s author, GOP Sen. Stacy Donato, said the purpose of this study was to find solutions for truancy among older students.

But Rep. Bob Behning, the Republican chair of the House education committee, said House Speaker Todd Huston requested that bills not contain summer study committee language. Legislative leadership could still decide to study the issue further.

Lawmakers also removed nonpublic schools from the provisions of the bill, and added language that parents can ask a representative — like a doctor or therapist — to provide input at an attendance meeting with their student’s school.

SB 282 is moving forward to a full House vote as the 2024 session quickly draws to a close.

Notably, the House committee did not hear Senate Bill 128, which would have required schools to seek approval from their school boards for sex education material, and then publish the information online. The committee’s decision effectively killed the bill.

You can track SB 282 on the General Assembly’s website.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana lawmakers drop proposal to allow chaplains in public schools

2024-03-07T17:43:27+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Update: The Indiana legislative session ended on March 8, 2024. Here are the education bills that did and didn’t pass.

Indiana lawmakers have cut a proposal that would have permitted chaplains to work in public schools — part of a compromise on a bill allowing students to leave school for religious instruction at their parents’ request.

They returned House Bill 1137 to its original form, which requires principals to allow students to attend off-campus religious instruction if parents request it. Indiana law currently leaves the decision to principals’ discretion.

The controversial language in House Bill 1137 would have allowed chaplains to serve as counselors offering only secular support to students, unless the students’ parents gave permission for nonsecular guidance.

Proponents said it would put willing members of the community in schools to counsel students on a volunteer or paid basis. But critics said the proposal would have violated the establishment clause in the First Amendment, which forbids the government from establishing a religion or favoring one religion over another. Some also said that chaplains didn’t necessarily have the training to work in schools.

Multiple changes to the bill prompted it to go to a bipartisan, bicameral conference committee, which cut the language in the final days of the 2024 legislative session as a compromise to pass the bill through both chambers.

House Bill 1137 briefly featured an amendment to recognize excellent civics education, which was later removed by Senate lawmakers. They instead added a provision to allow chaplains to serve in public schools after their bill containing the language, Senate Bill 50, failed to move forward in the House.

Both chambers must now accept the conference committee’s report. If they don’t, the bill dies.

Lawmakers could still insert the language on chaplains into other bills, as several remain in progress in conference committees.

The 2024 session must adjourn by March 14, but could end sooner.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Here are the education bills approved by the 2024 Indiana legislature

2024-03-09T03:00:58+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Stricter rules on school attendance, reading proficiency, and cellphone use in the classroom will affect Indiana students and schools beginning next year under legislation passed in the General Assembly’s 2024 session.

Lawmakers wrapped the session late Friday, nearly a week earlier than their deadline, after spending hours negotiating bills in bipartisan, bicameral conference committees charged with hashing out versions of bills agreeable to both chambers.

Lawmakers hinted that a dramatic overhaul of school voucher funding may be coming next year, when they take up budget proposals. They took a step in that direction this year by expanding access to Education Savings Accounts — a type of voucher funding for students with disabilities — to the siblings of students who have the accounts.

And while some lawmakers hoped for a session free of controversial social issues, the legislature passed a bill aimed at universities’ diversity practices that sparked anger among students and faculty.

Gov. Eric Holcomb has seven days to sign legislation once it lands on his desk. If he does not sign a bill, it still passes into law. If he vetoes a piece of legislation, the legislature can override the veto with a majority vote in both houses.

Here are the bills that passed the statehouse this year and now await action by the governor:

Bills address reading, cellphone bans, and college tenure

Senate Bill 1 tightens the state’s policy for holding back and remediating young children who don’t demonstrate reading proficiency by third grade, unless they meet one of a few exceptions. Amendments to the bill created a policy for parents to appeal a remediation recommendation.

Addressing students’ declining reading skills was the top priority of the GOP supermajority. While proponents of the bill hope that few students are held back, schools are bracing for more students in third grade classrooms. Advocates for English learners warn that the state could run afoul of federal law by retaining students only for a lack of English proficiency.

Meanwhile, Senate Bill 6, a companion bill, would require the Indiana Department of Education to identify older students who don’t read proficiently.

Senate Bill 185 requires school districts to adopt policies banning communication devices like cellphones from the classroom. The policies must include exceptions for emergencies, health needs, and cellphone use at the direction of a teacher or under an individualized education program.

Senate Bill 202, the most controversial bill of the 2024 session, makes many changes to colleges’ tenure, promotion, and diversity policies.

It would prohibit colleges from offering tenure to or promoting faculty who have failed to expose students to a variety of political or ideological frameworks, and create complaint procedures aimed at professors who have shared political opinions unrelated to their academic discipline. It would also compel colleges to consider “intellectual diversity” in policies alongside cultural diversity. An amendment removed part of the bill that changed the makeup of university boards.

The bill’s author, Sen. Spencer Deery, said it would help more conservative students feel comfortable on university campuses, pointing to Indiana’s declining college-going rate as one measure that they currently do not.

Critics said the bill would stifle classroom discussion and force professors to teach false information in order to comply, and ultimately lead to a brain drain in the state as faculty leave Indiana or refuse to teach here.

Education-related bills significantly changed during session

Several education-related bills passed after going through multiple changes as they moved through the legislature, though some reverted to their original language after negotiations in conference committees. Among them:

House Bill 1002 codifies a definition of antisemitism and prohibits religious discrimination at the state’s schools. The bill passed the House with a definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which the Senate removed. In a compromise, the conference committee kept the definition but left out the contemporary examples of antisemitism that the alliance includes.

House Bill 1137 requires principals to allow a student to leave for off-campus religious instruction. The bill saw many changes throughout session, including a House amendment that would have recognized Indiana students and schools for civic excellence. The Senate removed that amendment and instead added language allowing chaplains to work in public schools. A conference committee removed the chaplains provision, returning the bill to its original form.

Senate Bill 211 establishes an excellence in civics education designation for students and schools. A conference committee removed several House amendments that would have subjected charter schools to open-records law, established an internet safety curriculum, and allowed school employees to remove disruptive students from the classroom.

House Bill 1001 allows siblings of students who have Education Scholarship Accounts — a type of school choice program for students with disabilities — to qualify for their own ESA. The bill, originally intended to modify last year’s law on Career Scholarship Accounts, also allows students to use Career Scholarship Accounts to obtain their driver’s licenses.

Senate Bill 282 establishes truancy prevention policies requiring schools to meet with parents of chronically absent students in kindergarten through sixth grade, and establish plans and wraparound services to improve attendance. The bill also requires school officials to report truant students to the prosecutor’s office, and requires prosecutors to take legal action against parents of students who are habitually truant.

House lawmakers removed a provision to study chronic absenteeism among older students in a summer committee.

They also amended the bill to include a provision that truant students couldn’t participate in extracurricular activities, and one allowing schools to bar parents from campuses for making multiple unsubstantiated claims against teachers. But those changes were removed by a conference committee.

Bills that make smaller changes to education with big impacts

House Bill 1104 lays out requirements for schools’ armed intruder drills, including that students can’t be subject to drills that include sensory components, like simulations of gunfire.

House Bill 1243 enacts numerous education policy changes, including:

Requiring the State Board of Education to establish a new standard Indiana diploma to replace the existing ones by October 2028.
Establishing curriculum requirements for computer science and compelling the Department of Education to approve curriculum for internet safety.
Extending the personal finance curriculum to 8th graders.
Requiring school districts to adopt a policy on habitually truant students participating in extracurricular activities, though the bill doesn’t specify what those policies should be.
Specifying that literacy achievement grants are not subject to collective bargaining.
Creating professional development and curricular resources for mathematics.

House Bill 1380 also includes a number of policy changes:

Prohibiting schools from charging a fee for out-of-district transfer students.
Expanding the Indiana Learns program that gives students up to $1,000 for tutoring beyond 2026.
Requiring that Innovation Network schools receive 100% of their state tuition support dollars, and prohibiting school districts from charging them above a certain amount for goods and services.
Directing the Department of Education to establish pilot programs on student transportation and school facilities.
Requiring universities to publicize information about hazing incidents.
Requiring the Commission on Seclusion and Restraint to meet twice a year and adopt a policy requiring schools to minimize or eliminate the use of time-outs.

Senate Bill 270 would clarify that school districts must close underutilized buildings and make them available to charter schools for $1.

Senate Bill 48 originally would have required colleges to compile information about jobs and pay related to the degrees they offer. But when colleges reported that they already have much of this information, lawmakers amended the bill to require schools to prominently post links to it instead.

Senate Bill 8 would require all high schools to offer the College Core, a certificate earned by completing a set of coursework that’s recognized by all Indiana public colleges. It would also require colleges and universities to explore the possibilities of conferring associate degrees and offering three-year degree programs.

School-related bills that didn’t pass

Several bills passed one chamber of the legislature but didn’t make it through the other.

Senate Bill 128 would’ve required schools to seek school board approval for their sex education curriculum, and publicize the materials, plus information about who teaches the courses and when.

Senate Bill 287 would’ve required schools to teach cursive writing.

Senate Bill 50 would’ve permitted chaplains to serve in public schools as counselors.

Senate Bill 214 would’ve required schools to post links to mental health resources for students, and Senate Bill 141 would’ve required counselors to spend a certain amount of time providing services to students.

House Bill 1073 would’ve required schools to install video cameras in special education classrooms, and allowed parents to review recordings in certain situations. Some provisions of this bill regarding seclusion and restraint were added to House Bill 1380.

House Bill 1304 would’ve created a mastery-based education program, along with a number of other policy changes that were inserted into House Bill 1243.

House Bill 1376 would’ve restricted school referendums to general elections or municipal elections only.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

How Indianapolis area educators are preparing for a proposal to retain more third graders

2024-02-28T11:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

This story was co-published with Mirror Indy and WFYI.

Grace Martin, a tutor at Vision Academy charter school in Indianapolis, teaches the alphabet.

‘A’ makes the sound for ‘apple.’ ‘I’ is for words like ‘important’ and ‘ice.’

It’s a lesson she uses with students in kindergarten — but to her surprise, she has to teach it to third graders as well.

“It’s like they … just paused at kindergarten or first grade, and now they’re in third grade,” Martin said. “I’m helping them pick up on basically two years of learning.”

It’s a challenge that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic but grew much worse after schools switched to remote learning for part of 2020. Third grade reading scores remain near the lowest point in a decade, and that means thousands of kids lack essential skills necessary to learn as they grow older, such as phonics and comprehension.

Now Marion County educators are preparing for the likely rollout of Senate Bill 1, which would require districts to hold back more students who fail the state’s elementary school reading exam. That bill emerged as one solution proposed by the Gov. Eric Holcomb administration and state lawmakers after seeing that nearly one in five Indiana students failed the reading test in each of the last three years.

Schools currently have the option to retain students yet few do. In 2023, of the 13,855 third graders who didn’t pass the state’s spring reading exam, according to state data, only about 400 were held back.

Reporters from Chalkbeat Indiana, Mirror Indy, and WFYI contacted educators across Marion County to learn how school administrators and teachers were preparing for the probable changes coming just a year after the state required schools to adopt new reading curriculum.

Some support the legislation and see benefits in giving students another year to learn how to read. Others, though, worry about what would happen next: a wave of overcrowded classrooms beginning with a “bubble” in the third grade.

“Then we’re going to see that bubble go into our middle schools and into our high schools,” Wayne Township Superintendent Jeff Butts said.

Thousands could retake third grade

If enacted, the legislation could have an outsized impact in Marion County.

That’s because lawmakers are looking at how many third graders are passing the state standardized exam known as the Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination, or IREAD-3. That test, given to all third graders, assesses whether the students are proficient in reading.

In Marion County’s public school districts, about 2,700 students were allowed to advance into fourth grade even though they failed IREAD, according to state data. That amounted to 28% of the districts’ third graders. Statewide, that promotion rate was about 17%.

To be clear, not all of those students would necessarily be held back under Senate Bill 1.

Under the legislation, kids would be given three opportunities by the end of third grade to pass IREAD. Students who don’t pass would become eligible for literacy-focused summer school and repeat a year of classroom instruction. But some students — including English language learners with less than two years of learning English, students with disabilities, and those who pass the math portion of state exams — would still move on to fourth grade.

It’s difficult to know how many students would be affected by the legislation. An online portal from the state Department of Education does not outline how many Marion County students would be exempt, and the state did not answer questions about how that number could be estimated.

Statewide, though, as many as 7,050 students would be held back in 2026, according to the Legislative Services Agency, which advises lawmakers on policymaking. That could cost the state an additional $57 million as the students age.

Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner, however, says with multiple opportunities for students to take IREAD, retaining the estimated 7,050 students statewide is “a worst-case scenario.”

“This number, we should never hit,” Jenner said. “It would be unacceptable if we do.”

Marion County schools less likely to hold back

State education officials set a goal in 2022 to ensure 95% of Hoosier students pass IREAD by 2027.

Some officials say meeting that goal will require a shift in how schools decide to hold back students.

At two Marion County public school corporations — Indianapolis Public Schools and Lawrence Township — roughly one in three students were sent to fourth grade without passing IREAD. Both districts declined to comment for this story.

At Pike Township, where 29% of third graders advanced to fourth grade without passing IREAD, Superintendent Larry Young noted the likely effect this legislation would have on urban schools during a January school board meeting. He said he’d like lawmakers to also consider students’ potential for growth.

“I would ask that they look at trajectory,” Young said. “We have children that … in the next year or two, not only will they catch up, they will potentially surpass where their age-same peers may potentially be.”

Butts, the Wayne Township superintendent, said there are valid concerns about holding back students. Studies have found that students who were retained dropped out of school and faced negative social-emotional outcomes. Overall, however, research is mixed on whether retention is ultimately beneficial.

“But we also understand the negative impact of children not being able to read at grade level,” he said. “And that gets exponentially more challenging for them as they get into more difficult content.”

That’s what Rachelle Fisher, a fourth grade teacher in Franklin Township, is seeing. An educator for nearly two decades, Fisher said she loves to teach reading, but by fourth grade, it’s about content.

“It is nearly impossible to teach Indiana history and Indiana state science standards to students that are not reading at grade level,” she said.

Educators say retention isn’t the only answer

Some educators support the legislation but question whether it is happening too quickly.

Indiana lawmakers passed legislation last year requiring schools to adopt curricula aligned with the science of reading, an approach to teaching reading that focuses on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. While some districts have already trained staff and introduced this teaching, others are doing so for the first time this school year.

Indianapolis Public Schools, for example, introduced a new reading curriculum this year and while 96% of kindergarten through second grade classrooms were using it as of December, only about half of teachers so far have mastered teaching the new material.

“We are three months into implementation of something that a year from now will be very well organized and articulated,” Brookside Elementary School 54 Principal Jeremy Baugh told IPS Board Commissioners during a Feb. 20 meeting.

Other educators stressed that a one-size-fits-all approach to retention may not be best for students.

Stephanie Cotter, principal at Beech Grove’s Central Elementary, said her colleagues consider more than test scores when making a decision about retention. A school committee evaluates what interventions have been tried in the past, how many questions were missed on reading exams and whether retention is socially appropriate for a student. They also consider a student’s size and birthday, and bring parents into the conversation.

A third-grader works through an exercise Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, during a reading intervention class at Central Elementary School in Beech Grove.

“What’s being proposed is even more constraining compared to what’s out there,” Cotter said. “We all want our students to be able to read. We want to hit that 95% target. We want them to have those early literacy skills, and we have to look at specific children and decide, ‘Is this what’s best for them at this time?’”

Cotter and others say retention alone only goes so far. Schools continue to grapple with attendance challenges as students settle into classroom learning after 2020′s pandemic-driven disruptions. About one in five Hoosier students were considered chronically absent last year, and additional legislation has been introduced this year in response.

Some educators say they hope the state will invest in greater literacy support for students before they reach third grade. That could mean universal preschool or mandatory kindergarten.

Barbara Wellnitz, a tutor with United Way’s ReadUP program, said she supports efforts to start students in school earlier.

“Fully funding pre-K for all children, paying teachers of those children decent wages, and requiring children to attend school by age five would all go a long way toward helping children up their reading skills,” Wellnitz said. “Fewer students would face the possibility of retention in all grades.”

What’s next

Parents of students who would have been held back have spoken out against the bill, saying they are concerned about the weight put on students taking a test.

Rachel Burke, president of the Indiana Parent Teacher Association, told lawmakers that she knew when her daughter was in first grade that she would struggle to pass the IREAD. But what she didn’t know until December of her third grade year was that her child had been having seizures at the rate of dozens per day, and likely missing instruction as a result.

Even after receiving medication, she didn’t have enough time between December and the March testing window to catch up, Burke said. She failed, and had to take summer school and repeat the test, but those results were lost.

Now that she’s at the top of her class, it’s clear that holding her back would not have been the right course, Burke said.

“She’s not unique. There are kids whose parents die who take the test the next day. There are kids whose houses burned down who have to take this test the next day,” Burke said. “Kids are people. They’re not statistics. There has to be some room.”

But at the Statehouse, the bill continues to advance. It passed out of the House on Tuesday and now returns to the Senate before heading to Holcomb’s desk.

That’s good news to Martin, the tutor, who said she agrees with the proposal. She said no parent wants to hear that their child needs to be held back, but it’s about making sure they have “that extra support that they need to set them up for success.”

“Where do you want your kids to be at? Do you want to pass your kid and then he’s gonna continue failing and then he’s gonna graduate and he actually didn’t retain anything?” Martin said. “No, you can’t do that. You got to put the kid first.”

Aleksandra Appleton, Amelia Pak-Harvey, and MJ Slaby from Chalkbeat Indiana contributed to this article. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education. Contact the bureau at in.tips@chalkbeat.org

Carley Lanich and Emily Hopkins from Mirror Indy contributed to this article. Mirror Indy is a nonprofit news organization covering Indianapolis.

Eric Weddle from WFYI contributed to this article.

Here’s what the Indiana AG said about making changes to the ‘Eyes on Education’ tip line

2024-02-09T22:20:17+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office said Friday it will not remove materials from a website it launched earlier this week publicizing complaints about schools’ materials on race, gender and politics.

The office said it would, however, post responses from school districts challenging the validity of those complaints. But in order to dispute the materials, Rokita’s office told districts they had to prove the materials were not used by or made available in their schools.

Rokita’s “Eyes on Education” portal aims to compile and display complaints about “potentially inappropriate” material in schools that are “real examples of socialist indoctrination from classrooms across the state,” along with the purported material.

Districts responded by challenging the veracity of the materials labeled as theirs, saying the site’s characterizations of the content were inaccurate or misleading. Some of the posted material dates back to 2018.

The website’s launch triggered the latest confrontation between the state attorney general and schools over how educators handle controversial social and political topics, a fight also taken up by state lawmakers.

A spokesperson for Rokita’s office said the materials on the portal support the premise that there has been “indoctrination” in Indiana’s schools, even if policies have changed. Others, however, say it could have a chilling effect on teachers and schools.

The portal, which launched Tuesday, names 13 school districts and one university, and includes complaints with links to photos, screenshots, or presentation materials.

Rokita’s office said what’s posted are “exact documents provided to our office” and many were “from teachers directly and were easily verified.” A spokesperson said the office will reach out to those who submitted to the portal as well as schools if necessary. However, a vast majority of the districts on the portal previously told Chalkbeat that they were not asked in advance about the portal materials.

Rokita’s office also said it will conduct investigations to see if schools are breaking any state laws by using those materials. A spokesperson added that the portal is a tool for parents to “stop indoctrination more quickly and can ensure bad history doesn’t repeat itself in districts where such policies are claimed to be retired.”

Districts ask for updates to ‘Eyes on Education’

Multiple districts have asked Rokita for updates or changes. Four districts each shared with Chalkbeat the same email response to their concerns from the Rokita’s office that set a high bar to dispute the posted materials.

“Please provide documentation that the contents are not, or were not, provided to a student, communicated to a student or parent, or part of any curriculum, program, or activity made available to the school community by a teacher, school district, or school corporation,” the email from Corrine L. Youngs, policy director and legislative counsel in Rokita’s office, reads.

It also says that if the materials contain something that is outdated, the district needs to provide documentation that it was repealed or no longer used, as well as the new policy.

But the office will not remove materials in the portal, a spokesperson for Rokita’s office said Friday, adding that the complaints from schools indicated that the material had once been taught, even if it had subsequently been removed or updated.

Having the complaints and the districts’ responses on the portal “will actually help teachers and school administrators because it will expose misinformation that can naturally exist amongst the public,” the spokesperson argued.

As of Friday evening, the portal had been updated for two districts. It now labels a “gender policy” from Clark-Pleasant Community School Corporation as “retired” in 2023 and says a gender support plan from New Prairie United School Corporation was revised in November 2022.

Power of Rokita’s office may leave schools stranded

The spokesperson for Rokita’s office pointed to the previous outcry over critical race theory in schools and said the portal supported Rokita’s position.

“The types of people complaining now are the same ones who said there was no indoctrination going on in Indiana schools at all,” the spokesperson said. “Now these same types are saying – ‘well, the items on the Portal are no LONGER being taught, or we fired that teacher, or we fired that vendor, or we retired that policy.’ They just proved our point and elevated even further the value of the office in education matters.”

A legal theory, critical race theory has become an umbrella term for discussions of race and identity.

And there’s likely little recourse for schools unhappy with what Rokita’s done, one expert said.

The power of the attorney general’s office has increased over the years. Many attorneys general have gone on to run for higher office, which can incentivize partisan actions, said Michael Wolf, acting director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at Purdue University.

Wolf added that as elected officials, attorneys general have wide latitude to act and little oversight. A governor does not oversee an elected attorney general’s office, for example (Rokita was elected to his office in 2020). And the Indiana Department of Education, which also has no authority over Rokita, said it is not involved with the portal.

Plus, Wolf said the portal could fall under the scope of the attorney general’s responsibility to advise other government officials, like those at the state education department or local prosecutors, who could then take action.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. She also covers access to higher education and Warren Township Schools. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Conservative-friendly higher education bill advances at Statehouse

2024-02-08T16:43:41+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

This article was originally published in the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

A sweeping bill tightening lawmaker oversight of Indiana’s public colleges and universities for “intellectual diversity” purposes drew opposition Tuesday in the Senate but easily cleared the chamber along party lines.

“The number of Hoosier students and parents who view higher education as monolithic echo chambers — (that) coddle students with minority but scholarly viewpoints or ostracize faculty … or students with different viewpoints — is significant,” Sen. Spencer Deery said on the Senate floor.

Deery has called his Senate Bill 202 a “reform” effort intended to reverse those “declining views” of higher education.

“Infringing on academic freedom is a red line we should not cross, but we don’t need to give up on these values to curb the excessive politicalization and viewpoint discrimination that threatens our state’s workforce goals,” he said.

Opponents, however, argued the proposed changes could harm students and faculty members, or would overly burden public institutions.

Those include Ball State University, Indiana University, Indiana State University, Ivy Tech Community College, Purdue University, the University of Southern Indiana, and Vincennes University.

Senators passed the legislation in a party-line vote of 39-9, with all Democrats voting against.

On Wednesday, Indiana University President Pamela Whitten said in a statement that the bill risks unintended consequences for both the university and the “economic and cultural vitality of the state.”

“While we are still analyzing the broad potential impacts of SB 202, we are deeply concerned about language regarding faculty tenure that would put academic freedom at risk, weaken the intellectual rigor essential to preparing students with critical thinking skills, and damage our ability to compete for the world-class faculty who are at the core of what makes IU an extraordinary research institution,” Whitten said in her statement.

Polling students and tweaking boards

Deery and other Republican lawmakers contend that conservative students and faculty members are increasingly ostracized at progressively liberal college and university settings — or at least perceive such shunning.

“Even if some of it is perception, that still matters if it keeps a kid from enrolling in higher (education) or keeps their parents from encouraging them to do so,” Deery said. “Higher (education) should be for all Hoosiers.”

In a 2023 state-commissioned survey of thousands of Hoosier higher education students, about 56% said conservative students can openly express their opinions at school, compared to the 73% who said liberal students can do so. More than 25% of respondents — for both questions — said they were neutral or didn’t know an answer.

Deery’s bill would change up institution boards of trustees by removing appointment power from alumni councils and handing it to House and Senate Republican majority leaders — “with advice” from Democrat minority leaders. It would require boards’ existing diversity committees to consider “intellectual diversity” alongside cultural diversity in employment policies and faculty complaints.

And it would require the committees to make recommendations promoting recruitment and retention of “underrepresented” students rather than the “minority students” specified in current law. That provision drew ire from Minority Leader Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis.

“To … redefine the term ‘minority’ and call them ‘under-represented’ without addressing their issue is offensive,” said Taylor, who is Black. He said both he and his son had been called the n-word as students on I.U.’s campus decades apart.

“The amount of minorities, Black students, going to universities has never been so low,” Taylor added. “… These students still struggle to have the same rights on campus as your conservative students do — and it’s not because of their political views or their ideologies. It’s simply because of an inalienable trait that they had nothing to do with.”

Deery noted his legislation didn’t end existing diversity initiatives and said his single bill couldn’t address every problem. He added that “overwhelmingly” non-white students struggling to access their transcripts are expected to benefit from legislation he authored last session.

‘Abolishing’ tenure?

Deery’s bill additionally re-shapes tenure and promotion policies.

It would require a board of trustees to prevent a faculty member from getting tenure or a promotion if the board thinks the member is “unlikely to foster a culture of free inquiry, free expression and intellectual diversity” and unlikely to offer students scholarly works from a range of “political or ideological frameworks.” Boards would also dock members considered likely to bring up personal political views unrelated to their specific field or class.

Boards would get wide latitude in making those policies. The bill says decisions would be based on past performance “or other determination by the board.”

The bill also mandates that boards conduct reviews of tenured professors every five years based on the above, as well as if faculty members “adequately” carry out academic duties and more. A fiscal analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency notes I.U.’s main campus at Bloomington alone has over 1,000 tenured faculty, meaning its board would have to conduct 200-plus reviews annually.

Deery said he sought to protect tenured faculty by codifying things the board can’t consider in reviews: expressing dissent or engaging in research and public commentary, criticizing institutional leadership, and engaging in political activity outside teaching or mentoring duties.

But institutions would be required to adopt policies establishing disciplinary actions — termination, demotion, salary cuts, and more — for tenured faculty members who fail those reviews.

“Some I have heard from in my community feel that it is abolishing tenure,” said Sen. Shelli Yoder, D-Indianapolis. She said the legislation could have a “chilling effect.”

Deery countered that schools like Indiana State University already have post-tenure reviews, and called them “not a new concept.”

His bill additionally requires institutions to establish complaint procedures in which school students and staff can accuse faculty members and contractors of not meeting free-expression criteria.

Institutions would have to refer those complaints to human resource professionals and supervisors “for consideration in employee reviews and tenure and promotion decisions,” according to the bill. They’d also have to keep their boards of trustees in the loop and send complaint-related information to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education (CHE) for a report.

Later, the legislation indicates that petitioners unsatisfied with the results of their complaints can get CHE’s commissioner to consider their requests, and guarantees a “final order” within 60 days of receipt.

Democrats pushed back against the bill’s provisions, even as they acknowledged its intent.

“… Senate Bill 202 actually is stifling diversity and debate of differing views, and it will hurt the recruitment of high quality professors, high quality students and the ability to attract and to keep our students and to prepare them for the workforce,” Yoder asserted.

She said the bill is “tying the hands of universities” and called it “heavy-handed.”

Chalkbeat Indiana reporter Aleksandra Appleton contributed to this article.

Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com. Follow Indiana Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter.

Indiana’s AG launched a tip line for controversial classroom material. It’s already raising concerns about accuracy and privacy.

2024-02-06T22:40:27+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

The Indiana Attorney General has unveiled an online portal for complaints about the teaching of race, gender, and political ideology in schools — an aggressive move that raises concerns about privacy and the veracity of the material made public.

The new website, which was announced Tuesday by state Attorney General Todd Rokita, is called “Eyes on Education” and includes complaints dating back to 2018. The website launched with material already posted, but the included school districts and state department of education didn’t know about it.

It lists 13 school districts around Indiana and the Indiana University School of Medicine with links to photos, screenshots, or presentation materials that the office describes as “potentially inappropriate.” In some cases, the portal also includes the addresses, phone numbers, and emails of people identified in the materials. Schools have characterized these materials as incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate.

Molly Williams, a representative for the Indiana Department of Education, said the agency was not made aware of the portal when it was under construction or when it launched.

The portal represents an escalation of a longstanding fight between Rokita and Indiana school districts over how lessons on race and gender are taught in schools. In establishing and promoting the website, Rokita has taken a similar approach to a controversial tip line started by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin for parents to report “divisive” teaching at their schools.

There appeared to be problems right off the bat.

A majority of the districts listed on the portal told Chalkbeat that they were not contacted by Rokita’s office and were unaware of the portal until Tuesday. A press release from the AG’s office was sent early Tuesday morning, but not publicly posted on the website until hours later.

Rokita’s office did not respond to Chalkbeat’s questions about how and when submitted complaints are posted publicly; what an investigation and verification by his office into the complaints will entail; whether the office would pursue legal action; and whether the persons identified in the material gave permission for his office to post their contact information online.

After at least one district complained about the portal, Rokita’s office told that district that it would remove inaccurate material.

The ACLU of Indiana said in a Tuesday post on the site formerly known as Twitter that the website is “an effort to intimidate teachers” from discussing issues of racial equity and LGBTQ topics.

“Classroom inclusivity benefits everyone. Classroom censorship does nothing but harm,” the group said.

What the website for ‘potentially inappropriate’ materials shows

The materials posted on the Indiana portal take the form of photos of online quizzes and presentations, flags and lessons in the classroom, and overviews of complaints about districts’ materials.

They cover a range of topics, from copies of school districts’ policies on supporting transgender students, to an email announcing a college presentation for Black students, to a list of sexually sensitive content identified in a school’s required reading.

Most of the materials posted online are undated and many others are from 2020 to 2021, when fury over the teaching of race in K-12 schools peaked in Indiana and nationwide and culminated in a bill that attempted to ban “divisive concepts” from K-12 classrooms.

Metadata for the website indicates the link for the portal, which ends in “education-liberty” was started in 2022.

Rokita, a Republican, has waded into this fight before. In 2021, he released his “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” which took aim at social-emotional learning and critical race theory, terms commonly used as shorthand for broader lessons on gender, sexuality, and race. (A former member of Congress, Rokita served on the U.S. House education committee.)

In a press release, Rokita said his office would investigate complaints submitted to the portal.

“Our kids need to focus on fundamental educational building blocks, NOT ideology that divides kids from their parents and normal society,” Rokita said in the release, which describes the website as a transparency portal for parents and educators.

The portal does not include responses from the 13 school districts and one university. It’s not clear how or if Rokita’s office verified that the submissions are from the school districts that are named.

And while names are redacted in some of the materials, the portal makes other names public.

One entry reviewed by Chalkbeat appears to be a screenshot of an online form submitted to Rokita’s office with concerns about a school’s bathroom policy, with the complainant’s name, address, email address, and phone number visible.

Rokita’s office did not say whether this person or others gave permission for their information to be posted publicly.

What school districts listed on Rokita’s portal say

Chalkbeat contacted all 13 districts and one university listed on the portal — all 11 that responded objected to the information on the portal in some way.

Those 11 districts — Brownsburg, Carmel Clay, Center Grove, Clark-Pleasant, Franklin Community, Hamilton Southeastern, New Prairie, Noblesville, Penn-Harris-Madison, Mooresville, and Martinsville — also said they were not notified in advance about the portal or that they would be included. Several districts also stressed that families can bring their concerns and questions to school leaders, and at least two reached out to Rokita’s office to correct the information.

Some of the strongest words came from the superintendent of The Metropolitan School District of Martinsville, which said the documents on the portal do not reflect what the district teaches students.

“The posting suggests that the District endorses radical gender identity curriculum, which is reckless and inaccurate. Furthermore, the posting lacks context and clarity,” Superintendent Eric Bowlen said in a statement. “We invite Attorney General Rokita and any of our legislators to visit our schools to observe as our students learn from the standards required by the Indiana Department of Education.”

Carmel Clay Schools spokesperson Emily Bauer said that the district “was not previously notified regarding the website or asked to confirm the validity of submitted screenshots.”

Bauer also said several documents “originated from a now-defunct outside special interest group, and others appear to be online quizzes with no additional context provided.” Bauer added that it is “irresponsible to portray these screenshots as curriculum.”

Clark-Pleasant Schools said a hyperlink to a board policy document about transgender students “is outdated, retired, and no longer exists here at CPCSC!”

“We are disappointed in the release of this incorrect information and the fact that no one from the Attorney General’s office reached out to verify this information,” the district said.

The New Prairie United School Corporation said a plan listed on the portal is not in active use by the district, said Superintendent Paul White.

“The support plan was changed after community meetings in which we received input from parents, the community, and our school attorney,” White said in an email. “Parents are informed in ALL instances when a student comes forward to declare transgender status.”

The portal’s materials listed for Noblesville Schools are all old and not in use, said spokesperson Marnie Cooke. The site listed a screenshot of a presentation that the document claims was on white privilege, featuring a link that does not work.

The portal also listed screenshots of assignment details for an English course detailing the meaning of privilege, and a screenshot of an assignment on dominant and subordinated groups of people that the office labeled “CRT” (which is shorthand for critical race theory).

“For example, one document shows someone who was a volunteer community speaker in 2018. He presented content that was not appropriately vetted by us and we apologized to families at the time,” Cooke said in an email. “Another item is from an employee who is no longer with Noblesville Schools and the third example is also not in use.”

The Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation said the “minority scholarship” document listed for the district in the portal is from a one-day conference that the district did not sponsor, host, or plan, and was not a district minority scholarship as implied, according to the district.

Another document portraying an email sent to students about a representative from Goshen College available to speak to Black students was not a “Black Only College Fair” as it was labeled on the portal, Penn-Harris-Madison also countered.

And a third document labeled “diversity activities” was used in 2021 with students who were enrolled in a Preparing for College and Careers course and an Ivy Tech course, the district said. The Penn High School teacher obtained the diversity activities from the course framework provided by Ivy Tech faculty and made adaptations using professional judgment.

“After teaching this lesson and receiving parental/guardian feedback, Penn High School made changes to the courses while also maintaining state standards,” the district said. “The diversity activities shared have not been used at Penn High School since 2021.”

Indiana teachers ‘feeling under surveillance’

Analysts say the website could potentially have a chilling effect on classroom lessons and educators.

John Rogers, director of UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access, said it’s important for teachers to feel comfortable enough to lead their students through historical lessons and discussions about different experiences within a multiracial democracy. But they’re less likely to do so under the threat of being reported to the state.

“It’s very hard to lean into those conversations when you are feeling like you might be attacked, publicly and in bad faith,” Rogers said.

Existing democratic processes allow parents and educators to share concerns with governing bodies that can then make decisions about what should be allowed in schools — building mutual respect and trust, he said.

But the website takes a “name and shame” approach, Rogers said, that ultimately foments conflict for the sake of conflict and heightens a sense of ill-will and mistrust in education.

Christopher Lubienski, director of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University, said it’s not clear how the investigations will work and whether they’ll be fair, whether complaints reflect real concerns, and what kind due process is available for individuals accused in the materials, he said.

Posting personal information also creates concerns about doxxing, a term that refers to publishing people’s personally identifiable information without their consent.

Many Republican-led states have adopted measures like the tip line or a parents’ bill of rights, he said, though parents already have the right to view and challenge curriculum, as well as attend school board meetings and run for office.

He said anecdotal evidence suggests the measures have likely negatively impacted teacher recruiting and retention.

“They don’t have the autonomy they expected. They’re feeling under surveillance,” he said. “They’ve likened it to McCarthyism.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. She also covers access to higher education and Warren Township Schools. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana wants to address student behavior. Here’s one school’s approach involving birdhouses.

2024-01-30T17:22:05+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

At first, it’s not clear what birdhouses have to do with student discipline.

A half dozen of them welcome visitors to James Whitcomb Riley Success Academy. Another dozen line the hallways. Plaques in the woodshop reveal that each colorful house was built by a student for a teacher who has made an impact on their lives.

Students come to J.W.R. after running into trouble at their home Perry Township middle schools. Some are facing expulsion. Others are invited to attend as a preventative measure after a string of discipline referrals or excessive absences.

The birdhouses are a hallmark of the school’s service learning program, which sees a small cohort of students every quarter work on philanthropic projects in order to build leadership and cooperation skills during a critical age for development when behavior incidents may spike.

The need for similar programs may grow as lawmakers seek solutions following concerns from teachers across the state and nationwide about student behavior since COVID.

Both in-school and out-of-school suspensions spiked in Indiana in 2022 after a drop in 2021, according to data from the Indiana Department of Education compiled by the Fairbanks Foundation, an Indianapolis-based nonprofit.

In Marion County districts alone, many middle schools had higher rates of discipline incidents than other types of schools within the same district. Southport Middle School in Perry Township, for example, had an in-school suspension rate of 23.3%, or 306 students, over twice that of Southport High School at 9% and 187 students in 2022.

Indiana lawmakers have now taken notice, with bills on disruption, cell phone use, and absenteeism all filed in the Statehouse this year.

House Bill 1262, authored by Rep. Vernon Smith and backed by the Indiana State Teachers Association, originally allowed schools to suspend chronically disruptive and defiant students. Lawmakers intend to amend the bill to instead create a committee to study student discipline.

Smith said he brought the bill after discussions with teachers. Ongoing issues with behavior are also beginning to worsen teacher recruiting and retention, he added.

“You spend so much time on behavior problems that you don’t have time to teach,” Smith said.

In Marion County districts, many middle schools had higher rates of disciplinary incidents than other types of schools within the same district.

The goal of the program at J.W.R., school officials say, is to make a positive impact on students’ behavior that stays with them long after the challenging years of middle school.

“We’re going to spend the time with the student whether it’s now or later,” said Joe Shelburn, the school’s director. “We’d rather do it now, when we can be positive, as opposed to coming up with our best list of consequences further down the line.”

Middle school is a time of development

Advocates say discipline should be done with the intent to teach, not punish.

This may be especially true in middle school.

Students experience rapid physical, mental, and psychological development during the middle grades, said Katie Powell, director for middle level programs at the Association for Middle Level Education. They have new and unique social emotional needs educators should be aware of when it comes to discipline.

“So much of our development as human beings is taking place in early adolescence,” Powell said. “We can have healthier high schoolers and adult citizens if we have healthy and successful middle schoolers.”

They begin to realize that not everyone in their class is their friend, Powell said. But they may not yet have the skills to properly navigate these changing social situations.

“It’s hard to solve systems of equations when your best friend said ‘I’m not your best friend anymore,’” Powell said. “Until students feel safe, until students feel included, they’re not going to see academic growth.”

All the changes of adolescence are in full force in sixth to eighth grade, said Shelburn, when students find themselves in larger schools with more freedom and responsibility. While some misbehavior is expected, it crosses the line when it begins to impact others, he added.

Alternative middle schools like J.W.R. can create positive school communities for students who need them, Powell said.

The J.W.R. program runs quarterly and serves as an alternative to expulsion for many students.

Most students and their parents accept the offer to attend J.W.R., Shelburn said. There’s only one chance to attend — students who get in trouble again complete a separate, virtual program. Students who are on the verge of expulsion participate in the morning class, while the afternoon class includes students with various disciplinary issues.

Throughout the quarter, students work solo and in groups in the woodshop, earning badges as they master tools and skills. While the birdhouses are a signature project, students have also made windchimes for Perry staffers who have lost a loved one.

This year, through grants by the Perry Township Education Foundation, they proposed and executed their own philanthropic projects. Students made funding presentations to the foundation and then purchased materials for their work.

The initial ideas were lofty, like curing cancer, said Shelburn, the school’s director. Teachers helped them set more realistic goals. They fixed drywall and lunchroom seats in elementary schools, filled backpacks with supplies, and volunteered at a district Shop with Cops event.

All of these initiatives serve to put the students in leadership roles, said Shelburn, and lead to a sense of investment in their education, which in turn improves behavior.

“There’s a difference between doing things because they want to and because it’ll make their teachers happy,” he said.

‘Embrace them for who they are’

The semester at J.W.R. ends with student presentations to their parents, teachers, and the larger community on what they’ve learned, which Shelburn said provides a much-needed sense of achievement for students who struggle to get to the finish line.

Speaking at the December graduation, Janmel said she saw the school as a second chance to be a better student. The teachers had helped her understand what to do when she felt angry. They taught her to have goals and work hard.

After nine weeks at J.W.R., Janmel’s mother, Janjai Roberts, said the middle schooler was happier and in better control of her emotions.

“It helps the kids be who they are and be successful,” Roberts said. “That’s what I want for my kids.”

Every student sees growth from the time they first set foot in the school to when they graduate at the end of the semester, but the change is different for every student, said teacher Rodney Claiborne.

Remember to stay calm, he told Janmel as she said goodbye — no running or screaming when things get tough.

J.W.R. teachers and staff often see their graduates again when they visit Perry high schools to reaffirm to students that they’re still in their corner, Shelburn said.

While middle school can present challenges, it’s also an ideal time to address behavior issues before such problems get harder to remedy.

“Rather than try to fix them, we need to embrace them for who they are,” he said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Text with Chalkbeat for updates on the 2024 legislative session in Indiana

2024-01-04T17:28:02+00:00

The 2024 legislative session is about to begin in Indiana, and lawmakers are looking to address literacy, absenteeism, cell phones in schools, and more. And Chalkbeat Indiana has a new way to keep you updated about all that and more.

We’re launching Session Syllabus, a texting service that helps you stay in the know on big education issues and laws moving through the legislature this year.

Over the last two years, Indiana lawmakers have discussed and passed sweeping laws on what students learn and how their teachers teach — and education is once again likely to be at the top of the agenda.

Sign up by submitting your phone number in the form below to get texts about once per week from Chalkbeat with updates on key legislation affecting schools and students. Or you can text the word SESSION to (317) 648-5331 to sign up. You can also text us back with your questions about bills, issues, and the legislative process and we’ll try and track down the answer for you.

We also offer text updates from Indianapolis Public Schools meetings — sign up for those here.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Literacy, vouchers, and IPS: Indiana education issues we’re watching in 2024

2023-12-21T12:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

It may be a new year on the calendar, but January marks the halfway point of the school year and the start of the legislative session in Indiana. And there’s no shortage of education news and issues to watch.

Here’s five topics we’re watching in 2024:

How students learn to read

No surprise here, but reading will likely get a lot of attention, just like in 2023.

Lawmakers passed a new state law in 2023 that requires school districts to adopt a curriculum that’s aligned with the science of reading. The law also specifies that districts are no longer allowed to use literacy curriculum that rely mostly on the three-cueing model, in which students use context clues and pictures.

The new law grew out of concerns held by lawmakers and education officials about students’ reading ability, and our story about what it means for students, teachers and schools was our most-read story of 2023.

When discussing next year’s legislative session, lawmakers said they want to continue to address literacy by looking into Indiana’s third grade retention laws for students who don’t pass the state reading exam, the IREAD-3.

2024 elections feature gubernatorial, IPS school board races

The new year means that it’s a big election year — and not just because there’s a race for the White House.

Here in Indiana, there’s an election for governor with no incumbent, since term limits prohibit Gov. Eric Holcomb from running again. There are multiple candidates on the Republican side and former Indiana Superintendent of Education Jennifer McCormick on the Democratic side.

At the local level, four of the seven seats on the IPS Board of Commissioners are up for election in November, plus there will be school board elections across the state.

Rebuilding Stronger becomes reality for IPS

Approved by the Indianapolis Public Schools board in fall of 2022, Rebuilding Stronger is the district’s sweeping overhaul that aims to address pressing challenges of declining enrollment and educational inequities for students of color.

The Rebuilding Stronger rollout started this school year with the closure of several schools. But the bigger piece begins in the 2024-25 school year, when grade reconfigurations at the elementary and middle schools start, along with expanded academic programs and enrollment zones.

The district is working hard to make sure families know their options for the coming year with an invitation for families to “Choose your IPS.”

The enrollment period is underway, and IPS reported in early December that applications were up from the same time last year by about 470 families.

The future of old IPS school buildings

Per state law, school districts must offer closed school buildings to charter schools to buy or lease for $1. But the law comes with exemptions, including one added this year for districts that share funds from voter-approved property tax increases for operating or safety expenses with an “applicable charter school.”

What that new exemption means is the focus of a legal dispute between IPS and the state that will likely continue into the new year. The outcome will determine whether the district can sell the buildings or must essentially give them to charter schools that could enroll former IPS students.

IPS filed a lawsuit in August against Attorney General Todd Rokita and state board of education officials, arguing that the school district is exempt from the state law. A Marion County judge sided with the district, and Rokita appealed the ruling. In the meantime, the IPS has paused the sale of closed buildings, but the district plans to lease one of the facilities (which it previously voted to sell to a nonprofit) while the court battle plays out.

More students using vouchers

Earlier this year, lawmakers expanded the state’s voucher program to make nearly all students eligible to receive public money to attend private school. Indiana was one of several Republican-led states to do so recently.

Roughly 97% of students now qualify, and state projections show that participation could increase by nearly 42,000 students within two years. And in November, we had our first glimpse into what the participation looks like.

More than 69,000 Choice Scholarship applications were approved during the first round of the program for the 2023-24 school year, per the Indiana Department of Education. That’s a record number. And it’s likely to rise after the second application period, which closes in January.

Chalkbeat Indiana reporters Amelia Pak-Harvey and Aleksandra Appleton contributed to this article.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. She also covers access to higher education and Warren Township Schools. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Thousands of Indiana students move on to 4th grade without reading skills, despite state policy

2023-12-05T20:51:34+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Thousands of Indiana students advanced through elementary school without demonstrating critical reading skills, new data from the Indiana Department of Education shows, as state lawmakers consider requiring more students who struggle with reading to repeat third grade.

It’s the state’s policy to hold back third graders who don’t pass the state reading test — the IREAD-3 — but data shows that retention rates have sharply decreased over the last decade, despite a simultaneous decline in reading scores.

Around 96% of students who did not pass the IREAD3 moved to fourth grade over the last decade, according to a presentation at the State Board of Education meeting on Tuesday.

In 2023, 13,840 third graders — or 18% of all third graders in the state — did not pass the test. Of those, 13,428 moved on to fourth grade and 412 stayed in third grade for another year.

The state allows exemptions to its policy for students who have disabilities, or those who are English learners. Roughly 5,500 students received an exemption in 2023, allowing them to move on to fourth grade despite not passing the test. These students do not take the reading test again, so it’s unclear whether they attained third grade reading skills, education department officials noted.

But the remaining 7,925 students who moved on to fourth grade in 2023 did not have such exemptions; they moved on through a practice known as social promotion, which is allowed under state policy. A 2021 memo from the Department of Education outlines that schools should consider a student’s “overall academic performance” and not just their IREAD-3 score in determining whether they need to repeat a year.

This group of students must take the IREAD-3 in fourth and fifth grades, and receive additional support in literacy, but officials said it’s not clear from the available state data if these students ever reach reading proficiency.

Indiana Education Secretary Katie Jenner noted that some of these students are transient, making it harder to track their data.

Changes to third-grade retention policy likely

Jenner emphasized that schools are not at fault for the drop in retention rates since 2012, when the state policy went into place.

Of the roughly 6,000 students who did not pass the IREAD-3 in 2012, around 4,000 received exemptions, and nearly 2,000 were retained. Just 24 were “socially promoted” to fourth grade without exemptions.

“Schools are following what’s allowable in the state,” Jenner said. “Schools are not breaking the rules on this piece.”

Lawmakers have already indicated that they want to tighten the rules on retention in the next legislative session that begins in January. Reading has been an ongoing focus for the legislature, which this year passed sweeping laws requiring schools and teacher preparation programs to use reading methods based in the science of reading.

Republican state leaders also said they would plan to tackle absenteeism, which Department of Education officials linked to poor reading performance. Absenteeism rates are highest in early elementary grades and in high school, according to state data.

At a November press conference, the Indiana State Teachers Association declined to comment on a potential change to the state’s retention policy until a bill is filed. ISTA President Keith Gambill said class sizes along with the state’s relatively late age for mandatory school entry of 7 years old could affect literacy rates.

“We support efforts to make sure we’re doing all we can to have students reading at grade level,” Gambill said.

Effects of retention are mixed

Along with retention rates, reading scores have shown a steady decline since the 2012-13 school year, when proficiency rates peaked at 91.4%. After dropping from 87.3% to 81.2% from 2019 to 2021, scores have inched up by a fraction of a percentage point each year to 81.9% in 2022-23.

The progress is not enough to meet the state’s goal of 95% of having third graders reading at grade level by 2027, officials noted.

Not reading proficiently by third grade is linked to several concerns, many of which education department officials highlighted on Tuesday. Students who don’t pass the IREAD-3 are unlikely to pass state tests in older grades, Jenner said. They experience ongoing academic challenges and are less likely to graduate.

“When a child is sitting in your classroom and is unable to read, it is mortifying when they’re in ninth grade,” Jenner said. “They’re acting out because they’re embarrassed.”

Studies on retention have shown mixed results, with many finding that retained students go on to have higher test scores.

A recent study of Indiana data from the Annenberg Institute at Brown University found that third-grade retention boosted student performance in reading and math immediately, and that the effects persisted into middle school.

Furthermore, the study found that retention did not affect nonacademic factors like attendance and student discipline, which are a common concern when retention policies are discussed.

One of the study’s authors, NaYoung Hwang, a professor at the University of New Hampshire, told Chalkbeat that further studies are needed on the effects of retention on other nonacademic factors, like students’ self-esteem and friendships, and teachers’ expectations.

Hwang said early intervention was key in retention policies, as third grade represents a transition point in students’ learning.

“Up to fourth grade, most students have the opportunity to learn how to read. But then after that, it’s ‘read to learn,’” Hwang said. “Once you become a fourth grader, and you can’t read, it can have really negative consequences on all your learning.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

How the delayed FAFSA is impacting a new mandate for Indiana students

2023-12-07T11:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

It’s the first school year that Indiana students are required to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA. But they still don’t have access to the form.

The FAFSA is typically released in October. But this year, its release has been delayed as the federal government works on a new version that’s supposed to be easier and quicker to fill out. It’s now expected to be out by the end of the month.

All that change means it’s even more important for resources to reach every student individually, school leaders said.

The FAFSA is how students are considered for federal financial aid such as grants, loans and scholarships as well as some aid from states and individual colleges. Students can also access funds for a Next Level Jobs Workforce Ready Grant for a short- or long-term credential by filling out the form.

The new statewide requirement, which has some exceptions, is part of an effort by state leaders to boost Indiana’s college-going rate, which stood at about 53% for the Class of 2021, the latest data available. That’s roughly the same percentage as for the Class of 2020, although it declined for several years before that.

Filling out the FAFSA is considered an indicator of college-going, and nearly 48% of students in Indiana’s high school Class of 2023 completed the form, per a state dashboard. But the FAFSA delay could create a time crunch; of those students who completed the FAFSA, roughly 60% filled out the form by Dec. 31.

What families need to prepare for the FAFSA

One big change is when students and parents create their Federal Student Aid ID, which serves as a digital signature students need for the FAFSA

As part of creating the ID, they submit personal information to be verified, and the ID can take one to three days, said Bill Wozniak, vice president of communications and student services for INvestEd, which provides free FAFSA help in-person and via phone.

In the past, students and parents could create their FSA ID before sitting down to fill out the FAFSA or at the same time, but the latter is no longer an option, Wozniak said. So families need to have the ID ready before they start the form.

“It really launches the whole process,” said Rebecca Daugherty-Saunders, director of college and career readiness for the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township.

School leaders and others are telling students to create their FSA IDs now. Otherwise, for example, families might come to a FAFSA event in the spring expecting to complete the FAFSA there with experts to help them, but won’t be able to because they don’t have an ID ready to go.

How sports and free dinners help schools boost FAFSA completion

In years past, Wozniak said INvestEd would hold roughly half of its FAFSA events before the new year, in part because there’s typically a group of students who wanted to fill out the form around the time when college applications are due.

Plus, College Goal Sunday, a free event to help families fill out the FAFSA at locations across the state, is typically in October and in February. But this school year, it’s only on Feb. 25, 2024, said Wozniak, who serves as the event’s co-chairperson.

Still, INvestED has more than 900 events scheduled this year at high schools across the state, including ones this semester about the FSA ID and general information.

And districts including Warren and Wayne townships received the College Matters grant to increase college enrollment in Marion County; they are using it to help students fill out the FAFSA.

Both Ben Davis and Warren Central have added experts and support staff from universities and community groups to answer questions and work with students and families on the FAFSA. District leaders said they are looking for ways to make it as easy as possible for families.

At Warren, that means having people available to help before and during the school day at the district’s community resource center, in addition to the evening sessions for filling out the FAFSA.

It also means ensuring there is FAFSA information at events families attend, such as athletic competitions, said Laura Butgereit, coordinator for college and career readiness, school counseling, and family engagement for the Metropolitan School District of Warren Township.

At Ben Davis, the Indianapolis Urban League is providing hot meals for families during the FAFSA nights. That makes it easier for families to attend, Daugherty-Saunders said: “We’re taking time away from families outside of school. It’s their dinner time.”

Reaching all students can be difficult in a high school as big as Ben Davis, but it’s crucial, Daugherty-Saunders said. She added that teachers and counselors both work to reach seniors about their postsecondary plans.

Butgereit agreed that reaching each student is crucial to the new FAFSA mandate’s success.

“It’s going to come down to our counselors [and] support people working through all the seniors,” she said.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief. She also covers access to higher education and Warren Township Schools. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Record number of Indiana students using private school vouchers this year after expansion

2023-11-15T18:43:25+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

A record number of Indiana students are using Indiana’s near-universal voucher program to attend private schools this year.

The Indiana Department of Education approved 69,271 Choice Scholarship applications during the first round of the program for the 2023-24 school year, as first reported by State Affairs. That’s a roughly 30% increase from the total number of applications — 53,262 — approved for the 2022-23 school year.

This year’s number is also likely to rise after the second application period, which closes in January.

The growth comes after state lawmakers broadened eligibility for the program during the last legislative session to make it available to most Indiana families. Legislators raised the income threshold to 400% of the federal free and reduced-price lunch threshold and removed other requirements like having a sibling who received a Choice Scholarship, or attending an F-rated school.

Proponents of Choice Scholarships have celebrated the expanded access to the program because they say parents should have more flexibility to choose a school for their children. Opponents, meanwhile, have raised transparency issues, and argued that the expansion would effectively increase government benefits for wealthy families, some of whom already send their children to private schools.

Additional data on the program, including information on students’ demographics, family income levels, and previous schools attended will be available in the spring as part of the Choice Annual Report, according to the education department.

The total amount spent on the first round of scholarships this year was not immediately available.

Participation in the program was already increasing rapidly before this academic year. The 2022-23 school year marked the largest increase in the number of Choice Scholarship students since the 2014-15 school year.

Data from the 2022-23 school year showed the average award was $5,854, and that the bulk of the Choice Scholarship awards went to households making under $100,000. The state awarded around $311 million in scholarships last year.

Additionally, the data indicated that around 64% of Choice Scholarship students had never before attended an Indiana public school. White students made up 62% of the program, while Hispanic students made up 19% and Black students made up 9.5%.

In the 2022-23 annual report, the department described the typical Choice Scholarship student as a white, elementary-aged girl who is from a family of around 4.75 people making $81,800 annually, and who has no record of attending an Indiana public school.

A list of schools participating in the voucher program during this school year is available here.

Correction: A previous version of the story misstated the new criteria for the Choice Scholarship program. The income threshold is based on the federal free and reduced-price lunch program.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indianapolis mayoral election results: Democrat incumbent Joe Hogsett defeats Republican Jefferson Shreve

2023-11-08T03:49:47+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools, Marion County’s township districts, and statewide education news.

Democratic incumbent Mayor Joe Hogsett secured a third term with nearly 60% of the vote against Republican opponent Jefferson Shreve, unofficial election results showed with roughly 97% of precincts reporting as of 10 p.m. on Tuesday.

Shreve conceded in a speech to supporters at a watch party broadcast on WTHR, telling the crowd: “We can be better and we will be better, but (Hogsett) has won the night.”

He also pointed to the lead that Democrats have in Marion County, calling it “sobering.” Unofficial election results showed that roughly 65% of voters cast straight Democratic party ballots compared to roughly 35% of voters who cast straight Republican ballots.

“We’ve just got to learn to work within that model to advance change and improve our city,” he said.

In his speech to supporters broadcast on WTHR, Hogsett said that the pandemic had undeniably delayed some progress for the city.

“Now, the voters have spoken. They have given us the chance to deliver on those challenges that yet remain,” he said. “Because there are guns to get off of our streets. There is affordable housing to build. There are students to support. There are small businesses to empower.”

Voter turnout increased slightly since the last municipal election in 2019, with roughly 26% of registered voters casting a vote, per the Marion County Election Board. In 2019, 153,977 people voted, compared to 164,677 ballots cast in Tuesday’s election.

Hogsett will continue to have significant influence over public education in Indianapolis, where the mayor’s office serves as an authorizer for new and existing charter schools. Those decisions are made by the Indianapolis Charter School Board within the mayor’s Office of Education Innovation. The board has nine members with six members appointed by the mayor.

Hogsett’s top three education priorities highlighted in Chalkbeat’s voter guide are high-quality oversight of mayor-sponsored schools, improving literacy rates, and ensuring students are prepared for life beyond high school.

But education took a back seat in much of the discourse surrounding the mayoral election, with debates focusing mainly on police, the status of downtown Indianapolis, and the city’s animal shelter.

To address gun violence’s impact on young people, Hogsett highlighted “common-sense gun safety measures,” such as increasing the legal purchasing age from 18 to 21 and requiring a permit to carry a handgun in Marion County. The Indiana state legislature prohibits cities from regulating firearms, but Hogsett said he would push for state preemption on local gun laws to be removed in upcoming sessions.

In Chalkbeat’s voter guide, Hogsett said that as mayor he will continue to hold mayor-sponsored charter schools to high standards, “while remaining engaged with their work so we know if we need to step in to offer support.”

Hogsett would not say whether he would support a potential operating referendum by Indianapolis Public Schools that the district could propose to taxpayers in the future. Instead, he noted, the decision will be made by taxpayers within the IPS district.

Provisional and military ballots still need to be counted on Nov. 17. The Marion County Election Board will certify the vote totals on Nov. 20.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Lawrence Township schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

A path to the workforce and a pipeline of workers: Companies go to high schools for career training

2023-09-20T11:00:00+00:00

Every now and then, Ayden Corbett has to explain to surprised homeowners what he’s doing in their front yard.

Since the second semester of his senior year of high school, he has responded to field calls as an employee of the largest underground utility locating company in North America — the Indianapolis-based U.S. Infrastructure Company (USIC). The white truck and multicolored flags marking the location of water, power, and telecommunications lines usually give it away.

“You learn how to work with people,” he said.

Corbett graduated in 2022 from a unique program at the Hinds Career Center in Elwood that trains high schoolers for the little-known underground utility locating industry. As demand for the profession skyrocketed during the work-from-home boom of the pandemic, USIC representatives approached the career center about creating a high school graduation pathway that would lead to a diploma, an industry certification, and a job offer.

While still uncommon in Indiana, partnerships between schools and private companies that lead students directly into employment in highly specific trades are growing — the Hinds Center program is the newest among four that have been started statewide.

“Their goal is to have trained employees ready to enter the field; ours as a career center is to give students the workforce and soft skills to be employable in whatever they choose,” said Jim Pearson, director of the Hinds center.

And creating more of these programs is a top priority for state education officials, who have been charged under a new state law with reworking high school requirements to encourage more students to work and earn credentials before they graduate.

It’s part of an effort to counter Indiana’s declining college going rates by connecting high school students to in-demand and high-paying jobs without the need for postsecondary education.

Ayden Corbett, a 2022 graduate of the underground utility locating program, stands with his company truck.

“Young people are really wanting a variety of options for leading to viable, successful futures. That’s not necessarily a four-year degree,” said Rachel Rosen, senior research associate at the Center for Effective Career and Technical Education at MRDC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.

‘Employable in whatever they choose’

The underground utility graduation track at the Hinds Center is a slower version of the standard company training program, hosted inside a former sewing classroom that USIC equipped with a virtual reality system and a wall showing the typical utility connections on a home. The company also provides the two instructors, said Darrin Haynes, senior manager of career and technical education at USIC.

Students study the underground utility maps of Indiana cities like Westfield, where new home construction is booming, and learn to use the equipment that allows them to detect underground utility lines both through virtual reality and in the field. They spend part of the day at the center for career training, but also take traditional academic courses at their home high schools.

USIC has hired 14 of the 16 graduates of the Elwood program over two years, and fielded calls from its competitors looking to hire students as well, Haynes said. As of this year, students will also earn college credit at Indiana Tech upon completing the pathway.

One of the main draws of the track is the opportunity to start working during senior year, said Jacob Wright, another 2022 grad. Students who are at least 18 years old are paid the same rate as new hires to respond to calls to 811, the service that companies and homeowners are supposed to call before digging projects, according to Haynes.

“You get a job out of high school, a (company) truck second semester, and you get paid to take calls,” said Wright.

A hallway inside the Hinds Career Center in Elwood, Indiana, shows the 15 different career technical education paths offered to students.

Programs should connect to college and career

Several other local graduation pathways in Indiana offer students direct links to local companies, including the RV construction pathway at Wa-Nee Community schools, and a now-defunct aviation sheet metal pathway at Decatur schools.

The latter operated for a year before the pandemic created challenges for teaching and recruiting students, said Michael Gehrich, director of aviation at Vincennes University, which worked with Decatur schools on the pathway.

Like the utility locating program, the aviation pathway sought to expose students to a local industry that’s in need of workers, with a lower barrier to entry than existing dual credit aviation programs that require additional college education, Gehrich said.

Other similar programs can be found in New York City’s P-TECH schools, said Rosen, the researcher, which are six-year schools that partnered with companies to allow students to graduate with STEM skills, a high school diploma, and an associate’s degree.

Where vocational schools of the past contributed to inequity by directing low-income and students of color into low-wage jobs, modern career training can give students a window into their options, Rosen said.

“CTE in high school provides students an opportunity to explore what they don’t want to do as much as what they do want to do,” Rosen said. “We may see a failure because the student did not want to go into that field, but higher-resourced students have more opportunity to explore and make mistakes. If they wait till college to explore what they don’t like, there can be a real cost to doing that.”

The goal should be preparing students for a career with mobility, Rosen said.

Haynes said underground utility locating offers that mobility. Graduates can work for municipalities instead, move into management and training roles at USIC, or request to be relocated to another state.

The pathway opens a new option in a community where the college-going rate has dropped, said Haynes.

Darrin Haynes, senior manager of career and technical education at USIC, shows a training wall inside the Hinds Career Center classroom.

State data shows the rate for Madison County dropped 16 percentage points from 2015-2020, mirroring the state’s drop of 12 points in that time period.

Though no students have yet changed their minds about the senior-level course, Pearson said one advantage of the career center is that it has the flexibility to redirect students to one of its other career paths.

Plans to expand in Indiana and other states

Pearson said the Hinds center is open to working with other companies to develop local graduation pathways and meet workforce needs — but that they would need to work closely with educators on curriculum and standards.

The career center would aim to stay away from low-skill, low-pay tracks, but wouldn’t outright reject retail pathways, for example, if they led into supervision and management positions, Pearson said.

Haynes said that other companies interested in creating their own pipeline programs at local high schools need to commit to an upfront investment with a slow return. In addition to a workforce pipeline, one major benefit to USIC is that graduates have more time to absorb the training, and begin working with more experience, often making fewer mistakes than other new hires.

Haynes said the company isn’t working with students who are using Indiana’s new career scholarship accounts, which give students money to take career training outside of their schools. Those students could apply for a job with the company and take the training there, he siad.

A mural in Elwood is dedicated to Red Gold Tomatoes, a major manufacturer and employer in town.

The company plans to continue recruiting in high schools. Haynes said USIC has replicated the high school training program in Oklahoma and New York, and hopes to grow it further throughout Indiana and other states.

“Most of our graduates have moved out, have a place of their own. They start their lives in a way that we all dream of when we’re teenagers,” said Haynes. “We’re putting them on a pathway to do that.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Career-focused graduation pathway for English learners takes root in Perry Township

2023-09-07T19:10:06+00:00

For over a decade, Southport High School teacher Amy Peddie has led classes of students who are English language learners through the intricacies of getting ready for college, like filling out applications, finding financial aid, and writing personal essays.

This year, she’s teaching a class with a new emphasis: Getting ready for a career by writing cover letters, resumes, and professional emails. In a recent exercise, students contacted companies they were unfamiliar with to ask about job and training opportunities.

“One student said, ‘I thought this was an [English learner] class, but this feels like a work class,’” Peddie said.

Peddie’s course is part of a new graduation pathway for students who are learning to speak and read in English, where students can train for the workforce during high school and graduate with a job and a diploma in hand. It’s the first local graduation pathway in the state to specifically cater to English learner students who have limited English proficiency.

This pathway is part of a growing emphasis in Indiana and nationwide on preparing students for jobs without the necessity of a two- or four-year degree, as college-going rates have declined from several years ago and skilled trades face a worker shortage.

In Indiana, lawmakers have pushed to “reinvent high school” to make it more relevant to in-demand careers.

At Perry schools, which educate around 4,600 English learner students, the second largest population in the state, the pathway also gives students another way to meet Indiana’s graduation requirements and local hiring needs. Like the college-going class, it aims to help newly arrived students navigate a potentially unfamiliar process.

“If your choice is college, great, but if not, that’s not something to look down on,” said Southport Principal Amy Boone. “We want to have options and opportunities.”

Southport has around 600 students receiving English language services, Boone said, and district officials say they’re expecting a record enrollment this year of students who have recently relocated to the United States from other countries. In Indiana, this population grew 52% from 2017 to 2022.

The population is not only growing, but changing, Boone said: More students have arrived in recent years with less experience in formal education, both as a result of the pandemic and international conflict.

But once they enroll, they’re still required to meet Indiana graduation requirements that include demonstrating postsecondary skills. Students with extenuating circumstances could be granted a waiver, but this approach will be limited going forward under a state law passed this year.

If English learners are missing reading and writing skills in their first languages, a traditional career and technical education course may be inaccessible, even with the aid of translation, Boone said.

The new graduation pathway provides students who enrolled in U.S. schools in seventh grade or later a way to meet graduation requirements through classes on business math and personal financial responsibility, as well as internships and mock interviews. It’s also meant to help students develop their English proficiency through speech and English as a New Language classes.

In addition to being the first such local pathway for graduation in Indiana, Perry’s track for English learners is one of just two in the state that equips students with general career skills, rather than focusing on a specific trade or industry.

This year, an initial section of students piloting the pathway has already discussed what they hope to do after high school — answers that included working as barbers or cosmetologists.

Peddie said she hopes to take them on field trips to visit local salons and see that work up close. But she’d also like to introduce them to other industries, like manufacturing, where local companies are actively hiring.

Boone said the key to the program is to balance student interests with community needs.

Local staffing companies that already place the parents of Southport students in jobs are working with Perry schools on the new pathway.

The district itself could employ students to work on campus beautification projects, and then hire them after graduation knowing they have the required skills, Boone said. Southport High School, for example, recently hired a current student to work in the cafeteria.

“There’s been a pendulum shift,” Boone said. “We pushed for a long time on college, but there’s value in the trades, too.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana law on student names and pronouns leaves tough decisions to families and schools

2023-08-24T18:49:26+00:00

Uncertainty, a growing patchwork of policies, and virtual silence from state leaders have marked the rollout of an Indiana law requiring schools to disclose students’ requests to use new names and pronouns to their parents.

Under HEA 1608, which took effect for this school year, schools must notify at least one parent in writing if their student requests to change their name, pronoun, title, or other identifying word.

But there’s little guidance in the law or from state agencies about various issues, including how districts should notify parents. That vagueness has left students and educators on their own to figure things out.

At least one district is going beyond the law by requiring parental permission to use students’ new names — a mandate that was dropped from the original legislative proposal over concerns it might sow conflict within families. But leaders of another district who oppose the law said it has spurred them to enhance protections from harassment for students who identify as LGBTQIA+.

Different policies could leave parents unhappy regardless of what’s tried. For example, some parents might argue their districts aren’t doing enough to ensure they know about students’ requests, said Andy Downs, director emeritus of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics. Yet others, he said, might believe their districts are going overboard if they send letters, schedule meetings, and repeatedly follow up with families.

With transgender rights firmly in focus on the national political scene, local school leaders searching for the right approach could spark an uproar at already contentious school board meetings.

Still, some advocates do see a silver lining in the fragmented way the law is being carried out: a chance to shape, or even challenge, how it’s applied in their local schools.

“The right thing to do is to fight the mandate,” said Barbara Dennis, a volunteer with Kaleidoscope, a Bloomington-based and youth-led LGBTQ advocacy group whose members have discussed ways to subvert the law. “But we also need to survive the moment.”

What the new law on students’ pronouns does

HEA 1608 was one of several laws Indiana legislators passed this year aimed at restricting how and when transgender youth could transition socially and medically. Proponents say it gives parents more information about their children at school — part of an argument for increased parental oversight in education that has swept conservative states.

“We’re going to fight for the right of parents to handle the upbringing of their children,” said Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita at a recent press conference in reference to such laws.

But opponents of the new law said outing transgender students to their parents could put some at risk of physical harm or homelessness if their families aren’t supportive. (The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana challenged HEA 1608 in court by focusing on another aspect of the law that prohibits teaching human sexuality in grades K-3.)

The law does not prescribe details like what a written notification to parents about their students’ name requests should contain, nor whether schools are required to send follow-up notices.

By contrast, another law passed this year on student surveys specifies that schools should send parents two notifications before they can administer certain surveys, that the notifications can be electronic, and that each should summarize the content of the survey in question.

The Indiana Department of Education does not plan to issue guidance on how schools should implement HEA 1608. A spokesperson said implementing the law “comes down to a local decision by the school districts.”

The department did provide guidance on a dozen or so other laws from the 2023 legislative session.

Rep. Michelle Davis, a Whiteland Republican and author of the law on student pronouns, declined to comment on how she intended it to be enforced, citing the ongoing litigation.

Downs said that some laws are written to offer as many details as possible in order to remove any doubt about compliance, while others offer leeway to the people who have to implement them.

If there are enough complaints about the law’s lack of clarity, legislators will likely take notice, Downs said.

“They may pay an awful lot of attention if constituents say they weren’t informed properly,” he said. “They may say, ‘Ok you had your chance, schools, to do this properly and you did not. So now we will.’”

Downs said that ideally, legislators would see how HEA 1608 affects schools and students, before considering whether to expand it. He also noted that some issues fade from the public eye over time, and that schools sometimes keep procedures on the books without enforcing them.

But given the emotionally charged debate around the topic, Downs said it’s most likely that legislators will revisit HEA 1608 soon.

Becoming ‘better parents for LGBTQ kids’

Speaking at a Monroe County school board meeting Tuesday night, a student told board members that they considered submitting a name change request every day in order to “maliciously comply” with the law — but reconsidered after realizing the burden it would create for teachers.

“The school board should be the ones fighting for us students,” the student said. “I shouldn’t have to fight for the right to my name.”

Dennis, the Kaleidoscope volunteer, also said it’s ultimately up to school districts to file lawsuits challenging the enforcement of the law. Complying puts youth at risk, and damages schools’ ability to support students.

“A main tactic in bullying is pointing at kids and telling them who they are,” Dennis said. “Under this law, educators will be forced to enact bullying.”

The student at the Monroe meeting addressed a board that previously criticized the law in strong terms. In March, board members approved a resolution condemning HEA 1608 and stating that the district would work on a policy that prohibits the bullying or harassment of LGBTQIA+ students.

In an August statement, the district described the law as “Trojan horse legislation,” but said its schools will comply and notify parents. It will also communicate the new requirement to students and families, according to the statement.

Work on an anti-harassment policy will continue through a series of community engagement meetings this fall, the district said. Monroe district leaders also said in its August statement they’re “confident that the new state legislation does not prevent the important work related to our local resolution to support more fully our LGBTQIA+ population. As a matter of fact, with legislation, such as Indiana HEA 1608, this work is more important than ever.”

Other districts have already announced their approaches for notifying parents. Many are designating one person at each school to notify families of their students’ requests, or having their counseling staff do the job. Some are relying on their student information portals; others are sending written notifications encouraging parents to ask questions.

Hamilton Southeastern schools — which last year elected a slate of candidates running on a parental rights platform — has gone a step beyond the law and will require approval from a parent or guardian before the district will use a student’s requested name.

“Hamilton Southeastern Schools has no desire to make student name changes to which a parent objects,” a statement from the district said, adding that federal and state law require parents and schools “to work collaboratively.”

The student members of Kaleidoscope have brainstormed other ways to push back against the law without violating it, like by using class nicknames, placards, or last names instead of students’ legal first names. But some of these approaches wouldn’t allow students to publicly claim their own identity, said Dennis.

Working under the confines of the law, districts could also interpret the mandate to “notify” parents to mean setting up a conference between schools and parents to discuss their students’ requests and how best to support them.

“If the goal is to be better parents, maybe we can take this as an educational moment to become better parents for LGBTQ kids, and foster areas where kids feel safer,” she said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Half of Indiana high schoolers feel hopeless. So why is mental health care controversial?

2023-08-09T11:00:00+00:00

This article was originally published by WFYI.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call, text or chat with the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.

Wendy Dodds is pretty sure she was anxious in eighth grade. But the pandemic made her anxiety and depression a lot worse.

Suddenly, she had to join dance classes and 4-H camp by video from her bedroom. She started high school in Indianapolis remotely.

“I tried to, like, convince myself that these feelings are normal and everybody is, like, feeling these feelings right now,” Dodds said. “It’s fine. It’ll subside at some point.”

But her feelings didn’t subside. That winter, Dodds told her parents she couldn’t take it anymore. She felt suicidal.

Mental health needs are at a peak among U.S. children and teens. A 2021 national survey found that nearly half of Indiana high schoolers felt persistently sad or hopeless — the highest rate in two decades of surveys. The same survey found that three out of every 10 Indiana students said they had considered suicide.

Dodds found help at her high school, where she started to meet with a counselor to talk about her anxiety.

Wendy Dodds went to see a counselor at her school when she was feeling depressed and anxious.

“It brought me back into reality, basically, instead of keeping me locked into my own mind,” said Dodds, who graduated high school this year.

Yet despite the growing need, the kind of mental health support Dodds found at school is facing an onslaught of criticism from conservative parent activists. They say schools should focus on academic instruction. And they caution that mental health care and social and emotional learning may promote ideas that conflict with parents’ values.

“A small but loud and politically savvy group of — and it’s not just of parents, it’s really of political activists — are hijacking and spreading a lot of misinformation about mental health and social emotional learning in schools and really leveraging people’s fear,” said Sharon Hoover, co-director of the National Center for School Mental Health.

Hoover said district and state education officials are under attack. She worries outside pressure is pushing them to make decisions that will set back student mental health support “at a time where we know that young people are suffering more than ever.”

Student mental health in national spotlight

President Joe Biden has called for more mental health support in schools. National legislation aimed at preventing gun violence included $1 billion in funding over five years for schools to support student mental health.

By contrast, the controversial Florida-based group Moms for Liberty recently proclaimed mental health support has no place in public schools. The group is influential, with chapters in Indiana and most states. Five candidates running for the GOP presidential nomination, including former President Donald Trump, spoke at the national meeting.

Mental health support often goes hand-in-hand with social and emotional learning, an approach that aims to help students with skills such as managing their emotions and feeling empathy for others. Social and emotional learning is a target of right-wing politicians across the country.

In Indiana, Republican legislators passed a law this year that restricts districts’ ability to survey students about their mental and emotional well-being. And Indiana’s Attorney General Todd Rokita criticized social and emotional learning in the latest version of a document he calls the “Parents’ Bill of Rights.”

Rokita argued those programs “represent a fundamental shift in the role of teachers from educators to therapists and expand the reach of government into domains of the family.”

The Indiana Department of Education, meanwhile, quietly moved resources from a page about social, emotional and behavioral wellness off its public website — including the state’s Social Emotional Learning Toolkit. The toolkit and other materials are now posted on a portal for educators that requires users to login and enter an enrollment key.

Spokeswoman Christina Molinari said the education department overhauled the website and moved it to the state’s web host when Secretary of Education Katie Jenner took office in 2021. Molinari said the department uses other tools, such as the portal for educators, to provide resources.

“We had received feedback that finding information on the website could be challenging,” said Molinari, who added that the old website contained thousands of web pages, documents, and links.

“We sought to build a more user-friendly website while also aligning the site’s format to that of our executive branch partners’ websites and focusing on the department’s strategic priorities,” she added.

Education topics that are less polarized, such as literacy, have robust, publicly accessible pages on the current site.

Some advocates say the removal of social and emotional learning is a response to right wing attacks.

“The DOE website was full of these resources and lots of people had access to them,” said Sandy Washburn, a research scholar at Indiana University. “When the politicization of these issues started coming up, the department removed everything.”

Avon Community Schools uses social and emotional learning games to help students.

District nearly turns down mental health grant

The kind of mental health support Indiana schools offer is primarily up to local districts, where it has faced some scrutiny.

In suburban Indianapolis, the political controversy came to a head last winter after conservative candidates took control of the Hamilton Southeastern School Board.

The district won a $5.8 million federal grant to pay for counselors, social workers and psychologists. But some residents and conservative board members weren’t sure the schools should take the money.

At a February meeting, speaker Shannon Fields told the board she supports counseling and mental health care in schools. But, she said, it should not be embedded in classrooms.

“I urge the board to resist mission creep expanding the schools into areas beyond the core focus on education,” Fields said.

Conservative board members picked apart the grant application.

“I think a lot of people have reservations with what they’ve seen in the past as far as a school overstepping its boundaries,” said Ben Orr, who won a seat last year after campaigning on parental involvement and academic excellence.

“What kind of guardrails do we have where this thing keeps it close to counseling, therapy, mental health screenings for an academic standpoint as it relates directly to school?” Orr asked.

Most of the speakers who filled the room, however, supported mental health care. Lyndee Kennett, and others, were there to tell the board about why students need help.

Kennett’s daughter is a student in Hamilton Southeastern with anxiety. Last school year, Kennett asked the school for help, she told WFYI, and her daughter started meeting with a social worker.

“I think the school and parents are kind of in it together, because that’s where our children are most days,” said Kennett, who was surprised at the fight over the federal grant money.

“When I was told about what was happening — that the school board was thinking about turning down the money — that just broke my heart,” she said.

Hamilton Southeastern took the federal aid. The board put out a statement in “strong support” of the grant, and Orr posted a Facebook note about his support.

A month later, however, the Hamilton Southeastern board abruptly ended its contract for a student survey the district used to assess wellness. Board members had pressed the administration about who had access to survey responses from individual students. The same company — Panorama Education — was also mentioned when legislators passed a law to curtail student surveys this year.

How schools aim to help students

Many Indiana school systems have invested in mental health support in recent years, hiring more counselors and social workers as well as developing districtwide plans for social and emotional learning. Between 2017 and 2021, the number of school social workers in Indiana rose by over 20%, according to data from the Indiana Department of Education.

In part, those investments were driven by federal grants, such as the Project AWARE mental health initiative, and local philanthropic funding for counseling from the Lilly Endowment.

Avon Community Schools, another suburban Indianapolis district, got funding from both those sources. Avon students can get therapy at school through Cummins Behavioral Health Systems. And the district has social workers on staff who lead small groups and meet with children one-on-one.

Before students get those services, though, a parent or guardian needs to give consent, said Krista Fay, the district’s School Counseling and Mental Wellness Coordinator.

Staff talk to parents about what is going on with their children and the services the school offers. “Families and kids are always in the driver’s seat,” Fay said.

Avon educators met Tuesday, May 30, 2023, at Cedar Elementary School to prepare for the school year.

In practice, a lot of social emotional learning is uncontroversial. Like the calming technique “star breathing.” It has a simple rhythm. Students breath in and out slowly as they trace the shape of a star.

“The power is in the out breath,” Fay said. “That’s where that change in your heart rate and your blood pressure comes, is in that out breath.”

Fay’s heard from parents who are upset about the school’s wellness and mental support. She knows some of what they do is at the center of political attacks. But she thinks it’s essential for students to thrive.

“If you’re coming in and your anxiety is overwhelming you, if your chest is so tight that you can’t breathe, if your thoughts are racing, how are you going to be available to hear that instruction?” Fay asked. “If you are not regulated, how are you going to learn?”

Contact WFYI education reporter Dylan Peers McCoy at dmccoy@wfyi.org.

COVID aid ends, science of reading, vouchers: 5 things to watch as Indiana’s school year begins

2023-07-25T11:00:00+00:00

The first Indiana school districts head back to school this week amid a spate of new laws and policies that will affect what happens in the classroom.

Recovering from the pandemic’s effects on student performance remains a top priority for schools, as state testing scores indicate that learning has stagnated. But new laws will also expand schools’ focus beyond postsecondary education, and more toward career exploration.

For younger students, Indiana is prioritizing reading instruction through new laws requiring curriculum and teacher training based on the science of reading, an approach to literacy that emphasizes phonics, fluency, and other principles.. Meanwhile, for middle and high schoolers, preparation for postsecondary life is the priority, with new funds earmarked for workforce training.

Public schools are also grappling with the potential impacts of an expanded voucher program, as well as laws aimed at students’ identities and school library books.

Here are five things to watch for as the school year begins.

New standards and approaches to reading

Fresh off the latest statewide testing results showing a decline in students’ reading proficiency, Indiana is continuing a push to make sure schools teach reading through evidence-based practices known as the science of reading. Several new laws and policies will shape how students learn to read this year.

Districts will be evaluating their reading curriculum materials this year to ensure they’re in line with the science of reading practices. They must adopt an approved curriculum by the 2024-25 school year.

Literacy coaches will be coming to schools where fewer than 70% of students passed the state reading assessment, as well as schools that opt in to the Indiana Department of Education’s initiative to place more of these coaches in schools.

Meanwhile, new standards in four core subjects adopted in June will also streamline what students must learn in each grade level. Officials hope this move will allow teachers to focus on the most essential skills in their lessons.

A push toward college and career

While literacy is the emphasis for younger students, middle and high schoolers will see several new initiatives aimed at preparing them for postsecondary training.

All high school seniors will have to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid next spring due to a new law meant to increase Indiana’s college-going rate.

High schoolers will also have access to the state’s new career scholarship accounts, which provide grants for workforce training that they can use outside of traditional high school programs. As part of that new law, students will also attend career fairs throughout the year.

Eligible middle school students, meanwhile, will be automatically enrolled in the 21st Century Scholars program, which covers tuition and fees at an in-state college or university.

A near-universal choice program

Indiana opened its private school voucher program to nearly all students during this year’s legislative session, offering public funding for students to attend private schools and potentially leading to major changes in the state’s enrollment landscape.

It’s not immediately clear how many more students will participate in the program, or whether new participants will primarily be students who are already enrolled in private schools. But declines in enrollment at public schools could create instability in district budgets and affect the students who remain.

The approaching end of ESSER spending

Districts are facing final deadlines to commit the second and third rounds of federal COVID funding — known as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, or ESSER — in September 2023 and September 2024, respectively.

With Indiana no longer allowed to charge families for textbooks and devices, some districts could use federal funds to provide these course materials. Conversely, districts that relied on federal funding for long-term costs like staffing may face a crunch as they figure out how to fold those positions into their budgets.

The state education department’s spending tracker shows that the state has reimbursed schools for around 84% of ESSER II dollars and 46% of ESSER III dollars as of July 17, though these figures don’t represent schools’ expenditures in real time.

The effects of laws aimed at students’ identity

The Indiana legislature this year passed several laws that seek to control how sex and gender are discussed and dealt with in schools.

Among them is a requirement for schools to notify parents if their children request to change their names or pronouns, passed over LGBTQ advocates’ concerns that it could put youth at risk at home. The law also bans sex education lessons in preschool to third grade.

Districts will also grapple with a law that requires them to publish their library catalogs and create procedures for parents and others to request the removal of books. Supporters of the law said it was meant to keep obscene material out of kids’ hands, while librarians said such material isn’t in their libraries to begin with.

If you are having trouble viewing this form, go here.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana families will no longer be charged textbooks fees. Here’s what to expect.

2023-07-05T11:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools and statewide education news.

For years, a small district of 1,100 students just east of Indianapolis aimed to ditch the fees that had created barriers for students and burdens for their families.

But officials at Charles A. Beard Memorial schools knew if they took on the costs, they’d have to sustain them long term, said Superintendent Jediah Behny. So they started small — first eliminating entrance fees for students to school sports events — before eventually dropping the fees for textbooks and materials in 2020.

“We wanted to eliminate the likelihood that some kids were getting something that others weren’t,” Behny said.

Beginning this school year, after a law passed in the 2023 legislative session, all Indiana schools will be required to follow the district’s example and stop charging families for curricular materials, including textbooks, iPads, and Chromebooks.

The change, championed by Gov. Eric Holcomb, is meant to lighten the load on Hoosier families, who reported paying hundreds of dollars every year for their students’ course materials. Indiana had been among the last handful of states that still allowed schools to charge these fees.

The law provides $160 million for curricular materials, but a per-student amount has yet to be determined, Indiana Department of Education officials said. The department will calculate this number by dividing the total amount that all schools report for curriculum costs by how many students are enrolled at each public school, and how many qualify based on socioeconomic status at each private school.

Education advocates agree the change benefits families, but say the state must support schools with the financial burden.

With a new school year rapidly approaching, they say more guidance is needed on how much schools will receive to make purchasing decisions and also on what counts as curricular materials under the new law, which broadly includes books, computer software, digital content, and hardware that will be consumed by a student over the course of a year.

Only time will tell if the total allocation is sufficient, said Denny Costerison of the Indiana Association of School Business Officials. It’ll be up to the General Assembly to increase the funding if necessary, which likely won’t happen until the next biennial budget session in 2025.

Schools will receive funding as a lump sum in December, according to an FAQ issued by the department.

“Textbooks don’t get cheaper, they get more expensive,” said Terry Spradlin of the Indiana School Boards Association. He noted that when Indiana first considered dropping textbook fees in the 1990s, the cost estimate was around $100 million.

The state already covers the cost of textbooks for students who qualify for free and reduced priced meals at a cost of around $39 million per year.

For all students, a per-pupil figure of about $162 would likely cover most districts’ elementary and middle school costs, said Spradlin, but fall far short of the costs for high school courses. Spradlin said that example amount came from an IDOE memo, but the department didn’t confirm.

Any excess from the lower grades could be used to pay for secondary school courses, but schools may also need to turn to their education fund dollars to cover shortages, he said. Federal emergency dollars are also an option, albeit one that expires in September 2024.

It’s important to remember that general funds must also cover the bulk of schools’ operating and personnel costs, said Keith Gambill of the Indiana State Teachers Association.

“You need to be able to provide the funding they need to operate and make sure those programs are fully realized without jeopardizing important items, which includes salaries,” Gambill said. “That’s where things can get tricky, especially for schools on a leaner budget.”

According to the FAQ, curricular materials include materials in advanced placement, dual credit, and career technical education courses, but not dual enrollment courses. Schools are allowed to charge families for lost or damaged items, and can offer insurance for technology.

Some additional guidance might be needed for items like parking passes and student identification cards, said Spradlin, as well as for co-curricular programs. Performing arts, for example, can include a variety of costs for instruments and their upkeep, as well as attire and transportation to school events.

If the course is required, or if students receive a grade for it, then it’s likely considered a course that schools can’t charge for, said Costerison. The education department’s FAQ directs schools to consult with their legal counsel for further questions about what counts as curricular material.

Charles A. Beard Memorial schools will be able to offer fee-free music programs to students this year after building a stock of instruments over the last several years, said Behny, the superintendent.

He said the new law will provide the final nudge for the district to drop the last of its fees for its cooperative programs, but added that the new funding alone may not be enough for districts just starting to eliminate fees.

Covering textbook fees cost his district around $87,000 in the first year of the program. This year, they spent around $110,000 to cover fees for 1,100 students, money saved through attrition and watching supply costs.

“It was much easier to do than I thought it would be,” he said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana charter schools could now have an easier path to acquiring district buildings

2023-06-11T12:00:00+00:00

A change to state law this year could make it easier for Indiana’s charter schools to acquire buildings from school districts by targeting those that are losing students and have schools that are nearly half empty.

The change means that the Indiana Department of Education can now force school districts that have lost at least 10% of their enrollment in the past five years to close schools that have been operating at less than 60% capacity and sell or lease them to charter schools for $1.

Lawmakers approved the revision to the state’s so-called “$1 law,” which has been on the books for years and requires school districts to make certain buildings previously used for classroom instruction available to charter schools at next to no cost. It’s the state’s latest attempt to provide help for charter schools that frequently have problems finding buildings to use. But some charters might not have much time to take advantage of it.

The previous version of the law, which deemed “vacant” or “unused” classroom buildings available for purchase, largely did not prove successful for charters. School districts argued that they were still using or planning to use the buildings they had closed for instruction. The attorney general’s office ruled in favor of districts eight out of the nine times it investigated allegations that districts were violating the $1 law.

The new version of the law targets districts with declining enrollment like the South Bend Community School Corporation and Indianapolis Public Schools, which had an average building utilization rate of 60% in 2021-22.

It’s unclear how many charter schools may take advantage of the new law, or how districts will respond. IPS, for example, said in a statement that it’s still examining the new law to understand its impact.

Republican Sen. Linda Rogers, who wrote the language in Senate Enrolled Act 391 that changed the $1 law, said she believes the change will bolster fiscal responsibility.

“Trying to be understanding and create a balance between traditional publics and charter schools is my goal,” she said. “The taxpayers paid for these buildings to educate the community’s children.”

Districts with declining enrollments must also review the utilization rates of their buildings and share it with the state department of education annually. Charter schools must work with districts to try to reach a deal to acquire or lease a building.

Buildings targeted for closure must meet certain criteria

Schools that could be closed by the Indiana Department of Education and made available for charters to buy or lease for $1 under a revised state law must first meet a number of criteria to be classified as underutilized.

Eligible buildings must be located in a school district that has lost at least 10% of its population in the past five years that also has more than one building serving the same grade level as the school targeted for closure.
Eligible buildings must have previously been used for classroom instruction.
Eligible buildings must have operated with an average capacity of less than 60% for the current school year and the past two school years. If the building’s capacity is unknown, it is determined by the average maximum full-time equivalent enrollment in any of the last 25 years.
Districts must have another school building with sufficient capacity to take students in from the closing building that is no more than 20 minutes away by car from the school slated to close.

Districts can still claim that a building is in use and exempt from closure if:

They use at least 30% of the building’s capacity for a special student population, such as those in an alternative education program.
They use at least 50% of the square footage of the building for office space, so long as the cost is not more than other available office space in the district.
They use at least 50% of the square footage for storage, so long as the cost is lower than other available storage space in the district.
They use at least 50% of the square footage for a combination of office space and storage that does not cost more than other space available for such uses.

Source: Indiana Senate Enrolled Act 391

If they can’t reach a deal within 45 days, a charter school can petition the department to determine whether the building meets the criteria for closure. The department can order a school to close, and if needed, the department can request the attorney general to enforce the order to close the school.

Rogers, however, noted that the department can consider a school’s unique circumstances when deciding whether it must be sold or leased.

The department could soon release guidance to school districts about the revised law’s impact.

However, school districts that share revenue from property tax increases for operating or safety costs, which voters would pass through a ballot question, are also exempt from the law.

That exemption could significantly reduce the impact of the new $1 law in Lake, Marion, St. Joseph, and Vanderburgh counties. That’s because, under a separate change to state law enacted this year, districts in those counties must share such tax revenues from future ballot questions.

All of that means charters in these four counties might have a limited window of time to acquire underused buildings. In other words, once a district with declining enrollment in those counties gets a ballot measure passed for operating or safety costs, they’ll no longer have to make underused buildings available to charters under the $1 law.

In January, the IPS school board tabled its plan to ask voters for a tax increase this year to fund its Rebuilding Stronger revitalization plan for academics and grade reconfigurations. It remains to be seen if IPS will revive that plan.

Districts like IPS and South Bend aren’t the only ones that could be affected by the new $1 law.

Elkhart Community Schools in Elkhart County, for example, has lost 12% of its student population from 2018 to 2023, according to state data. And Brown County School Corporation has lost 17% of its enrollment from 2018 to 2023. Now, those districts will be required to report the usage rates of each of their buildings, information that charters looking for space could find useful.

Charter schools, districts examine new law

Charter schools aren’t necessarily leaping at the change to try to take control of buildings under the new $1 law.

Tommy Reddicks, the CEO of Paramount Schools, which has three locations in Indianapolis and is opening another in South Bend in a former district elementary school building, said the charter network does not have an interest in taking advantage of the new law just yet.

“We’ll likely keep an eye on it and see how it is utilized in the coming years,” Reddicks said in an email.

Rafi Nolan-Abrahamian, chief of staff for South Bend Community Schools, said the district has six or seven buildings that may fall under the law’s definition of underutilized. But South Bend, like IPS, is undergoing a massive reorganization to address a loss of enrollment that he said will close some schools but lead others to operate at closer to full capacity.

He said he doesn’t expect the new law to result in any forced closures. Instead, he said, the new law — and the requirement for South Bend to share future referendum dollars with charter schools — could foster increased collaboration between the district and charters.

“Should the district pursue another referendum after the expiration of our current operating referendum, we’re certainly hopeful that we can work together with other public schools in the area,” he said.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Marion County schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Reported graduation rates for Indiana schools could dip after change to state law

2023-06-06T12:00:00+00:00

Schools across Indiana could see a dip in their reported graduation rates after a change to state law requiring districts to limit the portion of students who graduate with waivers from the calculation.

Students who graduate with a waiver — an exemption from certain graduation requirements — can account for no more than 9% of the total graduating class in reported graduation rates for the 2023-24 school year. That percentage declines to 6% in 2024-25 and 3% for each year after.

The changes could have a large effect on publicized graduation rates, which are often used as a measure of success for school leaders and can be a key metric parents use to determine the quality of their child’s education. In Marion County schools, the 84.2% graduation rate for the 2021 student cohort dips to 73.1% when students with waivers are excluded, according to an analysis of state data by the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation.

Beginning with the Class of 2023, students in Indiana must choose from one of several graduation pathways to graduate, and also must pass a competency requirement of some sort. Prior to that class, districts could choose whether to offer the new graduation pathways requirements or offer old graduation requirements, which included passing the old ISTEP state exam.

But state law allows schools to grant graduation waivers to students who try but fail to pass the competency requirement, which can include the SAT, ACT, and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery Test (ASVAB) used for entrance into the military. Those districts that operated under the old graduation requirements could also issue waivers to students who tried but failed to pass the ISTEP test for 10th graders.

The change to the law does not restrict the number of waivers districts can grant. Instead, proponents argue, it will add transparency to graduation rates that they said were previously inflated.

“My hope is that greater transparency into the number of students who are graduating from high school with a high school diploma will lead to productive dialogue between parents, school principals, school superintendents, policymakers and others to improve not only our high school school graduation rate, but the number of students that are entering into postsecondary education,” said Jason Kloth, president and CEO of Ascend Indiana. The waiver recommendation was part of a report Ascend Indiana conducted with Business Equity for Indy.

School leaders argue that waivers are a valuable tool for students facing extenuating circumstances, such as those who transfer into a new school for their junior or senior year.

“When you as a school have a new student who starts in their senior year with you, and … they don’t already have those pathways, it’s certainly a challenge,” Samantha Goldsmith, principal of the online Hoosier College and Career Academy charter school, previously told us. “And our goal is to help them graduate.”

In Marion County, schools with the highest percentage of waiver graduates for the 2022 student cohort included Ben Davis High School in the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township, the Phalen Virtual Leadership Academy charter school, and the GEO Next Generation Academy charter school.

At Ben Davis High School, roughly 31% of the 2022 cohort graduated with waivers, or nearly 37% of the 863 students who graduated, according to state data. If the new law had gone into effect last year, it would have meant the school could only count 77 of its 317 waiver graduates in its 2022 graduation rate.

The Wayne school district did not respond to a request for comment about the new law’s impact.

The law, House Enrolled Act 1635, also requires students who use the ASVAB as a competency requirement to submit documentation that demonstrates their intent to enlist in the military.

That change was also prompted by concerns that too many students are using the test as an easier way to graduate — without actually intending to enroll in the military. Just 2% of Indiana students who took the ASVAB from August 2022 to February 2023 tried to use their score for military consideration, according to data from the Indianapolis Military Entrance Processing Station.

The score required to pass the ASVAB as a graduation requirement is set at 31, which is lower than what some branches of the military require if military candidates do not have a high school diploma. The State Board of Education voted in April to maintain that score.

Correction, June 6, 2023: A previous version of this story included an incorrect description of the Ascend Indiana group. Ascend Indiana is a separate entity from Business Equity for Indy.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Marion County schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana school librarians worry new law banning ‘obscene’ books will harm their work and students

2023-06-05T12:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Indianapolis Public Schools and statewide education news.

“Pornographer.”

That’s the insult Chad Heck remembers, hurled by the people behind him as he testified in the state legislature earlier this year.

Like other Indiana school librarians who spoke against legislation seeking to restrict school bookshelves this session, Heck tried to dispel the notion that he and his colleagues were peddlers of porn — and found himself part of the national culture wars that have pitted some parents who mistrust public education against school leaders and staff.

Ultimately, lawmakers passed a bill that forbids books deemed “obscene” or “harmful to minors” on school library shelves, following hours of heated public comment. House Enrolled Act 1447 also requires school districts to establish procedures to publish their school library catalogs, and to set up a process for a parent or community member to request removal of obscene or harmful material.

Now, Heck and other librarians with the Indiana Library Federation (ILF) who fought against the legislation are learning to live with the law, but they are still trying to clarify misconceptions about it. They stress that the law is not an outright book ban. They also say many districts already post their catalogs online, and already have procedures for challenging books.

School librarians say that contrary to what some might think, they don’t have obscene or harmful material in their collections. Instead, they worry the law will create what amounts to self-censorship among school librarians — who for the past few years have been the target of public scorn and scrutiny over what, exactly, is on their shelves.

“It contributes to this culture of fear that many librarians are operating under, which does have a chilling effect on our collections,” said Heck, the advocacy co-chair of ILF, which has a subgroup known as the Association of Indiana School Library Educators (AISLE). “And I’m concerned about this.”

In his office, Republican Sen. Jim Tomes — who has tried to pass some version of the new law for years — keeps six books he says are examples of pornography in schools. These include “This Book Is Gay” and “Gender Queer,” both of which are among the top 13 most challenged books in the country, according to the American Library Association. Parents across the state, he said, have reported to him that they’ve found these books in school libraries.

Some of the books offer advice for young LGBTQ adults navigating their sexuality, or serve as a sexual education guide for teens. But Tomes, who co-authored a variation of the bill language that eventually became law, says they show that school libraries have a problem.

“This was raw, 100 percent pornography,” he said. “The wording, the stories, and also the pictures in the books, the illustrations. If this is not pornography, then I don’t know what you could call it.”

Backlash against libraries is worst some have seen

Censorship battles in schools have existed for decades and have origins on the political left and right, librarians say.

How Indiana law defines material school libraries must remove

House Enrolled Act 1447 requires schools to remove library books and other materials that are “obscene” or “harmful to minors.” A key element of the law is how it defines those terms.

Here’s how the law defines obscene material:

“1) the average person, applying contemporary community standards, finds that the dominant theme of the matter or performance, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest in sex;

2) the matter or performance depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct; and

3) the matter or performance, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

Here’s how the law defines material that’s harmful to minors:

“(1) it describes or represents, in any form, nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or sado-masochistic abuse;

2) considered as a whole, it appeals to the prurient interest in sex of minors;

3) it is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable matter for or performance before minors; and

4) considered as a whole, it lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.”

Source: Indiana Code 35-49-2-1 and 35-49-2-2

But school librarians say they’ve seen an increase in concerns over what’s on their shelves in the past three years, as mistrust of public schools grew in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. And some say the anger they’re facing now is the worst pushback against their profession they’ve ever seen.

The outrage has come from groups such as the Indiana chapter of Purple for Parents, which rails against the dangers of social-emotional learning and critical race theory in the classroom. Like Tomes, Purple for Parents insists that there is porn in Indiana schools.

An Indiana version of the “Mary in the Library” Facebook page, which features passages from what it deems to be “naughty children’s books,” has also escalated the controversy surrounding the issue.

But just as those inflammatory social media posts don’t necessarily tell the whole story, Heck said that people involved in discussions of the new law would “just point out one passage in a book” while missing important context.

While the new law prohibits schools from providing students with material deemed “obscene” or “harmful to minors,” it also requires that the material in question lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. In addition, the material must be considered as a whole by readers.

Some school librarians say they don’t have materials in their libraries that meet the statutory definitions of material that libraries must pull from their shelves. And the books in Tomes’ office illustrate how differently both sides view the content.

With the exception of one book he was not familiar with — “Dead End” by Jason Myers — Heck argued that none of the books Tomes kept in his office would fit the statutory definition of obscene or harmful to minors.

Among those books, “Let’s Talk About It” is a guide for teens on sex and relationships that has depictions of sexual organs and sex. “This Book Is Gay” bills itself as an instruction manual for young adults trying to understand their sexuality and “what it’s like to grow up LGBTQIA+.”

And “Gender Queer” is a memoir about the author’s journey in identifying as nonbinary and asexual, described on its back cover as a “much-needed, useful, and touching guide.”

Tomes argued that such books are so inappropriate that he refuses to keep them in his house. But Heck countered that those books do so much more than appeal to an interest in sex, and must be read in their entirety to appreciate their intention. They discuss common issues LGBTQ people face, he said.

Librarians also argue that the process of adding materials to their collection requires careful consideration that includes consulting professional sources, like Kirkus Reviews and School Library Journal, to determine what is age-appropriate.

“There’s a lot of thought and effort and time put into having the books in the collection,” said Diane Rogers, vice president of the Indiana Library Federation who’s a librarian at the Ben Davis Ninth Grade Center in the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township. “I don’t purchase books on a whim, just like I won’t remove books on a whim.”

But as challenges to books and school libraries have intensified, critics of laws like Indiana’s have worried that groups will target books serving underserved communities — such as LGBTQ youth — for censorship or restrictions, increasing those students’ feeling of isolation.

“Right now, I am more concerned about librarians removing materials that meet the needs of our communities because they’re worried about backlash, or worried about being personally attacked,” Heck said. “And that is having a huge impact on libraries in our state.”

These books in the office of Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville, are some of the books that Tomes called pornographic. But librarians argue the content in books must be considered as a whole.

And even though the text of the law targets books that lack artistic or other merits, the prospect of ongoing and intense arguments over what is actually “obscene” or “harmful to minors” has some librarians worried that their colleagues may start preemptively pulling material from their shelves just to avoid a fight.

“There are people who are asking themselves: Is it worth it for me?” said Rogers. “There’s librarians who are asking questions because their administration is coming to them and asking them to pull certain titles, you know, usually in an abundance of caution.”

Librarian leaders hope focus can return to kids

Just how much the law will change school districts’ handling of book challenges may vary when it takes effect Jan. 1.

In Marion County, at least three of the 11 school districts told Chalkbeat they already have some sort of procedure for challenging books or requesting that they be removed. Those include Wayne, Perry, and Indianapolis Public Schools.

The new law requires school districts to hear requests to remove materials during public school board meetings. At least six of the 11 Marion County districts told Chalkbeat that they did not receive any formal challenges to books in the past year.

Tomes did not say whether he had personally seen the books that he keeps in his office in schools; he stressed that parents reported to him that these books were in school libraries. He said it’s great that some school districts and librarians already comply with parts of the new law.

“I’m glad that they are already doing that,” he said. “Not everybody was.”

The law also tweaked the various defenses individuals can claim as protection from prosecution for disseminating material harmful to minors — classified as a felony under state law.

The new law removes the previous defenses that allowed sharing such material if it was done for an educational purpose or shared by a school. However, librarians with ILF and the Indiana State Library maintain that school employees can still claim a defense from prosecution under the law if they are acting within the scope of their employment.

“Whether or not this is intentional or will be changed in some sort of future clean-up action remains to be seen,” the Indiana State Library said in a legal memo it sent to school libraries in May.

As school districts statewide adapt to the new law, librarians with ILF are urging colleagues to lean on each other and embrace a collection method informed by research and professional book reviews.

Mainly, though, they hope the intense public scrutiny aimed at them in recent years will soon end.

“I’m hoping that this is just a storm that we’ll be able to weather, and it’ll pass,” said Emily Wilt, chair of the AISLE group. “And we’ll be able to turn our attentions and our energies more fully back toward the reasons we all got into this profession, which [is] serving our kids.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Marion County schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

Scholarships, FAFSA, and transcripts: Three new laws aim to help Hoosier students reach college

2023-05-15T20:15:27+00:00

With an eye to addressing Indiana’s low college-going rate and the perception that college is too expensive, Indiana leaders approved three new laws aimed at improving college access.

The new laws aim to strengthen a state scholarship program, provide more information about financial aid, and limit colleges’ power to withhold transcripts from those who still owe money to institutions.

In 2020, the most recent year for which data is available, the state’s college-going rate dropped to 53%, a decline of 12 percentage points from five years before. And there’s been a similar decline in adults who are looking for postsecondary opportunities, per the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

Improving college-going is about the “removal of barriers,” said Alison Bell, chancellor at Western Governors University Indiana. “There are a lot of complicated reasons why the college going rate is low.”

Plus, the state is coming up on its 2025 deadline to have at least 60% of Hoosiers with a credential beyond high school. When state leaders set that goal in 2009, that number was 33%, said Indiana Higher Education Commissioner Chris Lowery in his 2023 State of Higher Education address. It now sits at 54%, but that includes the addition of certificates that were not originally counted, according to the commission.

Higher education leaders and advocates for these bills stressed that finances are a particularly big barrier for students when they don’t know what’s available to them to help them pay for college.

Here what you need to know about three new laws:

21st Century Scholars program expands

The 21s Century Scholars program offers up to the equivalent of four years tuition and regular fees at an in-state public university or college to students who meet income and residency eligibility, and follow requirements outlined in a scholar pledge.

Previously, students had to sign up for the scholarship in middle school, before a no-exceptions deadline of June 30 after eighth grade.

But with the new law, eligible students will automatically become part of the program. After that, students and their families can decide if they want to continue to meet requirements to stay in it. State data showed that 48% of eligible students enrolled.

“It expedites the process,” said Vincent Isom, director of 21st Century Scholars at Indiana University Bloomington, referring to the new law. He said that students and their parents are no longer dependent on finding out about an application and submitting it.

Students required to seek out financial aid options

Indiana students, with some exceptions, are now required to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the FAFSA.

Advocates of the change said that millions of dollars in aid were being left on the table. Requiring the form would allow students to see their school funding options, they argued, and perhaps convince more students to enroll in postsecondary education.

The form is what students need to be considered for federal financial aid such as grants, loans, and scholarships. Completing the form is also considered a leading indicator of college-going.

States and colleges also use the FAFSA to determine eligibility for their respective aid programs.

Colleges can’t withhold transcripts

State and for-profit private colleges and universities can no longer refuse to provide transcripts to current or former students who still owe money — including fees and student loans — to the institution. They also can’t can’t charge a higher fee for the document for those who owe money.

This change removes a barrier for adult learners who want to finish their degrees, but still have payments to make. It often takes months for someone who is thinking about going back to school to make a decision, and not having access to a transcript can derail them, Bell said.

“When a student learns something, they’ve learned it,” said Bell, who advocated in favor of the change. “Withholding a transcript only removes the university’s verification that they’ve learned it.”

Improvements in college access, but more needed

While higher education experts agree these changes are a big step forward, they said that having the money to go to college is only one piece of access.

Access means having information and resources, not only as students are entering college, but also as a college student, said Maurice Shirley, an assistant professor in higher education and student affairs at IU.

He said that includes knowing things like what applications to fill out and where to find them, housing options, and what is needed for a major or to switch majors. And the information to students needs to be targeted and easy to find, said Shirley, given that there can be an information overload.

The change to automatically sign up students for 21st Century Scholars, the change isn’t a “magic wand,” Isom noted. But he said the new law will allow him and others to work with students to spend more time on benchmarks and staying successful in college, instead of on the scholarship application.

And the information to students needs to be targeted and direct, said Shirley who said there is information overload, so the easier it is to find answers to questions, the better.

Both Isom and Shirley agreed finances is an area that they want to see more improvement.

Isom said that students need to be prepared to handle their finances both during and after college.

Shirley said costs of college still need to be lower. One option is addressing tuition costs. But a second way, he said, is decreasing or providing aid for the fees that come with the tuition bill, from activity fees and housing to general living expenses like groceries, health care and so on, he said.

Gone are the days that a student could afford to pay their way through college by working a summer job and using that money during the school year, he added.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief and covers higher education. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat Indiana partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

More students, steeper costs: Indiana, South Carolina are latest states to vastly expand school vouchers

2023-05-10T16:24:57+00:00

On private school choice, more states are going big and bold.

In Indiana, the Republican-controlled legislature last month approved a massive expansion of the state’s voucher program, making nearly every student eligible to receive public money to attend private school. Just days later, South Carolina followed suit, creating a taxpayer-funded program to cover private school tuition and expenses for thousands of students.

They join four other Republican-led states — Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, and Utah — that have established or expanded private school choice programs just this year. Now, more than 30 states, plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, give students public money to attend private school — a number that could keep growing as state lawmakers push dozens more bills to subsidize the cost of private education.

But it isn’t just the number of bills that’s ballooning — it’s also their scope. Unlike past programs, which often targeted low-income families or students with disabilities, the newest ones are open to almost everyone and often allow parents to use the tax dollars for private school or home-school expenses.

Indiana’s newly expanded program is a prime example. Higher-income families can now participate, and students no longer must meet other need-based criteria. As a result, roughly 97% of students will now qualify for private school subsidies, and the state projects that participation could soar by nearly 42,000 additional students within two years.

Bigger programs mean steeper costs. In Indiana, the program’s price tag is expected to nearly double over the next two years.

Private school choice laws surged during the pandemic as conservative lawmakers seized on many parents’ frustration with school shutdowns and mask mandates. Republicans have also used “parents’ rights” rhetoric to justify the laws, arguing that they empower families who are dissatisfied with the public school system to opt out.

Critics have been alarmed by the wave of legislation, which they say deprives public schools of much-needed resources and could promote discrimination against LGBTQ students or those with disabilities, who have fewer protections in private schools, the majority of which are religious. Plus, experts said they wonder about the segregation that could occur among students when it comes to race, income levels, and academic ability.

But school choice advocates are celebrating the bills as the culmination of a decades-long campaign to give every student the option of a publicly funded private education.

“We hailed 2021 as the year of educational choice,” Robert Enlow, CEO of the Indianapolis-based EdChoice, a school choice advocacy group, said in a statement. “Now we are celebrating 2023 as the year of universal choice.”

As these programs proliferate, here’s what to know about eligibility and costs:

New school choice laws vastly expand voucher eligibility

The latest voucher programs are open to nearly every student.

The move toward universal eligibility reflects a sweeping new rationale for private school choice. Once pitched as a lifeline for students whose needs weren’t being met by traditional schools or whose families couldn’t afford private tuition, proponents increasingly argue that every parent should decide how to spend the tax dollars allotted for their children’s education.

It becomes a “universal entitlement program,” said Joseph Waddington, an associate professor at the University of Kentucky at College of Education and Martin School Public Policy and Administration. Rather than target the neediest students, he added, the new programs are “just putting the money in kids’ backpacks” and letting parents decide how to spend it.

John Elcesser, executive director of the Indiana Non-Public Education Association, argued that the shift is part of a “re-thinking of how we fund education in general.”

“For the first time in the history of American education policy, states are embracing the ‘money follows the child’ model of education funding that has long been the dream of parental-choice advocates,” Nicole Stelle Garnett and Richard W. Garnett wrote in an article in the right-leaning City Journal this year.

Arizona put this new philosophy into practice last year when it made every parent eligible to receive about $7,000 in state funds, or 90% of the cost to educate a student without disabilities in a public school, to use for private school tuition, tutoring, or homeschooling.

This year, six more states made all or most students eligible to attend private school at taxpayer expense. (West Virginia established a near-universal program in 2021.)

In Indiana, a family of four with an income of up to $220,000 now will qualify for taxpayer-funded tuition assistance. Lawmakers also eliminated other restrictions, including rules that voucher recipients have a disability or are in foster care.

But it’s hard to say if the voucher expansion will lead to large numbers of new students enrolling in private schools. In both Iowa and Indiana, analysts expect that nearly 90% of voucher recipients will be current private school students or kindergarteners entering private school.

“I don’t know if we are going to see a rapid expansion,” said Christopher Lubienski, professor at the Indiana University School of Education and director of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy.

Plus there are limitations on enrollment, such as the capacity of non-public schools and tuition that exceeds the stipends parents receive, as well as students’ access to private schools in rural areas.

Critics, including many Democrats and teachers unions, say the new universal voucher programs amount to a giveaway for families who already can afford private school.

Costs will soar as the programs expand

As newly eligible families apply for vouchers, costs will surge. But by how much, no one knows.

One reason for the uncertainty: Universal vouchers are, in effect, a grand experiment states are conducting in real time. Budget analysts have scrambled to predict the programs’ eventual price tags, but they can only guess at how many freshly eligible families will participate.

Another complication is that lawmakers in some states scrapped enrollment caps when they expanded eligibility, turning the cost ceiling into a question mark.

The uncertainty has led to wildly divergent estimates. In Florida, the Republican lawmaker who sponsored the universal voucher bill pegged the program’s expected cost at about $210 million, while the left-leaning Florida Policy Institute put it at $4 billion. Later, the Florida Senate came up with its own cost estimate: $646 million.

One big point of contention is what percentage of families who currently pay for private school will start using vouchers to cover tuition. The bill’s sponsor guessed that only 50% will apply, which critics called a wild under-estimate. By contrast, the Florida Policy Institute assumed that 100% of eligible private school families will apply.

In Arizona, participation — and price — have far exceeded expectations.

Last June, the legislature estimated that the expanded voucher program would cost about $33 million this school year. But six months later, after applications from newly eligible families flooded in, the expected cost had soared to $276 million — more than eight times the original estimate. The cost has continued to rise as even more students enroll.

As in other states, a large share of the voucher recipients already attend private school or home-school. (When Arizona expanded access last year, 75% of the first wave of applicants had never attended a public school.) For those students, the state cannot simply transfer funds from public to private schools — it must find a whole new pot of money to cover tuition that parents previously paid for.

Now, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is looking to scale back the program, which she warned “will likely bankrupt this state.”

In Indiana, the state previously set aside $240 million annually for private school vouchers. But with the move to near-universal eligibility, the cost is expected to swell to more than $600 million by 2025.

That amount is eye-opening, said Lubienski, who added that it also follows a pattern of shifting costs to taxpayers. While Indiana lawmakers did increase funding for traditional public schools in this year’s legislative session, the lion’s share of attention and largest funding increases went to voucher and charter programs, he said.

School choice advocates stressed that the cost depends on how many students enroll, but others argued that the money allocated to vouchers amounts to the state endorsing private education.

In the wake of her state’s voucher expansion, Indiana state Sen. Andrea Hunley, a Democrat, said she worries about having enough money for the majority of Indiana’s students who attend public schools, especially those who are English language learners, in special education, and from low-income backgrounds.

“Our kids can’t wait to be properly resourced,” she said.

Patrick Wall is a senior reporter covering national education issues. Contact him at pwall@chalkbeat.org.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief and covers higher education. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Pronouns, libraries, and textbook fees: The K-12 policy changes Indiana lawmakers made this year

2023-05-01T21:45:29+00:00

State legislators have introduced more than 100 new education bills and bills impacting schools and students during Indiana’s 2023 legislative session. For the latest Indiana education news, sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free newsletter here.

This article was originally published in the Indiana Capital Chronicle. It has been edited by Chalkbeat Indiana to only include education and student-focused legislation.

Indiana’s Republican-controlled General Assembly convened for 110 days, during which education, health care, and taxes dominated much of the discourse.

The highlight, however, was the passage of Indiana’s $44 billion biennial budget plan.

Here’s a recap of the education issues — some big, some small — and a look at what prevailed and what didn’t quite come together before the 2023 session came to a close early Friday morning.

Holcomb agenda achieves success

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s 2023 legislative agenda highlighted proposals for several major funding increases in the next two-year state budget, including paying for all K-12 textbooks, salary increases for state police troopers, and millions more for public health services in all 92 counties.

A massive private school voucher expansion was the sticking point in the final hours of the session — although vouchers weren’t part of Holcomb’s priorities.

Still, the governor got most of what he wanted — saying he will “gladly sign” the final budget draft — and praised lawmakers for their work an hour after the session’s end.

Indiana families shielded from K-12 textbook fees

Indiana’s governor rallied hard to eliminate textbook and curricular fees for Hoosier kids. Figuring out how to fund the ask proved less straightforward, though.

Holcomb’s proposed budget explicitly included a line item for textbook fees — separate from the school funding formula — directing funds to the state education department, which would then be responsible for dishing out textbook dollars to schools.

But House budget writers originally took a different approach, seeking to require schools to dip into their foundational funding to fully pay students’ curricular materials costs.

Pushback from public school officials prompted changes to that funding mechanism in the final budget plan.

Now, a $160 million annual line item — added by Senate Republicans — ensures that Hoosier families will not have to pay student textbook fees in K-12 public schools. Private school students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch will also see their textbook fees waived, according to the budget.

Grant program for college access gets a boost

The Holcomb administration’s push to get more Hoosiers educated included a move to automatically enroll eligible Hoosier students into Indiana’s 21st Century Scholars Program, a statewide grant program that helps students from low-income backgrounds attend two- and four-year schools.

A bill doing just that advanced to the governor’s desk last week.

House Bill 1449 requires the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to work with the state education department to identify kids who qualify for the program, and then notify students and parents about their eligibility. Students must agree to participate in 21st Century Scholars and can opt out at any time.

Funding for Martin University increases

Also part of Holcomb’s agenda was a proposed $10 million for Martin University — the state’s only predominantly black institution — specifically to help the students from low-income backgrounds, students of color, and adult-learner populations served by the university.

The House GOP budget plan matched that request, but Senate Republicans opted to give every higher education institution in Indiana access to that $10 million over the biennium for students of color, as well as first-generation students and those from low-income backgrounds.

The final budget landed somewhere in between, appropriating $5 million to Martin University, and creating another $5 million pot for all other Hoosier colleges and universities.

Feat of imagination: more kids reading

Country music icon Dolly Parton’s book program mails over two million books monthly to children across the country — and elsewhere — monthly, according to its website. Now, the Imagination Library is set to be available statewide in Indiana.

Launching the program was a priority for Holcomb, as well as some lawmakers, and they saw success in the final version of the state’s two-year, $44.5 billion budget. It’s one line item in the 249-page document: a $6 million appropriation.

Lawmakers address pronoun changes in classrooms

A controversial bill mandating that Indiana schools notify parents when a student asks for name or pronoun changes is now awaiting a signature from the governor.

House Bill 1608 also bans human sexuality instruction to the youngest Hoosier students.

The proposal is reminiscent of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that has been described by some as one of the most “hateful” pieces of legislation in the country.

Supporters say parents have the “right” and “responsibility” to control what their children learn — and are called — when at school.

But critics of the bill — which was pared down in its final iteration — have argued that it’s part of a nationwide wave of legislation “singling out LGBTQ+ people and their families.” More specifically, they say that the legislation could put transgender children at risk of harm if they’re outed to unsupportive or abusive parents.

New process to govern school library book grievances

In the final hours of the legislative session, Republican state lawmakers resurrected a much-debated ban on materials deemed “obscene “or “harmful to minors” in school and public libraries.

The bill requires school libraries to publicly post lists of books in their collection and create a formal grievance process for parents and community members who live in the district to object to certain materials in circulation.

As part of that process, school boards must review those challenges at their next public meeting. An appeals process must also be established if officials don’t agree with the request.

Language in House Bill 1447 also removes “educational purposes” as a reason that schools or district board members could claim legal protection for sharing “harmful material” with underage students.

Public libraries would not be affected, however, despite other proposals debated earlier in the session that would have expanded the language’s reach. The bill only applies to public and charter schools, not private schools.

Bills on partisan school boards, child care fall short

Republican lawmakers touted big wins across the board at the conclusion of the legislative session, but several big-ticket items didn’t make it across the finish line.

Many of the measures are expected to be reworked and introduced again next year.

A bill that would have let Hoosier communities decide if local school board elections should be partisan died in the House in February.

That means school board races will stay nonpartisan, at least for now. Similar bills have circulated around the Statehouse in years past, and GOP leadership said others are likely to come up again in the future.

With this year’s House Bill 1428, specifically, Republican lawmakers could not find consensus over whether school board candidates should have to be nominated by party primaries or only be listed by political party on the November general election ballot.

Something that didn’t get too much attention through the 2023 session was child care and early childhood education. Though legislators expanded eligibility for On My Way Pre-K from 127% to 150% of the federal poverty limit, roughly $41,625 annually for a family of four, they didn’t add more funding.

Leaders said that current expenditures left money behind, including in the Child Care Development Fund. However, families and businesses alike bemoan the shortage of quality child care available in communities, saying it hampers economic growth.

Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com. Follow Indiana Capital Chronicle on Facebook and Twitter.

Indiana public schools get $312 million increase in state budget after voucher backlash

2023-04-28T13:57:26+00:00

Indiana’s 2023 legislative session is under way, and state legislators have introduced more than 100 new education bills and bills impacting schools and students. For the latest Indiana education news, sign up for Chalkbeat Indiana’s free newsletter here.

This article originally published in the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

Outrage from public school officials over dismal funding in the next two-year state budget prompted lawmakers to add a twelfth-hour K-12 spending boost in Indiana’s spending plan in a chaotic final day that yielded several so-called ‘final’ draft budgets.

Even as rumors circulated for hours midday, Republican leadership declined to identify the hold-up, not publicizing the last version’s release until 9 p.m. — with the General Assembly fielding calls and emails into the early hours of Friday morning.

Under pressure from their members, Republican leaders opted to decrease the amount dedicated to paying down the Pre-1996 Teacher Retirement Fund — the state’s only unfunded debt obligation. Rather than the $1 billion previously allotted, that fund will now receive an additional $700 million in the coming biennium.

Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, said issues with the final budget came when trying to combine the Senate and House versions of the budget, which took different approaches to education funding.

“The bottom line is that there was a misunderstanding in the way we had it drafted and so when we took a look at the school runs, it wasn’t what we intended to have happen,” Bray said. “There wasn’t as much money in there for the traditional public schools and so we had to start over.”

The budget advanced on a 70-27 vote in the House, with one Democrat — Rep. Rita Fleming, D-Jeffersonville — joining Republicans to pass the measure.

Across the Statehouse, the diversion of school funding to vouchers is what prompted Sen. Vaneta Becker, R-Evansville, to vote against the budget. Another Republican senator, the embattled Mike Young, announced from the podium that he wouldn’t be staying to vote and left just before 1:30 a.m.

Even without their votes, the budget passed the Senate on a 39-10 vote, with Sen. David Niezgodski, D-South Bend, voting yes.

“It’s not just your average ordinary typical two-year budget. It’s a generational impact budget,” said Gov. Eric Holcomb at a 3 a.m. press conference. “Its policies and plans can be viewed as we do as a blueprint for growth.”

What’s in it for education?

Republican budget writers announced Wednesday they would earmark more than $1 billion for a major school voucher expansion. With that move, GOP leaders touted an 8% increase in overall K-12 tuition support formula over the biennium but voucher funding would grow 69% the first year and 14% the second year.

That prompted a flurry of pressure from public school officials Wednesday night. Denny Costerison, executive director of the Indiana Association of School Business Officials, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle those school funding projections showed that about 75% of Hoosier school districts would receive funding increases of less than 2% in the budget’s second year.

Here is how spending breaks down by category in the newest biennial budget.

Late Thursday, legislative leaders announced a last-minute change to the budget, however, in an effort to ease backlash. Multiple lawmakers were also reportedly unhappy to learn that their school districts received so little money after the voucher expansion.

Now, those per student funding increases have improved somewhat to 5.3% in the first year, and then to 1.8% the next. With the change, schools will see $8.84 billion for tuition support in fiscal year 2024, and $9.03 billion in fiscal year 2025.

That’s $312.1 million more over the biennium — an additional $148 million in year one of the budget, and $164 million the second — compared to the earlier draft of the budget. Since vouchers get a portion of this funding, their spending also increased.

At his own local schools in Fort Wayne, House Minority Leader Phil GiaQuinta said school funding increased by 1.6% the first year and actually decreased by 0.6% in the second year.

“Last week, we find out we have $1.5 billion extra and my school district is losing money. Even with the additional funds [the second year is] negative 0.4%,” GiaQuinta said. “There’s no doubt that played a part into some of the last-minute scrambling over extra dollars.”

What about that pay raise?

But the state’s highest offices still got a significant pay raise in the latest version of the budget — even though the language never got any public vetting during the chaotic final hours.

“We wanted to put them on par with the other leaders in government, like the Chief Justice,” Huston said. “I think the (Attorney General) salary ends up being comparable to a prosecutor salary and … the Senate brought the language and we agreed it probably needed to be changed and this was the opportunity to change it.”

Huston said the Senate had previously discussed salary increases but hadn’t quite settled on language before senators introduced their version of the budget a few weeks ago.

“I think there’s been a lot of conversation over the years about the disproportionate pay of our elected officials,” Huston said.

The salary of the state’s highest court is currently at $198,513.

The budget also includes Gov. Eric Holcomb’s compensation package to increase pay for the typical state employee by 5%. And a separate provision increases starting salaries for state troopers to $70,000 per year.

But not everyone was happy with the pay raise language.

Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, whose office would get a 60% bump, signaled her disapproval for the process, which didn’t receive any public vetting.

“If it’s something that’s important to do, and if the work we do really reflects a higher salary — which I’m not arguing against — it should be part of the process,” Crouch said. “It should be … discussed and vetted and people should be able to weigh in.”

Crouch is running for governor in 2024, an office that will get a 48% raise. The raises go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025 at the end of the current term.

Bray said that those offices were “woefully underpaid” in comparison to other states.

“Not a one of them asked for it,” Bray said. “Frankly, it was a fairly easy decision.”

FAFSA will be required for Indiana students starting next school year

2023-04-20T17:52:54+00:00

Starting next school year, Indiana students will be required to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

The requirement was approved by both the Indiana Senate and House and signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb on Thursday. It applies to all students, with some exceptions, but is not a requirement for high school graduation.

The new law makes filling out the form, known as the FAFSA, a conscious choice instead of happenstance, advocates said. They added that students would also have a better picture of the money available to them for college, and perhaps convince more students to enroll in postsecondary education, at a time when Indiana officials are concerned about the number of students who enroll in college. In the Class of 2020, 53% of students went on to college, according to state data.

The FAFSA is the form that students need to file to be considered for federal financial aid such as grants, loans, and scholarships, and completion is also considered a leading indicator of college-going.

States and colleges also use the FAFSA to determine eligibility for their respective aid programs. The new law would require students to submit the FAFSA by April 15 of their senior year, which is the deadline to be eligible for state aid in addition to federal aid.

And the money isn’t just for two- and four-year institutions. Filling out the FAFSA can also provide funds for students who want to use a Next Level Jobs Workforce Ready Grant for a short- or long-term credential.

The new law comes at a time when officials said students are leaving nearly $70 million in Pell Grants on the table, amid perceptions that higher education is unaffordable.

A state dashboard of FAFSA completion shows that about 44% of this year’s high school seniors in Indiana have completed a FAFSA.

Lawmakers have tried for years to pass this FAFSA requirement, and it was increasing the number of exceptions that got the bill the widespread support it needed to pass.

The exceptions are for students at certain nonpublic schools, and for students who have a parent sign a waiver (emancipated minors can also sign it for themselves) to decline to complete the form. A school principal or counselor can also waive the requirement if they are unable to reach the student’s parent or guardian by April 15 after “at least two reasonable attempts.”

Additionally, the requirement expires in 10 years, so lawmakers can reevaluate it. Indiana joined at least eight other states who have such a law.

This year, the deadline for state aid was extended to May 15 for students in the seven counties under a disaster emergency declaration due to recent storms: Benton, Johnson, Monroe, Morgan, Owen, Sullian, and White.

‘I need a plan.’ As NRA convention begins, Indianapolis teens share fears about gun violence.

2023-04-14T16:59:48+00:00

Raina Maiga looked out her school’s windows from the second floor on Thursday, trying to imagine what she would do in a school shooting.

“I’m hopeless. I can’t jump out the window,” said Maiga, a sophomore at Purdue Polytechnic High School’s Englewood campus on Indianapolis’ east side. “There’s nothing to do. Our school is exposed with windows. If someone walked in here with a gun, I mean, it’s over.”

These are the conversations that Raina and her classmates have on an almost weekly basis.

But this week, those conversations are happening with the backdrop of the National Rifle Association’s three-day annual convention, which is expected to bring tens of thousands of attendees to downtown Indianapolis beginning Friday.

The convention for the powerful lobbying organization — and the warm reception from some Indiana lawmakers — feels tone deaf to Indianapolis-area teens who say gun violence in their schools and communities is their reality and fills them with anxiety on a regular basis.

Ryan Evans, a Purdue Polytechnic junior, remembers the day in 2013 that his sister survived the Arapahoe High School shooting in Colorado. His classmate Huma Moghul recalls the night she heard gunfire in her neighborhood and woke up to a bullet hole in her living room wall. And they all remember the lockdowns they have experienced this year — anxious moments that they try to ease with dark humor about whether they’d survive if a shooter was outside their door.

So far this year, eight people age 18 and under in Indianapolis have been killed by a firearm, per the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Sixteen people age 18 and under in the city died by firearms in 2022, up from 14 in 2021.

Among those who died was a 17-year-old Purdue Polytechnic High School student James Johnson III, who was killed in February.

“Nobody ever thinks that it’s going to happen to them,” said Evans. “And I definitely think that James Johnson didn’t think that as well. Because it’s not a thought that somebody should have.”

Students prepare for school shootings

The NRA annual meeting comes roughly three weeks after a person shot and killed three children and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville. Their deaths sparked outrage during Tennessee’s legislative session, and students rallied for tougher gun laws at the Tennessee State Capitol.

Indiana lawmakers are considering a bill to provide state funding for firearms training for teachers. Rep. Jim Lucas, a Republican from Seymour and the bill’s author, said in February his legislation is a response to mass school shootings across the U.S., according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

But to students like Evans and Maiga, that legislation is not the solution. Instead, they say, legislators should stop and think about how the situation is affecting students in schools.

And the onus should not be on schools to arm teachers, or transform buildings into iron fortresses, some students argue.

“We shouldn’t have to be wanding children into schools to prevent guns from entering schools or teaching them how to evacuate to mobile bomb shelters that can be built in schools,” said Evans.

(The convention also starts on the same day that dozens of Indiana school districts received a bomb threat, prompting the closure of school buildings.)

Katie Bolduc, a freshman at Westfield High School, said she’s only known a world with gun violence in schools, where active shooter drills are as commonplace as fire and tornado drills.

“There’s a lot of complacency, it’s something that’s normal and accepted that you have to prepare for,” she said.

But it leaves her feeling unsafe.

“There are weapons that can cause mass casualties in a few minutes, and all I have is a pencil pouch or a water bottle to throw at the shooter, best-case scenario,” Bolduc said.

Lucy Rutter, a junior at Burris Laboratory School in Muncie, said she first started to hear about school shootings in middle school. At that time, it seemed like it wouldn’t happen to her. That’s changed.

“The more I see it, the more I feel like it is going to happen to me, and I need a plan,” she said. “It’s so hard to hear about it in the news every day and feel like I can’t do anything about it.”

NRA convention in town prompts disappointment from students

Having the NRA convention in their backyard only exacerbates the disconnect between lawmakers and the students who spoke to us.

“I do wonder what the conversations are like when talking about actually caring about the lives of people, but then choosing to be a public face at this convention,” said Maiga, who lamented the scheduled presence of Gov. Eric Holcomb and former Vice President Mike Pence at the convention.

Students said that having the convention so close to home is a reminder of how tense and politically charged the topic of gun violence prevention is — and of the sway of organizations like the NRA.

Salsabil Qaddoura, a North Central High School sophomore, leads her school’s chapter of Students Demand Action, a national group of high school and college students that aims to end gun violence and is affiliated with Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action.

She said the NRA convention has her thinking about gun industry accountability, and how it can profit off of young people. The access to guns is there, she said.

“It’s disgusting and insensitive,” she said of the NRA coming to Indianapolis.

The NRA did not respond to a request for comment.

Students consider how to change views on guns

Being a high schooler means having pressures to fit a certain standard, Qaddoura said. That means students are influenced by what they surround themselves with, and there’s a thought of “if you have guns you have that tough-person persona,” she said.

Students said they want to shift the narrative around guns with their classmates to make having a gun less of a status symbol, and to know that it’s OK to ask for help and to talk about gun-violence prevention.

In all the years of doing active shooter drills, “I don’t think I’ve ever had a teacher or school officer talk about how we feel, get under the desk and find what you’re going to throw and prepare,” Bolduc said.

She hopes to start a Students Demand Action chapter to change that.

As leaders of their own Students Demand Action chapters, Qaddoura and Rutter have worked to start a discussion about gun violence. They’ve registered voters, signed petitions, and attended protests and other events.

“A lot of people assume that my only goal is to ban guns, but there are so many other solutions besides banning guns outright,” Rutter said, listing gun safety education, safe storage, background checks, and red flag laws.

Students at Purdue Polytechnic, meanwhile, are organizing a walkout for April 20, the 24th anniversary of the Columbine High School shooting.

Students said they know change can be slow.

“I always hear that change is gradual,” Qaddoura said. But she added that when it comes to gun violence prevention, “We can’t wait.”

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis and Marion County schools for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact Amelia at apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org.

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief and covers higher education. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana Senate strikes parental consent requirement from bill targeting student pronouns in schools

2023-04-07T15:15:24+00:00

This article originally published in the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

A controversial “parental rights” bill was pared down by Indiana senators on Thursday to remove a provision that would have required schools get consent from parents if a student requests to change their name or pronouns.

The amended version of House Bill 1608 now stipulates that parents only must be notified within five business days about a requested name or pronoun change.

“It started out coming out of committee as (requiring) consent, and that’s important,” Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray said of the chamber’s decision to scale back the bill.

“It can be challenging, though, as you play that out,” he continued. “When you start talking about getting consent from a parent, or parents, and there’s lots of divorce situations out there where that can be contentious, and we thought, well, notification advises the parents of what’s going on, and they can then meet and engage in the school, and that’s a satisfactory result.”

An amendment adopted to the bill on Thursday also deletes language that would have protected teachers who refuse to use a name or pronouns that are inconsistent with a student’s legal name and biological sex.

Lawmakers update proposal around names, pronouns

Bray said his caucus has had “lengthy communication” with House Republicans about the changes to the bill — which is why it stalled on the chamber calendar for more than a week before it was called down for amendments.

The Senate leader said he expects the House to approve the changes, assuming the bill advances in a Senate floor vote that could come as early as next week.

“It’s a tricky issue. And there’s reasonable people who come down on both sides of that … it didn’t go necessarily along party lines,” Bray said. “There was some question out there about why are we engaging in this space at all? A number of schools wanted some guidance from the state on this because they’re all grappling with it. It’s a pretty challenging issue on the school board level, as well. So, it’s just a very difficult issue to handle and get on top of.”

The latest draft of the amended bill requires schools to inform parents if a student requests to change their name or pronouns for any reason — including to a nickname.

Although an earlier version of the bill would have blocked adherence to the student’s request without a parent’s explicit consent, bill sponsor Sen. Stacey Donato, R-Logansport, said teachers could now grant a student’s request as long as notice has already been given to a parent.

Previous language would have additionally prevented schools from disciplining teachers that still use a child’s old name or pronouns — even with parental permission to use the new, preferred versions — if the employee or staff member does so out of a “religious conviction.” That part of the bill is gone, too.

The bill retains language that would also prohibit instruction on “human sexuality” for students in prekindergarten through 3rd grade, although sexual education typically does not start until the fourth or sixth grades under existing state standards.

Private schools are exempted from the language restricting “human sexuality.”

Democrats’ proposed amendments fall short

Three separate amendments offered by Democrats failed, however.

One proposed change would have given students a chance to rescind their name or pronoun change request in an attempt to give them more time to consider whether or not they want their parents to be notified.

Another would have ensured that school psychologists, social workers, nurses, and counselors would not be forced to violate their professional codes of conduct and ethics to adhere to the bill’s provisions. The bill already says that school staff are not required to break federal laws in order to be compliant.

Sen. Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington, suggested that — if lawmakers are going to regulate pronouns — they should crack down on words like “mankind” and “manmade,” or phrases like, “Hey, guys,” when addressing groups of students.

“If this is such an issue, when referring to people by their biological sex, then I think language must matter, and we should cease from doing it,” Yoder said. The amendment failed in a voice vote.

Still, Senate Minority Leader Greg Taylor, D-Indianapolis, said he was “surprised” the GOP caucus supported the changes made to the bill.

“I don’t understand it … it’s causing problems,” Taylor said of the bill overall. “Young people have to make the hard decision to even come out and express how they feel. Then we’re going to make it even harder by saying, ‘If you tell me in confidence, and I’m somebody you trust, I have no choice but to inform your parents.’ Now why would a child tell their teacher first before they tell their parents if they really believe that their parent was going to be accepting?”

Bill author Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Whiteland, maintains that her proposal intends to “empower Hoosier parents by reinforcing that they are in the driver’s seat when it comes to introducing sensitive topics to their children.”

Critics of the bill have argued that it’s part of a nationwide wave of legislation “singling out LGBTQ+ people and their families.” Supporters say parents have the “right” and “responsibility” to control what their children learn — and are called — when at school.

The proposal is reminiscent of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that has been described by some as one of the most “hateful” pieces of legislation in the country.

Indiana lawmakers battle over bill that could criminalize librarians for objectionable books

2023-04-06T14:36:16+00:00

This article originally published on WFYI.

The House Education Committee heard hours of testimony Wednesday from school employees, librarians, and others across Indiana who expressed opposition to a proposed amendment to a bill that would strip these employees of a legal defense against charges they distributed material harmful to minors.

The hearing was the latest evolution in a months-long legislative process driven by concerns among some parents that pornography is rampant in schools. While lawmakers have drafted legislation to address these concerns, they’ve presented little evidence to suggest it’s a widespread problem. The latest iteration of the legislation also targets public libraries.

Rep. Becky Cash (R-Zionsville), who crafted the amendment, said she’s heard from “thousands” of parents who have lodged complaints with their schools over books they believed were objectionable.

“Parents have testified in school board meetings and come to me, and many members of this committee and assembly many, many times over the last couple of years saying that the system did not work for them,” Cash said.

She explained that the amendment mandates schools and public libraries lay out a transparent process for parents and residents to lodge complaints.

But several Democratic members of the committee expressed concern that the bill would empower some parents and disempower others by creating a system in which some parents could control access to books for all children. They also expressed opposition to a portion of the amendment that strips librarians and school employees from a legal defense.

“We are not the court of appeals from parents who are unhappy with school board decisions,” said Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis). “But if we were the Court of Appeals, we would want evidence. What parent? What school? What book? What hearing? What process? Not this vague discontent.”

Changes to the language made

An amendment to Senate Bill 380 incorporates some of the language included in Senate Bill 12 — which was passed by lawmakers in that chamber in late February. SB12 would have mandated schools adopt a procedure that would allow parents and guardians to submit complaints that a book included in the school library is inappropriate. The legislation laid out a specific procedure and an appeals process.

In contrast, an amendment to SB 380, crafted by Cash, would require schools to adopt and publicly post a procedure that would allow district residents, parents and guardians to submit a request for removal of material that is classified as obscene or harmful to minors as defined by existing state law, as well as an appeals process.

The amendment would also require:

Public libraries to adopt and publicly post a procedure that would allow community members, as well as parents and guardians of minors within their community, to submit a request to relocate material that falls under the definition of obscene or harmful to minors — as defined in current law — to a section of the library not designated for minors.
Both schools and libraries must adopt a procedure to respond quickly to these requests and allow for an appeal. And the procedure they adopt must require school and library boards to review the relocation request at their next public meeting.
Prosecutors consider whether residents, parents or guardians have exhausted these procedures before filing charges against a school or library employee for disseminating material harmful to minors.
School and public libraries make all available book titles publicly available in an online catalog.

Bill would eliminate statutory defense

Under the amendment to SB 380, if a prosecutor charged a school or public library employee with disseminating material that is harmful to minors, the employees would be unable to defend themselves on the basis that the material had educational value.

The amendment also appears to bar school and library employees from using the defense that the material was disseminated while acting within the scope of their employment.

Few people testified in favor of the amendment in its entirety. And while many of the librarians who testified said they supported the portion of the legislation that mandated a procedure for requesting removals or relocation of books, they all opposed the language that removes the criminal defense against prosecution.

“Criminalizing librarians, library workers and teachers is not the answer, “said Heather Rayl, a librarian at the Vigo County Public Library. “What is right for my daughter may not be right for your daughter or son or niece or nephew, even if they’re the same age. Parents know best it is their right to choose. Not the government.”

Zach Stock, with the Indiana Public Defender Council, also spoke out against removing legal defenses for school and library employees. He emphasized the need to protect legitimate expression.

“We can’t all agree on what is harmful. None of us in this room are going to agree to that. There’s no bright line,” Stock said. “The public defender counsel asks that you leave the criminal code out of it. A felony jury trial is no place to conduct education policy.”

Disagreements persist over what constitutes harmful material

Librarians and others also expressed concern that regardless of whether the change in law results in prosecutions, it could still have a chilling effect on the types of materials librarians choose to put in school and public library collections — particularly when it comes to books that deal with racism, gender, sexuality and those that feature individuals from marginalized communities.

Specifically, lawmakers and those who testified sparred over the appropriateness of the book, “Gender Queer,” a graphic novel written and illustrated by Maia Kobabe, that recounts the author’s exploration of their gender identity.

Austin Rawlins, a 22-year-old, spoke out against the amendment on behalf of his mother, Stephanie Rawlins, director of the Pike County Public Library. He said he found more value in the book “Gender Queer” than he did in much of the sex education content he was exposed to in school, like images of sexually transmitted diseases and video of someone giving birth.

Rep. Martin Carbaugh (R-Fort Wayne) acknowledged that he hadn’t read “Gender Queer” in its entirety. But he challenged Rawlins for comparing the book’s “depictions of fellatio and many other acts” to sex education.

“I don’t even know how periods work. I don’t know what’s going on in a woman’s body, because it’s never [been] taught to me. It never is, it’s never discussed,” Rawlins said about topics not covered in his sex education courses. “And these books are honestly the first time that I’ve seen it in a relatively educational way or life experience way.So I find value in that.”

Carbaugh responded by saying he disagreed.

Katie Blair, Director of Advocacy and Public Policy at ACLU of Indiana, said the amendment would infringe on student’s rights to read and learn freely. She said the language could be used to target books that are about or by people of color, LGBTQ individuals and other marginalized people.

“A person can decide that they don’t want to read a certain book, a person can decide they don’t want their child to read that book, but a person can’t decide an entire school or an entire town can read that book,” Blair said

Rep. Jake Teshka (R-South Bend) questioned how the language in the amendment about obscene material would apply to books about communities of color.

“What we also know is that there’s still a lot of room for interpretation. And so what I would say is that this will be used as that because those books, unfortunately, are usually under much higher scrutiny,” Blair said. “And so I know that this is what that will be used for.”

Rhonda Miller was one of the very small number of people who testified in support of the measures included in the amendment. But Miller, who presides over a group called Purple for Parents Indiana that traffics in conspiracy theories and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, expressed disappointment that the language had been included in SB 380 rather than being heard as a standalone bill under SB 12.

“I want everybody to know that this battle is far from over. And we will continue the fight,” Miller said.

The House Education Committee did not vote on the amendment. April 17 is the last day for Senate bills to be approved by the full House.

Contact WFYI education reporter Lee V. Gaines at lgaines@wfyi.org. Follow on Twitter: @LeeVGaines.

How literacy and the ‘science of reading’ get a big lift from bus drivers at an Indiana school

2023-03-27T11:00:00+00:00

On a recent Thursday morning at KIPP Indy Unite Elementary in Indianapolis, a bus driver doubling as a tutor held up a flashcard to two elementary school students.

“What is this?” she asked.

The flashcard featured an illustration of a table. The students, a boy and a girl, piped up with answers.

“A door,” the girl said.

“No, that’s a table,” said the boy, earning a nod of approval. The tutor asked the pair another question: What letter does the word “table” start with, and what sound does it make?

The students quickly identified the letter. But taking its sound out of context proved more challenging. The tutor gave the students a few moments to guess before articulating the word herself.

“T-t-table,” she said, emphasizing the phoneme. The students repeated after her, connecting the letter “T’ with its sound.

At KIPP Indy Public Schools in Indianapolis, using bus drivers as tutors was an unusual idea spurred by the pandemic. In October 2022, when struggles with reading among K-3 students prompted the school to find solutions, KIPP started the program. Each morning, students are pulled out of class into the hallway for 10 to 20 minutes to practice literacy skills such as sight words and phonics.

It’s one approach to teaching using the science of reading, a body of research about how children learn to read. While some reading programs teach students to read by guessing a word based on a picture or using context clues, schools in Indiana and across the country are increasingly adopting curriculum that directly teaches the relationship between sounds, letters, and words.

In 2022, national reading and math exams showed only 33% of Indiana fourth graders and 31% of eighth graders were proficient in reading. These scores are similar to nationwide scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which revealed 37% of students performed below NAEP’s basic standard. The results underscore students’ struggles in reading that educators and lawmakers say is partially due to inadequate, outdated methods of teaching.

The consequences of flawed reading instruction go beyond test scores. Third graders who are not proficient in reading are four times more likely to not graduate high school on time or drop out completely, according to the Indiana State Board of Education’s Indiana Student Achievement Report.

Educators and lawmakers alike want to counter such trends. A major financial investment and a series of bills in the Indiana statehouse look to provide science of reading instruction to teachers, and some support mandating the science of reading within the state.

Science of reading emphasis grows in Indiana

Since 2011, Indiana has largely allowed school districts to decide which core reading program to use.

But one teaching method has been the target of significant criticism recently. The “three-cueing model,” which encourages students to make educated guesses at words using context clues, has been largely disproven by cognitive scientists but is still widely used by schools around the country.

Andrea Setmeyer, national chapter coordinator for The Reading League Indiana, said schools have traditionally failed to separate word recognition and reading comprehension.

“We’ve relied on strategies like guessing or looking at the first letter and thinking ‘what would make sense here?’ and those strategies are not what skilled readers do,” Setmeyer said. “What we need to do is look at those as two separate components that we’re building simultaneously.”

Karrianne Polk-Meek, director of the Literacy Center at the Indiana Department of Education, said the science of reading focuses on five key elements: phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

“Over time, some curriculum that has been used or different structures that have been used really reinforced some of the elements, but not necessarily all five,” she said.

Several states have already implemented or are looking to implement the science of reading in schools, many of which have shown significant improvements in reading rates.

Nearly a decade ago, Mississippi fourth graders ranked 49th in the nation for reading proficiency. But after the state hired literacy coaches and focused instruction around the science of reading, it was ranked first in the nation for reading gains by 2019.

While the research behind the science of reading has been around for decades, Setmeyer said such knowledge has often been confined to fields like cognitive psychology and linguistics, rather than education, where teachers could benefit from it.

But following encouraging results from states like Mississippi — and American Public Media’s “Sold a Story” podcast, which investigated authors who push disproven teaching methods — the science of reading is gaining traction.

Last August, Indiana announced a $111 million investment in literacy through a partnership with the Lilly Endowment. The investment — the state’s largest-ever commitment to literacy development — supports training educators in science of reading instruction, and incorporating science of reading methods into undergraduate teacher preparation programs.

The Indiana Department of Education also launched a partnership to place reading coaches in 54 schools across the state to support K-2 teachers as they lead instruction rooted in the science of reading. Currently, 43 schools are participating in the pilot program, and more are being recruited for the 2023-24 cohort, Polk-Meek said. (KIPP is not part of the program.)

Indiana mulls changes to teacher prep and licensing

Lawmakers are considering whether to go a step further.

Senate Bill 402, authored by GOP Sen. Aaron Freeman, would prohibit schools from using the three-cueing model and require them to adopt curriculum based on the science of reading. The bill would also require people to pass foundational reading exams to get a teaching license.

Freeman, who has two children under 13, said he was inspired to write the bill after seeing the struggles students like his own faced when it comes to reading.

“These kids are not going to learn by guessing,” he said. “They’re only going to learn if they have phonemic awareness, if they’re able to sound words out, break words down.”

If Freeman’s legislation, which has passed the Senate, becomes law, it would go into effect for the 2024-25 school year.

Other proposed bills also address the science of reading: House Bill 1558 creates a science of reading grant fund, while House Bill 1590 includes teacher preparation and licensing requirements for the approach.

The second bill underscores that putting the science of reading into practice across the state would mean not only a shift in how students learn, but how teachers learn, too.

Kelly Williams, an assistant professor of special education at Indiana University-Bloomington, said she was taught outdated research during her training in the mid-2000s.

“There was kind of this general consensus of, if you expose kids to enough books and find what they’re interested in, you’ll be able to get them reading,” Williams said. “That’s really problematic — we’ve got teachers coming out who are not being trained in what best practices are or what research actually supports.”

Williams said there should be an emphasis on language comprehension, not just knowing what a word is. Reading is not fully natural, she said — students must be taught to read.

KIPP began using the science of reading in 2021 after assessing pandemic-related academic gaps.

Ruth Wells, foundational literacy manager at KIPP, said the science of reading makes education cohesive by tying together how language is developed in the brain and how students learn words and sounds.

“That gives teachers the ability to, one, pinpoint where their students may have gaps, but also a spoken sequence to follow to make sure they are teaching what they know their students need,” Wells said.

To truly comprehend text, Wells said, students must be able to decode words, not just identify which word might fit using only context clues.

Data from KIPP showed 74% of kindergartners have met mid-year goals after being taught using science of reading-based practices — an 8% increase from before the program. Among first graders who received that instruction, 70% met the goals, a 21% increase, and 46% of second graders met them, marking an 11% increase.

Teachers and drivers join forces to teach science of reading

Each summer, teachers at KIPP participate in training where they learn why the science of reading is important. During the training sessions, they can practice portions of their lessons to receive real-time feedback from other educators.

“Our teachers are learning to be experts and we do a lot of development with our teachers, but again, there are different levels to kiddos,” she said. “Our tier–1 instruction can be as strong as anything, but if a kiddo comes to us and needs that extra support, we need to be able to supply it.”

Bus driver Tracie Johnson has been with the tutoring program since its start. In addition to tutoring Monday through Thursday, Johnson gives her students a test each Friday to gauge their growth and identify areas of progress or struggle earlier than formal state tests can provide results.

This also gives teachers more time to teach the actual curriculum rather than worry about testing, which can take hours.

Using data from state literacy tests such as IREAD along with weekly classroom tests, teachers identify students who could benefit from extra review. From there, bus drivers build activities with the help of teachers based on the specific skills each student needs to practice. These activities often include using flashcards, coloring sight words, and trying to beat the clock in fluency races.

Each grade level is given a benchmark per year — 100 sight words for kindergarteners, 200-300 for first graders and 500 for second graders.

“If a student is a kindergartener and he’s still struggling with letter names or letter sounds, our bus drivers would be working with those particular students who didn’t get it the first round and maybe the classroom instruction has moved forward,” Wells said.

At a time when hiring bus drivers and other school staff has been difficult, the tutoring program has also helped the school retain drivers, thanks to the increased connection they feel with students, Wells said. Plus, they clock in for the role, earning more money in addition to what they get for their regular routes.

KIPP’s strategy would not be guaranteed to work for every school for a variety of reasons. Union rules that could affect such instruction differ among districts and states, for example. And participation could depend upon whether drivers receive pay increases.

Eight drivers are currently participating in the KIPP program, with many more undergoing training. There has been over 300 hours of tutoring in the program so far.

Johnson enjoys working with the students, and it’s particularly rewarding when they finally get a word or concept correct, she said. Before the program, many of her students could not even spell basic words like “the,” she said.

Now, those students speak up to offer correct answers to her questions.

The best part of the job, Johnson said, is connecting with her students for longer than a bus ride. When they run to her each morning to give her a hug, she’s reminded of the difference she’s making in their education.

“That’s the highlight of my day,” she said.

Contact Chalkbeat Indiana at in.tips@chalkbeat.org.

To improve college scholarship program’s impact, Indiana might enroll students automatically

2023-03-24T11:00:00+00:00

The tables were covered in Creston Middle School green, and topped with neat rows of snacks and cans of pop.

Another table was covered in brochures and paper applications. Laptops were scattered on tables around the room.

Because of the pandemic, it had been four years since an information session about 21st Century Scholars was in person at Creston Intermediate and Middle School, and organizers were doing all they could to entice families to attend the early March session and apply before their students reach high school and the deadline has passed.

The scholarship program offers up to the equivalent of four years tuition and regular fees at an in-state public university or college to students who meet income and residency eligibility, and follow requirements outlined in a scholar pledge.

Despite success with enrollees and its more than 30-year track record, the scholarship program has struggled to attract students to enroll in the program that has helped more than 50,000 Hoosiers earn college degrees. There’s also a no-exceptions deadline of June 30 after eighth grade for students to sign up.

But legislation at the statehouse aims to change that by auto-enrolling all eligible students into the scholarship program. This move is yet another effort to increase awareness of postsecondary options at a time when Indiana’s college-going rate is low, and higher education has the perception of being too expensive.

The bill, House Bill 1449, was approved by the Indiana House and has since advanced out of the Senate Education and Career Development Committee. But even with support from lawmakers, educators, and business leaders, the legislation still faces several votes before it could become law.

Talking to families about qualifying for scholarships

Berenice Tenorio travels Marion County, meeting with students and families to talk about postsecondary options as an outreach coordinator for the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

“My goal isn’t that everyone goes to a four-year school,” she said.

21st Century Scholars

Who is eligible?

Students who:

are a resident of Indiana.
enrolled in 7th or 8th grade.
are U.S. citizens or eligible non-citizens.
meet the income eligibility criteria.

What are the income guidelines for 2022-23?

For a household of two, a maximum annual income of $33,874.
For a household of three, a maximum annual income of $42,606.
For a household of four, a maximum annual income of $51,338.
For a household of five, a maximum annual income of $60,070.
For a household of six, a maximum annual income of $68,802.

For each additional person, add $8,732.

What do families need to apply?

Student’s Social Security number, birth date, and address.
Parent’s or guardian’s Social Security number or individual taxpayer identification number (if applicable).
2022 gross income amounts for all members of the household.
A valid email address.

Apply here.

Source: learnmoreindiana.org

She likened postsecondary options to a door, saying that students can avoid the door and asking questions about it if the path is dark. So, her goal is to light up the door and allow students to feel comfortable asking questions to help them make informed decisions about higher education.

One way she does that is through sessions for families about 21st Century Scholars, like the one at Creston.

The first challenge is making sure parents know about the scholarship and see it as worthwhile to attend the session she said. Once they are there, she said it’s about filling out the application to see if they qualify.

“I know that middle school students, they don’t see the price tag for college every single day like I do,” Tenorio said, adding that college can feel “so far away” to students and families.

In her presentation at Creston, she speaks in English and then in Spanish for each slide, going over what the scholarship is and isn’t and the requirements.

Yes, she tells people, the scholarship is usable for both public and private schools, but only covers up to the cost of tuition at public schools. Yes, students can take a gap year and still use the funds. Yes, students would need to complete the FAFSA as well as not drink alcohol before 21 and not do drugs.

Tenorio urges families who are unsure if they qualify to just apply, and tells them the income verification that’s part of the process may take a while.

Eventually, nearly three dozen people filled the room to listen and talk to Tenorio, who walked around to each family to answer questions and pick up applications.

Several families attended because the scholarship had become a family tradition after their older children enrolled. That was the case for Erika Rodriguenz, who said she learned about the program from a family member and thought it was a good opportunity for her middle school daughters.

She said she stresses to them the importance of studying now so they’ll be prepared for college down the road.

“The first time was hard, but this time not so much,” she said of the application.

Scholars see success, but graduation rates are low

Created in 1990, 21st Century Scholars can point to multiple successes.

More than 80% of students in the program enroll in college – that’s compared to 53% of all students statewide and 30% of students in the state from low-income backgrounds who are not in the program. And 75% of scholars stay in Indiana after graduating.

Despite these stats, the program has struggled to get the word out.

Although four in 10 Indiana students are eligible for 21st Century Scholars, only half of the eligible students apply. And a recent survey from the Indiana Department of Education shows that awareness of the scholarship is inconsistent: Just 64%of parents know about the program.

Berenice Tenorio speaks to families at a 21st Century Scholars enrollment night at Creston Intermediate and Middle School. More than three dozen people including students and their families attended the event.

There’s also widespread pessimism about higher education’s price tag in general. Only 27% of parents think education beyond high school is affordable for Indiana students, the department’s survey found.

And not all of the data about 21st Century Scholars looks rosy. Just 37% of 21st Century Scholars graduate on time, compared to 44% of students statewide. However, their on-time graduation rate is still higher than the 27% for students from low-income backgrounds.

Indiana’s Commissioner for Higher Education Chris Lowery said the scholars’ graduation rate is something the commission is aware of and working on, in part by meeting with university and college presidents to share best practices and services they provide for scholars.

But that relatively low graduation rate for the program could harm efforts to expand it for the foreseeable future.

During an Indiana Commission for Higher Education presentation to the Senate Appropriations Committee about the state budget, lawmakers pressed Lowery about the program’s graduation rate. Some noted that students need to be ready for college when they attend, not just attend because it’s paid for.

That committee is where a Senate bill that was the same as the advancing House bill died earlier this legislative session. It’s also the House bill’s next step.

Auto-enrollment could make the program more effective

If the bill passes, the commission for higher education would work with IDOE to notify eligible students and their parents or guardians. To participate, students would still have to agree to the conditions of the scholar pledge, and they could opt out of the program at any time. Students would be identified before starting high school as they are now. And other key programming details wouldn’t change.

“It continues the momentum and removes barriers to the program,” Lowery told lawmakers during a Senate committee meeting this month.

In addition to support from the commission for higher education, the bill has backing from multiple education and economic groups including associations representing school principals and superintendents, the Indiana State Teachers Association, and the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

Lowery added that if 21st Century Scholars enrolls students automatically, the commission would be able to shift program resources from a focus on scholarship enrollment to student success.

That possibility is what excites Tenorio, who would have more time to check in with students.

“Right now, the responsibility is on the parents to be all knowing, and this takes the pressure and responsibility off of them,” she said. “It allows us to say, ‘You’re already eligible, all you have to do is say yes and take advantage of this.’”

MJ Slaby oversees Chalkbeat Indiana’s coverage as bureau chief and covers higher education. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat Indiana partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.

Senators advance bill targeting student pronoun changes in Indiana schools

2023-03-23T13:55:05+00:00

This article originally published in the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

Indiana senators made multiple amendments on the fly Wednesday to a controversial “parental rights” bill that seeks to restrict pronoun usage of transgender children and instruction about “human sexuality” in schools.

Critics of the bill argue that it’s part of a nationwide wave of legislation “singling out LGBT people and their families.” Supporters say parents have the “right” and “responsibility” to control what their children learn — and are called — when at school.

House Bill 1608 would require schools to inform parents if a student requests to change their name or pronouns for any reason — including to a nickname — and block adherence to the student’s request without a parent’s explicit consent.

It would also prohibit instruction on “human sexuality” for students in pre-K through 3rd grade. Sexual education typically does not start until the fourth or sixth grades under existing state standards, however.

The proposal is reminiscent of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that has been described by some as one of the most “hateful” pieces of legislation in the country.

The measure advanced 9-4 Wednesday from the Senate Education Committee after three hours of debate — much of which included passionate testimony in opposition of the bill. Loud chants, cheers and booing echoed outside of the Senate chamber and through the Statehouse hallways amid the discourse.

“If you pass this bill … expect the youth homeless population to rise, expect the teen suicide rate to rise, expect the incidence of violence against LGBTQ+ people to rise,” said Quinn Mackenzie, a nonbinary Hoosier who spoke before the committee. “There are those who want you to believe that this bill protects children. As a parent with genuine religious conviction, I understand that — I want the best for my children, too and I want to protect them. But trans and queerness is not something that children need to be protected from.”

Notifying parents about nicknames

An amendment filed by bill sponsor Sen. Stacey Donato, R-Logansport, stipulates that teachers have to seek consent from a parent — not just notify them — to call a student by a different name.

Multiple other spontaneous amendments to that amendment followed, too. Democrats on the Senate committee asked to hold off on the changes and a vote on the underlying bill because of the confusion, but were turned down.

Although the latest version of the bill would apply to all Hoosier K-12 schools, private schools are exempted from the language restricting “human sexuality.”

Provisions about requested name changes require teachers to obtain parental consent within five business days, regardless of whether the name matches a student’s assigned-sex, according to the bill.

Although not specified in the bill, that teacher-parent communication could come in the form of a phone call, text message, email, or physical letter, according to Republican state lawmakers.

“A school should tell parents about any student requests to change their names, pronouns or etcetera, regardless of whether it has anything to do with the gender transition,” Donato said, nothing that if a student wanted to change their name from Stacy to Susan, for example, the school would need to notify parents and get consent to go ahead with the request.

“It’s easier for schools to administer, because they won’t have to decide if a name change is masculine or feminine. If a student wants to change the name, you just tell the parents, period,” Donato continued. “Secondly, with this language … I believe that if a previous transgender student asks their school to change their name back to something that matches their sex at birth, parents would want to know about that, as well.”

Another provision additionally prevents schools from disciplining teachers that still use a child’s old name or pronouns — even with parental permission to use the new, preferred versions — if the employee or staff member does so out of a “religious conviction.”

Bill author Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Whiteland, maintained that her proposal intends to “empower Hoosier parents by reinforcing that they are in the driver’s seat when it comes to introducing sensitive topics to their children.”

“I believe that parents know their children best, and their authority should not be superseded by teachers and or school administrators,” she said.

“By allowing our schools to instruct our young elementary students in human sexuality, and allowing students to decide on different identities without their parents’ knowledge and consent, creates an unacceptable intrusion into the parent-child relationship and would be inconsistent with our traditional presumption of parental competence and good intention,” Davis continued. “Engaging in any type of sexual relationship discussions in schools — especially for pre-K through third graders — is inappropriate.

Opposition mounts against ‘anti-trans’ legislation

State lawmakers have directed intense legislative focus toward transgender Hoosiers this session — much of which has centered on school-age children.

Melanie Davis, a transgender mom from Bloomington, said language in this bill and others reflects old, “harmful” stereotypes about transgender people. She emphasized that House Bill 1608 is dangerous to LGBTQ children and protects “abusive” school faculty who refuse to use preferred pronouns.

“We have moved on. We have grown up as a nation. … These kids are living in a world where they can actually be themselves for the first time in our history as a nation,” Davis said. “Now, you’re invalidating — you’re stripping this away from their future.”

Katie Blair with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Indiana, added that “vague language” in the bill “could create serious, unforeseen consequences for schools, teachers and families.”

She said the bill, if passed, would make “age appropriate and clearly school appropriate conversations” illegal in Indiana classrooms.

“LGBTQ teachers could find themselves in violation of the law simply for acknowledging that they are married within the context of the school. Teachers who happen to be transgender could lose jobs just for existing. Children of same sex couples should be allowed to bring their dads or their moms on school trips and visits just like any other child,” Blair said. “But it’s easy to see that this bill would significantly chill a school’s ability to be welcoming for those kids. “We need to stop forcing teachers to be gender police and from making personal, subjective judgments about whether or not a student may be showing signs that they are transgender and to report on them.”

Donato said the amended bill does not stop schools from providing “age appropriate instruction on sexual abuse.”

Rep. Davis declined to give specific examples but claimed that parents in her district have reported “human sexuality” instruction in their young children’s schools.

Still, the definition of “human sexuality” remains vague. Davis describes it as “just the way people experience and express themselves sexually,” but conceded that “everything is open to interpretation.”

She said an amendment to the bill to clarify what teachers can and can not talk about is “definitely something” lawmakers should consider on the Senate floor, “that way, teachers know exactly what they can and cannot do in the classroom.”

The bill is likely to be up for discussion in the full chamber next week.

A FAFSA requirement for Indiana students is one step closer to becoming law

2023-03-15T19:04:03+00:00

Indiana students could soon be required to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a shift that supporters say could give students more money to go to college and convince more of them to enroll in higher education in the first place.

The Indiana House Education Committee voted 11-1 Wednesday to advance Senate Bill 167, which would create the requirement starting with the 2023-24 school year, although there would be several exceptions. Lawmakers also amended the bill Wednesday to have the requirement expire in 10 years.

“This money is going to be spent somewhere, when we have a chance to put our hand out, let’s take advantage of it,” state Sen. Jean Leising, a Republican and one of the bill’s authors, told fellow lawmakers last week.

If the bill becomes law, Indiana would join at least eight other states who have this law.

The FAFSA is the form that students need to file to be considered for federal financial aid such as grants, loans and scholarships. States and colleges also use the FAFSA to determine eligibility for their respective aid programs.

By not filing out the form, students in Indiana are leaving $69 million in Pell Grants on the table, Leising said last week.

“That doesn’t even count the [other] scholarships, we don’t even have an idea of that money that’s lost,” she added. “We have got to do something about this.”

The legislation would require all high schoolers to complete and submit the FAFSA by April 15 of their senior year, which is the deadline to be eligible for state aid in addition to federal aid.

The bill includes exceptions for students at certain nonpublic schools, and for students who have a parent sign a waiver (emancipated minors can also sign it for themselves) to decline to complete the form. A school principal or counselor can also waive the requirement if they are unable to reach the student’s parent or guardian by April 15 after “at least two reasonable attempts.”

There was some concern about the bill during committee meetings. Rep. Tonya Pfaff, a Democrat, said during the vote that while she was supporting the bill, she still had concerns about the burdens on school counselors and wanted to work on that.

However, the exception in the bill to limit the attempts to reach families has eased that concern for others. And it could give the bill crucial support, after years of unsuccessful attempts to require students to fill out the FAFSA.

What FAFSA says about Indiana’s college attendance

Completion of the FAFSA is considered a leading indicator of college-going.

Just 53% of students in Indiana’s Class of 2020 went on to college, and many Hoosiers see college as too expensive. In a statewide survey by the Indiana Department of Education, only 27% of parents said postsecondary education is affordable.

A state dashboard of FAFSA completion shows that about 36% of Indiana’s high school seniors have completed a FAFSA.

It’s not that there aren’t efforts to get the word out from the state and other groups. Indiana has had College Goal Sunday, an in-person event to help families sign up, for more than 30 years.

But that doesn’t mean every student or family knows about the form or if it’s for them. And schools with higher rates of students receiving free and reduced-price lunch tend to have the lower completion rates, said Josh Garrison, associate commissioner for public policy for the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, in a previous House education committee meeting.

The legislation would make sure that filing out or not filling out the FAFSA is a choice, not happenstance of who found out about it, advocates of the bill said.

They added that filling out the form can also help reduce student debt. FAFSA qualifies students for government loans that have lower interest rates than the private loans that they would get without the form, Garrison said.

The committee meeting last week about the bill featured a show of support from organizations representing school boards, principals, and counselors, as well as public, private and community colleges in the state, and the Indiana and Indy chambers.

Bill to ban ‘bad’ books, strip protections from teachers, librarians passes Indiana Senate

2023-03-01T16:56:13+00:00

This article originally published on WFYI.

Senate lawmakers passed a bill Tuesday that would strip teachers and school librarians of a legal defense against charges that they distributed harmful material to minors.

Senators debated the legislation for roughly two hours, with supporters of the bill arguing that it closes a loophole, and opponents expressing fear that it will criminalize teachers and librarians and have a chilling effect on the types of books available in schools.

Under Senate Bill 12, if a prosecutor charged a teacher or school librarian with disseminating material that is harmful to minors, the school teacher or librarian would not be able to argue that the material had educational value as a defense. The measure also establishes a process for parents to file complaints over inappropriate materials.

Sen. James Tomes (R-Wadesville) authored the bill in response to concerns from parents who claim that pornography is rampant in schools. Tomes wrote similar legislation in recent years that failed to pass.

When asked by Sen. J.D. Ford (D-Indianapolis) about what school corporations had pornographic material on their shelves, Tomes could not provide specifics. Neither Tomes, nor the bill’s second author Sen. Blake Doriot (R-Goshen), named specific titles of books that were both found in schools and obscene in nature. They encouraged lawmakers to visit them at their Statehouse desks if they wanted to see examples of such material.

Sen. Michael Young (R-Indianapolis), a co-author of SB 12, described the unidentified books at Tomes’ desk as “really bad, sickening — no one in this room would show this to their young child and feel it was a good thing to do.”

Tomes said parents provided research to him about pornographic materials found in local schools. He named the far right Northern Indiana group, Purple for Parents — an organization that promotes conspiracy theories and believes schools are teaching LGBTQ identities and sexualizing children.

Tomes said he hadn’t personally found any such books in schools.

The bill passed the Senate in a 37-12 vote largely along party lines. All Democrats who were present voted against the bill, with three Republican Senators — Ron Alting, Jon Ford and Veneta Becker — joining them in opposition.

The bill now moves to the House for consideration.

‘A chilling effect’ on materials for students

When asked by Ford if he believes LGBTQ material is harmful to children, Tomes did not answer the question directly.

“That’s a broad statement, because if you’re talking about maybe explaining the lifestyle is one thing, but the books I’m talking about, Senator Ford, these books are just full bore graphic pictures and illustrations,” Tomes said.

Ford also asked Tomes if he believed this bill could have a chilling effect on the types of material students can access.

If schools are providing harmful materials, “I hope it does have a chilling effect,” Tomes said, “I hope it’s enough of a chilling effect that they will come to their senses.”

Ford referred to a recent survey of Indiana parents conducted by Gallup that indicated that most are satisfied with the subject matter taught in their schools. Tomes countered that he believes many parents don’t know what happens inside their schools.

Senator Rodney Pol (D-Chesterton) criticized the legislation for allowing parents to file complaints over material that is “inappropriate,” which could lead to a flood of politically motivated grievances. He also criticized the bill for not requiring parents to complete the complaint procedure before attempting to file criminal charges.

Pol said current law already makes it illegal to provide minors harmful or obscene material. He said he agrees with the intent to create a process for parents to file complaints. But he said the word “inappropriate” is not defined.

Pol said removing “educational” from the statutory defense allowed for teachers and school librarians will have a negative impact on what materials schools offer.

“That’s about as un-American as it gets. We’re going to chill you into doing what we want. This is about moving the cultural and political war to the libraries,” Pol said. “This is about telling the librarian if you don’t get rid of those books that I don’t like, I’m gonna see if I can get you put in jail.”

Sen. Scott Baldwin (R-Noblesville) said that while many schools may not make pornographic materials available to students, “some of them do have a problem.” He said the intent is not to target libraries, but to close a legal loophole.

“You could take something that would be illegal to hand to a child on the street — I would go to jail if I handed this to a child on the street — but if I was in a school building or in a library, it would not be illegal,” Baldwin said. “And that’s what this bill is trying to do, is try to correct that loophole.”

Baldwin said the complaint process in the bill would give parents a means to have their concerns heard by school administrators and school board members.

Sen. Andrea Hunley (D-Indianapolis), a former principal, said she supports parents having a voice, but she has concerns over the process outlined in the legislation.

“I think that the complaint process that we already have in place is working,” she said. She also questioned why the legislation allows parents to file complaints over “inappropriate” materials, instead of “pornographic.”

Because librarians and other school staff members may fear that a certain book could be construed as inappropriate by some parents, they may avoid stocking libraries with or teaching texts dealing with historical issues like slavery, Jim Crow laws and the Holocaust.

“And then we also have to think about our books that are dealing with tough modern issues, you know, racism, and sexism and mental illness and suicide and even assault, these books are more likely to be axed,” Hunley said. “We know this because we’re seeing it.”

Contact WFYI education reporter Lee V. Gaines at lgaines@wfyi.org. Follow on Twitter: @LeeVGaines.

Bill to make school board races in Indiana partisan dies in the House

2023-02-27T21:52:03+00:00

This article originally published in the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

A bill that would have let Hoosier communities decide if local school board elections should be partisan died in the Indiana House after lawmakers failed to vote on the measure by Monday’s deadline.

That means school board races will stay nonpartisan — at least for now. Language from the bill could still crop up in others before the end of the current legislative session.

House Bill 1428, authored by Rep. J.D. Prescott, R-Union City, sought to add political party identifications to what are now nonpartisan school board elections throughout the state. The legislation was the first to extend “local control” over the issue.

Monday was the deadline for House bills to pass out of the chamber. Prescott did not call the bill for a full chamber vote, however, likely indicating a lack of support from the House Republican caucus.

GOP House Speaker Todd Huston expressed support for optional partisan school board races earlier this month, but noted that members of his caucus are “all across the spectrum” on Prescott’s proposal — “This is one of those bills that doesn’t split along party lines,” Huston said.

Multiple other versions of the bill circulated through the Indiana Statehouse this year and last, to no avail.

A separate proposal that died earlier in the current session would have instead created a blanket requirement for school board candidates to identify as a Republican, Democrat or Independent.

Currently, Indiana is among 41 states where local school board elections are held without any party identification on the ballot for candidates.

The move for partisan school boards bubbled up after local fights over COVID-19 protocols, race issues and book bans.

Latest version of the bill

The latest version of the bill would have given Hoosier communities two options to trigger a referendum vote.

One provision said sitting school board members could decide on their own to vote for their seats to become partisan. But local voters still get the final say. According to the bill, school boards could have taken that action as early as Jan. 1, 2024.

Another option would have permitted the decision to be made through a petition process requiring signatures of 500 voters or 5% of voters in the district, whichever is lesser. A successful petition would put the question on the ballot.

But locals also had the option to do nothing at all, meaning school board elections in a particular district would remain nonpartisan. That was the default option laid out in the bill.

Updated language in the bill clarified that Libertarians and other third-party candidates could run, as long as they declare their party affiliation.

Voters would also have been required to choose, individually, school board members on ballots — a straight-ticket option wouldn’t be available.

Whether through a school board vote or voter-led public question, school board candidates would have had to run in partisan primaries in order to be nominated for the general election, or forgo a primary altogether but have to use a partisan label in the general election.

To claim a party, school board candidates further must have voted that way in the last two primaries in which that person voted.

Candidates for school board additionally could not work for that school corporation, according to the bill.

A school board or community would have been forced to wait 10 years between any public questions if they later changed their minds and wanted to opt-out of partisan school board races.

Indiana senators not so keen on voucher expansion included in House budget

2023-02-24T15:55:43+00:00

This article originally published in the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

Top Indiana senators said they aren’t so sure about a House Republican budget plan that would more than double taxpayer spending on the state’s “school choice” voucher program.

House lawmakers on Thursday approved their version of the budget, punting it over to the Senate.

But pushback is already mounting against provisions that seek to generously expand eligibility for the state’s “school choice” program — which allows families to receive vouchers to attend private schools.

Republican Senate Pro Tem Rodric Bray said that while his chamber is “passionate about school choice, too,” he’s skeptical his caucus will be on board with the House proposal.

“I’m a little hesitant on that,” he said Thursday, pointing to “a big number” price tag to allow a majority of Hoosiers to qualify for the school choice program. “Every year the voucher piece is a big discussion on the budget. We’ll have some other conversations, as well, but that will be a big one.”

He also hinted at support for more voucher school accountability, but spared any specifics.

Republican House Speaker Todd Huston remained firm, however, that his caucus has no interest in adopting additional transparency or accountability guardrails.

“The program as it exists has been extraordinarily successful,” Huston said. “We feel very good about where we are … [the Senate] will have different priorities, and we’ll work through those different priorities with them.”

Senate expected to hit the brakes

The new voucher dollars account for roughly a third of the $2 billion in new, additional state funds that House Republicans want to earmark for K-12 education over the biennium.

Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Lizton, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, said the decision comes as a way to increase “options” for Hoosier parents.

Expanded eligibility for the Choice Scholarship program — which allows families to receive vouchers to attend private schools — would raise the income ceiling to 400% of the amount required for a student to qualify for the federal free or reduced price lunch program, equal to about $220,000, according to the House budget.

Currently, vouchers are limited to families that make less than 300% of the federal poverty level, meaning a family of four can make up to $154,000 annually.

Bray said he also wasn’t sure the Senate would support the House’s proposed elimination of the eight pathways currently in place — in addition in income requirements — that determine student eligibility for the program.

“When you move it up to 400% of the poverty level, it’s a big number there. And when you get rid of the pathways, that really accentuates that,” Bray said. “We’re going to take a very close look at it.”

Voucher schools receive state funding, too, but are not required to operate within the same parameters as local public schools. For instance, they don’t have elected school boards and don’t have to justify their spending. Critics have long maintained that such schools lack transparency and accountability to the public.

The latest pushback came from a top GOP senator who called for voucher school reforms — not expansion — in the current legislative session.

Sen. Ryan Mishler, R-Mishawaka, said that Senate and House disagreements on voucher spending predated this year’s expansion and senators consistently preferred a smaller amount than their House counterparts.

“That’s something we’ve always negotiated,” Mishler told the Indiana Capital Chronicle Thursday.

When crafting the last state budget, Mishler said his caucus agreed with the House’s voucher request though he personally objected.

In his recent letter urging Hoosier parents to rethink charter schools he called for additional guardrails, pledging not to support “one additional dollar spent” on the voucher program without student protections.

But even though he chairs the Senate’s powerful Appropriations Committee, Mishler said he still abided by the wishes of the overall caucus.

“That’s what people are misinterpreting — I can’t control that,” Mishler said. “I personally am reluctant to support an expansion until I can get some protections… [but] I’m not trying to take down this program, I’m actually trying to strengthen the program.”

Mishler said he was meeting with voucher proponents to discuss future guardrails for voucher schools but specific solutions would come out later.

“Our caucus members just have to ask themselves — they’re spending over half a billion dollars to increase the eligibility. For our members … What do they want to give up to get to that dollar? I think that’s really the overall question,” Mishler said. “But I can’t control what we do. I always go to the caucus.”

House leadership still committed to expansion

After the expansion, the program would cost the state an estimated $500 million in fiscal year 2024, and another $600 million in the following fiscal year. The current state budget appropriates $240 million annually for the Choice Scholarships.

Indiana has about 87,000 private school students, according to the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE). About 44,000 of those use the state’s Choice Scholarship program — which allows families to receive vouchers to attend private schools. But under the House GOP plan, the remaining 43,000 would be eligible for the grant, which would average around $7,500 statewide.

Still, about 90% of Hoosier students currently attend a traditional public school.

Huston held that the “hundreds of thousands of kids” that have used Indiana vouchers in the last decade are a testament to the program’s popularity — and a sign that increased eligibility would boost participation even more.

“They’re popular. They’re popular with families,” he said. “We see no reason why we shouldn’t continue to expand.”

Thompson additionally maintained earlier this week that private school tuition vouchers will “save the state money.”

“We’re educating 100,000 students [at voucher schools] for half the cost of those at traditional public schools,” Thompson said, pointing to debt service costs at public schools that “costs the state more money.”

“That’s a great deal for taxpayers, and also just honors a philosophy that I think a lot of us have, that parents should make what they believe is the best choice for their students,” he continued.

The Senate now takes the reins on the budget. But the chamber isn’t likely to unveil its spending plan for another month, closer to the release of the state’s next fiscal forecast.

Will higher FAFSA completion mean more Hoosier students go to college? Officials hope so

2023-02-23T22:13:47+00:00

As higher education battles low enrollment and perceptions that it is too expensive, lawmakers and others are working to make sure more Indiana students know about the financial aid available to them.

This Sunday is College Goal Sunday, a free in-person event at locations around the state, to help families fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as the FAFSA. And earlier this week, lawmakers advanced a bill that would require most students to fill out the form.

The legislation and the College Goal event highlight arguments from public officials that millions of dollars in aid is being left on the table, money that could change a student’s decision about postsecondary education.

A new survey released earlier this month by the Indiana Department of Education shows that roughly 70% of high schoolers in Indiana plan to pursue education after high school.

But just 53% of students in Indiana’s Class of 2020 went on to college, state data released last summer showed. And only 27% of parents say it’s affordable, per the new survey.

Filling out the FAFSA would show Hoosier families more aid options and potentially change that, in turn, improve Indiana’s college going rate, leaders argue.

As of Feb. 10, roughly a third of Indiana’s Class of 2023 had completed the FAFSA, per Form Your Future, a national tracker of FAFSA completion.

College Goal Sunday offers FAFSA help

Students need to fill out the FAFSA to be considered for federal financial aid, such as Pell Grants. But the form is also used by many states and colleges as well as private aid providers to determine eligibility for state and school grants, scholarships, and more.

In Indiana, the deadline to file the FAFSA for state aid is April 15.

Senate Bill 167 would require all students, with certain exceptions like for those at some nonpublic schools and for students whose parents sign a waiver, to complete the FAFSA by that state deadline during their senior year. The Indiana Senate passed the bill earlier this week and it now awaits action from the Indiana House.

College Goal Sunday started more than 30 years ago and is now a model used in other states.

The event comes around like clockwork, and families can count on it as a way to get the form off their to-do list, said Bill Wozniak, co-chair of the event.

“The FAFSA is so critical and the most important form,” he said.

But he knows that despite strong interest in education after high school, many Hoosiers are uncomfortable with the financial aid process.

He’s heard it in his role leading College Goal Sunday, and as he’s traveled the state leading an advisory team from INvestED, a nonprofit that provides free financial aid advising to students and families. And a survey from INvestED shows the same.

Nearly 90% of Hoosiers see a value in education beyond high school, but 62% say understanding the process of paying for college is not easy, per the survey results released earlier this month. And of people who don’t enroll, 28% said it was because of the cost.

When it comes to FAFSA, families and students are often worried that they are on the hook for student loans just by filling out the form, or that they make too much money or it’s too difficult to fill out, he said.

But Wozniak stressed that the FAFSA doesn’t require people to take out loans and is a way for many people to qualify for aid beyond what’s earmarked for students from low-income backgrounds.

And events like College Goal Sunday can help not just by answering questions, but by calming nerves, he said.

Indiana House Republicans want to reshape school district, charter funding

2023-02-21T00:44:01+00:00

This article was originally published by WFYI.

House Republicans wrote a sweeping overhaul to limit local property taxes for public school corporations and opened a new type of funding for charter schools in their proposed two-year state budget.

The change would mandate the amount of funds every public school district and charter school receives for operations — money to cover non-classroom expenses. The proposed amount is $1,400 per student in 2024 and $1,500 per student in 2025.

This would result in charter schools and some small and rural schools getting a boost in state dollars. But a cap on the per student funding amount would also slash millions of dollars in local operation funds at large school districts. That impact would not be immediate – over the next eight years, lower tax rates would be phased in.

Budget architect Rep. Jeff Thompson (R-Lizton) said the proposal equalizes operations funding. Now, the amount of funds a school district receives is dependent on multiple factors, like local property values, and varies significantly between some districts. And charter schools receive no dedicated funds for transportation or facilities.

It’s unfair, Thompson said, for some school districts to take in thousands of dollars in per student funds from local property levies, while other schools have far less support.

“I philosophically can’t continue down that path once I understand it,” Thompson said during a committee hearing on the House budget amendment. “I just think it’s not the right policy for the state.”

To ensure every school receives the same amount of funds, the state would subsidize any traditional public school that generates less than $1,400 per student from its operation levy. The grant would cover the difference between the target amount and local funds.

Charter schools, who do not receive local property taxes, would also receive $1,400 per student next year from state funds. The proposed operations grant would essentially replace a current state grant for charter schools that offers $1,250 per student.

House lawmakers estimate the new operations fund to cost $253.6 million over the next two years.

The provision would also require school corporations to have an operations tax levy of $0.40 or less per $100 of assessed value by 2031. In general, districts with larger tax bases lose money in this model.

As an example, Indianapolis Public Schools could be required to reduce the rate of its current operations tax levy by around 38 percent over the coming years and have its fund cut by tens of millions of dollars.

But projections released by House Republicans show IPS would not face funding cuts in 2024 or 2025 as local assessed property values continue to increase.

A fiscal analysis of the plan and the impact on individual school districts and charter schools is not yet released from the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency.

The new funding mechanism and grant is wrapped in the House Republicans’ $43.3 billion biennium spending plan. It also includes nearly $18 billion for the K-12 funding formula, an increase of more than 10 percent from the last state budget.

It advanced to the full House on a party line vote.

What does this mean?

Education leaders and lawmakers have long sought a formula to equitably fund schools across Indiana while accounting for the vast differences in urban, suburban and rural communities, and also weighing the multitude of factors that impact students, from poverty to learning English.

School choice advocates have also pushed for increased funds for charter schools as means of providing an equitable education to students and keeping up with district schools who benefit from tax referendum funds.

School districts are funded through a combination of state and local taxes. The state general education fund covers teacher compensation and other classroom expenses. And all schools receive the same base funding for each enrolled student. Additional dollars are added to the basic state grant based on the needs of each district, such as the amount of students in poverty or services for special education.

The local operations fund is generated from a tax levy on property owners in the boundary of each school corporation. This fund can be used for transportation and bus replacement expenses and capital projects, like renovations or new buildings. If a school district wins voter approval for an operating tax referendum, those new funds generated by a tax increase can be used for teacher pay and classroom expenses.

That is the current funding model for traditional public education. When charter schools were created by legislation in 2001, lawmakers provided the same per student funding from the state general education fund as traditional schools. Additional state grants for charter schools have since been enacted. But legislation does not allow charters to levy local property tax funds to cover transportation or facilities. Under this bill, the state would make up for the local tax funds charter schools do not receive through a new grant.

Innovation charter schools, a charter model that requires a contract with a local school district, are not included in this provision. Instead, HB 1001 would create a new grant program for each innovation charter school to receive $1,400 per student in 2024 and $1,500 per student in 2025 to use for facility and transportation costs.

The proposal makes $25 million available for the innovation charter school grants program in the two-year spending plan.

Multiple education organizations WFYI reached out to this declined to comment on the proposal, each citing the need to fully understand the impact of a change to operations funding and other details in the 200 page budget bill.

Contact WFYI education editor Eric Weddle at eweddle@wfyi.org or call (317) 614-0470. Follow on Twitter: @ericweddle.

Indiana lawmakers advance bill banning education on ‘human sexuality’ through the third grade

2023-02-20T23:36:58+00:00

This article originally published in the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

More than four hours of “We say gay!” chants echoed through the Indiana Statehouse Monday as hundreds rallied against a bill that would prohibit Hoosier educators from talking about “human sexuality” through 3rd grade.

The latest draft of the proposal also targets transgender students by prohibiting school employees from using a name or pronoun that is inconsistent with a student’s sex without a parent’s written consent.

Schools would additionally be required to notify parents if a student requests to change their name or pronouns.

The bill advanced along party lines 9-4 to the full House. The chamber must approve the bill and send it to the Senate by Feb. 27, or it dies.

Lawmakers on the House Education Committee met Monday to debate House Bill 1608, authored by Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Greenwood. The proposal is reminiscent of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that has been described by some as one of the most “hateful” pieces of legislation in the country.

“The goal of House Bill 1608 is to empower Hoosier parents by reinforcing that they’re in the driver’s seat when it comes to introducing sensitive topics to their children,” Davis said, noting that the bill is a response to “numerous concerns of parents in her district.

“Parents know what’s best for their children, and their authority should not be superseded by teachers and school administrators,” she continued.

Earlier language in Davis’ bill banned K-3 classroom instruction or discussion about sexual orientation, gender fluidity, gender roles, gender identity, gender expression and gender stereotypes.

The committee nixed that list of topics and instead changed the bill’s language to bar younger kids from being taught about “human sexuality.”

Davis said that encompasses “the way people experience and express themselves sexually.” She noted that the change intends to prevent sex education from being taught to younger Hoosier students.

Davis conceded that Indiana schools do not currently teach sex education to students that young. The introduction of those concepts usually starts in the fourth grade, according to state standards.

Bill targets pronouns

Education advocates argued Monday that the bill, as amended, is an “attack” on LGBTQ Hoosier youth — especially transgender students.

A provision to the legislation prohibits schools and teachers from using “a name, pronoun, title, or other word to identify a student that is inconsistent with the student’s sex” assigned at birth unless a parent requests the change in writing.

The bill advanced along party lines 9-4 to the full House. The chamber must approve the bill and send it to the Senate by Feb. 27, or it dies.

Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, said that the pronoun language, specifically, “makes the bill far less palatable.”

Still, Republicans on the committee maintained that the bill would not apply to curriculum for academic standards or prevent students from having private, one-on-one conversations with a school counselor, social worker or therapist.

But the bill isn’t so cut and dry.

Language in the bill reads that “a school, an employee or staff member of a school, or a third party vendor used by a school to provide instruction” can not provide any instruction on “human sexuality.”

Additional amendments adopted to the bill on Monday clarify that teachers — if asked — are allowed to answer students’ questions about “human sexuality” and other topics. It’s not exactly clear what educators are or are not allowed to say, however.

“(A teacher can respond) any way that is the correct answer … You can have two moms, you can have two dads, you can have a mom and a dad. The rest of the discussion should be with the parents,” Davis said, when asked what a teacher would be able to say to a first grader who asks why a peer has two moms.

Private schools were also carved out of the latest draft of the bill.

Majority of testimony in opposition

Only a handful of people testified Monday in support of the bill.

That included Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana, who said K-3 teachers should be focused on improving dismal math and literacy scores, not “unnecessary controversies.”

“Parents are free to talk to children about these issues. But when the teacher, counselor or guest speaker does it, all that will do is cause heartache for school administrators and the school board, at some point,” Clark said.

Damon Clevenger, a music teacher in Lawrence Township in Indianapolis, said, “As a young LGBTQ+ child, I was constantly a target for bullies and close-minded people who would rather isolate me than accept me for who I am. I honestly don’t believe I wouldn’t be standing here today if it had not been for my teachers who saw me accepted me, and the proud, out educators who let me know that I was not alone in this world. This bill would take that away from our children today.”

He also promised that students will always have a safe space in his classroom.

Jennifer Laughlin of the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) said current state law already protects students of all ages from “obscene materials” — which is what some of the bill’s supporters say they want erased from classrooms.

“This bill is about scoring political points, rather than addressing the real issue,” she said. “Regardless of this bill’s merit, it’s based on a bad faith argument from the start. This bill brings to light issues that are a part of a national trend designed to sow doubt and further a false narrative of our great public schools.”

Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, held that state lawmakers should not “create a universal standard” that imposes Christian values and beliefs on all Hoosiers.

“The bottom line is that we’re here in education and in government to serve people … and to get so upset about pronouns … that we lose the educational focus — we’re here to educate children, not to sanctify them,” Smith said. “We need to make schools inviting … we’re creating a problem that we don’t need to create.”

Paula Davis, mom of three school-age children, an educator, and a chapter president of Moms for Liberty, disagreed.

“This is not about whether or not I agree with homosexual lifestyle. This is about my right as a parent to guarantee my children are not being told the morals and values of their parents are wrong.”

She added that the bill “is guaranteeing that my children do not have an educator introduce them to a topic that I do not believe should be discussed outside of my presence. It is creating a neutral space so children are not forced to participate in something that is so divisive, especially when they may not feel like they have a voice or the power to challenge the teacher.”

‘The right thing to do:’ Indiana considers in-state tuition for students without legal U.S. residency

2023-02-01T23:35:57+00:00

Hoosiers without legal U.S. residency may become eligible for in-state college tuition rates through a bipartisan bill currently under consideration by the legislature.

The students have had to pay out-of-state tuition instead of paying the lower in-state rates due to a 2011 law, and despite past efforts to change the policy.

This has left Indiana as just one of a few states that requires students lacking legal residency status to pay out-of-state tuition rates — often at a cost of many times the in-state rates — leaving college out of reach.

But lawmakers are trying once again to change that with Senate Bill 135, which would make students eligible for in-state rates if they have attended Indiana schools for four years and either graduated or received the equivalent of a high diploma.

The bipartisan bill would also require students to file an affidavit with their college stating that they will apply to legalize their immigration status as soon as the option is available.

The bill is authored by Republican Sens. Blake Doriot of Goshen and Linda Rogers of Granger, and Sen. David Niezgodski, a Democrat from South Bend.

Doriot said the bill would put Indiana in line with other states that make in-state tuition accessible to more students, like those who were brought to the United States as children, but who don’t qualify for temporary resident status as offered in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. DACA recipients are currently eligible for in-state tuition at some Indiana public colleges, according to the Higher Ed Immigration Portal.

Doriot added that many of his constituents have lived in Indiana for a long time despite not having legal resident status, and that the cost of college leads students to give up on higher education.

Given its critical need for workers, the state should help students who want to go to college, Doriot said.

“This problem has come to us… not from what the state of Indiana has done, but what the federal government has failed to do. We haven’t been able to get together and find a clean pathway to citizenship,” Doriot said. “And we are addressing children, young adults, who want to further themselves and they’re here, and they can’t go home.”

“The bottom line is, this is just the right thing to do,” Niezgodski added.

SB 135 had its first hearing Wednesday to public support from community groups and higher education systems, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, Indiana Latino Institute, Stand For Children Indiana, and Ball State University.

Sen. J.D. Ford, a Democrat from Carmel, noted that at Purdue University, for example, in-state students paid around $10,000 per year in tuition, versus $28,800 for out-of-state students.

Rachel Santos, director of education policy at the Indiana Latino Institute, said Indiana is now just one of two states barring students without legal residency from accessing the less expensive in-state tuition rate. She added that the state’s Latino population is growing in large part due to immigration.

“This is not a handout. This is asking for a fair chance at earning an education,” Santos told lawmakers.

There were no amendments or votes on Wednesday. Chair Sen. Jeff Raatz said the committee would take up the matter next week.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana’s plan to ‘reinvent high school’ moves forward with grants of up to $5,000 for job training

2023-02-01T21:32:56+00:00

A proposal to bring more job training to Indiana high school students moved forward Wednesday over the objections of Democratic lawmakers who said the bill still had too many unanswered questions about its scope and funding.

The bill, which House Republicans have said will “reinvent high school” by allowing students to meet graduation requirements through career experience, gives students state-funded scholarship accounts to spend on workforce training outside their schools.

The voucher-like proposal saw a few tweaks Wednesday as author Rep. Chuck Goodrich, R-Noblesville, added a price range of $2,500 to $5,000 to the accounts, to be determined by the Department of Education and the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet.

New language also specifies that schools can host joint career fairs to meet the provisions of the bill, and requires all schools to offer a career awareness class for all students, regardless of whether they use the scholarship accounts, by July 2024.

The bill passed the House Education Committee by a vote of 8-4 and now moves to the House Ways and Means Committee, which will determine the cost of the program. If passed, accounts would be available for the 2023-24 school year, and the education department would be tasked with creating new diploma requirements by December 2024.

Though there was no testimony Wednesday, community organizations in past hearings have expressed support for more career development for students, along with reservations about the additional work the bill might create for schools.

Democrats on the education committee said the bill was moving forward with too many unanswered questions, including how the funding would be doled out between schools, students, career training providers, and any intermediaries between those entities.

They proposed a number of amendments to limit the scope of the bill — including one to make the proposal a pilot program in only a few schools around the state, and another to study the idea further in a summer committee — but most were shot down on party lines.

They also questioned whether the bill’s proposal to allow students to use funds from the 21st Century Scholarship Grant, which are currently earmarked for college tuition, for postsecondary career training would lead to fewer students from low-income families earning college degrees. Republicans on the committee denied this suggestion.

Rep. Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat, added that the scope of the bill was enormous, and would affect private schools and state agencies while creating a parallel education system.

“They talk about not being ready for prime time; this bill isn’t ready for soap opera time,” DeLaney said in the committee hearing.

The committee also rejected an amendment to provide more funding to school counseling departments, which DeLaney argued would be burdened with implementing the program.

The committee did accept an amendment from Democratic Rep. Vernon Smith of Gary to offer schools funding for career fairs.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana advances plan to expand school choice program to more students

2023-01-25T22:01:02+00:00

A bill that would expand school choice in Indiana and divert funds from public schools advanced on Wednesday with major changes.

Senate lawmakers enlarged the pool of students who could receive state money to attend private schools, but backed away from an initial proposal that would have opened the state’s Education Scholarship Accounts to all students regardless of family income or education needs.

Sen. Brian Buchanan amended his bill on Wednesday to limit the accounts to families meeting the program’s current income requirements. His changes also would reserve half of the total appropriation for students who receive special education services — the group the accounts currently serve.

The amended legislation passed the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development by a vote of 8-5, with GOP Sen. Jean Leising joining the four Democrats on the committee in opposition. It now heads to the appropriations committee.

The bill could become one of the more notable education policy legacies of Indiana’s 2023 legislative session. Proponents say it puts more control in parents’ hands over their children’s education.

“Any time you can give more choice and more options for parents, I believe it’s better,” said the bill’s author, Buchanan, in committee hearings last week.

Meanwhile, critics assail the program for siphoning off funds from state education and public schools.

“This is not about parent choice, this is about diverting and divesting money away from public schools,” said Sen. Fady Qaddoura, a Democrat.

Other concerns from opposition lawmakers included expanding a relatively new program to all families without data to gauge its effectiveness.

Created in 2021, the scholarship accounts currently are open only to students who receive special education services and whose families who don’t exceed certain limits on household income, allowing them to use state funding to attend private schools.

Buchanan’s bill would remove special education requirements, opening the choice program to families with a household income up to 300% of the federal poverty level. It would also raise the grant that a student would receive from 90% to 100% of the state tuition dollars earmarked for their public school.

The total cost of the proposal hasn’t been revealed, and that cost will determine the number of students who could participate. Buchanan said the appropriations committee would make that determination, but that he would support a $10 million appropriation, equal to its current budget.

Though just 143 students participate in the education scholarship program in 2022-23, interest is likely to increase as more people become aware of it, according to the bill’s fiscal note. Senate Bill 305 will make more families whose students attend private schools eligible for state support, potentially increasing the total cost to the state, according to the note.

The education scholarship accounts are separate from the Choice Scholarship program, which is open to most students from low- and moderate-income families in Indiana. That program served around 44,000 students last year, at a cost of about $240 million.

The expansion of the education scholarship accounts is not the only voucher or voucher-like program that lawmakers are considering this session. Another would create career scholarship accounts, giving students state grants to spend on job training with organizations outside their schools.

Career scholarship accounts would not come out of tuition support dollars for schools, though they would render schools ineligible for career and technical education dollars for each student who opts for a scholarship account instead.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana students may need to learn how to open bank accounts, take out loans in order to graduate

2023-01-25T20:25:32+00:00

A proposal to require all Hoosier high schoolers to take a personal finance course is moving forward, amid a spate of legislation aimed at improving students’ financial literacy.

Senate Bill 35 — one of five bills that would make personal finance a graduation requirement — mandates that schools offer a stand-alone course on topics like opening a bank account, applying for loans, and filling out tax returns. High schoolers would be required to take the class beginning with the Class of 2028.

The bill, authored by GOP Sen. Mike Gaskill, unanimously passed out of the Senate Education and Career Development committee Wednesday.

The vote puts Indiana on track to join several other states that have recently adopted financial literacy graduation requirements. However, some lawmakers and others questioned if the bill would create an additional burden for schools, or if the principles of financial literacy could instead be incorporated into other courses.

A total of 17 other states, including Michigan and Ohio, now require such a course for graduation, according to a report from Next Gen Personal Finance. The report also found that nationwide, schools where a majority of students are students of color — as well as those where most students receive federally subsidized meals — were far less likely to have a guaranteed personal finance course than whiter and wealthier school districts.

A mandate for such courses isn’t entirely new to schools in the state. Around 11% of Indiana students are currently enrolled in schools that require a semester-long course dedicated to personal finance, according to Next Gen Personal Finance’s report.

Another Indiana bill would allow students to meet a current graduation requirement to take Algebra II by taking a personal finance course instead.

Testimony from a committee hearing on the bill last week highlighted the necessity of such a course.

“Who’s to know what financial influences may challenge our students in the year 2030?” said Bob Taylor of the Indiana Association of School Superintendents. “To have a solid foundation of financial literacy is going to be critical for them to continue to be lifelong, articulate, intelligent consumers.”

A financial literacy bill has been expected since the Interim Study Committee on Education recommended the measure last fall. At that time, Democratic Sen. Shelli Yoder expressed some concern that math teachers would be tasked with teaching financial literacy while also trying to help students recover from pandemic-era academic setbacks.

Other lawmakers have asked if the bill would create an undue burden for schools.

Gaskill said that the Indiana Department of Education could decide to adjust another mandate to make room for this requirement, but that personal finance is important enough to merit its own class.

A one-semester course that exclusively covers personal finance is the ideal format, J.W. Fansler of the Indiana Council for Economic Education said, because it allows schools to reach all students just as they may be starting their first jobs.

Integrating personal finance into existing courses is possible, but presents issues, he said. Incorporating it into an economics course conflates two separate subjects, for example, while adding it to math classes might be tricky with high schoolers on different math tracks.

The class should cover budgeting, including tracking expenses like car and house payments, insurance costs, and utility bills, Fansler said. To teach this, some schools have turned to “reality stores,” in which students choose an occupation and learn how much they’ll make on average, and then spend their projected paychecks on both necessities and discretionary costs.

“A lot of students are surprised at how much things cost,” Fansler said of their reaction to personal finance education. “They think: I’m going to make $15 an hour — but wait — $15 an hour doesn’t go as far as I thought it would.”

Overall, creating a personal finance graduation requirement is good for Indiana students, and the state as a whole, Fansler said.

“Financial stress is one of the top stressors. If they can decrease that, it’s going to make their job performance improve, their relationships better,” he said. “If they’re job prepared, they’ve learned about discipline, it’s going to make their lives better.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the number of states that require financial literacy as of 2023, as well as the link to the most recent Next Gen Personal Finance report.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana lawmakers will again consider a bill to ban certain topics on race and sex from classrooms

2023-01-20T19:07:52+00:00

Indiana lawmakers will again consider a bill to ban certain topics related to race and racism from classroom discussions, after similar legislation last year stirred national backlash and ultimately failed to pass.

This year’s bill, introduced by GOP Rep. Shane Lindauer, includes a list of seven concepts that educators would be forbidden from promoting, including that individuals are inherently consciously or unconsciously racist or sexist, or that they should feel “discomfort, guilt, or anguish” on the basis of their race or sex.

House Bill 1338 also reaches into the higher education sphere by prohibiting state educational institutions from requiring students to take gender or sexual diversity training, or racial and sexual bias training.

The bill is another indication that some members of the GOP supermajority want to tackle how schools address hot-button social issues this session, despite some lawmakers’ calls to focus on school funding in the biennial budget and not divisive cultural topics.

Reflecting broader political disputes, Republican lawmakers have also filed a series of bills focused on minors’ gender identity, including two that would prohibit the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation in schools. Other bills would compel educators to report if a student requests to change their name, pronouns, attire, or what restroom they use.

But so far, conversations about expanding school choice and voucher-like programs have dominated the first meetings of the House and Senate education committees.

Lindauer’s bill specifies that parents must be notified if a survey that their student takes would be shared with a school district’s third-party vendor.

His bill has been referred to the House Education Committee.

The bill has a much narrower focus than last year’s legislation, which in an early draft would have created curriculum review committees and required teachers to post their learning material online. The language in Lindauer’s bill also differs slightly from last year’s proposal, which included a broader list of protected characteristics, like ethnicity, religion, color, and national origin.

Last year’s House bill, along with its companion in the Senate, met with strong opposition from a coalition of teachers, parents, and community groups, who said the bills would silence conversations about history in classrooms.

Supporters of the legislation from last year said the proposals gave parents more control over what their children were learning via the curriculum portals.

Indiana’s contentious debate in 2022 was part of the national furor over whether K-12 schools were teaching critical race theory, a graduate-level legal theory focused on institutional racial bias.

The bill ultimately died in the Senate after passing the House.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana lawmakers weigh bill to create universal school choice program

2023-01-19T21:51:50+00:00

This article originally published in the Indiana Capital Chronicle.

Indiana lawmakers on Wednesday began a contentious debate over whether it should bring universal school choice — and its daunting potential long-term cost — to Hoosier students and parents.

Testimony heard in the Senate education committee raised questions about how much universal education scholarship accounts would cost and whether the state can afford to fund all students who are eligible to participate. This would be separate than the state’s voucher program, known as Choice Scholarships.

Critics of the bill additionally doubled down on their concerns that the program expansion would pull additional dollars away from already cash-strapped public schools.

Bill author Sen. Brian Buchanan, R-Lebanon, maintained that his bill seeks to give families more options and ensure that students who don’t qualify for the program now — but want to — can participate.

“ESAs are designed all around to put parents in control of their kids’ education, allowing them to have more say in essentially determining how the money is going to be spent and what accountability and transparency will look like,” Buchanan said. “Anytime you can get more choice, more options for parents, I believe it’s better, and that’s what this bill is doing.”

The bill is awaiting committee approval, which could come as early as next week. Senate education committee chairman Sen. Jeff Raatz, R-Richmond, said several amendments to the measure are likely to be adopted before a vote is held.

Will Indiana adopt universal school choice?

Indiana’s Education Scholarship Account (ESA) program was created by the General Assembly in 2021 despite pushback from public education advocates who argued that the program lacks oversight and takes money away from traditional public schools.

Currently, ESAs are limited to students who qualify for special education. Families must also meet income limits to participate. The income ceiling is high, however. A family of four can make up to $154,000 annually — equal to 300% of the amount required for a student to qualify for the federal free or reduced price lunch program.

But Buchanan’s bill would extend the program to all students, regardless of a student’s educational needs or their family’s income level.

Accounts set up by the state treasurer’s office provide each qualifying student with funding for private school tuition and various other educational services from providers outside of their school district.

Buchanan is seeking to increase the ESA grants from 90% to 100% of the per-pupil funding that the state provides to local public schools. That means, on average, a student is eligible to receive about $7,500 per academic year.

The previous state budget appropriated $10 million a year for the program, enough to fund about 1,300 ESAs. Fiscal year 2023 is the first year the program enrolled students. The treasurer’s office reports that 143 students are participating in the program this year.

Buchanan said he “would be happy” if budget writers kept the ESA funding the same in the next biennium, noting that the program expansion “is contingent upon getting a line item for a fiscal line item in the budget.”

While Buchanan repeatedly tried to focus on that initial $10 million price tag, the program could easily grow.

For instance, Indiana has about 87,000 private school students, according to the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE). About 44,000 of those use the state’s Choice Scholarship program — which allows families to receive vouchers to attend private schools. But the remaining 43,000 would be eligible for the grant, which would average around $7,500 statewide.

That would equal more than $300 million annually.

The voucher program started similarly with a cap of 7,500 students at a cost of $15 million. The cap doubled the next year and now there is no limit and a current annual cost of $240 million.

Home-schooled students would also be eligible, along with public school kids. But the latter are already being funded in the state’s K-12 support formula.

Buchanan emphasized that less than 150 students currently participate in the ESA program. He said there are another 300 families who want to take part but aren’t currently eligible.

“This program only exists if it gets funded by the state budget that we’re currently crafting,” he said, adding that “whether it be $10 million again, or less or more than that, that will be the cap.”

Buchanan said the program will be “first come, first served” if the number of students who want an ESA exceeds the state cap.

It is unclear if the voucher program would still exist alongside a universal education savings account program.

It’s also not clear whether the GOP caucus will support a universal school voucher program in the current budget. Republican House Speaker Todd Huston said last week that he “would love to see” Indiana adopt such a program.

Changes to high school learning and degrees

Legislators on Wednesday also began discussions around a key education bill that seeks to “reinvent” high school curriculum. The House education committee heard two hours of testimony on HB 1002, a priority bill for the caucus that seeks to expand work-based learning in Indiana high schools, like apprenticeships and internships.

In addition, the bill would create a framework for students to earn a post-secondary credential before leaving the K-12 system.

Bill author Rep. Chuck Goodrich, R-Noblesville, said his proposal seeks to narrow the “skills gap” between Hoosiers and employers.

“Many students are not receiving the education and training they need to succeed in our workforce,” he said. “The world is changing at a rapid pace. We need to ensure that our students are ready for all that lies beyond high school — that they will have additional pathways to succeed.”

Paramount to the bill is a provision that would establish accounts for students in grades 10-12 to pay for career training outside their schools.

The career scholarship accounts (CSAs) would be similar to Indiana’s ESAs. Students would first be required to create a postsecondary plan in order to qualify for the scholarship accounts.

The amount each participating student can receive to pay for apprenticeships, coursework, or certification would be based on a calculation of the state dollars that their school receives. Students won’t qualify for a CSA if they’re already enrolled in a career and technical education program, though.

The IDOE would be tasked with approving the courses and tracks available to students, as well as determining the grant amount for each course.

GOP lawmakers said their goal is to get 5,000 to 10,000 students to participate in the next fiscal year.

Other provisions in the bill would require IDOE to put in place new diploma requirements by 2024, and ensure that high schools hold career fairs to help students connect with employers and work-based learning providers.

The bill would also allow students to apply funds from the 21st Century Scholars program — a statewide grant program that supports student enrollment at two- and four-year schools.

The CSAs have so far been met with support from business and economic leaders from across the state. Many education officials said they’re on-board with the idea, but they want more clarity around the bill’s fiscal impact.

The Indiana State Teachers Association, which opposes the current draft of the bill, said they specifically want lawmakers to ensure that public schools “play a major role” in work-based learning expansion.

“We are concerned that this bill drastically creates further privatization and outsources the public tax dollars that will have significant implications on school funding, how funding is streamed to schools and how it will affect students in classrooms,” said Jerell Blakeley, ISTA’s director of government, community, racial and social justice. “Educators in public schools are uniquely qualified, by training experience, to ensure that work-based learning experiences are both substantive and substantial.”

From teaching about race to COVID and Rebuilding Stronger, here are our 5 most-read stories of 2022

2022-12-21T13:00:00+00:00

From Indiana Statehouse bills grabbing the national spotlight and a sweeping overhaul of Indianapolis Public Schools, to a high-stakes midterm election, 2022 was a full year for education news.

So as we look ahead to 2023, we’re also looking back at our top stories from 2022 to find the five topics that Chalkbeat Indiana readers were most interested in this year.

Below is a list of our most-read articles this year, plus a few related stories that you should check out too.

Statehouse debate on teaching about race

Several of our most popular stories were articles about bills in the 2022 legislative session, especially those that addressed how teachers approach race and racial issues in the classroom.

Most-read stories:

If you liked those, read:

What happens to my school under Rebuilding Stronger?

Rebuilding Stronger is an overhaul of IPS that aims to address pressing issues of enrollment, finances, and inequities for students of color. The school board approved the plan in November, and now district leaders are turning to a pair of referendums to help fund the overhaul’s changes.

Most-read stories:

If you liked those, read:

Election 2022: Voters chose school board members

For this year’s school board elections, Chalkbeat Indiana collaborated with WFYI to create voter guides for districts across Marion County, and also co-hosted a candidate forum for IPS candidates. Victorious candidates will start their terms in January.

Most-read stories:

If you liked those, read:

COVID learning recovery and virtual attendance changes

Nearly three years after COVID shuttered school buildings, data is showing the impact the pandemic has had on students and their learning. Plus, a state law changed how often students can learn virtually and guidance on COVID exposures continued to change.

Most- read stories:

If you liked those, read:

Accountability for state lawmakers

Aside from the legislation they proposed, lawmakers themselves made news too as they discussed race and education.

Most-read stories:

If you liked those, read:

How Indiana’s curriculum bill about racism motivated a new wave of statehouse candidates

Bonus: Charter troubles, special education staffing, and more

While the above topics were the most popular this year, there were a few more prominent stories that didn’t fit into a category. Read those and a few more below.

Most-read stories:

If you liked those, read:

MJ Slaby is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

Some Indiana students have new paths to graduation amid push to ‘reinvent’ high school

2022-12-07T19:45:31+00:00

Indiana students at a handful of school districts have new ways to graduate, and the pathways could expand to more schools throughout the state.

The State Board of Education on Wednesday approved three locally created graduation tracks at two school districts and one adult learning center. They will allow students to earn diplomas and certificates by taking certain courses related to entering the workforce, including in one case potentially getting a job with the district, or enlisting in the military.

District leaders said that the paths could be replicable at schools throughout the state as the legislature considers a push to “reinvent” the high school experience.

The pathways are authorized under 2017 state graduation requirements that are meant to give students more flexibility in earning a diploma. They allow students to graduate via a local track, in lieu of more traditional requirements like earning college-ready test scores or taking advanced classes. The state has previously approved four other such pathways, according to the Indiana Department of Education.

Yorktown High School Principal Stacey Brewer said Yorktown schools’ new graduation track is intended for students who aim to go directly into the workforce after high school. Existing options have been limited for students who don’t want to enter a specific trade, she added.

“Not all students are destined for immediate entrance into postsecondary education, the military, or trade schools,” Brewer said. “Some students will be successful, contributing members of our community working in food service, maintenance, and groundskeeping, to name a few professions.”

Yorktown schools will begin identifying students who are interested in this track in eighth grade, Brewer said, with a course on preparing for college and careers.

No more than 5% of a cohort will be admitted to the pathway in high school, where they’ll train in skills that employers prioritize, like bookkeeping and personal finance, and communicating effectively.

They’ll also receive preferential interviews and hiring from local employers — including Yorktown schools, Brewer said. Students in the pathway will receive training in school-based topics like bullying and seclusion and restraint.

If they get a job during high school, they’ll be able to use time during the school day to get work experience.

The pathway received vocal support from Secretary of Education Katie Jenner and other board members, who noted that students who opt to join the workforce often take a graduation waiver instead of completing a diploma.

“This is a pathway that provides a solution for a group of young adults who deserve similar opportunities as their peers to gain experience, complete training, and build their resume in order to achieve their goal of being workforce ready,” Brewer said.

Another new pathway will also emphasize workforce opportunities, but for adult learners taking classes toward their high school diplomas at the Goodwill Industries-sponsored Excel Center in Gary.

Called Catapult Training, the program will allow students to take shorter-term certification courses from the Excel Center and Ivy Tech. By doing so, students are guaranteed interviews and higher wages with certain employers who are involved in the pathway, said Trent Moore, the director of career and technical education at Goodwill Industries of Michiana.

A final new program at the School City of Hammond will emphasize military enlistment. Board member Byron Ernest said the pathway might be the first such track in the state.

In addition to taking four years of JROTC classes, students on this track will complete a service learning or community service project, attend leadership conferences, take college courses, and participate in military visits, said Cassandra Shipp, Hammond’s assistant superintendent for academic services.

The goal is for students to either enlist in the military at a higher rank and at higher pay than they would otherwise, or to transfer their skills and courses to a college or university, Shipp said.

Though the program is designed to be a four-year track, students can opt in at any point during their high school careers, Superintendent Scott Miller noted.

The state’s four other locally created pathways include a Civic Arts pathway at Greater Clark County Schools, and a Recreation Vehicle Construction pathway at Wa-Nee Community Schools.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Three education issues to watch for in Indiana’s 2023 legislative session

2022-11-21T22:41:23+00:00

Spending more on schools and making high school more relevant are top of mind for Indiana lawmakers heading into the 2023 session, legislative leaders said Monday.

Speaking at a preview event with the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, the leaders of the Democrat and Republican caucuses highlighted proposals to graduate students who are prepared for the workforce and willing to stay in Indiana, as the state grapples with declining college enrollment and the academic impact of the pandemic.

However, GOP leaders essentially stayed mum about whether they’ll take another crack at last year’s unsuccessful curriculum bill that sought to restrict what teachers could say about race and racism.

Republicans, who hold a supermajority in both chambers of the legislature, will seek more work-based learning in high school. Democrats, meanwhile, stressed the need for the state to improve its educational attainment, beginning with early learning.

The legislative session begins in early January. The ceremonial start to the session — known as Organization Day — is on Nov. 22, when representatives can begin filing bills. Here are the education issues to watch for as the session kicks off.

Rethinking what high school looks like

Speaker Todd Huston (R-Fishers) said a top priority for House Republicans is to “reinvent” high school, so that students can work and use job-based opportunities to receive credit toward graduation.

“We have to adjust to a new economy,” Huston said. The current high school structure prioritizes higher education over other postsecondary pathways, he added.

Huston said the details of the plan would be laid out later, but hinted that it could involve replacing courses like calculus with work-based learning.

Indiana is already in the midst of a major overhaul of its K-12 standards after a law passed last year asked the state Department of Education to streamline what students need to know in order to be successful. The department is supposed to seek input from industries, employers, and higher education institutions in order to create those new standards.

Increasing funding for K-12 schools

Heading into a budget year, Huston also said he expects the legislature to approve an increase in K-12 funding, “while expanding options for kids to attend the school of their choice.”

“I feel good about the amount we’re putting into education,” he said.

In 2021, lawmakers approved a $1.9 billion increase for schools, allowing many to raise pay for teachers, who had rallied en masse at the statehouse. (Indiana adopts budgets for two-year periods.)

Calls have already come from school districts this year to invest more into the funds schools receive to educate students who live in poverty — sometimes known as complexity funding.

Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner also said in a recent state Board of Education meeting that increasing funding for English learner students is a priority, after the state reported double-digit drops in test scores for that group this year.

Expanding child care by reducing regulations

The Chamber of Commerce listed improving access to child care and early education in Indiana as one of its top legislative priorities.

“The lack of affordable, high-quality child care across Indiana is one of the outside factors most negatively impacting attracting and retaining workers,” a statement from the chamber said.

To do this, the chamber suggests streamlining existing state regulations not related to health and safety, as well as offering incentives for providers to improve the quality of their programs.

Huston said reconsidering licensure requirements could be a step toward creating more child care providers in the state.

Senate Minority Leader Greg Taylor (D-Indianapolis) said lawmakers have resisted other ideas that could improve access to early education, like offering a child care tax credit, or lowering the age for compulsory school attendance in Indiana from seven to five.

No ‘specifics’ on another curriculum bill

Some education watchers expect to see another version of last year’s curriculum bill involving how teachers address racial issues. But Huston said during the press conference that he hasn’t “heard specifics” about another try.

He added that his caucus “supports families’ rights to choose” the schools their children attend.

However, Huston told reporters he would support another idea from the last legislative session: A bill to make school board elections partisan. Last year’s bill on the matter, which would have required ballots to include school board candidates’ partisan affiliations, drew significant criticism and died in committee.

During the preview event, House Minority Leader Phil GiaQuinta (D-Fort Wayne) said he hoped legislators would “give social issues a rest this session,” after tackling contentious topics like abortion rights in 2022.

“It doesn’t do our state any good to be in the national news over those issues,” GiaQuinta said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Some Indiana schools may be failing to meet staffing rules for English learner students

2022-11-03T12:00:00+00:00

When Sara Holmes works with students, she takes them outside to observe the weather. Or she brings in objects from outside the classroom, like shells from the beach, to describe and discuss.

As an English language collaborative teacher at North Elementary in Noblesville, she’s responsible for helping around 20 English learner students develop their language skills — a role now required in every Indiana district.

But three years after new staffing guidelines were first announced, it’s not clear if there are enough teachers like Holmes. In fact, in the 2021-22 school year, one-third of districts and two-thirds of charter schools statewide reported not having any licensed English learner teachers.

It’s a critical deficit in a state that this summer reported an 8.5 percentage point drop in reading scores among third-graders who are learning English, while scores for most other groups rose or stayed flat. The population of English learners in the state has also grown dramatically in recent years, increasing by 52% between 2017 and 2022 to around 72,000 students.

Hampering schools is a larger staffing shortage in the state that makes it difficult to fill open teaching positions. Some districts also point to funding shortfalls keeping them from hiring enough teachers to meet the recommended ratios of English learner teachers to students.

And COVID-related upheaval threw a wrench in the works at schools that could find both teachers willing to get certified to teach English learners, and the funding to pay for their coursework.

But the Indiana Department of Education cautions that schools that don’t meet the requirements could be found out of compliance with federal law — and risk losing their federal funding. That could mirror the state’s struggle to comply with special education staffing requirements last year.

Most importantly, students who attend schools without enough teachers may get a worse education, with less instructional time and individualized attention from teachers who must travel between schools and teach to larger-than-recommended groups.

Federal rules for English learner staff

Under federal law, all schools have an obligation to adequately staff their English learner programs, which includes hiring trained teachers or training their existing staff to work with English learners.

The teachers are responsible for a student’s English language development, either directly, or through coordination with other teachers. They develop the weekly instruction that students are required to have and analyze how students progress on their goals.

Beyond their day-to-day responsibilities, the teachers serve their schools as experts on language acquisition, said Kathryn Brooks, a professor at the College of Education at Butler University.

“It’s useful not just for multilingual students but all students developing language skills,” she said.

But Indiana has struggled with this obligation. A 2019 memo from the Indiana Department of Education reported that half of Indiana districts had no “English as a New Language” teacher on staff during the 2018-19 school year, while more than 90% of districts had at least one English learner enrolled.

The memo rolled out new staffing rules requiring all districts to hire an English as a New Language Teacher of Record — an educator responsible for overseeing students’ English language development. Schools had until Sept. 1, 2022 to meet the requirement.

They could do so by hiring a licensed teacher, or a teacher to fill the role on an emergency permit. They could also identify a teacher with experience in English learner education to serve in the role under a state-issued rubric.

And districts with low populations of English learner students could share a teacher between them, if the teacher could still provide each student at least 30 minutes of English language development four to five days a week — a baseline requirement from the federal Office for Civil Rights.

In order to meet this requirement, the state education department recommends that teachers have no more than 30 students. That’s a suggestion some teachers would like to see codified into law.

There is no exception to the staffing rules for districts that don’t have any English learners enrolled, according to the state, because an English learner student may enroll in the future and schools must be prepared to teach them.

What state data shows now

A Chalkbeat analysis of state data from the 2021-22 school year found that the vast majority of English learner students at district schools in Indiana — 98% — had at least one licensed English learner teacher in their district. Two-thirds of all districts statewide report having at least one such teacher.

But school-level data indicates these teachers might be stretched thin. Half of all district schools report not having an English learner teacher, which could show that some teachers are traveling between schools to see all students.

In practice, teachers say this can cut into their teaching time, and require them to meet students in large groups that don’t allow for individualized instruction based on the student’s language level.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of Indiana’s charter schools reported not having an English learner teacher. Around 55% of English learners at charter schools are at schools that have at least one English learner teacher.

While both district and charter schools report having English learner teachers on emergency permits as well, all of those instances are at schools that already have a fully licensed English learner teacher.

The available data doesn’t tell the whole story. Some teachers may be shared by districts through interlocal agreements, expanding their reach.

And some schools and districts may be meeting the staffing requirements via the state rubric option — but those numbers are still being collected by the state and won’t be available until December.

Many of the state’s bilingual immersion schools meet the staffing requirements via the rubric option, according to the state department of education, recognizing their teachers’ years of experience.

A statement from the department said the number of educators holding an English as a New Language license has grown 38% from 2019 to 2021, with a total of 2,289 such educators in the state in 2021.

Numbers for 2022 will be released later this year.

COVID disrupts a district’s progress

When the state first announced new staffing guidelines, Portage schools took advantage of a state grant that allowed their staff to earn additional certification to teach English learners.

By January 2020, Linda Williams, the district’s director of grants and assessments, had identified 10 candidates to take Purdue University coursework, with the state education department paying the bill. One of the draws is that completing the program gets them halfway through a master’s degree, she said.

But COVID-related school closures in March meant that those teachers suddenly had more on their plates and less time for the additional classes. The pool of 10 eventually shrunk to three, Williams said.

In 2021, another four teachers in the district completed the program. But by this year, the state grant had expired, and Williams had to find the funding for nine more candidates to go through the Purdue program herself.

The cost is around $6,600 per teacher, funded through a combination of other state and federal grants, she said.

Still, the district’s efforts have brought it close to the state-recommended ratio of one teacher for every 30 students.

“But that’s only one piece of the puzzle,” Williams said. “The math works out. But kids are spread across different buildings. I’d like to have at least one [English language learner] licensed teacher at every building.”

Reinstating the state education department grant would help the district fund more teachers, Williams said. In a statement, the department said it’s evaluating whether to revive the grant.

Other districts like Fort Wayne told legislators earlier this month that chronic under-funding of English learner education has left them unable to meet recommended staffing ratios.

But Williams added that even with the juggling she’s had to do with grants, funding is less of a challenge for Portage than recruiting teachers.

Fewer teacher candidates mean hiring challenges

The rate of teacher retirements in Indiana has accelerated recently, while fewer candidates are entering teacher preparation programs. Among other things, that’s led to fewer teachers in high-need areas like special education and English learner education.

“I have school districts calling me to ask, do you have anybody available?” said Brooks, of Butler University. “But they’ve already found jobs in March and April.”

Brooks said Butler’s licensure program for teachers of English learners has added around 90 teachers to the workforce over the past five years. Candidates typically have teaching licenses and are looking to add on an English as a new language component.

Around 20% to 30% of candidates in the program have some prior experience with English learner students, or have served on emergency permits in schools and are seeking their full licensure, she said.

And most graduates go on to work as English learner teachers, Brooks said. But some are subject-area teachers seeking only to get better at teaching their multilingual students, she added, and don’t want the additional licensure for fear that they’ll be required to step in as teachers of record.

Ultimately, there’s a critical need not only for more English language learner teachers, but for a broader understanding of the needs of students who are learning English, Brooks said.

‘Everyone is a language learner’

Without English learner teachers on hand, schools may make curriculum decisions that aren’t backed by research, she said, and multilingual students might end up working with educators who are unprepared to teach them.

Even when schools use research-based practices — like Indiana’s push to implement the “science of reading” — studies have shown there are additional factors that affect English learners’ success, such as whether they learned to read in their first language, Brooks said.

Those students may also need extra time to become familiar with phonetic sounds that aren’t present in their first language, for example.

“A trained teacher will add or modify curriculum to target the needs of multilingual learners,” Brooks said.

Holmes, the Noblesville teacher, said one of the biggest changes she’s seen in her decade of teaching is in the emphasis on training all teachers on how to work with multilingual students. Part of her job includes leading professional development for her colleagues — and keeping up with changing research herself.

For example, although she once pulled her students out of their classrooms for small group intervention, she now follows the recommended method of teaching alongside a classroom teacher, she said.

“What we’re trying to get everyone’s mindset to switch to is that everyone is a language learner,” she said.

Holmes credited Noblesville schools with incorporating co-teaching, meeting staffing requirements, and embracing books with diverse characters that are meaningful to her students. But she said she worries for students and teachers at districts that haven’t done as much.

“I think the districts that have taken it seriously and have done it well have invested in hiring staff and making sure their staff is trained,” Holmes said. “Teachers want to know what to do. They want to know: How do we best reach these kids?”

If you are having trouble viewing this form, go here.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

How Indiana’s curriculum bill about racism motivated a new wave of statehouse candidates

2022-10-31T12:00:00+00:00

When hundreds of people first descended on the Indiana Statehouse this year, it wasn’t to weigh in on what would become the state’s abortion ban, or even the future prohibition on transgender youth in girls’ sports.

Instead, speakers lined up to provide hours of testimony on a sweeping proposal to regulate how teachers discuss race and racism in the classroom.

While House Bill 1134 eventually failed, it made an impression on a new crop of statehouse candidates from across the political spectrum who cite the education legislation as a big reason they’re running.

They believe lawmakers overstepped when they tried to meddle in curriculum. And they link the bill — which was part of a wave of similar legislation nationwide in 2022 — to a broader pattern of Indiana’s disinvestment from education over the years.

Some advocates and candidates are already bracing for another fight over curriculum restrictions next year — but even the echoes of the legislation could bring voters to the polls.

It has already fueled the public’s re-engagement with education issues in a way that could sweep more teachers and school-focused candidates into office, said Andy Downs, director emeritus of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at Purdue University.

A similar phenomenon — which grew out of the public’s reactions to new policies on testing and accountability — led to the 2012 upset election of Democrat Glenda Ritz for the state superintendent’s position, he said.

“Teachers came out and demonstrated their force,” Downs said. “When you get people involved in politics, when they know what’s going on, and they support a teacher running for office or a parent running for office, it becomes easier to do that.”

Next year, the stakes could be even higher. In a budget year, lawmakers could tie funding to some of the points of the curriculum bills, Downs said.

Watching the curriculum bill unfold

Last session, Joey Mayer, a Democrat and business owner, watched as her state representative, Republican Donna Schaibley, voted in favor of House Bill 1134 and another controversial bill to allow permitless carry of firearms.

That was enough, she said, to call the Hamilton County Democratic Party in February and ask how to support Schaibley’s challenger in House District 24, which includes a large area around Westfield.

But the party didn’t have a challenger. And the deadline to file was just a week away. Would Mayer herself want to run?

Initially, Mayer said no — running for the statehouse was not on her bucket list. But a conversation with her husband led her to drive through a snowstorm on the day of the deadline to file her paperwork.

“I told my husband, can you believe they said this? And he told me, ‘You could spend two years storming and ranting and not changing anything, or you could channel that energy and rage into something that may make a difference,’” she recalled.

Mayer had had a front row seat to growing local tension around content in schools as one of the leaders of Westfield Parents for Change, an organization that sought to fight racism in Westfield schools. The group squared off with others over what kinds of books would be allowed in the district’s elementary schools.

Despite those conflicts, she said the experience of talking to other families in the school district taught her that ultimately, most people wanted the same things for their children.

“I have faith in people’s parenting abilities. I believe they’re capable of having an uncomfortable conversation and reinforcing their family values if those values are tested,” Mayer said.

Rather than disavow lessons on diversity, equity, and social-emotional learning, Mayer said she hopes the state embraces them as critical skills for young people beginning their careers: “You can be the smartest person in the room but if you can’t get along with everyone, you won’t be effective.”

Still, Mayer worries the curriculum bill could make a comeback in the future.

“I’m concerned that it was a trial balloon to see what people most objected to,” she said. “And they’re going to slice and dice it and shove it in other legislation next year.”

Keeping teachers on the job

Some believe the curriculum bill was problematic due to the distraction it created from other issues.

Jordan Davis, a Republican candidate for House District 87 in northeast Indianapolis, said he has watched lawmakers pass bills that tilted too far towards ideological extremes, but didn’t address the underlying problems in his community.

“We’re not passing legislation on funding that’s needed to make sure our future generations are taken care of,” Davis said. “That really bothered me.”

Davis’ campaign platform says it’s important for parents to choose what their children learn and where they learn it. But with House Bill 1134, he said lawmakers took the wrong approach by doing things to educators and not with them.

Instead, Davis said he would have met with teachers first to gauge their thoughts on the proposal and how to reduce their workload.

Moreover, as the state heads into a budget year, Davis said the priority for education legislation should be securing more funding for teachers in order to provide raises and improve retention.

“The state has a history of championing our workforce, but then we forget them when it’s time to pay dues,” he said.

Larger patterns in Indiana education

Many of this year’s candidates see links between Indiana’s past policies on school funding and accountability and the recent push for curriculum restrictions.

“This is nothing new,” said Ken Tucker, a teacher and independent candidate in House District 24. For many years, he said, “The state of Indiana has taken out of the mouths of my children and put more on my plate as a teacher, in terms of what they want me to do and how much they expect.”

Tucker pointed to the state’s embrace of standardized testing as another way that legislators have tried to take control in the classroom, while creating more work for teachers. Such decisions have exacerbated a shortage of teachers in the state, he and likeminded candidates say.

If elected, he said would push to get rid of state tests like the ILEARN in favor of formative and local assessments, in order to reduce the amount of time teachers must spend on test prep.

A curriculum bill like HB 1134 is “absolutely coming back,” he said, over the objections of educators.

“The state is going out of its way to remove the joy of being an educator, but also from students and learning,” he said.

From inside the classroom

Tucker isn’t the only teacher-turned-candidate to express that kind of sentiment.

On Mondays throughout last fall, Noah Leininger’s world history class followed and discussed the mass uprisings in Sudan.

But in the spring of 2022, they turned their attention to legislation coming out of the Indiana statehouse that could affect the frank conversations they were used to in the classroom. If House Bill 1134 passed, they asked, would those change?

“The legislators could come take me down themselves,” Leininger said. “I was going to teach those students what they needed to know.”

Leininger is now running in House District 90 in southeast Indianapolis as a write-in candidate with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. He said Democrats had unsuccessfully challenged incumbent GOP Rep. Mike Speedy in the past.

Without any other challengers this year, Leininger said he was willing to try after a year in Indiana that included the passage of the abortion ban and the failed curriculum bill.

“I thought, somebody’s got to give this guy a run for his money,” he said.

Leininger said the curriculum bill was part of a decades-long push to erode public education. It failed, he said, after teachers expressed outrage at the idea that they could ever teach Nazism neutrally, as suggested by one lawmaker.

“There are definitely things that we discuss even in teaching music that are uncomfortable about our history,” he said. “Treating students as young adults makes them engage and take it seriously. They know when we’re glossing over things. They want to know what’s going on.”

Communities showing support for schools

Apart from hot-button issues, the education platforms that win over Hoosier voters frequently include better funding, a push for more fiscal efficiency at the local level, and plans to improve graduation rates, Downs said.

“Education is an evergreen issue. The question has been how to do it,” he said.

Even during divisive political times, local communities have shown a willingness to rally around their schools, he said.

That’s something Matt McNally, the Democratic candidate for House District 39 in Hamilton County, said he noticed when his family settled in Westfield after he retired from military service.

In the 2016 election, over 80% of Westfield Washington school district voters passed a tax hike to support the district.

Even after national furor over curriculum and books reached the community, McNally said most voters still saw House Bill 1134 as a superfluous bill for their schools, where curriculum was readily available to parents.

As a graduate of The Citadel — a military college in South Carolina — who majored in history, McNally said he didn’t see material in his kids’ social studies textbooks that could be deemed controversial.

“I don’t see anything wrong with telling the truth about the foundation of this nation,” he said. “It doesn’t mean you love your country any less. It’s important to foster an environment where kids can have good honest discussions.”

The legislature’s focus on divisive social issues over concrete matters like funding imperils the quality of education in the state, McNally said, jeopardizing property values and the future workforce.

He said he decided to run for the statehouse as a candidate who could bridge different viewpoints to bring the focus back to schools and students. He previously chaired the Restoring our Community and Kids PAC in Westfield, which aimed to support the school district.

“The ones getting caught up in the middle of this are teachers and administrators who truly care about the community and educating our children,” he said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

A charter school offering cash to families wants to open in Indiana

2022-09-14T19:38:13+00:00

Colearn Academy has withdrawn its application, according to an update posted by Education One, the charter authorizing arm of Trine University in Angola, Indiana. A September public hearing on whether the school should open drew 177 responses, with around 88% of commenters saying no.

A virtual charter school in Arizona wants to expand to Indiana with a model that offers parents a cash stipend for enrichment activities and curricular materials.

Colearn Academy, an all-virtual school that offers students three learning pathways with varying degrees of independence, is seeking authorization from Education One, a charter authorizer operated by Trine University, a private university in Angola, Ind.

But a similar model has already landed another Indiana virtual school in hot water with legislators, who passed a law earlier this year that expanded a previous ban on schools offering money as an incentive to enroll.

In a statement, Colearn Indiana representative Kimberly Phillips did not directly answer whether its stipends could be considered enrollment incentives, but instead said the funding is meant to provide “customized educational experiences.”

“Unlike a traditional school that purchases the same educational materials and curriculum for each student, our enrichment account enables a student to engage in a customized learning experience based on their individual interests and needs,” Phillips said.

Lindsay Omlor, executive director of charter schools for Education One, said she could not comment on a school application that’s still pending review.

Controversy leads to expanded incentive law

In 2020, Chalkbeat reported on the criticism of an Indiana school that offered parents cash to purchase curricular materials that included Netflix subscriptions, museum memberships, and toys.

That school, Tech Trep Academy, later switched to a points-based system that it maintains is not an enrollment incentive.

Some lawmakers disagreed. Earlier this year, they passed a law that broadened an existing ban on monetary incentives for enrollment to include “any item that has monetary value, including cash or a gift card.”

The Indiana Department of Education said in a statement that it has “worked to communicate the requirements of” the new law to help schools remain compliant. The department previously said it reached out to Tech Trep about concerns in May.

Colearn applies to Education One

Colearn submitted an application in August to Education One, which oversees 12 public charter schools and 4,200 students in Indiana.

Colearn’s application says the school will enroll students statewide, but that it will target “rural communities” in central Indiana counties like Marion, Boone, Hamilton, and Howard.

It also places a particular emphasis on recruiting families who would otherwise choose to homeschool.

“Colearn has a unique opportunity to serve these families, particularly in the counties specified by providing access to resources that families could not acquire on their own,” the application says.

Its model provides three pathways to students — one in which students take lessons from a Colearn teacher, and two others in which students use online or at-home curriculum that’s monitored by a program mentor. The mentor can be a parent or someone teaching children under their care, according to the application.

The school plans to offer a $600 yearly stipend for program mentors to enroll their students in outside extracurricular activities, or to purchase supplies or alternative curriculum. Program mentors use an online portal to place their orders, which are then approved or rejected by a Colearn teacher.

“Providing funds to all families levels the playing field so that any family can enroll their child in enriching activities to promote the development of their child regardless of socioeconomic status, gender, religion, race, or ethnicity,” the application says.

But Kylene Varner, a homeschooling advocate with the Indiana Association of Home Educators, said the sum offered by Colearn not only wouldn’t go far, but taking it would require families to give up the educational freedom that may have attracted them to homeschooling.

Indiana law defines a homeschool as a “nonpublic and nonaccredited” school. Phillips said students who enroll at Colearn would be considered public school students at a charter school, not homeschoolers.

Homeschools in Indiana have few requirements, which include keeping attendance records. Unlike homeschool students, Colearn students would be required to participate in benchmark and state assessments, according to the application.

Varner, who supported the new incentive law, said it’s a misconception that home education must be expensive, as many families take a low-cost approach through free curriculum and library resources.

“People forget that families are homeschooling because they’ve chosen to not be part of the public school system,” she said.

Next steps and timeline

In its application, Colearn also touted the successes of its Arizona charter school, which opened in 2021. That school also offers a $600 annual stipend to parents or program mentors for academic materials and extracurricular activities.

At Education One, Colearn’s application is under review by a team that consists of finance, facilities, and educational consultants, as well as legal counsel, according to Education One’s website.

Applications that make it through the entire process are ultimately approved by the three members of the Education One board.

The school hopes to open for the 2023-24 school year. Though it’s not clear when Education One will approve or decline the application, the authorizer recommends that schools submit an application at least nine months before their intended start date.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

We’re your Chalkbeat Indiana team, and we’re excited to be here

2022-08-31T13:46:22+00:00

Whether or not you’re headed back to the classroom, there’s something special about back-to-school season. It’s a fresh start to buy that new planner and start project planning and goal setting.

And this school year was also a new start for the Chalkbeat Indiana team. With the addition of two new members, our bureau is fully staffed and excited about the work ahead.

It’s never a dull moment covering schools, and we want to bring you the news you need to make your decisions about education in Indianapolis and Indiana overall.

Maybe you’ll read a story and decide to contact a local official to share your thoughts on a topic. Maybe what you read will inform your vote in the upcoming election. Or maybe an article will give you a glimpse into the successes and the challenges that students and teachers are having in the classroom.

And while we’re bringing you the news, we also want to get to know you.

Invite us to your events. Ask us to visit your classroom. Send us an email to tell us your story. Also, be sure to sign up for our newsletter here.

In the meantime, allow us to introduce ourselves with old photos and fun facts.

Aleksandra Appleton, pictured here in kindergarten, covers statewide education issues for Chalkbeat Indiana.

Aleksandra Appleton, statewide education reporter

Where I’ve been: Everywhere! I was born in Serbia before moving to the U.S. at 5 years old. I grew up in southern and central California and then moved to New York for grad school. I started as an education reporter in Fresno, California, and then covered schools in Las Vegas before moving to Indiana in 2021.

What I do: I write about education statewide. This includes covering education bills coming out of the legislature when it’s in session. During the off months, I write about how state policies affect schools and students across Indiana.

Fun facts to know about me: I have a very fun 4-year-old who knows more about cars than me. We grew our first vegetable garden this summer and it was a surprise success. I can’t tell you anything about sports, but I know the words to the musical episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” by heart.

How to reach me: aappleton@chalkbeat.org

What I’m looking forward to the most about the 22-23 school year: I’m looking forward to seeing the effects of the ideas Indiana has put in place to help students recover from the effects of COVID, like its multimillion dollar investments in tutoring and literacy instruction. I’m also interested in what schools are going to do with their federal relief funds this year.

Amelia Pak-Harvey covers Indianapolis Public Schools, and as a student went through Montessori and International Baccalaureate programs.

Amelia Pak-Harvey, Indianapolis schools reporter

Where I’ve been: I’m from North Carolina but attended college in Boston, and from there covered Lowell Public Schools in Lowell, Mass. I later moved to Las Vegas to cover the massive Clark County School District. In 2020, I moved to Indianapolis to cover city hall for the Indianapolis Star.

What I do: I cover Indianapolis Public Schools and the other public school systems in Marion County. That means sitting through long board meetings so you don’t have to! It also means keeping tabs on the shift within IPS from neighborhood to choice or charter schools, and understanding how the pandemic continues to impact Indianapolis students.

Fun facts to know about me: I started on piano at a young age thanks to a strict Korean mom. My high school job was playing for churches in rural North Carolina, and I can tell you it’s not as cute or impressive as playing side gigs as an adult.

How to reach me: apak-harvey@chalkbeat.org, or at 919-619-8258.

What I’m looking forward to the most about the 22-23 school year: I’m looking forward to the students finally getting to enjoy their first truly normal return to school since COVID, and hoping to get acquainted with IPS and its stakeholders.

MJ Slaby runs down the driveway after her first day of kindergarten.

MJ Slaby, bureau chief

Where I’ve been: I grew up in northern Indiana and graduated from IU Bloomington. I’ve covered education for newspapers in Lafayette, Bloomington and most recently here in Indianapolis at the Indianapolis Star. In between, I’ve also worked as a journalist in Knoxville, Tenn., and Pittsburgh, Pa. I started at Chalkbeat in August.

What I do: As the bureau chief, I lead our Indiana team, helping to develop story ideas and edit drafts. I also work with the larger Chalkbeat team on photos, graphics, social media, our daily newsletter and ways to meet and engage with readers like you. My job is leading the day-to-day while also thinking about the big picture and goals for the team. Plus, I’m planning to do some reporting too.

Fun facts to know about me: I grew up near where the time zone changed in northern Indiana, so my school was on a different time than my house. I was a big Notre Dame women’s basketball fan as a kid and a few summers ago, I covered the WNBA as a freelancer. You can catch me at the farmers’ market most Saturdays because it’s my dog’s favorite place to visit (I’m a fan too).

How to reach me: mslaby@chalkbeat.org or 317-671-3376

What I’m looking forward to the most about the 22-23 school year: I’m excited to work with this group of journalists and the stories they will tell about what it’s like to be in school right now and the stories that explain all the complexities around education in Indiana. I’m also excited to meet readers and have events that bring us together.

Andrew Ujifusa (pictured behind a Komodo dragon) has previously worked as a journalist in Maryland and Mississippi, and taught English at two high schools in Japan.

Andrew Ujifusa, story editor

Where I’ve been: I am a New York native, and after I left college I worked in Japan for a year as an English teacher and as an occasional writer for a Japanese-English bilingual newspaper in Los Angeles. I also worked at local papers in Maryland and Mississippi. Before coming to Chalkbeat, I covered national education politics and policy for Education Week.

What I do: As a story editor, I work closely with bureau chiefs and reporters in Indiana and Philadelphia, Pa., on everything from story ideas and coverage priorities to editing pieces for clarity, newsiness, and style.

Fun facts to know about me: I’ve put a radio collar on a (tranquilized) African elephant, counted eggs as they were laid by a sea turtle on the beach in the dead of night, and I support the New York Mets, Utah Jazz, Washington Mystics, and Arsenal.

How to reach me: aujifusa@chalkbeat.org

What I’m looking forward to the most about the 22-23 school year: I’m intrigued to see how nimble and thoughtful schools are in dealing with such a daunting variety of challenges, from structural concerns like enrollment shifts and learning recovery, to the ways national politics are influencing state and local K-12 decisions. But I’m also excited to work with a new, smart, and hard-working Chalkbeat Indiana team that’s ready to deliver for readers.

MJ Slaby is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Indiana. Contact MJ at mslaby@chalkbeat.org.

As abortion ban nears, some want Indiana to expand abstinence-only sex ed

2022-08-03T21:04:11+00:00

As Indiana moves forward with an abortion ban, a small group of Democratic lawmakers and advocates has been hoping to expand the state’s sex education curriculum in an effort to reduce unplanned and unwanted pregnancies.

But the narrow window during the 2022 special session to broaden the state’s limited sexual health standards beyond abstinence-only instruction has all but shut. Lawmakers last week rejected an amendment on sex education and this week dropped other language on improving access to family planning.

“If we’re going to ban abortions, the first thing we need to do is stop unintended pregnancies,” said Kristin Adams, president and CEO of the Indiana Health Council, which provides family planning services in Indianapolis.

Indiana doesn’t require public schools to teach sex education, except for lessons on HIV and AIDS. The only requirement for schools that do teach human sexuality is that they teach abstinence as the single surefire way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Even if the legislature were to broaden sex education in this session or in the future, the state would need to adopt new standards on health education. Any change would also likely draw vocal opposition from some Republican lawmakers and groups who believe sex education is a parent’s purview.

Still, advocates like Adams believe more thorough sex education can still emphasize abstinence as the best option for teenagers while providing them with medically accurate information about sex in order to seek family planning and health services as adults.

“They are walking out in the world without enough information,” she told lawmakers in testimony on July 26. “They don’t understand the ideas of contraception, or when eggs fertilize.”

Indeed, a 2021 survey of youth risk behavior by the Indiana Department of Health found the portion of schools that report teaching students about sexual health topics has declined.

In 2020, 41% of schools had teachers explain the efficacy of condoms to sixth through eighth graders, compared with 57% a decade earlier. Similarly, 69% of schools reported teachers teaching middle grades about how HIV and other STDs are spread, compared with 94% in 2010.

Bills under consideration

House Bill 1001 and Senate Bill 2, two bills accompanying the abortion legislation, would authorize grants to programs that expand access to contraception, but would exclude programs that provide contraception to students or to minors without the consent of their parents.

But the bills briefly had more potential for sex education. The original language of SB 2 sought to fund programs that “support pregnancy planning, including addressing barriers to long-acting reversible contraception.”

Rep. Chris Campbell (D-West Lafayette) also proposed an amendment to HB 1001 that would have expanded sex education standards to include instruction about the effectiveness of contraceptives alongside abstinence.

The curriculum would teach “respect for marriage and committed relationships” and “be appropriate for pupils who choose to be abstinent and for those who have been or are sexually active.”

The amendment failed in the House Ways and Means Committee, with Chair Rep. Tim Brown (R-Crawfordsville) noting that sex education had been discussed and rejected before, and didn’t belong in HB 1001.

Campbell disagreed. She said in an interview that children have a right to accurate information about their health, so they’re prepared to make informed decisions in the future.

“There are a lot of false impressions about the idea of using comprehensive, age-appropriate, medically appropriate sex education, a notion that it’s going to encourage children to engage in sexual activity, but the research does not indicate that at all,” Campbell said.

Campbell said it’s clear that sex education legislation won’t pass with the legislature’s current makeup, but that it’s important to keep trying given voters’ support for a more comprehensive approach.

“If we want to reduce unwanted, unplanned pregnancies, we need to educate people better,” Campbell said.

Sen. Chris Garten (R-Charlestown), author of SB 2, declined to comment for this story. Rep. Sharon Negele (R-Attica), author of HB 1001, did not return a request for comment.

Rep. Sue Errington (D-Muncie), who has brought bills on sex education in previous legislative sessions, said the state has an obligation to use the tools at hand to prevent unintended pregnancies should the abortion bill pass.

That would include sex education and better access to contraceptives, said Errington, who worked the public policy director for Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky. Without a standard sexual health curriculum in the state, young people receive different information depending on where they go to school, whether that’s some sex ed, abstinence-only sex ed, or no sex ed at all, she said.

“It’s going to be effective in helping young people find the words and the knowledge to delay sexual intercourse, and at least if they don’t delay, to know how to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies and STDs,” Errington said.

Working with students and schools

Adams of the Indiana Health Council said that sex education helps protect children’s safety and much like math skills, begins with basic concepts in elementary school and builds on those ideas through college.

Lessons might begin with teaching children the correct terms for their body parts, as well as the concept of personal space and the skills to say no to an invasion of that space. In middle school, classes might introduce hormonal changes, while high school classes discuss the biology of conception and sexually transmitted diseases.

Writing new, clear standards would help guard against any personal bias on the part of health educators — whether they believe in abstinence or not, she added.

Adams said around 10% of the people who seek services at her family planning center are teenagers, many of whom come with parental support.

But others haven’t received any sex education at home or school, and instead are seeking help because they’ve come across inaccurate information on the internet or through peers.

“They’re confused, and they’ve heard something, and they don’t know what to believe. They think, ’I kissed a boy, I must be pregnant,’” Adams said.

Students’ questions run the gamut, said Tammie Carter, CEO of LifeSmart Youth, an organization that provides health education in around 80 schools statewide, from why wet dreams happen to how twin babies are born.

At schools that invite the organization, health educators teach for five to 10 days. Topics in the fourth grade include puberty, while fifth grade covers the basics of reproduction, and older grades discuss healthy relationships, Carter said.

The organization emphasizes abstinence as 100% effective in avoiding pregnancy, but it does not provide abstinence-only sex ed, which Carter said wouldn’t allow educators to provide medically-accurate information about conception or STDs.

“When 30% of high schoolers have engaged in sex, we can’t afford to do abstinence only,” Carter said.

Carter’s believes most of the debate around sex education centers on how early is too early to start teaching. But as menstruation can begin in late elementary or early middle school, Carter said it’s critical for girls to receive timely information.

“Why would we wait until high school to tell her that her body is functioning in a way that she could become pregnant?” Carter said.

Carter also said schools pulled back from the program last year as debate raged over a bill that sought to ban a series of “divisive concepts” from the classroom. Though the bill didn’t pass, the political backlash cowed some schools.

Carter said that with more funding, she would expand the organization’s work educating younger students about human development as well as teenagers about dating violence — which has risen in some forms.

The proportion of female students in Indiana who reported being forced to have sexual intercourse has increased from 14.5% in 2011 to 17% in 2021, according to the Department of Health survey.

Overall, Carter said she’d like to see the state move away from abstinence-only education, which she characterized as antiquated.

“The right step is more policy and funding in support of youth prevention and youth sex education,” Carter said. “The responsible thing to do is expand the education that young people need to make good sound decisions about their bodies.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

A new Indiana law cracks down on enrollment incentives. Is it being enforced?

2022-07-22T14:38:38+00:00

A new Indiana law strengthens previous bans on schools offering gifts or perks to parents in exchange for enrolling their students. But so far, officials don’t appear to be enforcing the stricter provision at schools that receive public money.

The omnibus House Enrolled Act 1093, which Gov. Eric Holcomb signed in mid-March and went into effect July 1, tightens a previous rule that bans schools and their representatives from offering “any item that has monetary value, including cash or a gift card” as an incentive to enroll.

The bill came about following a Chalkbeat report on the growing criticism of a virtual school that first offered parents cash, and then a debit card-like points system, to order educational materials that include textbooks, Netflix, educational toys, and museum memberships.

The school, Tech Trep Academy, still uses its points system, saying it’s not an enrollment incentive.

Rep. Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis), the new law’s author, declined to comment. But he previously told Chalkbeat that Tech Trep’s points system still represented an incentive because all students received a set amount of points upon enrollment.

Weeks after the law went into effect, the Indiana Department of Education hasn’t reached out to any schools about changing their policies, said spokesperson Holly Lawson. But Lawson said the department did reach out in May to Cloverdale Community Schools, which oversees Tech Trep, about concerns over the program.

“With the enactment of this new law this month, IDOE will continue to work with all school districts to help them maintain compliance with state law,” Lawson said in a statement.

It’s unclear how widespread enrollment incentives are in Indiana, but home school charter programs in other states have come under fire for similar practices.

School purchases wishlist items for parents

Tech Trep Academy is a virtual school operated by a Utah-based company through Cloverdale Community Schools, which keeps a portion of the state funding for each Tech Trep student.

The school allows parents to choose their own curriculum and obtain supplemental materials, as well as take virtual classes from teachers, all using points. Students have access to a homeroom teacher, take state testing, and receive pass/fail grades.

An online FAQ says parents can spend up to 850,000 points per semester on courses and electives directly through Tech Trep, as well as outside curriculum. Other examples on the FAQ include online subscriptions, computers, tablets, and other tech items, internet fees, extracurricular classes, tutoring, and museum passes.

The school switched to the points system after coming under fire in 2020 for initially giving parents a $1,700 stipend to spend on resources.

Orders using the points system are now done through the school. Families create wish lists on Amazon or RainbowResources.com, then meet with the school’s direct ordering team to have the school purchase the items.

A list of items not eligible for the points system is available to parents after students enroll in Tech Trep, according to the FAQ. The school did not provide an example of items not eligible for the points system to Chalkbeat by deadline.

Lauren Bailey, Tech Trep Academy’s assistant director, said there are many reasons why resources may be ineligible for reimbursement with points.

“Numerous safeguards and rules are in place to ensure that any supplemental material aligns with material that is available to students who attend Cloverdale’s traditional brick and mortar schools,” Bailey said.

But are the points themselves an incentive? The school says no.

“The point system is not an enrollment incentive because it provides (1) material directly related to a student’s curriculum, which is designed by the licensed Indiana teacher and (2) educational resources that students need for their personalized learning,” Bailey said.

She added that while “something different and innovative can make people uncomfortable,” the school demonstrated creativity while still following state law and state education standards.

Kylene Varner, an advocate with the Indiana Association of Home Educators who testified in support of House Enrolled Act 1093, said the Tech Trep program first came to her attention after some families asked about potentially receiving state funding to home school.

“There’s no law that says it’s okay for the state to hand over public funds to a parent to spend how they wish,” Varner said.

Varner said a points system acts as another form of currency. She said 1093 made the previous provisions of Indiana code crystal clear — but that enrollment incentives have long been illegal in the state.

Before 1093, Indiana code banned schools from giving students “any item that has monetary value, including cash or a gift card that may be used at a retail store, grocery store, online store, or other commercial enterprise.”

The new law removes language about where the monetary incentive can be spent, and clarifies that certain school representatives cannot offer incentives.

A short-lived amendment to the bill that became 1093 would have excluded curricular materials from the ban on incentives — but the language was taken out of the final bill.

“State agencies have not been doing what they need to do to protect taxpayers,” Varner said. “Any program that’s trying to come into our state needs to follow the laws.”

This story has been updated after publication to clarify a description of Tech Trep Academy.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

These Indiana schools made racial equity their mission. Now they face hostile legislation.

2022-06-13T12:00:00+00:00

At Bethel Park Elementary in Indianapolis, a fourth- and fifth-grade book club pauses in a read-aloud to discuss this line in “The Hate U Give”:

Funny how it works with white kids though. It’s dope to be black until it’s hard to be black.

“Black people can’t really do stuff like white people can,” a student says.

Eight students sit around a table, almost all of them Black — a reflection of the older grades at the small elementary school. The student grows shy when the teacher asks him to elaborate. A classmate chimes in: “Black people don’t have as much privilege as white people sometimes.”

“Ah, privilege,” teacher Treasure Jones says, underscoring a term that some politicians would rather she didn’t.

Five miles away from the school, lawmakers at the Indiana Statehouse spent months this year debating censoring lessons like these, which deal with racial identity and racism, deeming them “divisive.” Republican leaders, falling in line with the conservative movement across the country, didn’t want teachers to discuss Black Lives Matter, institutional racism, white privilege, or unconscious bias.

Those politicians were fighting on behalf of a vocal contingent of parents in mostly white suburban districts who protest against diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts out of concern that they unfairly malign white people. They often say they’re trying to ban critical race theory, an academic concept taught in law schools that examines how racism is embedded in society and government.

But for racially diverse schools such as Bethel Park, the legislative battles threaten to interrupt years of work to better serve marginalized students. Proposed laws sought to prohibit racial equity training for teachers, which highlights how systemic racism persists and shows teachers how to recognize their own biases. Educators devoted to this work fear that silencing conversations on race could whitewash lessons and alienate students of color.

The stakes are high: Many Indianapolis schools believe more inclusive lessons and intensive training are vital to closing academic gaps between students of different races. Nearly three-quarters of students across Indianapolis’ 11 districts and dozens of charter schools are Black, Latino, or other students of color.

“We’re not in a position to have leaders or educators opt out of culturally responsive practices,” said Erica Buchanan-Rivera, Director of Equity and Inclusion for Washington Township Schools. “We own that we have disparities to address.”

Ultimately, Indiana lawmakers dropped this year’s attempt to pass curriculum restrictions after a series of Republican stumbles. But many educators are bracing for another legislative battle next year and expect to see the issue rear up during upcoming school board elections.

School officials and education advocates say that puts the racial equity work in Indianapolis schools front and center, underscoring the need for policymakers to better understand the priorities, progress, and challenges at city schools.

“When we look at who is centered in these conversations around this anti-CRT legislation, it’s white children,” said Tambra Jackson, dean of education at IUPUI and professor of urban education. “We are not talking about the most vulnerable children.”

***

Indianapolis Public Schools has publicly acknowledged its role in perpetuating systemic inequities in the past — and pledged to change practices that contribute to racial disparities.

In Indianapolis schools, the racial equity movement has undergone a decades-long evolution.

Patricia Payne remembers walking into her first Indianapolis Public Schools classroom 60 years ago, a Black teacher for Black students in a segregated school system.

“The first thing I noticed was the textbooks and the resources did not reflect the students except the chapter on slavery,” said Payne, now IPS’ racial equity director.

Over the years, the 31,000-student district made strides such as resolving to teach Black history, creating a multicultural office, and adding racial equity training for educators.

The racial gaps in student outcomes illuminate the need for schools to make sure their teaching practices aren’t just equal, but equitable — meaning they help all students reach the same levels of success.

In Indiana, just 8% of Black students pass both math and English standardized tests. They are less likely to graduate than their white peers, less likely to have access to advanced courses, and more likely to face suspensions.

In 2020, IPS made a big statement. The district, which serves about 80% students of color, publicly acknowledged its role in perpetuating systemic inequities in the past — and pledged to change practices that contribute to racial disparities.

IPS called it Board Policy 1619, in a nod to The New York Times’ 1619 Project, which reframes U.S. history by centering the legacy of American slavery, beginning the year enslaved Africans first arrived in the English colony.

At the same time, the board put forward a forceful Black Lives Matter statement: “To believe that Black lives matter — and to put that belief into action,” it reads in part, “means to commit ourselves to a radical refusal to give up on any student, to hand them over to a criminal justice system that doesn’t share our values, or return them to communities that lack the resources to support the realization of their fullest potential.”

What does that look like in schools?

School officials have to consider how each decision — large or small — can affect children differently, advocates say. Where are magnet programs located? Who’s affected by transportation cuts? Which students are affected the most by out-of-school suspensions?

Buchanan-Rivera, Washington Township’s equity director, looks to teachers and leaders to reach these goals. The northside district has a steep hill to climb: Out of the 11 Indianapolis districts, Washington Township Schools faces the widest disparity in test scores between Black and white students — a 44 percentage point gap in ILEARN passing rates.

Educators have to be willing to overhaul what they’re doing and question flaws in school systems. Buchanan-Rivera calls it “mirror work,” because educators must “look into the mirror to reflect on their own practices and how they are showing up for children.”

“We all know it’s easier to point the finger to societal factors,” she said, “rather than to talk about the harmful or ineffective practices occurring within schools.”

***

Shawanda Tyson, pictured with her son Marell, is among the Stand for Children Indiana parents who advocate for more equitable policies in IPS.

IPS and Washington Township were two of the districts that spoke out against Indiana’s anti-CRT legislation.

Lawmakers’ attempt to ban discussions on racism seemed like “a bad solution in search of a non-existent problem in our state and community,” IPS board members said in a statement.

Washington Township officials said they “stand against censoring the truth of our history and the lived experiences of students.”

Among the effects of the proposed legislation was that it would have stopped districts from training teachers to recognize what racism looks like in schools, including how trying to be “color-blind” ignores the past and present realities of racial oppression.

“In our mind’s eye, if you do not teach children the truth, then they will not be able to make sense of their world,” Payne said. “And we’re not just talking about teaching the truth to Black and brown children, we’re talking about teaching the truth to all children.”

IPS fell under conservative crosshairs last year when a former teacher said schools lie about not teaching critical race theory because it’s embedded in teaching approaches. IPS fired the teacher in January for several violations of ethics and conduct policies.

Still, unlike in suburban districts, where parents have protested at school board meetings against racial equity efforts they consider divisive, IPS sees broad support among families for creating more inclusive classrooms.

If anything, much of the pushback IPS deals with comes from people advocating for bolder steps to address inequities.

IPS parents, for example, have been flocking board meetings to push for better policies for Black and Latino students. Last month, a handful of parents asked board members for data on which schools serve Black and Latino students best, to take into consideration as the district plans a reorganization that could close schools.

“It’s on the district to make a model and to grow our schools that work better for our Black and brown children,” said Shawanda Tyson, a parent advocate with Stand for Children Indiana. One of Tyson’s children attended a school that is closing this year due to poor academic results, and another is thriving at a charter school outside of IPS.

She’s advocated for racial equity training, among other systemic changes. Parents, Tyson believes, all want the same thing: “We just want children to have the same high-quality education, and it shouldn’t come at the cost of where we live or income or money.”

***

A handful of fourth- and fifth-grade students at Bethel Park read “The Hate U Give” as part of the school’s focus on exploring identity.

While this year’s legislative debates often focused on history lessons, teachers also worry about being silenced on current racial injustices — especially when their students are hungry for those conversations.

At Bethel Park Elementary, students have been talking about gun violence and police brutality while studying “The Hate U Give.”

The novel by Angie Thomas, which centers on a police shooting of an unarmed Black boy, was briefly banned by a Texas school district. Police also challenged the book in a South Carolina district.

Bethel Park formed a lunchtime book club with 10 fourth- and fifth-graders whose parents gave permission for them to read “The Hate U Give.” At the 200-student charter school, everyone in those grades is a student of color, and 85% of the overall student body is Black, Latino, multiracial, or Native American.

Bethel Park educators believe students will be more engaged and better positioned to succeed when they feel heard and see themselves represented in the curriculum. The school weaves social identity into its lessons so students can explore their histories and cultures — and that of others, too.

“We come from a variety of different places, and if we’re going to teach one perspective all the time, many of my children are not going to be able to see themselves in the curriculum,” Jones said. “They’re not going to be able to see themselves as writers. They’re not going to be able to see themselves as teachers, even, and all these other beautiful, diverse careers.”

One day this spring, the book club students brought their lunches from the cafeteria to a conference room, opening their books and skipping over the curse words as they read aloud.

At the beginning of the book, Starr, the Black teenage main character, leaves a party when gunshots go off. A police officer pulls over the car she’s riding in, barking orders at her best friend, Khalil.

When Khalil checks on Starr, the officer opens fire.

Pow! Pow! Pow!

In the book, Khalil falls to the ground.

In the Bethel Park conference room, the book club goes silent.

One student says Khalil should have followed the officer’s instructions. Another says the officer could have said, “Put your hands up” and didn’t need to shoot Khalil. They talk about how the officer probably felt afraid, then wondered where that fear came from.

Jones invited a local police officer to talk to students and answer their questions. She tells the students about how the killing of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black boy playing with a toy gun who was shot by police in 2014, shook her and shaped the way she went through her college studies.

Before the lunch group ends, Jones asks how they feel. A couple of students say they feel scared and sad, that something like this could happen to them or their families.

“If you are scared of how society is right now, or how we live right now, you have a voice, right?” Jones said. “And you can use that to make…”

“A better place, like Martin Luther King!” one student chimes in.

“We just need to figure out how to do that, right?” Jones says. “And we have to build relationships so that people will be inclined to listen to us.”

Kae Petrin contributed to this story.

Stephanie Wang covers education in Indiana, including pre-K, K-12 schools, and higher education. Contact Stephanie at swang@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana legislature overrules governor; bans transgender girls from girls sports

2022-05-24T20:06:59+00:00

Indiana lawmakers voted Tuesday to overrule Gov. Eric Holcomb and ban transgender girls from playing in girls K-12 sports.

The Republican supermajority in both chambers of the Indiana legislature voted to overturn Holcomb’s March veto of House Enrolled Act 1041, despite objections from Holcomb, a fellow Republican, that the law’s lack of details left schools open to litigation.

The ACLU of Indiana announced immediately after the vote that it had filed a lawsuit challenging the new law on behalf of a 10-year-old transgender girl at Indianapolis Public Schools who plays on an all-girls softball team.

Attorney General Todd Rokita has vocally supported the law and promised to defend it.

The veto was overridden largely on party lines, 67-28 in the House and 32-15 in the Senate, in a special session expressly called to do so.

HEA 1041 affects only transgender girls and girls youth sports. It doesn’t prevent transgender boys from playing on boys sports teams, nor does it affect college sports.

The Indiana High School Athletic Association previously questioned the necessity of the bill, citing its existing procedure for transgender student athletes to request to play on a team. In 10 years, the association has had only one case of a transgender girl asking to play on a girls team, and the student dropped the case.

“We’re looking for a solution to a problem that doesn’t even exist,” said Sen. Lonnie Randolph (D-East Chicago).

But Republican lawmakers said the law was necessary — whether it affected one case, or 100 — to preserve girls’ access to athletics and scholarships.

“The purpose of this bill is to maintain fair competition in girls sports now and in the future,” said Rep. Michelle Davis (R- Greenwood), the author of the bill. “Today your vote will send a clear message that Indiana will protect the integrity of female sports.”

It requires schools to designate all teams as either mens, womens or co-educational, and creates a grievance procedure for students and parents. If a school permits a transgender girl to compete on a girls team, the law will allow other students to sue the district for being “deprived of an athletic opportunity.”

In a lengthy statement explaining his March veto, Holcomb said the “wide-open” nature of the grievance process would create confusion and inconsistency in schools throughout the state. He cited lawsuits over similar laws in other states that have already halted the laws on equal protection grounds.

Republican governors in other states have vetoed similar bills, including in Utah and North Dakota. In those cases, state legislatures also overturned the vetoes.

On Tuesday, Democratic senators passionately opposed the bill, while the ACLU of Indiana rallied at the statehouse prior to the vote.

“It makes no sense to me that we’ve assembled today to just double down on being hateful and discriminatory,” said Sen. Shelli Yoder (D-Bloomington), asking the legislature to instead work on suspending the gas tax, or offering solutions to the child care crisis.

“Instead, we are spending our time to make children feel bad about themselves.”

HEA 1041 takes effect July 1.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

What should middle schoolers learn about history? Indiana debates civics standards

2022-05-12T21:48:12+00:00

What Indiana does and does not teach about government – such as constitutional amendments beyond the Bill of Rights – is back in the spotlight this week as the state moves forward with a new middle school civics course.

In civics across all grade levels, the state standards stop at the Bill of Rights, with no specific requirements for students to learn about subsequent amendments that abolished slavery and established equal protection under the law, as well as Indiana’s own history of legal discrimination.

In that vein, education advocates say the proposed middle school civics standards need more specificity, especially regarding the history of Black Americans and other people of color.

“How do we have time to talk about the Magna Carta and Rome, but we fully miss the contributions of other cultures to Indiana and to the nation?” said Marshawn Wolley, director of policy for the African American Coalition of Indianapolis. “If you’re not talking about slavery and the Civil War and Black men’s contributions to saving the union, you’re missing something.”

The standards are heading for a vote in June after nearly a year in development. But recent statewide debate about how schools should talk about race has sharpened the focus on what they’re missing.

Indiana quashed a bill earlier this year that took aim at classroom discussions of race and the legacy of slavery, amid ongoing national discourse about the teaching of hard history that has led states like Tennessee to pass several laws shaping and restricting curriculum.

While advocates are pushing for Indiana to require students to learn key moments in Black history, the state is reluctant to add specific examples to the new civics standards. State officials prefer to leave some decisions about content — such as that about the history of LGBTQ groups — in the hands of communities.

Whether that could create bias, or uneven learning, is a question that social studies teachers routinely grapple with, said Karrianne Polk-Meek, the department’s director of teaching and learning.

“Managing or thinking about the complexity of the students that they serve and the community they serve is inherently one of those things that teachers have to do every day,” Polk-Meek said.

Charity Flores, chief academic officer for the Indiana Department of Education, said including specific examples in the standards sometimes means those are the only examples that are taught.

For the middle school standards, the commission is considering offering additional resources for teachers that would give examples of how to connect historical events to the standards.

Asked whether those resources would include examples involving Americans of color and LGBTQ groups, Flores also deferred to school districts.

“The standards have always been defined to provide access to quality content for students and really should serve as a minimum threshold for ensuring that access,” Flores said. “There are opportunities where a local corporation may go above and beyond to describe other aspects.”

Creating new standards for middle school

The new middle school civics course is a product of a 2021 law authored by Rep. Tony Cook (R-Cicero), who this year wrote an unsuccessful bill to restrict the teaching of race and racism.

That bill, HB 1134, briefly crossed into civics with a requirement that students learn the importance of the U.S. Constitution compared to other systems of government, as well as about “individual rights, freedoms, and political suffrage.”

Under the middle school civics law, students will take the course in the second semester of their sixth grade year, beginning in 2023-24.

Department of Education staff presented the proposed standards for the course Tuesday to the Civics Commission — a 15-member body created by the law. The commission received 200 written public comments on the standards, according to Polk-Meek. The State Board of Education will vote on them in June.

The standards cover three areas: the foundations and function of government, as well as the role of citizens. Some specify texts that students should examine — such as the Magna Carta — while others ask students to broadly “examine ways that state and national government affects the everyday lives of people.”

On Tuesday, Cook, a former social studies teacher, recommended adding more specificity to the standards, citing examples such as the pivotal Supreme Court rulings Brown v. Board of Education, which ended legalized school segregation; Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion; and Miranda v. Arizona, which upheld Fifth amendment rights.

He said that in his observations, the most successful social studies teachers built their courses around important historical documents and discussed the events that led to their creation.

Cook cited a 2021 analysis from the Fordham Institute, a nonprofit conservative think tank, that gave the state comparatively high marks for the quality of its civics and history courses, but knocked the standards for making no reference to the amendments after the Bill of Rights, and giving “little attention to Indiana’s past legal discrimination.”

The report notes that until high school, Indiana students primarily learn civics from their history classes. While Indiana history is discussed in fourth grade, the standards leave out the legalized discrimination of the early 20th century.

“By skipping the history of government in Indiana, the civics standards largely avoid important lessons about race and segregation, though one lonely history standard does address ‘the Civil Rights movement and school integration in Indiana,’” the report said.

Report stresses importance of specifics

The report recommends broadly that Indiana include more specifics in its standards, while ensuring that the 13th, 14th, 15th, 19th, and 24th amendments – which abolished slavery and established equal protection and voting rights – are covered at least once.

It also recommends additional content on Indiana’s past legal racism and the impact of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

Indiana is not alone in neglecting the amendments that came after the Bill of Rights, according to Fordham Institute researcher Alison Brody. Ideally, states would include all the Reconstruction and voting rights amendments.

Amber Northern of the Fordham Institute said writing standards are a balance between being too specific — and bordering on curriculum — and not being specific enough — and bordering on uselessness.

For the most part, Northern said, Indiana has gotten the balance right, including with the new middle school standards. However, the standards would be stronger if they included specific examples, she said, and made it clear whether the examples were required.

Standard C.6.17, for example, asks students only to “use information from a variety of resources to demonstrate an understanding of local, state, regional leaders, as well as civic issues.”

A more complete standard such as C.6.5, she said, details the essential ideas students are expected to know:

“Identify and explain essential ideas of constitutional government, which include limited government; rule of law; due process of law; separated and shared powers; checks and balances; federalism; popular sovereignty; republicanism; representative government; and individual rights to life, liberty and property; and freedom of conscience and religion.”

Northern said including some examples is better than not including any at all, and that teachers appreciate the additional guidance.

Furthermore, she said there is a risk of inequitable learning outcomes when teachers have free rein to choose all their own examples, or none at all.

“The consequence of not teaching specific examples is that all students are not exposed to the same level of instruction and rigor in classrooms,” Northern said. “There should be an expectation that all students learn a core set of content.”

Department of Education spokesperson Holly Lawson said Indiana’s standards writing process involves input from parents, educators, and others. The current social studies standards were reviewed in 2020.

The state may take another look at its social studies standards by 2024 under a new state law that requires the department to evaluate the standards for value to employers and higher education institutions. It will consider feedback from stakeholders and third-party reviewers such as the Fordham Institute, Lawson said.

Some want Indiana to require Black history

Advocates have long pushed the state to require students to learn key moments in Black history.

In February, as the state inched forward on HB 1134, Sen. Eddie Melton (D-Gary) proposed an amendment that would have required high school history classes to teach an enhanced study of Black history, as they do the Holocaust. The amendment was voted down.

The new middle school standards represent another opportunity to require that history, advocates said.

The proposed standards don’t reference the 1851 Indiana Constitution, which included an article banning Black people from settling in the state, said Mark Russell, director of Advocacy & Family Services Indianapolis Urban League.

They leave out influential Hoosiers such as Sen. Birch Bayh, who authored the 25th and 26th amendments, as well as lessons about the presence of the Ku Klux Klan in state government, said Marshawn Wolley of the AACI, adding that he was concerned the civics commission lacked racial diversity.

Avoiding the lessons is detrimental to all children who are learning about the challenges and responsibilities of citizenship, Wolley said, but especially to Black children, who don’t see their history represented.

“These are clear examples of why you have to talk about all aspects of history,” Wolley said. “So you learn from the past and recognize that even when the country has made mistakes, this is still an amazing country, because we try to perfect the union.”

Correction: May 13, 2022: A previous version of this story misspelled Karrianne Polk-Meek’s name.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana voters pass most local tax increases for school salaries, operations

2022-05-04T21:02:15+00:00

Indiana voters Tuesday overwhelmingly backed local property tax increases to fund school operations, but hesitated to pay more for campus construction and renovation projects.

The May election saw more referendums on the ballot than in the past three elections combined as the state emerges from COVID-19 economic uncertainty. In total, Indiana voters approved seven referendums out of the nine that were proposed.

All six of the operating referendums on the ballot passed, giving schools around the state additional tax revenue to fund programs, transportation, and salaries.

But construction referendums — whose funds are earmarked for specific building or renovation projects — fared worse. Of three such referendums on the ballot, only Lebanon schools won voter approval for a $102 million construction and renovation project. The district also won its operating referendum on Tuesday.

In Marion County, Franklin Township voters defeated a $98 million referendum to renovate the 50-year-old high school, with 62% of voters saying no. The district has never passed a referendum in four attempts, according to Larry DeBoer, a Purdue University professor emeritus who studies Indiana tax issues.

In a statement, the district expressed disappointment at the results, and reiterated that the issues caused by the school’s age and growing enrollment still will need to be addressed.

“These issues will not go away, and costs to address them will only increase in the future. We won’t see a plan this affordable again,” the statement said. “In the meantime, we will do the best we can with the existing facilities. Our dedicated staff will see that students continue to have excellent learning opportunities that have been our hallmark as one of the state’s highest-performing districts.”

Franklin Township’s struggle to pass a referendum is an outlier in Marion County, where the other districts have attempted a referendum 28 times, and passed 27, DeBoer said.

One explanation could be that Franklin has a higher share of homeowner-assessed value in its tax base, meaning the tax burden falls to homeowners rather than renters or businesses, he said.

“Maybe that’s part of an explanation, but that fact alone doesn’t seem like enough to explain it,” DeBoer said. “One thing I’ve learned over the years though—these are local elections, turning on local issues that aren’t necessarily reflected in factors that we can measure.”

DeBoer said the election represented a return to normal, with just over three-quarters of all referendums passing — in line with the historic average. Voters’ preference for operating referendums over capital referendums is also typical for the state where historically 70% of the former have passed compared to 55% of the latter.

Perry Township, near Franklin Township, handily won a renewal of its $154 million operating referendum, which funds one-third of the district’s teaching force, as well as STEM programming and bus routes. The district thanked voters in a statement on social media.

“We are encouraged by the YES vote. It means the community understands the importance of quality education,” the statement said. “We consider the YES vote a win-win for not just the students, teachers and staff, but the community as a whole.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

IPS principal Andrea Hunley wins state Senate primary

2022-05-04T17:14:06+00:00

IPS Principal Andrea Hunley won a crowded primary Tuesday night to represent Indianapolis’ Senate District 46.

Hunley, a political newcomer who serves as principal of Center for Inquiry School 2, won 44% of the vote to defeat four other Democrats. She’ll face Republican Evan Shearin in the November general election, where she’s favored to win in the newly created and heavily Democratic district.

Hunley on Wednesday credited her win to a team of 275 volunteers who canvassed 42,000 homes in the district. She said her campaign designated neighborhood captains, who sent postcards and invitations to friends and neighbors.

She said she believed voters appreciated her personal background and professional experience working with diverse communities, as well as her excitement in running for office.

Hunley said she planned to meet with IPS human resources soon to discuss how she’ll split time between the school and the state legislature if elected. During the primary campaign, she reduced her hours on campus, delegating duties to her assistant principal.

“I was only allowing myself to think about this one step at a time,” Hunley said.

She returned to the school Wednesday to wish the staff a happy Teacher Appreciation Week — and to announce the election results to her students. Around 50 current and former students volunteered for her campaign, she said.

“I told them that whether or not their parents voted for me, they got their parents excited about voting in a primary election, and that’s wonderful,” Hunley said. “A kindergartner heard my voice and said, wow, it’s Ms. Hunley — I thought she was at the White House.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

NAACP calls for action to improve education for Indiana’s Black students

2022-04-21T20:05:17+00:00

A group of Indiana education leaders is calling for the state to act urgently to address academic disparities for Black students.

The NAACP, along with state and school leaders, released a report Thursday with a vision of education for Black students and how to realize it.

“Indiana Black Academic Excellence” highlights a stark drop-off in state testing scores for Black students from third grade — when 75% pass the state reading assessment — to 10th grade — when just 25% do. Achievement rates for Black students are consistently lower than for other demographic groups.

“Our state cannot be content with celebrating the achievement success of Black students who are deemed proficient. Nor should we be surprised that these high-performing students were capable of somehow overcoming the odds that block success,” the report says. “This success is what we should expect for all students.”

The plan begins with four key steps, including hiring an educational equity officer at the Indiana Department of Education, and making statewide achievement data more accessible to parents and community members.

It further recommends 15 strategies to close achievement and opportunity gaps for Black students, from providing equitable school funding to mandating full-day kindergarten, as well as hiring more teachers from underrepresented backgrounds, and prioritizing cultural competency practices.

The group aims its far-reaching recommendations to get decision makers at various levels to work toward a common goal, said Gwendolyn Kelley, an education researcher.

“We believe that by paying particular attention to Black students, it will make a difference for all students,” Kelley said.

Speaking at the launch, Rep. Greg Porter (D-Indianapolis) said lawmakers needed to do their part to create an equitable funding formula and expand preschool programs.

“We have talked about early learning for decades,” Porter said. “The results are in. We just need to fund it.”

Porter also urged the state and Gov. Eric Holcomb to use some of Indiana’s surplus funds to establish an education trust fund for students from marginalized backgrounds.

Carole Craig, an education consultant and former education chair for the NAACP, said Indiana also needed to clearly state that racial equity was a priority.

“If that is not done, everything continues as is, which means that we don’t make it an emphasis and urgency that we will no longer have those students at the bottom,” Craig said.

The NAACP next will hold meetings with community members and schools to promote the plan.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Eight Indiana districts seek referendums in May election with new ballot language

2022-04-19T21:30:44+00:00

Eight Indiana school districts will ask voters to approve property tax measures next month.

That includes two Indianapolis districts: Perry Township, which is seeking to renew a $154 million referendum, and Franklin Township, which is requesting $95 million to renovate its high school.

This will be the second election that school districts put referendums on the ballot using new state-mandated language that emphasizes the percentage by which school property taxes will increase — a change that education officials have criticized as misleading.

Despite this, some hope that the state’s low unemployment rate and growing home values will convince voters to open their pocketbooks.

“Now’s the time to do this,” said Fred McWhorter, chief operating officer at Franklin Township schools.

Early voting is underway ahead of the May 3 elections. All the referendums need a simple majority to pass.

Referendums after COVID

The number of referendums on the ballot has rebounded slightly after the COVID economic downturn, during which schools and voters were reluctant to increase taxes.

Indiana saw more referendums than ever in the spring of 2020, which were written before pandemic-related upheaval, said Larry DeBoer, a Purdue University professor emeritus who studies Indiana tax issues. In three elections during the pandemic, just seven referendums were proposed, and only four passed, he said.

Now, schools face an uncertain economy, DeBoer said, and ballot language that might cause sticker shock.

The tax rate change that school districts must post could lead voters to believe that their total tax bill would increase by the stated amount, DeBoer said, when it actually only the affects the portion of the bill that goes to schools.

Voters would have to know how much of their total tax bill goes to schools, then calculate the percentage change — perhaps in the voting booth, DeBoer said.

In Franklin Township, the ballot language highlights a 24.4% increase in property taxes earmarked for schools. But the average homeowner’s overall tax bill would increase just 10%, according to the district’s referendum calculator.

Referendum language is typically most important to voters who haven’t researched the issue beforehand, he said. Some voters may be put off by the length of the state-mandated language and choose to skip the question entirely.

“This is an experiment,” DeBoer said. “I’m all for informed voters. But what’s the best way to do that?”

Generally, May referendums pass at a higher rate than do November referendums, he said, and districts that previously have tried to pass a tax hike have better luck than those trying for the first time, DeBoer said.

In Indiana, unlike in some neighboring states, operational referendums have passed at a higher rate than have construction referendums, he said. The former can finance a district’s operating costs for eight years, while the latter are earmarked for a specific building project.

Marion County referendums on the ballot

Perry Township is seeking to renew its 2015 operating referendum to support 20% of its teaching force, as well as transportation for all students, and a science, technology and math program.

If passed, the referendum tax rate of 0.4212 per $100 of assessed value would remain the same. If the renewal fails, Perry property taxes would decrease.

A renewed referendum would last eight more years and generate over $19 million in revenue each year, Superintendent Pat Mapes said. The referendum would continue to pay for 193 teachers, 20 assistant principals, 17 tech positions, and 14 instructional assistants.

It would allow the district to continue to finance a popular STEM program for first through 12th grade students, Mapes said.

Should voters reject the referendum, Perry would need to cut art, music, STEM courses, transportation, and teachers. Class sizes would rise. More students would walk further to school.

“When you’re doing a renewal, you’ve already decided to support your schools,” Mapes said. “You know that strong schools equal a strong community.”

Six other school districts are asking local voters for operational support, including Edinburgh, Griffith, Lebanon, Mt. Vernon, and Valparaiso.

Lebanon is also asking for a construction referendum, along with Vigo and Franklin Township schools.

Franklin Township is seeking a construction referendum primarily to fund an expansion and repairs to its 50-year-old high school building, as well as make some smaller improvements to its elementary schools. The district’s last referendum — an operational question in 2011 — failed, which district officials attributed to the economic recession.

The district is the only one in Marion County to not have passed an operational or construction referendum before.

McWhorter, the chief operating officer, said enrollment has grown by 1,800 students in five years, and likely will increase more with new construction in the area.

The high school needs new plumbing and HVAC systems, and a new roof which alone is expected to cost around $7 million, he said.

Franklin Township has used about $3.8 million of its federal emergency funding and $2 million in other funds to upgrade ventilation in elementary schools, McWhorter said. The district opted not to use federal relief funds for the high school because the extensive repairs would take two years, beyond the time limit for using the relief funds. The district received about $11 million total in federal ESSER dollars.

The referendum would increase taxes by 0.2099 per $100 of assessed value and generate about $95 million. For a home with the Marion County median value of $185,700, the annual increase would be $185.67, according to the district’s calculator.

If the referendum fails, McWhorter said the district would not be able to repair and maintain facilities, which would continue to deteriorate.

“The growth is not going away, the aging facilities are not going away,” McWhorter said. “What we can promise is it’s not going to be any cheaper later.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana takes voucher-like approach to tutoring with $500 grants to families

2022-04-12T22:08:56+00:00

Indiana plans to channel up to $15 million in federal emergency funds directly to parents to pay for tutoring for students who are struggling with reading and math.

Dubbed enrichment scholarships, the voucher-like program will provide each student who qualifies through their score on state tests a $500 grant toward tutoring.

The Indiana Department of Education is still developing the details of who qualifies and how parents will access the money, with no date yet set for the rollout.

The scholarships intend to help address pandemic-related learning loss, particularly in literacy, said the author of the law, Rep. Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis).

“We weren’t where we needed to be to begin with, but it’s been much more difficult as a result,” Behning said.

Statewide, only about 28% of students scored proficient in English and math in 2021, a percentage that dropped by one-quarter from 2019.

Schools and states are increasingly under pressure nationally to target their federal relief dollars to address these pandemic-related learning losses, and many are turning to tutoring. But implementing tutoring programs on a large scale has proved to be challenging.

Indiana is unique in putting federal pandemic relief monies from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund directly in parents’ hands to steer more students toward tutoring. The scholarship program will sunset with the expiration of ESSER dollars in 2024.

Behning said he expects the state to allocate $10 million to $15 million in ESSER funds toward the new scholarship program.

The state is considering using an app-based system to load money into a family’s account and allow them to choose among pre-approved tutors, Behning said.

Tutoring organizations can apply to be a part of the program. The application process is still in development.

Districts may provide an additional $250 per student of their own federal funds that the state will then match, for a total per-student allocation of $1,000. If they provide the funds, districts can recommend their own tutoring services, but can’t require students to use them, according to Behning.

Behning said the state will provide grants directly to parents to not impose a burden on school districts to create new tutoring programs.

The state’s approach creates a challenge of making families aware of the program, which advocates say is instrumental in its success.

Behning said he expects that schools will help get the word out. The state could also include information about the grants with this year’s ILEARN results, he said. Community organizations like RISE Indy have expressed interest in working as parent liaisons.

The state will have to figure out how to vet tutors and ensure that they get paid, said education consultant Bill Reed.

“It’s a good idea if they can get it to the students who need it most,” said Reed, a former teacher and tutor who also worked as a state math specialist. “The effectiveness will boil down to how well it’s managed.”

Some of the most effective tutoring comes from classroom teachers who are paid to stay after school hours to help students finish their homework and prepare for the following day, Reed said. This way, students stay in an academic headspace, rather than going home where there may be distractions.

Other quality tutors may charge from $30 to $50 a session, Reed said, and they often book study space in a library.

The grants could help parents access specialized help, such as tutoring to address dyslexia, said Cheryl Clemens, an education advocate with Decoding Dyslexia Indiana who testified in favor of the bill.

The services can be pricey, from $50 to $70 per session, she said, and the Children’s Dyslexia Center of Indianapolis typically has a waiting list for financial assistance.

“The key is how do we get (tutoring) to those kids, because it changes the trajectory in their lives,” Clemens said. “But there are so many families that could never afford it.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Here are the Indiana education bills that passed in 2022

2022-03-11T21:06:12+00:00

Though Indiana’s 2022 legislative session lasted just two months, lawmakers managed to pack the calendar with education legislation.

Some of the most controversial bills that would have imposed restrictions on teachers and libraries stalled and died. But another bill banning transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports is headed to the desk of Gov. Eric Holcomb, who has indicated support for it.

Holcomb has seven days to sign or veto a bill after receiving it, after which it becomes law without his signature.

The other education bills that passed impose more measured changes on teaching and learning, such as one that permits schools to issue permits and hire teachers.

Here are some of the education bills that the state legislature passed this year.

Transgender girls in youth sports: HB 1041 bans transgender girls from participating in K-12 girls sports. The bill passed both chambers of the legislature without amendments despite significant public testimony against it. Among the opponents, the ACLU promised to take legal action should the bill become law. Similar bills in other states are already facing challenges in court.

FAFSA for high schoolers: An attempt to require all Indiana seniors to fill out an application for federal student aid, known as the FAFSA, was significantly watered down. Instead of requiring all high school seniors to fill out the FAFSA, SB 82 now only requires that schools send information about the form to families.

School board public comment: Two bills, HB 1130 and SB 83, require school boards to offer an oral public comment period. During a summer of confrontational meetings, at least one district suspended the practice. The new law requires local boards to allow for public comment before making a final decision on an issue.

Funding adjustments: SB 2 allows schools to receive full state funding for students who were in quarantine during the counting window of the 2021-22 school year. The bill extends the window and allows the Department of Education to retroactively adjust the funds.

Campus free speech: A bill to enshrine into state law First Amendment protections of free speech for college campuses sailed through the legislature this year. Despite unanimous support from lawmakers, some critics questioned why such a move was necessary if those protections were already guaranteed under federal law.

No school A-F grades: The state again will award public schools a “null” or no letter grade for the current school year while the Indiana Department of Education develops a new grading dashboard. The state has not issued schools meaningful A-F grades since 2018 due to the switch to a new state assessment and the pandemic.

Adjunct teacher permits: HB 1251 allows school corporations to issue permits for full- or part-time adjunct teachers who have at least four years of experience in a school subject and pass a background check. Those teachers need not have a degree in education. The omnibus bill also will allow vehicles other than yellow school buses to transport students between home and school — a change sought by charter schools — and orders the State Board of Education to streamline Indiana’s academic standards.

Here are some of the bills that passed one chamber but then failed:

“Divisive concepts” ban: The most hotly debated issue of the session, a bill to regulate classroom lessons on race and racism died after Senate Republicans declined to bring it forward for a vote. GOP legislators did not add any of the bill’s provisions in other legislation, but advocates on both sides expect they may reappear next year.

“Harmful material” protections: A bill to remove legal protections for K-12 schools and public libraries from a law that prohibits distributing harmful material to children almost revived in the final hours of the session. But the Senate voted those provisions down. Proponents said they wanted to eliminate books describing sexual encounters and that could be considered pornographic, but opponents feared the bill could ban a wide range of books, including those about sex education or LGBTQ relationships.

Revenue sharing: HB 1072 would have required all school corporations to share referendum money with charter schools that enroll students who live within that corporation’s boundaries, a controversial provision that’s come up before. Indianapolis Public Schools has volunteered to share some tax proceeds with its charter schools. The bill passed the House, but the Senate appropriations committee declined to give it a hearing.

Special education disputes: HB 1107 would have banned schools from requiring that parents sign a nondisclosure agreement in order to resolve legal disputes related to their students’ special education services. But the bill suffered a unanimous defeat in the Senate that advocates decried as embarrassing.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

How Indiana’s anti-CRT bill failed even with a GOP supermajority

2022-03-10T21:29:32+00:00

It seemed like a slam dunk: A proposal for more parental oversight in schools, approved in other Republican-led states, in front of Indiana’s Republican supermajority.

Instead, a wide-ranging bill to restrict what teachers could say about race and racism stalled and died last week after vocal opposition from a broad coalition, a series of gaffes by lawmakers, and ultimately, an ideological split in the supermajority.

“The Indiana [bill] has just been a dramatic series of events,” said Jeremy Young, a researcher who tracks and opposes this type of legislation across the country. “It’s a little unusual to see one of these bills fail in a Republican-controlled state.”

While other states have debated the issue and passed bills, obstacles in Indiana set the state apart. But observers don’t regard them as permanently fatal flaws. The bill’s primary goals remain hot-button issues, and advocates on both sides expect they’ll reappear before legislators next year.

“We had some members of our caucus who felt like it didn’t go far enough,” Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray said about the bill. “We had some members of our caucus that felt like it was too much of a burden on education and just not good policy.”

Bills face a rocky start

Last year, observers expected Indiana to join other Republican-led states in regulating books, teaching material, and discussions in K-12 schools. A movement swelled in opposition to critical race theory, a legal theory once rarely mentioned outside of colleges, until it became an umbrella term for discussions of race and identity.

The issue took center stage after Republicans claimed victory in the Virginia governor’s race in November, said Young, the senior manager of free expression and education for PEN America, a national free speech organization.

“It led to a great deal of bandwagoning, where politicians who wouldn’t necessarily be interested in it feel like they have to vote for it because it’s an electoral winner for their party,” Young said.

On Organization Day in November, House Speaker Todd Huston promised a bill to give parents more insight into classroom lessons.

But the twin bills — House Bill 1134 and Senate Bill 167 — introduced in January went a step further than transparency. Republicans claimed they stemmed from conversations with parents, although the bills contained measures promoted in other states.

The bills required schools to create parent-led curriculum review committees and to post their learning material online, and forbade teaching “divisive concepts” that mirrored those in an executive order by former president Donald Trump.

Indiana was unusual in lumping all these requirements together in a single bill, Young said. Some of the 39 states that have introduced similar legislation are dealing with the proposals in separate bills.

The curriculum bills were a part of a slate of legislation aimed at regulating schools and students.

Some passed, including one that banned transgender girls from playing girls’ sports in kindergarten through 12th grade, though it drew nearly as much opposition as did the curriculum bills. So did a bill mandating time for public comment at school board meetings, which had become a hotbed of controversy over the summer.

Others failed. One would have made libraries legally liable for stocking books that some could find objectionable, while another sought to make school board elections partisan.

“They were trying to scare the public with concepts people weren’t even aware of,” said Sen. Fady Qaddoura (D-Indianapolis).

At its first hearing in January, SB 167 drew over six hours of testimony, with much opposition from teachers who described it as an overreach that would stifle classroom conversations.

One line of questioning from a teacher led Sen. Scott Baldwin (R-Noblesville) to suggest teachers teach Nazism neutrally. Baldwin was lambasted nationally and eventually walked the comments back.

“That maybe caused a pause,” Qaddoura said. “Like, are you serious? How can you raise a generation of critical thinkers who are civically engaged… if you morally equate what is right and what is wrong by just passing along that material.”

GOP lawmakers retreated, and the Senate bill died a few days later.

Carole Craig, a longtime local education advocate, said Baldwin’s comment was the first among Republican fumbles that became tipping points for the bill.

In February, progressive social media buzzed over Huston’s dual role as a vocal backer of the so-called “divisive concepts” bills and his job as a vice president of the College Board, which administers college-entrance exams. Huston abruptly resigned from his $460,000 job, and the board later issued a statement opposing censorship of curriculum.

Later in the month, Black education advocates criticized House education chair Bob Behning’s comment about Black students’ low test scores.

Craig questioned the predominantly white legislature backing a bill that would harm disenfranchised groups and wasn’t based on good education policy.

“I actually don’t believe every one of the legislators are being mean, devious, and intentional,” she said. “I think many of them don’t know, and so they get caught up in some of the movement across the country.”

Opposition grows through the session

Though the Senate bill faltered, the House voted 60-37 to pass its version, with nine Republicans joining Democrats in voting against it.

Among the opponents was Wendy McNamara (R-Evansville), director of Early College High School at Evansville Vanderburgh Schools, who said she would prefer to address the actions of a few “bad actors” rather than monitor all teachers.

Rep. Curt Nisly (R-North Manchester), who also voted against the bill, said it didn’t do enough for parents’ rights, while simultaneously creating too much of a burden for teachers.

“I think parents should be empowered, and this approach was not the right one,” Nisly said.

Facing mounting public opposition, senators crafted a compromise that lightened the burden on teachers and reduced the number of banned concepts.

Nearly 200 people signed up to speak at the bill’s first hearing, more than 90% of whom were opposed.

Fearing a growing teacher shortage, lawmakers took notice of teachers threatening to leave their jobs, said Senate Minority Leader J.D. Ford (D-Carmel).

“We heard from so many teachers about 1134, that if it passes, we will think about pursuing another career path,” Ford said. “That caused a lot of consternation.”

Marshawn Wolley, public policy director for the African American Coalition of Indianapolis, pointed out that diverse interests opposed the bill: religious leaders, school boards, youth advocates, civic groups, small businesses — and hundreds of educators.

“When this battle came down to it, it was teachers that stood up,” Wolley said. “Teachers stood up and said no, we’re going to teach history, and we’re going to teach Black history.”

Russell Skiba, professor emeritus at Indiana University, said opponents coordinated their efforts, deciding they wanted to see the bill defeated, rather than amended, because of the harm it would do to students of color.

“The Indiana bill did so many things that caused disruption to teaching, civil rights, mental health, that really there were so many different groups concerned about this,” Skiba said. “It impressed upon more moderate legislators that the opposition was so broad and so deep that this bill wasn’t going to fly.”

In the end, a statehouse divided

HB 1134 cleared the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development late last month, with one Republican — Sen. Jean Leising (R-Oldenburg) — joining Democrats in voting against it.

“I have superintendents that are opposed. I have numerous teachers that are opposed. I have people on the right expressing their concerns about how this bill was amended,” Leising said.

But the full Senate hesitated.

On the day of a key deadline, Republican lawmakers negotiated privately. Sponsor Sen. Linda Rogers (R-Granger) then declined to bring the bill forward, effectively stopping it in its tracks.

Afterward, opponents held their breath as Republican leadership hinted they might add some of the bill’s provisions to other bills. That didn’t happen.

Andy Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at Purdue University Fort Wayne, said he believes that on hot-button issues, some lawmakers want to defer to local control.

Republican wins on other bills — such as banning transgender girls in sports, passing tax cuts, and loosening gun licenses — could offset the death of HB 1134 with conservative voters, he said. He said Republicans risk alienating their base if social conservatives feel the supermajority didn’t deliver enough.

“The volume of social issues that were on the agenda certainly makes it easier for some things to not be dealt with,” Downs said.

Why the debate might not be over

It’s possible that the legislature will reconsider similar measures next year, though House lawmakers have indicated that it’s all or nothing.

If they do try again, they have options. In Arizona, the legislature is trying to pass curriculum restrictions a second time and also to require schools to post their curriculum material online.

“For those not comfortable doing a content ban, the transparency approach offers a different path. For those who are, transparency offers an extra layer,” said Matt Beienburg, education policy director of the Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based conservative think tank.

Having access to what a school is teaching is important to parents, he said, adding that parents of prospective students may have an especially difficult time in obtaining curriculum material while deciding where to enroll their children.

“This is a national issue that parents are making clear is a priority for them,” he said.

HB 1134’s opponents also say they’re bracing for Republicans to try again.

“They’re not giving up on this,” said Mark Russell, director of advocacy and family services for the Indianapolis Urban League.

“We’re in a 15-round fight now with this issue, because it’s the backbone of hope for Republicans at the polls,” Russell said. “It’s the bedrock of their re-election strategy, and for us to be able to defeat it — yeah, that’s a national story.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Stephanie Wang covers education in Indiana, including pre-K, K-12 schools, and higher education. Contact her at swang@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana House education chair draws criticism for comments on Black students’ test scores

2022-02-25T18:25:07+00:00

An Indiana lawmaker is under fire for a speech that seemed to imply that a lack of “respect for learning” was to blame for low test scores among Indianapolis’ Black students.

While presenting a bill to the Senate education committee Wednesday, Rep. Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis) said Black students’ low pass rates on the statewide assessment, ILEARN, could be attributed to different factors.

“I would suggest that part of the problem is — and there’s a number of things — poverty impacts that for sure, having respect for learning, there’s a lot of things that come into play,” Behning said. “But one of the things that clearly comes into play is our standards are still too wide.”

Behning, who is the chair of the House Education Committee, clarified his remarks Thursday after they drew criticism on Twitter and from Black education advocates.

“There are a variety of factors that affect student performance, including poverty, emphasis on education at home and school environment, and these are not limited to any one race or community,” Behning’s statement said. “That’s the sentiment behind my remarks yesterday. I’ve spent my career working to support and raise up all students, especially those who are most vulnerable.”

Sen. Eddie Melton (D-Gary), who sits on the Senate education committee, countered Behning’s comments in a statement, saying that structural factors like poverty, housing instability, and lack of access to food play the biggest role in determining student performance.

“So many Indiana communities with a large Black population have also experienced repeated attacks — stemming from racism — on public education and funding over the past decade,” Melton’s statement said. “To imply that Black students don’t care about learning is not only disrespectful but asinine, and it ignores the systemic problems that continue to plague communities of color.”

Behning’s remarks came in response to a question about how his bill — House Bill 1251 — would affect state academic standards.

HB 1251 is an omnibus bill that, among many things, would allow schools to hire adjunct teachers. It also would ask the State Board of Education to consult with colleges and industries to identify skills that students need to be successful after high school, and then streamline high school standards to better align with those skills.

Narrowing the standards would allow teachers to spend more time on creating engaging learning, Behning said, rather than trying to teach the breadth of the standards.

“How do we focus those so that we have students that are able to master reading?” Behning said.

Referencing again the number of Black students who did not pass the statewide assessment, Behning said, “I would guess that a significant number of those kids don’t have mastery of reading.”

Behning said 30 out of 1,000 Black students at Indianapolis Public Schools passed both the language arts and math sections of ILEARN, a figure presumably based on the results of the 2021 assessment that showed Black students had a 3.1% pass rate.

In total, 128 of 4,085 Black students at IPS passed both sections of ILEARN, according to state data.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

‘Divisive concepts’ bill moves forward in the Indiana Senate

2022-02-23T22:07:36+00:00

A bill to restrict teaching about race and racism has taken another step forward in the Indiana legislature, with an 8-5 vote of approval Wednesday from the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development.

House Bill 1134 now heads to the full Senate over the objections of Democrats, whose amendments to strip most of the bill’s provisions failed.

“The premise of the bill starts with a point that citizens are treated equally in the state of Indiana, and that is absolutely not correct,” said Sen. Fady Qaddoura (D-Indianapolis). “This bill has further divided our state, pushed teachers from the profession, and it has sent the wrong message to our kids.”

Senators added new language that allows proposed curriculum review committees to review material used by guest speakers in schools, and tweaks the bill’s definition of what constitutes “good citizenship” instruction.

The amendment requires schools to try to obtain parental consent for providing students mental health services, but allows them to proceed to offer services if a parent doesn’t reply within a given timeline. The original bill required parental consent; now a summer legislative committee will study the issue instead.

The bill retains the restrictions on teaching three ideas that lawmakers describe as “divisive.” The limits have drawn overwhelming public criticism.

One failed amendment would have changed the definition of the concepts to align with federal law on nondiscrimination of protected classes, including those of sexual orientation and gender identity, which are not covered in HB 1134.

Sen. Jean Leising (R-Oldenburg) joined the four Democrats on the committee to vote against the bill, saying that the Indiana Department of Education was not fully on board, and that she had heard from many school leaders, teachers, and others who opposed the bill.

The committee rejected an amendment by Sen. Eddie Melton (D-Gary) that would have required high school U.S. history classes to include an “enhanced study” of the Holocaust and Black history, listing events from slavery and abolition to the election of President Barack Obama that should be used as lessons.

Committee Chair Sen. Jeff Raatz (R-Richmond) and bill sponsor Sen. Linda Rogers (R-Granger) both said that Black history already was included in Indiana’s academic standards.

Two Republicans voted for Melton’s amendment. They were Sen. Scott Baldwin (R-Noblesville), who came under fire in January for suggesting that teachers should teach Nazism neutrally, and Sen. Kyle Walker (R-Fishers).

Melton expressed disappointment, characterizing opponents’ reasons as “excuses.”

Melton urged senators to “do their homework” on the bill before a full Senate vote.

“Just because something makes us uncomfortable, it should not be prevented from discussion,” he said. “No one in here is accusing any white person of being a slave owner. But I still feel the impact of it.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Despite supermajority, Indiana Republicans change curriculum bill

2022-02-23T00:06:59+00:00

A bill to restrict teaching race and racism has faced a bumpier road in Indiana than in other Republican-led states as lawmakers try to thread the needle between doing something and doing too much.

While states like Tennessee have passed laws that would punish teachers for teaching a laundry list of ideas, the Republican supermajority in the Indiana legislature has instead cut some of the most controversial parts of its bill, House Bill 1134, and left the door open to further amendments.

Though the changes haven’t satisfied most critics, the effort highlights the tightrope walk between appeasing core conservative voters and not alienating moderates as political opinions in rural and suburban areas pull in opposite directions, analysts said.

Hard to ignore too is the growing upswell of opposition that has brought out hundreds of teachers and others to rally against the bill in recent weeks, said Robert Dion, an associate professor of political science at the University of Evansville.

“Farmers and steel mills are important in Indiana. But every district doesn’t have a steel mill in it. Every district has schools and teachers and kids,” Dion said. “When you make life difficult for teachers, you’re going to hear from people in every district in the state.”

Balancing electoral considerations

Republicans outnumber Democrats by a 39-11 margin in the Indiana Senate, and in the House of Representatives by 71-29.

But that doesn’t mean every GOP lawmaker feels safe in their seat, Dion said, and while the state has voted reliably Republican for years, upsets happen. It’s difficult to predict them, as the state’s rural areas become more conservative and suburban areas become more liberal, he said.

While Republicans don’t risk losing their supermajority, Dion said passing HB 1134 could cost them some seats in the general election.

“It’s possible you might lose when people get mad,” Dion said. “I think they’ve mobilized teachers in a way that could have consequences in the fall.”

In an otherwise good year for Republicans after they designed the redistricting map, politicians may hesitate to rock the boat over this issue, said Chad Kinsella, director of the Bowen Center for Public Affairs at Ball State. Their goal is to satisfy primary voters without alienating general election voters.

“You have two constituencies — can you keep them happy enough to stay in office in the primary, but then can you also win the general?” Kinsella said. “They just got to redraw the seats, but there’s a point that people can only take so much.”

The Senate, which gutted HB 1134, also tends to be a more deliberative body, Kinsella and Dion both said. Senators tend to have more experience in politics and represent more people, Dion said, and take more time to think through legislation.

The Senate killed its own version of the bill after national outcry over a lawmaker’s remark on teaching Nazism neutrally.

“Maybe it’s about bringing the rhetoric back down,” Kinsella said.

Compromise and its limits

While Senate Republicans have agreed to change the bill to significantly reduce the burden on teachers and schools, they’ve kept a shortened list of “divisive concepts” that legislators want to ban and that have drawn the most vitriol.

It’s unlikely that senators would strip this portion of the bill, Kinsella said, as the core purpose of the legislation is to ban the teaching of critical race theory — a postgraduate legal theory with a tenuous connection to public schools and to most legislation aimed at getting rid of it.

To cut the concepts out of the bill completely would be to admit a total loss, said Andrew Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at Purdue University in Fort Wayne.

But it’s not uncommon for legislation to change throughout the process, Downs said, as lawmakers consider any unintended consequences. Ideological differences crop up even within a single party.

“You still need 51 members of the House and 26 senators to agree to something,” Downs said. “The group that could be considered extremists … usually isn’t that large.”

Downs said HB 1134 is a legislative response to angry constituents who wanted to see lawmakers take action after a summer of tense school board meetings disrupted by protests over critical race theory and COVID-19 protocols.

But as the state drops masking and contact tracing for schools, for example, the specific form of that action becomes less important, Downs said.

“The legislature can now say, we don’t need to address that because the local folks did,” Downs said. “People want results. Legislators want to be able to sell results. They can say, we didn’t do it, but the threat was enough.”

The role of public opposition

In recent weeks, hundreds of teachers have gathered at the statehouse to oppose HB 1134, in scenes reminiscent of the 2019 Red for Ed rallies for increasing educator pay.

Downs said such rallies tend to affect lawmakers if the protesters come from their districts. Red for Ed worked in part because it drew teachers from all over the state, he said.

Dion, the University of Evansville professor, said the public opposition this year appears to be growing as the session goes on, with senators facing more outcry than House lawmakers did when they passed HB 1134 in January.

Sen. Linda Rogers (R-Granger), who sponsored HB 1134 in the Senate, offered an amendment to the bill in part to alleviate the concerns that teachers raised about their workload under HB 1134.

Nearly 200 people signed up to testify to the Senate committee last week, the vast majority in opposition, saying that changes to HB 1134 can’t fix it.

“A wrongly conceived idea can only be improved so much,” said Gail Zeheralis, director of governmental relations and public affairs at the Indiana State Teachers Association.

The Senate Committee on Education and Career Development is scheduled to hear further amendments and vote on HB 1134 on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Revised ‘divisive concepts’ bill sees no vote, but plenty of opposition

2022-02-17T01:22:10+00:00

Indiana senators pushed back a vote on a controversial curriculum control bill on Wednesday in order to allow for further changes after approving an amendment that tempers some of its provisions.

In public testimony, dozens of speakers told the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development that no changes could rehabilitate House Bill 1134, which still bans three “divisive concepts” from the classroom.

Among the speakers was Troy Fears, executive director of CANDLES, Indiana’s only Holocaust museum, who said teachers had told him they would hesitate to bring their classes on field trips to the museum should HB 1134 pass, for fear of complaints from parents.

Pastor Jerry Rairdon of the Noblesville First United Methodist Church also spoke in opposition to the bill, saying that as a history major in college, he had never heard of Tulsa’s Black Wall Street and the massacre that followed.

“Even as it’s amended, (the bill) is still an act of censorship intended to reduce meaningful conversation,” Rairdon said. “My grandchildren need to receive a more complete understanding of history than I received. We need to make room for meaningful conversations surrounding race, not limit those conversations.”

As amended, House Bill 1134 would give districts the option to create curriculum review committees of parents, rather than mandating the outside committees as originally written. The bill also would erase the requirement for schools to post a year’s worth of curriculum material online, requiring instead only that they make materials available upon request.

The amended bill lists three — down from an original eight — topics that teachers couldn’t promote in the classroom. Legislators have refused to remove the list, which has drawn sharp criticism.

The committee delayed voting on the bill until next week, Chairman Sen. Jeff Raatz (R-Richmond) said.

Opponents have said the bill discounts teachers’ professional training and censors classroom discussions, while proponents have said it’s necessary to offer parents a window into what their children are learning.

Sen. Linda Rogers (R-Granger), the Senate sponsor of the bill, said in opening remarks Wednesday that her amendment sought to give parents a path to involvement in schools while recognizing the work of the state’s 80,000 teachers, who she said should spend their time in the classroom rather than filling out paperwork.

Some teachers “go too far,” she said, and the bill would “rein them back in or have them moved to a different field,” but she did not provide examples.

The committee cut off public testimony after one hour and 45 minutes despite nearly 200 people signing up to speak, 91% of whom were speaking in opposition, according to Raatz.

Gwendolyn Kelley, an independent education consultant who said she works closely with the NAACP, the Indianapolis Alliance of Black School Educators, and other civil rights groups, said the African American community did not support the bill and didn’t want to see it passed.

“House Bill 1134 is unnecessary, complicated and divisive, and it has aroused the Black community to join with me and say, why, why this bill?” Kelley said, adding that she wanted the state to focus not on social and emotional learning and surveys, but on academic outcomes for Black students.

Parent Kyle Richardson said that as a gay man, he opposed language in the bill that required school staff to first contact parents before providing mental health services to students.

“I know friends who have struggled with their parents not supporting them, and I have lost friends to suicide,” Richardson said.

To loud cheers from a crowd assembled outside the Senate chamber, a Noblesville High School student told lawmakers about experiencing thoughts of suicide in seventh grade, and said the language of the bill would have prevented a trusted teacher from providing help.

“If I had known I had to get parental permission to talk to a teacher or counselor, I never would have opened my mouth in the first place. I was too embarrassed to admit what I thought was my greatest weakness,” the student said.

Three people on Wednesday expressed support for the bill, though the amendment alienated some original proponents, including Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office.

Parent Dawn Lang said she supported the bill, and especially its focus on transparency through online learning management systems at schools.

Lang said that though she was a “parent in a sea of red,” in reference to the Red for Ed shirts that teachers and other opponents of the bill wore, she represented more parents who couldn’t come and testify.

“My concern is that the parents are going to take their students out of the school systems and move and transfer to private or home school if they can’t feel that their voices are being heard,” she said.

The committee adjourned just after 6:30 p.m. despite some confusion over whether lawmakers would have time to ask questions, or whether they could allow more public comment.

Many still waiting outside the Senate chamber could be heard calling for a chance to speak.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Proposed change to ‘divisive concepts’ bill would ban fewer ideas

2022-02-15T23:39:07+00:00

A proposed amendment to Indiana’s so-called “divisive concepts” legislation would drop some of the most controversial parts of the bill, but stop short of completely removing a list of concepts that would be banned from the classroom.

The changes are an attempt to strike a compromise, according to a statement by Sen. Linda Rogers (R-Granger), who’s sponsoring House Bill 1134 as it makes its first appearance Wednesday in the Senate Committee on Education and Career Development.

Among its changes, Rogers’ amendment would narrow a list of concepts that lawmakers want banned from the classroom from eight to three, removing one that would forbid teachers from teaching that students should feel guilt or discomfort based on their personal characteristics like race or national origin.

Teachers had singled out this point in particular as potentially generating frivolous lawsuits and stifling classroom conversations.

The bill, passed out of the House last month, has faced an uncertain future in the Senate, which killed its own version of the bill early into the session after national outcry.

“The changes I am introducing may not be where we end up on all of these issues, but I am offering them as a good-faith attempt at a compromise that respects the valid concerns of both parents and educators,” Rogers said in a statement. “I appreciate the thoughtful discussions I’ve had with hundreds of interested parties on this bill, and I will remain open to input as the legislative process continues.”

Rogers’ amendment still includes three concepts that teachers couldn’t promote:

That any sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin is inherently superior or inferior to another.
That any individual should be treated adversely or preferentially because of the above.
That any individual is responsible for actions committed in the past by people who share their personal traits.

Notably, the amendment would strike “political affiliation” from the list of characteristics that the bill protects from discrimination. Opponents had pointed out that such language could stop teachers from condemning Nazism.

Rogers’ amendment would strike the ability of parents who believe schools have taught a banned concept to file suit. Final authority to determine whether a violation has occurred would rest with the Indiana Department of Education.

The amendment would strike the original bill’s mandate for outside curriculum review.

Instead of mandating curriculum review committees composed primarily of parents, the amendment would give districts the option to form such committees. Parents could request that a committee review certain materials.

Finally, the amendment would not require schools and teachers to post most of their learning materials online for public review at the beginning of the year. Instead it would mandate that they use an online learning management system and allow parents to inspect materials upon request.

The Senate is scheduled to hear testimony, consider amendments, and vote on HB 1134 at Wednesday’s committee meeting, at the end of a packed schedule that also includes a hearing on House Bill 1041, which would ban transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports.

Proponents of the curriculum-control bill have said parents need a window into their children’s education. But opponents, including many teachers, say it discounts their professional experience and inserts politics into teaching.

In a statement, Indiana Democrats said the amendment “still falls far short of the mark for teachers, parents, and students.”

“The latest version of HB 1134 remains a slippery slope allowing bad actors to demand neutrality on issues, divide communities, and diminish Hoosier values,” said Lauren Ganapini, executive director of the Indiana Democratic Party. “The Indiana GOP’s original intentions were to put politics in the classroom, not to create a better future for our children.”

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston leaves College Board amid CRT controversy

2022-02-09T00:02:16+00:00

Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston has resigned from a six-figure job with The College Board, the operator of the SAT and Advanced Placement courses.

The move comes after progressive activists raised concerns on social media about Huston’s support for legislation that would restrict what teachers can teach about race and racism — while serving as The College Board’s senior vice president for state and district partnership.

Huston has worked for the College Board since October 2012 and resigned Monday, according to House Republicans Communications Director Erin Wittern. The College Board paid Huston $460,738 in 2019, according to tax records.

The organization did not answer a question about its position on legislative attempts to limit discussions of race in the classroom, or whether Huston’s support for House Bill 1134 played a role in his departure.

But Wittern said the decision “was not related to any legislative efforts.”

In a statement, a representative of The College Board said that “Huston concluded that the demands of both his role here and his elected position are not sustainable, and he wants to devote more time to his work in Indiana.”

Santiago Mayer, executive director of Voters of Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization focused on youth political involvement, first raised concerns on Twitter about Huston’s dual roles, writing that Huston was involved with shaping curriculum decisions across the country.

Mayer began a hashtag campaign to #FireToddHuston on Jan. 31.

Judd Legum, an independent journalist at Popular Information and founder of the progressive news organization ThinkProgress, also questioned how HB 1134 would affect content of The College Board’s AP classes.

The College Board said it was grateful for Huston’s work. “Todd has cultivated a superb team of leaders, who are now well prepared to lead our work with state and district partners,” the statement said.

Huston was first elected in 2012 and tapped to lead the House in 2020. The Fishers Republican’s statement said he had been “incredibly fortunate” to serve in his College Board role for nine years.

“As of right now, I’m focused on a strong, successful finish to this legislative session,” Huston said in a statement. “I want to recharge my batteries post-session before considering future opportunities.”

Here are the education bills moving forward in the Indiana legislature

2022-02-01T23:02:26+00:00

Bills that would ban schools from teaching “divisive concepts” and open libraries to prosecution for distributing harmful material have passed the first hurdles of the Indiana legislature.

Along with other proposals to require school corporations to provide a public comment period, and to share referendum funds with charter schools, the bills met legislative deadlines in the last week and now cross chambers for approval.

Here are some education-related bills that are moving forward, as well as a few also-rans that didn’t make it through.

Moving forward

Transgender girls in youth sports: HB 1041 would ban trans girls from participating in girls’ sports at the K-12 level. The bill originally applied to collegiate sports as well, but the language was amended. Proponents say they’re trying to preserve a sense of fairness in girls’ athletics, while opponents say the bill targets already vulnerable children trying to play sports with their friends. After a heated comment period, spectators left the gallery shouting “shame on you” to lawmakers after the bill passed committee.

Revenue sharing: HB 1072 would require school corporations to share referendum money with charter schools that enroll students who live within that corporation’s boundaries. Author Rep. Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis) said it would allow dollars to better follow students, but opponents decried the move as taking needed funding away from traditional public schools. Districts already have the option to share referendum funds with charter schools, as Indianapolis Public Schools has recently decided to do.

No school A-F grades: The state board of education would once again assign schools a “null” or “no letter grade” for the 2021-22 school year. The board did so last year due to disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic. Schools have not been issued A-F grades since 2018 due to the switch to a new state assessment.

Special education disputes: Schools would no longer be able to require that parents sign a nondisclosure agreement in order to resolve legal disputes related to their students’ special education services. If passed, Indiana may become the first state to ban the practice. HB 1107 would also require the state to create a database of issues addressed in these due process hearings.

School board public comment: Two bills, HB 1130 and SB 83, would require school boards to offer an oral public comment period. Last year, tense meetings led at least one school district, Carmel Clay Schools, to suspend public comment for several months. Rep. Tim O’Brien, the author of the HB 1130, noted that Carmel restored its public comment period shortly after HB 1130 passed unanimously out of committee.

“Divisive concepts” ban: A bill to regulate what teachers can teach about race would prohibit teachers from promoting eight concepts that lawmakers have deemed divisive. HB1134 would also require schools to post bibliographic information of their curriculum, and to create parent committees to approve curriculum. The Indianapolis NAACP has decried the bill as racist, joined by groups including the Indianapolis Urban League and Marion County Commission on Youth in opposing it.

Campus free speech: House lawmakers nearly unanimously supported a bill to enshrine in state law First Amendment protections for college campuses. But critics questioned why HB 1190 was needed if federal law already granted those rights, and universities have stopped short of supporting it. Sheila Kennedy, a professor emeritus at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI, said it could complicate existing law.

Adjunct teacher permits: HB 1251 and SB 356 allow school corporations to issue adjunct teacher permits and hire adjunct teachers who meet certain requirements. Those employees would not be union members nor covered by collective bargaining agreements or salary schedules. Districts could hire such employees only part time under an amendment to SB 356.

Attendance adjustments: Lawmakers changed how schools’ average daily attendance is tabulated for the 2021-22 school year after schools expressed concern that they would lose money for students in quarantine since virtual students are funded at 85% of the normal state allocation. SB 2 extends the window for counting enrollment and allows the Department of Education to retroactively fund schools for students who were in quarantine.

“Harmful material” protections: Another hotly debated bill, SB 17 removes legal protections for K-12 schools and public libraries from a law that prohibits distributing harmful material to children. Colleges and college libraries would keep those protections, but other libraries could no longer claim the material was educational in nature. Proponents said the law targets only obscene material, defined in Indiana code as that which is “patently offensive” for minors and lacks literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. But opponents fear it could be more widely interpreted to ban books on topics like sex education and LGBTQ relationships.

FAFSA requirement: SB 82 requires Indiana high school seniors to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the FAFSA. The requirement passed the Senate previously, but had stalled in the House. Advocates say it would help improve Indiana’s declining college enrollment.

Not moving forward

In-state tuition: SB 138, which would have made undocumented students eligible for in-state tuition, failed to pass the Senate Education Committee.

“Divisive concepts” companion bill: The Senate abandoned SB 167, its own version of a proposal to regulate teaching race after national backlash over Sen. Scott Baldwin’s comments that schools could teach Nazism impartially. Lawmakers said at the time that SB 167 had “no path forward,” casting some uncertainty over how the nearly-identical HB 1134 will fare in the Senate.

Collective bargaining: The bill would’ve required school districts to bargain with teachers’ unions over matters like class size, teacher prep periods, and health and safety measures amid COVID-19 — provisions that were stripped by the state legislature a decade ago. Restoring the right was a legislative priority for the Indiana State Teachers Association this year, but SB 178 died in the Education Committee.

Partisan school boards: A proposal to require school board candidates to identify their political affiliation drew universal criticism at its first House Education Committee hearing. HB 1182 ultimately never came up for a vote.

Indiana bill would duplicate First Amendment protections at colleges

2022-01-27T23:25:40+00:00

A bill to bar Indiana state colleges from restricting protests based on ideology passed overwhelmingly in the House Thursday — even though the legislation essentially duplicates federal First Amendment protections.

Universities have stopped short of supporting the bill, but said they agree with its ideas. Bill critics questioned why a state law is necessary when federal protections exist. They also warned the bill if signed into law could encourage litigation and complicate First Amendment case law.

Spurred by complaints from conservative and religious groups, House Bill 1190 would codify federal free-speech protections into state law and also allow students and student groups to sue for damages.

The bill would prevent state education institutions from prohibiting protests or leafleting on certain areas of campus or denying those rights to student groups based on their ideology.

Co-author Rep. Chris Jeter (R-McCordsville) cited examples of conservative and religious groups facing alleged discrimination on college campuses in explaining the origin of the bill. Still, he said the bill was neutral and didn’t distinguish among points of view.

Jack Jordan (R-Bremen), the author of HB 1190, also said the bill was not a Democrat or Republican issue, but stemmed from the First Amendment.

“This is a ‘we’ issue, that we all should be — and I’m assuming are — excited about,” Jordan said in presenting the bill.

HB 1190 received near-unanimous support from public speakers and other lawmakers, though Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis) questioned why it was necessary if the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court rulings have affirmed First Amendment rights on college campuses.

It’s not necessary to put existing federal protections into state laws, said Sheila Kennedy, a professor emeritus of law and public policy at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IUPUI — and doing so inaccurately could create legal headaches for schools.

“There’s no legal reason to codify it. It is the law,” Kennedy said. “State legislatures do not have to go back every time the Supreme Court makes a law inapplicable. If the Supreme Court comes down with a decision, a law may stay on your books, but it is no longer in effect.”

Kennedy said HB 1190 encourages additional litigation, and complicates the legal precedent of the First Amendment and existing case law by potentially allowing somebody to claim they have additional rights under Indiana law.

Specific provisions of the bill — like one prohibiting colleges from denying a benefit to student organizations based on their ideology — could require schools to recognize and fund white supremacist student groups, she said.

“Even if their intent was not to protect student groups with abhorrent views, that certainly could occur under this language,” she said.

Jeter said the purpose of adding the language to state law is to provide additional guidance to universities.

“We’ve seen universities attempt to craft policies just based on the First Amendment, which is very broad, and those policies have oftentimes veered away… from some of the case law,” Jeter said. “(Universities) want to propagate rules that are fair, lawful, and viewpoint-neutral for all students.”

The bill says it should not be construed to prevent universities from restricting non-protected speech, such as threats or harassment, or conduct that “materially and substantially” disrupts the protected activity of another individual.

In an interview, Jeter said the bill pares down years of case law into specific guidance for schools to follow.

The enforcement provision — which allows students or student organizations to sue schools for violations — is novel, but Jeter said schools would likely be open to legal action even without it.

Jeter said he had met with Indiana schools about this bill

Indiana University hasn’t taken a position on the bill, spokesperson Chuck Carney said.

“We appreciate that it largely mirrors our existing policy, and especially appreciate that the legislature has worked with the public universities as they continue to refine the legislation,” Carney said in a statement.

Speaking to lawmakers on behalf of IU, Ivy Tech, and Ball State, Zachary Smith Howard, assistant director of state relations at Indiana University, said the universities were committed to First Amendment protections.

“Our institutions recognize the rights of all members of the campus community,” he said. “This is essential to the advance of each of our institutions’ educational measures.”

Jeter said the bill was a response to “national trends towards suppression of speech,” citing certain challenges that student groups have faced to their freedom of association.

He said higher education institutions in Indiana have been generally good about protecting First Amendment rights, but that they’ve still seen a handful of complaints, including a 2018 lawsuit by a pro-life group at Ball State University that claimed the school had unfairly denied them student activity funds.

An IUPUI graduate also told House lawmakers during testimony that her pro-life student group had been held to different standards than other student groups, including by having a display confined to a small area enclosed by bike racks.

Asked if the bill aimed to protect conservative viewpoints at traditionally liberal college campuses, Jeter said, “Those are the ones you see most in the news.”

However, he added that “there are reports of liberal groups on more conservative campuses also being marginalized.” The bill, he said, is politically neutral.

It’s not Indiana’s — nor Jordan’s — first foray into college free speech.

Last year, the state passed a law requiring universities to survey students on free speech by May 2022, in order to gauge whether students felt their schools “recognized and fostered” the free expression of opinions and ideologies.

Jordan separately had proposed that universities identify the ideological leanings of professors, courses, speakers, and student groups, according to the IndyStar.

Last year’s bill also required the Commission on Higher Education to create a report on free speech at higher education institutions, which was issued on Nov. 1.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana House sends sweeping anti-CRT bill to the Senate

2022-01-27T00:22:19+00:00

The Indiana House on Wednesday passed a sweeping bill that would ban schools from teaching “divisive concepts” of race and racism and from making students feel guilt or discomfort because of their race or ethnicity.

The Republican-controlled body passed House Bill 1134 on a 60-37 vote. It now heads to the Senate, which abandoned its own version of the bill after it elicited national criticism.

Author Rep. Tony Cook (R-Cicero) said the purpose of the House bill was to give parents more control over what their children learn in schools, through the curriculum portals and review committees that it creates.

“They have a right to be an active voice in their schools,” Cook said. Many parents feel they haven’t been heard, he said.

Dozens of educators have spoken against the bill, arguing that it would silence classroom discussions of racism and history as teachers fear losing their licenses over complaints.

Rep. Renee Pack (D-Indianapolis) said it was important for students to learn history to avoid repeating its mistakes. She shared her own experience of discomfort as a young Black student learning about slavery.

“I didn’t like hearing about the things that happened to my ancestors — the things they had to endure,” Pack said. “It’s a dirty, shameful truth about this country’s history. But let me tell you this. I took that uncomfortability and turned it into a life of service.”

Teachers also raised concerns about the workload the bill would create for teachers to post all their coursework, seek approval for new material, and create alternate lessons for parents who choose to opt their students out of certain topics.

An amendment added Tuesday attempts to address teacher workload issues by exempting supplemental lessons added at the last minute from online posting. Instead, schools must post only bibliographic information of preplanned curriculum and mind copyright laws.

The bill would allow school boards to require their schools to post more than what the bill specifies.

The amended bill no longer requires teachers to create alternative assignments for students who are opted-out of lessons.

The amendment also deletes references to state colleges and other state institutions. Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis) previously had noted that the language of the bill applied to colleges.

The House rejected a DeLaney amendment to make the state, rather than school districts, responsible for damages brought by lawsuits allowed under the bill.

The revised bill caps damages for violating its provisions at $1,000. It places the responsibility on principals and superintendents for enforcing the ban on certain concepts.

Teachers could still lose their licenses for “willful or wanton” violations of the law.

Speaking in support of the bill, Rep. Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis) said the amendments to the bill had struck a balance and that the proposal would likely continue to evolve as it moved to the Senate.

Rep. Wendy McNamara (R-Evansville), and director of Early College High School at Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp, said she didn’t support the bill because it required monitoring of all teachers.

She said she would prefer to address the actions of individual “bad actors.”

Democratic lawmakers overwhelmingly opposed the bill.

DeLaney questioned whether Indiana students would be able to learn about the history of the Civil War or the Klu Klux Klan in the state.

“Let’s get it out on the table what we’re afraid of. We’re afraid of change,” DeLaney said. “We don’t want our kids to be woke. We want them to be asleep. That’s what this bill proposes.”

“HB 1134 tells students that if you disagree with something, if it challenges your positions, if it conflicts with your preconceived notions of the world, you don’t need to debate or discuss it,” said. Rep. Blake Johnson (D-Indianapolis). “If there is anything in the marketplace of ideas that you don’t like, you don’t have to just disagree. You can pretend it doesn’t exist at all.”

Proposed Indiana law could unlock millions in college financial aid

2022-01-26T23:08:04+00:00

Indiana students miss out on an estimated $65 million in free money for college, simply because many don’t fill out the federal financial aid application.

But what if high schools required every student to complete the financial aid form?

That’s up for discussion in the legislature for the third year in a row. And supporters say the need to help students afford a postsecondary education is becoming a more pressing problem as Indiana faces declining college enrollment.

“It’s a student equity issue. It’s a workforce development issue. And it’s ultimately an economic mobility issue,” said Jason Bearce, vice president of education and workforce development for the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

The Senate Education and Career Development Committee unanimously advanced a proposal Wednesday to require all high school seniors to file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the FAFSA. The bill would allow families to opt out of filling out the form, or principals and school counselors to waive the requirement for students in extenuating circumstances.

Indiana ranked in the bottom half of states last year for FAFSA completion, with 55.9% of seniors filing. Less than 60% of high school seniors nationally completed the FAFSA.

And there’s more at stake than the $65 million in Pell Grants that the National College Attainment Network estimates Hoosier students would have qualified for. The FAFSA also unlocks state-level financial aid, as well as scholarships offered by individual colleges.

But officials representing K-12 school associations raised concerns that mandating the FAFSA would add another burden to overtaxed educators.

“We become the FAFSA police,” said Terry Spradlin, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association.

While he wants students to be able to access financial aid, Spradlin said he is worried educators would have to spend too much time tracking down families who don’t intend to seek financial aid — families who know their income is too high, or whose children who plan to enter the workforce or join the military.

Sen. Shelli Yoder, D-Bloomington, backed the bill but echoed the concern about putting more work on school staff: “Right now our school counselors are just inundated with severe mental health issues among students.”

Still, supporters said they want to ensure students are choosing to not seek financial aid, rather than missing out on an opportunity they don’t know about. Filling out the aid application can help dispel the notion that people cannot afford to attend college.

Tuition at Ivy Tech Community College, for example, would be easily covered by a Pell Grant, said MJ Michalak, Ivy Tech’s vice president of public affairs.

“When you talk about free community college, we already have that in Indiana for the students who have the most need — if they file the FAFSA,” she said.

A handful of other states, including Louisiana, Texas, and Illinois, have made completing the FAFSA a graduation requirement. Louisiana, the first state to adopt such a law, has the highest rate in the nation of students completing the application — 78%.

In Indiana, the proposed FAFSA mandate has passed the Senate in each of the past two years but stalled in the House. Last year, balking at the idea of a requirement, lawmakers in the House instead suggested providing a financial incentive to schools based on how many students complete the FAFSA. But the bill ultimately didn’t make it through.

Bill author Sen. Jean Leising, R-Oldenburg, said she brought the proposal back this year because she thinks it’s more important than ever.

“The reality is, unfortunately, our participation rate in Indiana continues to decline,” she said. “We’re leaving a lot of money out there that would benefit not just our four-year college-bound students, but also the two-year (college students) and even those kids that want to participate in the Workforce Ready Grant.”

FAFSA filing rates are falling in particular among Black, Latino, and rural students, and those from low-income families, said Indiana Commission for Higher Education official Josh Garrison.

He believes the proposal’s benefits outweigh the burden.

“It’s easy to get lost in percentages and large numbers, but it’s important to remember these are students who are sitting in classrooms right now, who are missing out on the opportunity for postsecondary education and the opportunity for a better life,” Garrison said. “This is just not something that can wait another year.”

Stephanie Wang covers higher education for Chalkbeat Indiana, which partners with Open Campus.

‘Whitewashing history’: Indiana teachers fear anti-CRT bill threatens lessons

2022-01-14T21:45:37+00:00

The civil rights movement, the 1915 Armenian genocide, evolution, human reproduction.

These are some of the lessons that Indiana teachers fear they would have to water down or eliminate altogether if the state passes sweeping new regulations on how they may address race and racism. Many object.

“I refuse to be a part of whitewashing history,” said Sondra Flora, a second grade teacher at Elkhart Community Schools.

The proposed restrictions come as part of a conservative movement reacting to racial justice protests by targeting critical race theory — even though state leaders said they don’t believe Indiana’s K-12 schools teach the theory, an academic concept that examines how institutional racism is woven into law and society.

But the lawmaker behind the bill wants to ban lessons that might make students feel discomfort or superior or inferior to others.

“If people think this is a small problem out here; it’s not,” said Rep. Tony Cook, a Cicero Republican and author of House Bill 1134.

On Friday, Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray said the Senate would no longer pursue proposed curriculum restrictions. In the House, after backlash over a lawmaker’s suggestion that teachers remain impartial about the Holocaust, legislators have attempted to blunt the language of the bill. They added a “good citizenship” clause that its authors say permits teachers to express their opinions on ideas that run counter to the U.S. Constitution, like Nazism and racism.

But many educators said they still oppose the bill, saying the ban could halt the teaching of a whole slate of history topics that might risk making a student uncomfortable.

Hammond Schools Superintendent Scott Miller told the House Education Committee that a history lesson on religious persecution during the Spanish Inquisition could produce a complaint under the proposed law if it makes a Catholic student feel uncomfortable, for example.

“If we want to encourage critical thinking skills, we cannot set the standard for a violation to be an individual student’s comfort level,” Miller said.

‘Our kids get it’

Teachers whose lessons cover American history have expressed perhaps the most concern about the proposed law, which they say seeks to undercut teaching about racial discrimination.

Lillian Barkes, a second grade teacher in Indianapolis Public Schools, said she relies on stories that provide examples of racism and segregation, including “Separate Is Never Equal,” a book on a California school desegregation case; “A Girl with a Mind for Math,” which tells the story of Raye Montague, a Black female engineer; and “The Youngest Marcher,” about the youngest person to be arrested at civil rights protests in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.

“These books are mirrors for my students. They are able to see themselves and are represented,” Barkes said. “I see my students light up and are engaged when we discuss topics like fairness. If these books are eliminated, that would wipe out a large chunk of my library.”

Rosa Snapp, a sixth grade English teacher at East Washington Schools, said even historical sources like Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech might be considered a violation of the bill.

Snapp said students have not expressed feelings of guilt or anguish after lessons on the history of racism, but rather anger over the treatment of Black people.

“They are empowered to make sure that doesn’t happen again in their lifetime,” Snapp said.

Kathy Wallace, an elementary music specialist at Randolph Central Schools, said she previously has taught lessons on the musical “Hamilton,” or the book “When Marian Sang,” about opera singer Marian Anderson’s integrated concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939.

Those lessons lead to discussions about equality, Wallace said.

“The easiest thing in our current climate would be not to teach any of it,” Wallace said. “But then, that genre is lost to a group of students and it feels like their education has been cheated.”

Flora, the Elkhart teacher, said she would refuse to stop teaching grade-appropriate history lessons, like ones about Ruby Bridges, who was similar in age to her students when she desegregated William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans.

“Ruby’s story helps students build empathy and find their own courage to stand up for what’s right and stand up for others,” Flora said.

She said students had never expressed guilt or anguish about history lessons, but instead have shared shock that people could be so unkind to each other. Others have shared their own experiences of being called racial slurs.

“Each year I watch my students listen to each other and empathize,” Flora said. “It’s their discussion, questions, and response to these lessons that give me hope. Our kids get it. I hope someday our state legislators will as well.”

Teachers concerned about lessons

Cook, the lawmaker behind the House bill, said he doesn’t intend to ban certain topics.

Instead, he wants to prevent teachers from imposing their opinions on students, as well as ban activities from the classroom that force students to make statements about their identity, or role-play oppressed and oppressor.

A former teacher, Cook said teachers shouldn’t solely focus on negatives of Catholicism in teaching the Spanish Inquisition, for example. He said he would teach some of the Catholic Church’s early stances, and examples of when the accusations of the Inquisition had turned out to be false.

“But you don’t condemn a group of sixth graders, only pointing out negatives that occurred in their religion,” Cook said.

Regarding a more contemporary example like the practice of redlining that blocked Black Americans from homeownership and its present-day effects, Cook acknowledged that the discriminatory practice existed but claimed its cause is disputed.

But many educators say they must teach accurate history and take a stand against atrocities.

Ronak Shah, a seventh-grade science teacher at KIPP Indy College Prep Middle, said the bill would prevent teachers from describing the role of oppression in historical events.

“This language is so broad, applying to every country and society, that it prevents me from teaching how Stalin used the idea of a hard work ethic to sentence political dissidents to Russian gulags, and from teaching how Mao Zedong similarly used the idea of a meritocracy to expose, and subsequently crush, opposing viewpoints during the ‘hundred flowers’ and Cultural Revolution periods,” Shah said.

He said the “good citizenship” clause to promote constitutional values still raised questions about how to teach about the U.S. government’s treatment of Indigenous people and the Confederacy, for example.

Troy Hammon, a Shortridge High School teacher and president of the Indiana Council for the Social Studies, said the language changes do little to defuse potential conflicts between educators and parents.

Hammon, a 25-year teaching veteran, said teachers must lay the groundwork for difficult history lessons — that they can’t teach World War II the same way to a fifth grader as to an 11th grader — but that the lessons are essential.

“Parts of the learning process can create discomfort for some. Put me in a math class and I will be suffering discomfort through most of the session,” Hammon said. “Good teachers keep the communication open and work students through the discomfort in order to create those teachable moments.”

Fears of a teacher exodus

Other teachers have said they would refuse to change their lessons should the law pass, or would rather leave teaching altogether, worsening fears of a teacher shortage.

Some have expressed frustration at the state’s attempt to interfere in their classrooms and with the relationships they had established with their students’ families.

Michelle Fleischer, a ninth grade English teacher at Elkhart Community Schools, said she would refuse to comply if the bill became law.

“Most teachers would welcome any comments or concerns from parents (or) guardians,” Fleischer said. “Most parents trust teachers to teach our subject areas because, believe it or not, we do know what we’re doing.”

Educators have professional training to lead students through necessary and painful discussions, said Kay Orzechowicz, who recently retired after teaching for 35 years.

Orzechowicz said she was always prepared with a rationale when approaching controversial topics, in case she faced questions from parents, administrators, or students.

When questions arose about the profanity in the book “The Hate U Give,” Orzechowicz said she would explain that her students felt a sense of recognition in reading the book, which is about a Black girl who witnesses a police officer fatally shooting her best friend. She would say its story — not its language — was the point of teaching it.

Orzechowicz said that Indiana’s proposed restrictions on curriculum would not have changed how she taught.

“However, if I were a young teacher at the beginning or middle of my career, the moment parents had the authority to question, berate, and barrage me for the way I was teaching and questioning what I was teaching, I would have to look for a new career or profession,” Orzechowicz said.

Beth Niedermeyer, superintendent of Noblesville Schools, added in a written statement that the bill would “threaten to criminalize teachers, driving educators out of a profession that is already undervalued and in the midst of a desperate shortage.”

“Education legislation is often written without any input from actual educators and with little regard for how it will actually work in the real world,” Niedermeyer said.

Other teachers also raised concerns about the bill increasing an already heavy workload.

Christiane Beebe, a Brownsburg teacher, told House and Senate lawmakers that as an elementary educator who teaches seven subjects, she would be responsible for posting 75 educational materials online for one week alone.

She also questioned whether she would be required to seek approval from a curriculum review committee each time she wanted to order a new workbook for her students.

“We should not disincentivize teachers from being innovative and planning engaging lessons that meet the specific and unique needs of their students,” Beebe said.

Paul Farmer, a 34-year teacher at Monroe County Schools, told the House Education Committee this week that the bill would likely require him to create more alternatives for students whose parents object to lessons, like those on evolution.

Farmer said the bill puts undue pressure on new teachers.

“Is this bill really going to decrease the number of teachers going into education? The answer is, yes it will,” Farmer said. “It’s going to scare them.”

Could Indiana’s anti-CRT bill ban teachers from condemning racism?

2022-01-13T01:42:19+00:00

Two Indiana lawmakers got into a tense exchange Wednesday over whether a controversial bill would prevent teachers from condemning racism.

The bill, authored by Rep. Tony Cook, R-Cicero, would ban teachers from promoting eight concepts, including teaching about race and racism in a way that makes students feel responsible for matters like slavery and discrimination.

In an education committee hearing, Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, asked Cook whether a “good citizenship” clause added to House Bill 1134 would allow teachers to say unequivocally that “racism is bad.”

In response, Cook said teachers could teach historical events, like the Tulsa race massacre, the Selma Civil Rights march, and the Japanese-American internment during World War II.

“(Those) examples would certainly talk about racism and how it was approached in a very bad way in our country at one time,” Cook said. “What this bill is meant to caution against is bringing in my own feelings and imposing or promoting those to students.”

Cook later clarified with Chalkbeat that the bill would allow teachers to condemn racism, through the new language encouraging teachers to promote the values of the U.S. Constitution over other political systems. Racism, he said, is contrary to constitutional ideals, citing amendments that abolished slavery, offered equal protection, and gave voting rights to Americans of color.

“I will say racism is bad. I would say that in a classroom under this bill,” said Cook, a former teacher.

Cook amended his bill after a national outcry over another Indiana lawmaker’s comments that teachers should be impartial when teaching Nazism.

Cook said he does not intend to ban teaching of specific historical events, and that he wouldn’t support lists of what would be allowed and what wouldn’t. Instead, he said the bill authors are seeking to ban the promotion of ideologies, and activities like role-playing that sort children into roles of the oppressor versus the oppressed.

Some of the ideas the bill would ban are that any student is superior or inferior to any other on the basis of their race, as well as the idea that they should feel guilt for the past actions of people who share their characteristics.

Smith said civil rights groups remain concerned that the bill would prevent teachers from taking a stand against racism. He called the answers he received from Cook “evasive.”

Smith said he believes Cook’s bill is intended to censor critical race theory, which states that racism is embedded in the policies of the U.S.

“Anyone with an open mind would know that,” Smith said.

He said that by trying to protect students from feeling uncomfortable, the bill would deny them a chance to learn higher-order thinking, or the ability to analyze and evaluate ideas.

Its proposal to allow parents to remove their children from lessons they object to would create “academic bedlam,” as teachers try to reconcile parents’ requests with academic standards.

House Bill 1134 passed the House Education Committee on an 8-5 vote with all four Democrats and one Republican, Rep. Ed Clere of New Albany, opposed. It now heads to the full House.

Similar legislation, Senate Bill 167, is awaiting a committee vote.

Other changes to the House bill approved Wednesday establish a 30-day limit for parents to file complaints about forbidden concepts in the classroom.

Educators could lose their licenses for violating the bill, but the amendment adds that those violations must be “willful” or “wanton,” to address concerns about frivolous complaints brought under the bill.

The bill also would not require teachers to submit lesson plans for a curriculum review committee to approve, after teachers testified in public comment that their plans were fluid and changed daily.

Lawmakers changed the makeup of those committees to specify that they must be composed of 60% parents, rather than 40%. However, no more than 50% of those parents could also be school district employees.

The committee also dropped the wording — the singular word “include” — that teachers feared could have prevented even neutral academic examination of controversial topics. But the bill still would ban teachers and schools from promoting eight banned concepts that it lists.

Democrat or Republican? Bill would make Indiana school board candidates declare

2022-01-11T22:16:06+00:00

A bill to turn Indiana school board elections partisan drew unanimous public opposition in its first legislative hearing Tuesday, despite lawmakers’ contentions that it would improve transparency.

House Bill 1182, authored by Rep. J.D. Prescott, a Union City Republican, would require school board candidates to add their political party affiliation to the ballot, or identify as independent. The races are currently nonpartisan.

Opponents said the proposal would inject partisanship into school districts’ everyday decisions, like how to feed and transport students.

“The school board should be focusing on policy,” said Rep. Tonya Pfaff, a Terre Haute Democrat. “There are no Democrat or Republican schools.”

But Prescott said he had heard constituent support for greater transparency in school board elections. He said a candidate’s declaration of their stance on national issues indicated how they would handle smaller local issues.

“I think you can tell the difference between financial responsibility and moral character,” Prescott said. “Having that on the ballot will help tell voters a little bit more about the candidate.”

In down-ballot races where voters know little about individual candidates, they would at least know their political party, lawmakers said.

“I think politics are already in our schools, we just don’t know where our school board members are on the political spectrum,” Prescott said.

Under the proposal, candidates would have to have voted in the two most recent primary elections held by the party of their choice in order to claim the affiliation. If they hadn’t, they would need to seek written permission from the county party chairperson to claim party affiliation.

During public comment, dozens of school board members and their legal representatives spoke in opposition to the proposal, saying it would further fracture boards that have recently seen politically motivated furor over COVID-19 protocols and race discussions in schools.

“Inviting politics into the boardroom through partisan school board links could have the consequence of fueling conflict,” said Terry Spradlin, executive director of the Indiana School Boards Association. “What we witnessed as an unusual season will become the norm.”

Spradlin also said the proposal would prohibit federal employees from running for school boards under the Hatch Act, and leave out candidates who serve in the military as well as those employed by the departments of defense and corrections, and the Postal Service.

Spradlin said the school boards association — composed of 1,700 school board members across all 290 Indiana school districts — opposed the bill. But if it moves forward, he suggested adding an amendment that would allow local bodies to decide if their school board elections would be partisan, as Tennessee recently allowed.

Most other states hold nonpartisan school board elections.

Other speakers warned that the bill would make it harder to find quality candidates willing to serve on the school board, and, because the primary role of the board is to hire a superintendent, would politicize that position as well.

One person pointed out that the Indiana General Assembly had recently made the superintendent of public instruction an appointed position rather than an elected one, with the aim to depoliticize public education. Lawmakers said the office charged with appointing the superintendent — the governor — was still a partisan position.

No public speakers spoke in support of the bill.

The House Elections and Apportionment Committee did not vote on the bill Tuesday.

Indiana lawmakers debate how to teach race in schools

2022-01-05T23:48:40+00:00

Proponents and opponents squared off Wednesday over a sweeping bill to regulate how Indiana schools teach about race and racism.

The hearing, the first of likely many about Senate Bill 167, covered the basics of the bill and included several hours of testimony. It would ban educators from teaching eight specific ideas, would give parents a say in regulating curriculum, and would require schools to post lessons and materials online.

It also would require schools to obtain parental permission to survey students about social and emotional needs and to offer them mental health services.

The bill echoes the measures other conservative-led states have taken to excise from classrooms discussion about race. Some critics have seized on a university-level concept called critical race theory to stop schools from discussing racial history and events.

Indiana K-12 curriculum does not include that theory, nor does the Senate bill mention it explicitly.

The legislature likely won’t vote for weeks on the bill.

Its proponents argue that it would codify parental say over what their children learn in school, and would prevent the teaching of divisive ideas and political ideologies.

Criticism of the bill ranged from its detailed requirements — like the burden on teachers to post lesson plans and materials online — to the chilling effect it could have on teaching and learning the history of racism.

Several students in particular spoke of the effects that such a law would have on their classes and peers, warning of the harm of taking mental health services away from students, or preventing their teachers from teaching freely.

“Saying this bill is not intended to prevent the teaching of history is like slashing funding for road maintenance and saying you don’t intend to create potholes,” said Tilly Robinson, a senior at Bloomington High School South in Bloomington.

Sen. Scott Baldwin, a Noblesville Republican and author of the bill, asked many speakers to specify which of the eight points identified as divisive in the bill they objected to.

Among those points is that any individual is superior or inferior to another based on sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, or political affiliation, or should be discriminated against based on those factors.

The bill also seeks to protect any student from feeling uncomfortable because of personal characteristics, or feel responsible for actions of those who share their traits — phrasing meant to prevent white students from feeling blamed for slavery and persecution of people of color.

In response to questions from Sen. J.D. Ford (D-Indianapolis) about how often the eight points identified in the bill are taught in Indiana, Baldwin said he had received stacks of materials and hundreds of emails and calls complaining about lessons that his bill seeks to outlaw.

Ford also asked Baldwin why the bill did not include gender identity and sexual orientation in its list of protected characteristics. Baldwin replied that the Republican caucus would not support such language.

Ford objected. “I think leaving out those particular folks sends a very loud and clear message to students that their existence is not worth bothering to put in the bill,” he said.

Baldwin said he had not consulted the Department of Education in creating the proposal.

He denied drafting the bill in the midst of the national furor over teaching race in the classroom, saying he had written an early version at the start of last year’s legislative session after hearing from concerned constituents.

Speaking in support of the bill, Center Grove parent Cara Cecil said the existing recourse for parents to pull their children out of lessons has failed her family.

When she tried to prevent her daughter from undergoing a social and emotional evaluation, she said the sixth grader was surveyed anyway and would have had to voice opposition to her teacher to avoid taking the survey.

Cecil said she removes her elementary-aged son from school every other week during social and emotional lessons she disagrees with, but as a result she has received a warning about his attendance. Those lessons can help students deal with emotions and interpersonal relationships, but opponents fear that teachers also use sessions to address inequity.

“I don’t want him to be told he’s guilty of the sins of other people,” Cecil said.

Attorney General Todd Rokita supports the bill. However, it doesn’t go far enough for Purple for Parents, a parent group that has voiced opposition to topics like critical race theory at school board meetings last summer.

At Wednesday’s hearing, teachers raised issues with the proposal to post their lesson plans online. The plans are often guidelines for veteran teachers, said Robert Taylor of the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents, and can change even over the course of one day.

In testimony, Brownsburg teacher Christianne Beebe said that for just one week of lessons, she’d be required to post 75 books, presentations, labs, activities, and video clips, and questioned whether she’d need to get approval from the curriculum review committee for every one.

Opponents also criticized provisions seeking to protect students’ feelings as too vague and open to unwarranted complaints.

Baldwin said the bill is not intended to stop the teaching of history neutrally. Several educators disputed that historical events like Nazism could be taught neutrally.

Justin Ohlemiller of Stand for Children Indiana said a lesson could devolve into a he-said, she-said dispute and involve threats of legal action that might deter teachers and schools from attempting to cover certain topics.

“We need to consider that this bill could have a freezing effect on teaching race and racism unless we make sure there’s a clear lane for them to do that without fear of retribution,” Ohlemiller said.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.

Indiana bills seek to regulate teaching race in upcoming session

2022-01-03T22:41:28+00:00

Indiana would ban the teaching of certain ideas about race, including those that might make any student feel guilty or uncomfortable, while also prohibiting schools from requiring employee training on banned race-related ideas, according to two bills drafted for the legislature.

The state will convene its annual legislative session on Tuesday.

The two wide-ranging bills in the House and Senate cover what schools cannot teach about race, like white privilege, or that “an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously.”

Senate Bill 167 and House Bill 1040 would also expand parent input on several school decisions, mandating that school boards create advisory committees to review educational material, including textbooks, audiovisual material, and surveys. Schools would need to make all their curriculum materials available online by June 30, 2023, with details on teachers, grade levels, and subjects.

“Our schools should be an inclusive place where respect is shown equally. Teaching concepts that divide our children into one group or another only serves to drive a wedge between individuals and distracts from the main goal of educating our children,” said Scott Baldwin, a Noblesville Republican and one of the authors of the Senate bill, in a statement. “This bill is not about preventing our teachers and schools from talking about our history – good and bad.”

The Senate version would further require schools to obtain parental permission to provide mental health services to students.

The House version also extends beyond the subject of race and would allow parents to opt their students out of wearing masks by providing notice to their schools.

In regulating content, the House bill would require schools to teach that the political systems of socialism, Marxism, communism, and totalitarianism are detrimental to the people of the United States.

The bills would establish a process for the public to complain about violations of content rules, which begins with filing a complaint to a school principal and culminates in allowing a complainant to file a civil lawsuit against a school district.

The bills read like an omnibus of regulations on teaching race proposed in other Republican-led states following this summer’s furor over critical race theory — a framework of study in universities that recently has been inaccurately used as a catch-all term for all discussions of race.

Critics say the proposed measures could intimidate teachers, burden schools with expenses, and ultimately halt any classroom discussions of race.

Moreover, targeting specific topics could run afoul of previous rulings against the suppression of ideas, said Kevin Brown, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law.

A federal court overturned Arizona’s 2010 ban of a school district’s Mexican American studies program, for example, for violating students’ constitutional rights.

Furthermore, Brown said, requiring schools to identify teachers responsible for particular curriculum could leave them vulnerable to harassment and discourage educators from broaching race at all, he said.

Brown, who participated in the original critical race theory workshop at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1989, said the allegations that critical race theory imposes guilt on individual white people don’t align with the purpose of the legal framework, which is to analyze the effects of institutions and history on current circumstances.

He said he worries about his white law students who didn’t learn about the experiences of people of color in school.

“If you don’t talk about history, but then talk about racial disparities in current statistics, you don’t have any way to explain that — except to say there must be something wrong with ‘those people,’” Brown said.

The bills say that the provisions are not meant to prohibit teaching the history of an ethnic group, or an impartial discussion of controversial aspects of history or the historical oppression of a particular people.

It furthermore states that schools have a duty to remain impartial to “ensure that students are free to express their own beliefs and viewpoints concerning curricular materials and educational activities.”

The curriculum review committees would consist of 40% educators, 40% parents of students of a school district, and 20% interested community members not employed by the district.

Their recommendations would be subject to approval by school boards.

Such committees already exist in some districts, said Keith Gambill, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association. Those have involved parents in curriculum design or approval, as part of curriculum review or textbook selection committees.

Gambill said parents already have a right to contact their child’s teacher or school for more information about a lesson. The proliferation of online learning platforms has also put assignments, grades, announcements, and permission slips at families’ fingertips.

Keith Clock, a spokesman for the state teachers union, said the union was reviewing the bills and planned to testify at the first hearings Wednesday of the House and Senate education committees.

With the legislature out of regular session since April, reaction to critical race theory in Indiana has centered on angry disruptions at a handful of school districts over classroom race discussions and COVID-19 protocols.

Last summer, Attorney General Todd Rokita also released a “Parents Bill of Rights” stating that parents had a right to review the curriculum taught in their child’s school, as well as participate in the selection and approval of academic standards for the state of Indiana, and make medical decisions for their children.

Some of the legislative proposals are similar to ones floated by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative think tank. It drafted a framework for legislation that would require schools to post instructional materials, with links to any applicable textbooks, as well as to post the names of the authors and school staff members responsible for it.

The institute touts its recommendations as promoting transparency and doesn’t intend for them to create a burden for schools, said Jim Copland, an institute senior fellow and the director of legal policy.

He said a district could identify staff members who have developed curriculum by their initials, in order to protect them from retribution by online trolls, he said. And for many teachers who use online tools to plan their lessons, he said uploading them online shouldn’t be an onerous task.

The group’s draft legislation applies to all curriculum, but states could limit the requirement to certain subjects, Copland said.

The Manhattan Institute had previously championed legislation that would prohibit schools from requiring students or staff members to make statements in classroom discussions about race.

Indiana Republican lawmakers want parents to review school curriculum

2021-12-16T00:47:08+00:00

In the wake of contentious school board meetings throughout Indiana over critical race theory, leading Republican lawmakers said they will propose allowing parents to have more of a say in what their children are taught in schools.

Critical race theory has migrated from a little-known academic framework, which examines how policies and the law perpetuate systemic racism, into a political touchstone for Republicans nationwide. It has animated debate about how schools teach about the role of race in this country.

Indiana Republicans are drafting multiple education bills for the 2022 legislative session in response to these controversies, without mentioning critical race theory by name.

Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb and several lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said at a legislative conference Wednesday that they do not believe critical race theory, or CRT, is being taught in Indiana’s K-12 schools.

“CRT is not part of our state standards,” Holcomb told reporters. “If critical race theory is being taught in the classroom in our K-12 system, it’s counter to the standards, and the local school and parents need to hold those folks who are responsible accountable.”

Still, House education leader Bob Behning said the next legislative session, which starts in January, will include a bill inspired by the critical race theory controversy that focuses on “transparency.” He suggested requiring districts to form “curriculum control committees,” groups of parents, community members, and educators who would review curriculum, classroom materials, or library books and advise school leaders to change aspects they disagree with.

Every public school district would be required to create an advisory curriculum committee, composed of 40% parents, 20% members of the public, and 40% educators, Behning said. Each committee would be required to meet at least twice a year. Recommendations from the committees would not become binding without approval from school boards.

Behning, an Indianapolis Republican, said past statutes have allowed districts to create similar committees to review curriculum, but have expired.

“We had situations in Carmel where parents were reading [aloud] books in their school board meetings that had some obscene language in it,” Behning said. “Board members were offended, but parents were like, ‘Well, this is what my kids are having access to.’”

But Democrats voiced concerns about the soon-to-be-proposed legislation. Senate Minority Leader Greg Taylor said that under the guise of transparency, the law would allow parents ways to prevent their children from learning about race at all.

“We know we have to have open dialogue about the history of this country,” Taylor said. “All that critical race theory is saying is that, ‘Hey, we tried that color-blind thing for a long time, a very long time; it’s not working. So let’s consciously infuse race into the curriculum, and hopefully that will lead to a better outcome for everybody.’”

Also in response to contentious school board meetings, Republicans are drafting a bill that could reshape school boards, which are currently formed through nonpartisan elections. Behning said his colleagues are considering a bill that would allow school board members or candidates to choose whether to reveal their political affiliation.

They may also “tighten up” the public comment procedures at school board meetings. Public comment sessions have become more heated in multiple Indiana districts in the past year, often because of critical race theory debates.

He also mentioned legislation that would create a procedure to discipline teachers who promote certain theories in the classroom, though he said promotion is not an issue with most teachers, and it is unclear what would be considered promotion and how teachers would be monitored, reported, or disciplined.

Schools have recently grappled with controversies over whether displaying Black Lives Matter signs or LGBT pride flags in classrooms could be considered promoting political ideologies.

“The overwhelming majority of teachers do not try to promote one theory over another,” Behning said. “I believe kids also need to understand authoritarian, totalitarian, Marxism to a degree, but definitely no promotion of that. So there will be some language dealing with promotion.”

Republicans and Democrats agreed about many aspects of the CRT debate during a Wednesday afternoon session at the conference. Taylor and Republican Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray both agreed CRT should not be taught in K-12 schools. They also agreed that teaching more about different cultures in K-12 classrooms would benefit all students, regardless of their race.

Why only yellow school buses? Indiana should lift law, charter group says.

2021-12-06T21:40:01+00:00

When Global Preparatory Academy went searching for a way to bring students to school this year, it found that most transportation providers were too understaffed to take on another contract. But finding its own vehicle turned into a monthslong odyssey.

After purchasing a $52,000 Ford Transit and having it shipped from New York, the Indianapolis charter school learned it could not use the van because it did not meet state school transportation standards, CEO Mariama Shaheed said.

The problem? It wasn’t a yellow school bus.

It’s a state law that The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis-based charter advocacy group, hopes the legislature will change next year, highlighting in a new report how the requirement creates a costly burden for charter schools in particular.

Scrambling, Global Prep staff began to call car-riding families, offering to pay mileage if they could transport kids who lived near them to school.

“We felt like we had to take matters into our own hands,” Shaheed said. “I realized transportation is a much bigger issue than just getting a bus.”

The report recommends legislation that would allow schools to use other vehicles that are easier and less costly to operate. It argues that, along with sharing routes and operations among schools, raising driver pay, and offering families a stipend to opt out of bus service, the change would help improve school transportation.

“The right school for you might be really far away, and if we’re only using yellow buses, you might have to spend more than an hour each way,” said Kristin Grimmie, senior vice president of strategy at The Mind Trust. “We don’t believe that’s the best or most modern way to get kids to the school of their choice.”

The Mind Trust’s report asserts that Indiana schools have long struggled with transportation woes — recently made worse by COVID-19 — but that charter schools especially have less leverage to negotiate transportation contracts. While traditional districts have historically provided busing, charter schools don’t receive the local property tax funding that pays for transportation.

They may also serve students from a broader geographic area, and stand to lose enrollment when transportation isn’t available.

Because Global Prep falls under the IPS umbrella, the district provides transportation for students who live within IPS boundaries. But 10% of students live outside those boundaries, and need transportation.

The school eventually purchased a $39,000 14-passenger school bus, with the intent to provide transportation in December — and projected to save money over its previous $60,000 contract with Durham School Services. But those plans were delayed when staff discovered that one of the new bus’s windows had been broken.

Why schools use yellow buses

The primary purpose of extensive laws governing school buses is safety. The buses are required to have features that protect students on board, like rollover protection, flashing lights, and stop-arm signs. Even the color — National School Bus Glossy Yellow — is considered to be highly visible to other motorists, who face steep penalties for not stopping for a bus.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, children are 70 times safer in a school bus than a car when traveling to and from school.

Patrick McManamon, president of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, said the organization believes the safest form of school-related transportation is a yellow bus.

“NASDPTS recognizes that school districts are faced with transportation challenges which drive some of the hard decisions they must make,” McManamon wrote in an email. “As an association which makes their No. 1 priority the safe transportation of school-age children, our hope is when making those difficult decisions the district puts students safety as the top priority.”

Indiana law agrees, allowing alternative vehicles only to transport students to extracurricular activities and back, as well as for certain federally defined groups, like students with disabilities or those experiencing homelessness.

The rigidity is unusual for a state that has embraced choice and deregulation, and especially given that nearly half of all states permit alternative vehicles for school transportation.

Arizona recently offered grants to develop school transportation alternatives, including vans at one charter school. Massachusetts also allows certain kinds of vans, if all passengers and the driver are wearing seat belts.

The Mind Trust report suggests there are ways to improve safety in Indiana if schools were to use vans to transport students.

It notes that many safety features like large markings could be added to other kinds of vehicles. New recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board suggest adding seat belts to school buses, the report says.

Report: Transportation affects school choice

The current law stymied the group’s pilot program to hire and train more drivers and centralize transportation for the five charter schools.

While the organization found 12 would-be drivers, Grimmie said its overtaxed transportation provider couldn’t provide vehicles or training and placement for the candidates. Without the flexibility to operate vans or rely on drivers without commercial licenses, the pilot never got off the ground.

“This left participating schools with no other choice than to purchase their own buses and shuttles to avoid losses in enrollment, and to narrow the scope of their transportation services, making it harder for families to access high-quality schools of their choice,” the report said.

Grimmie said that at full capacity, the pilot would have served around 400 students. The group may try again next year depending on legislative action.

Hiring and retaining drivers with commercial licenses has proved a challenge for other districts in Indiana. Notably, Pike Township has canceled in-person classes several times this year due to a lack of drivers and protests over their pay.

The report recommends raising bus driver wages to a minimum of $18 per hour, though some school districts have offered even more due to the driver shortage. It also recommends paid training and opportunities to work additional hours in other roles during the middle of the school day, to help make the jobs better paid and more attractive.

The report also recommends criminal background checks and periodic drug tests for anyone hired to transport children in any kind of vehicle.

For families, the report also recommends offering opt-out subsidies for those who live far from school or in underpopulated areas in order to reduce transit times and costs to the school district. That money could be used to defray parents’ gas costs, or fund bus passes and ride shares, Grimmie said.

Last school year, transportation challenges ate into enrollment at Rooted School, a charter school on Indianapolis’ eastside. Two bus companies canceled contracts in a matter of weeks, which led to families leaving the school, said Rooted School Executive Director Ma’at Lands at a Mind Trust event last week announcing the report and its recommendations.

“For many students, the promise of choice can be an empty one if they cannot physically access the school via transportation by their parents or the school,” Lands said.

After progress on pay, Indiana teachers want more bargaining rights

2021-11-15T23:46:11+00:00

As they celebrate recent legislative wins on starting salaries, Indiana teachers again are calling on the legislature to restore their ability to negotiate with school districts on working conditions like hours and class sizes.

Collective bargaining for working conditions has been a long-standing issue since the state stripped away the right in 2011. But teacher unions have struggled to gain traction in a Republican-controlled legislature.

This year, the Indiana State Teachers Association says it has voters on its side: A survey commissioned by the union last summer found that eight in 10 Hoosiers supported making working conditions part of the collective bargaining process, according to ISTA President Keith Gambill.

But legislators, and not state voters, control state law on bargaining.

In a news conference Monday ahead of the legislature’s organization day, Gambill said collective bargaining for working conditions is “vitally important” to teachers, many of whom teach in overcrowded classrooms without a prep period to plan lessons, or much say in schools’ health and safety protocols.

Restoring the right would help retain teachers amid a national shortage and in the third school year affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Gambill said.

“Our kids have experienced significant academic impacts and everyone seems to agree we need to get them back up to grade level,” Gambill said. “This important work is hampered by overworked staff and growing class sizes.”

Teachers’ working conditions are also students’ learning conditions, said Elkhart teacher Jessica Ramirez at the conference.

“If there are too many students in a room, we can’t provide them the education they deserve,” Ramirez said. “It’s a math problem: Minutes of the day divided by students in the room.”

Speaking at a legislative preview event hosted by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, House Speaker Todd Huston (R-Fishers) said he would not support changes to existing collective bargaining laws in the coming legislative session.

The upcoming session begins in January and runs through March. As an even-numbered year, it’s not slated to include budget discussions.

Both Huston and ISTA representatives hailed last year’s legislative victory in increasing statewide starting salaries for teachers to a minimum of $40,000.

According to data compiled by the union, just 27% of districts in the state had $40,000 minimums when collective bargaining began this fall. Some districts sailed through bargaining, promising raises to educators, while others will head to mediation after reaching impasses that have closed school doors.

As of Friday, ahead of Monday’s bargaining deadline set by state law, 212 districts had met the salary goals, or around 78% of districts in the state.

“Clearly we’re making good progress,” Gambill said.

Indiana districts get less money for quarantined students. That might change.

2021-09-14T17:56:15+00:00

Indiana school districts grappling with a possible loss of funding for quarantining students could get relief under newly proposed legislation.

The state code currently allocates students who receive primarily virtual instruction 85% of the funding given to students who attend physical classes — with no exception for those who might be learning virtually in quarantine.

The classifications are determined by how much time a student spends virtually between the beginning of the year and the Sept. 17 count day, which this year follows a surge in pediatric cases and accompanying quarantines that have kept many out of in-person classes.

But a legislative fix could extend the window for verifying a student’s primary learning mode, allowing the Department of Education to retroactively allocate 100% funding for students who attended school in-person for more than half the days through Dec. 31.

The legislature will consider that change in its next session, which opens in January, according to a Sept. 10 letter from House Speaker Todd Huston and Senate President Pro Tempore Rod Bray.

“There are details about this process that we must still work out, but we thought it important to publicly share our agreement now, given that Sept. 17 is rapidly approaching and schools may need to make policy adjustments accordingly,” the letter said. “We also understand if circumstances with the pandemic change dramatically in the months ahead, we might have to consider other solutions to this funding issue.”

The proposal would be a relief to school districts concerned about losing funding due to high numbers of students in quarantine at the beginning of this year, said Denny Costerison, executive director of the Indiana Association of School Business Officials.

“It was never the intent to have a penalty that way,” Costerison said.

The state provides the majority of funding for K-12 schools. The virtual category is funded at 15% less due to the difference in physical building costs for virtual students, such as maintenance and insurance, Costerison said.

Last year, the state allowed 100% funding for students who would be in their classroom seats if not for the pandemic.

But the legislature, expecting the pandemic to recede and widespread on-campus learning to resume, reverted to the state code rule of 85% funding for virtual students, no matter the circumstances, Costerison said.

“No one anticipated at the time the delta factor,” Costerison said. “No one anticipated talking about quarantine now.”

Costerison said he expects an additional legislative change that gives the Department of Education the power to review attendance and make adjustments for quarantines in the future.

Members of the Association of School Business Officials welcome the proposal, Costerison said, particularly those from districts whose enrollment has not rebounded as expected after COVID first closed schools.

“It’s a relief, if you were continuing to decline in enrollment, that you don’t have this problem too,” Costerison said.

Indiana State Teachers Association President Keith Gambill said the change would be a step in the right direction, allowing school districts to prioritize health and safety.

“It’s important for us that schools don’t get penalized in any way for things that are out of their control,” Gambill said.“That we don’t create a system that would hint at an incentive to not follow the science.”

It is also important for lawmakers to consider long-term proposals that could be used again should schools face another unforeseen situation like the COVID-19 pandemic, Gambill said

“I would hope we never have to use this language again ever,” Gambill said. “But having gone through this, let’s make sure we’re doing things in a way that would be good for the future.”