The 2025 legislative session is likely to bring big changes to Indiana schools, from how they receive funding, to what students learn and how teachers teach.
As part of our coverage this year, Chalkbeat Indiana is tracking this year’s biggest education bills as they move through the statehouse.
Below are bills that would make substantial changes to policies affecting Indiana students and teachers. That means generally, we’re not including bills that make minor changes to existing grants and programs, or to the makeup of state commissions and governing bodies.
This page will be updated weekly on Fridays throughout the session. A full list of bills is available on the General Assembly website. Some of the bill descriptions below come from the General Assembly.
This year, bills must receive a third reading in their originating chamber by Feb. 20, or else they’ll be considered dead before they move to the opposite chamber. Then, they must receive a third reading in the opposite house by April 15.
More information about how a bill becomes a law is available here. You can also find more information on the two education committees here.
This year is a long budget session, which means lawmakers must adjourn by April 29.
Education bills in the Indiana Senate
Senate lawmakers had until Jan. 9 to file bills. However, there is often a delay in the bills being posted online. We will update this list as those become available.
SB 11: Minor access and use of social media
Description: Parental consent for social media use for those under 16 years old
Status: Heard in the Committee on Judiciary on Jan. 8. Held for amendments and vote next Wednesday, Jan 15.
SB 16: Expulsion and suspension.
Description:New requirements and restrictions for suspension and expulsion in public schools, including that students may only be suspended or expelled if it’s necessary to minimize physical harm and school disruption. Requires schools to provide services to suspended students.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Career Development
Description:Reduces hours and requirements to receive required literacy endorsement for licensure renewal
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Career Development.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Career Development.
SB 36: Counselor time with ratio exemption.
Description:Mandates that in 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 a school shall ensure that at least 60% of a school counselor’s time is devoted to providing direct services to students. In 2027-2028, that goes up to 80%.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Career Development.
SB 67: Secured school safety grants.
Description:Grant from the secured school fund to be used to provide funding for school employees to receive youth violence early intervention training. Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Career Development.
SB 110: School based health centers.
Description:Requires DOE and DOH to establish a program to help schools establish health centers.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Career Development. SB 132: Childhood obesity study topics.
Description: Establishes the childhood obesity commission as a temporary commission to study childhood obesity.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Family and Children Services.
Description: Stipulates that the government may not interfere in a parent’s right to direct the upbringing of their child — unless there is a compelling governmental interest. It also specifies that the bill cannot be construed to allow a parent to access medical care for their child that the child is not legally allowed to have, such as puberty blockers and other gender-affirming care currently banned for minors in Indiana, according to examples given in committee.
Status: Heard in the Committee on Judiciary on 1/8. Held for amendments and vote next Wednesday 1/15. SB 168: Resident tuition.
Description: Would make undocumented students who have graduated from Indiana high schools eligible to pay the resident rate for tuition at state universities.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Career Development .
SB 213: K-12 education funding.
Description: Establishes a $65,000 minimum salary for teachers, raises the income cap to participate in the On My Way Pre-K program, specifies increases for school funding, appropriates funding for teacher recruitment and retention.
Status: Referred to Committee on Appropriations.
Description: Provides that a political action committee (PAC) may not make total annual contributions in excess of an aggregate of $5,000 apportioned in any manner to a specific candidate for a school board office.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Elections
Description: Requires a school employer to discuss certain items with the exclusive representative of certificated employees.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Career Development
SB 230: Collective bargaining.
Description: Requires a school employer to collectively bargain with the exclusive representative of certificated employees programs and matters related to school safety and associated working conditions.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Career Development .
Description: Prohibits state agencies and educational institutions from taking actions that the bill defines as related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, including holding training or influencing the composition of employees with reference to race, sex, color, or ethnicity. Bans state entities from promoting opinions on a list of 16 concepts including bias, allyship, cultural appropriation, microaggressions, social justice, heteronormativity, and gender theory. Prohibits entities from using funds for a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office or officer. Allows the state Attorney General to compel agencies to comply. Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Career Development.
Description: Amends provisions that allow school corporations to provide a supplemental payment to teachers in excess of negotiated salary and allows districts to exclude revenue from bargaining for this purpose.
Status: Referred to Committee on Education and Career Development
SB 255: Education matters - licensing, religious instruction, bullying.
Description:
- Allows secondary students to receive religious instruction during the school day equivalent to the time spent attending an elective course.
- Requires the Department of Education to grant initial practitioner licenses to individuals who hold degrees in STEM subjects and have completed a certain number of teaching courses.
- Requires schools to inform the parents of both the victim and perpetrator in a bullying incident before the end of the day that the school was made aware of the bullying.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Career Development
SB 257: Civic education - required and prohibited concepts.
Description: Requires schools that teach American history and government to teach principles of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution of the United States. Prohibits this instruction from teaching that the national identity or culture has been established by racial identity or racial discrimination, gender identity or gender discrimination, victimization, class struggle, a hierarchy of privileges, or systemic exclusion.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education and Career Development
SB 287: Partisan school boards.
Description: Requires candidates for school board offices to be nominated in the same manner as candidates for all other elected offices are nominated. Modifies the annual amount that the governing body of a school corporation may pay a member of the governing body from $2,000 to an amount not to exceed 10% of the lowest starting salary of a teacher employed by the school corporation.
Status: Referred to Committee on Elections.
SB 289: Nondiscrimination in employment and education.
Description: Requires state entities and public schools to post training materials related to nondiscrimination and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Prohibits these entities from requiring employees and students to affirm beliefs that any particular race, sex, ethnicity, religion, or national origin is superior to any other, or can be blamed for the past actions of individuals who share the same traits. Creates a complaint process.
Status: Referred to Committee on Judiciary
Education bills in the Indiana House
House lawmakers have until Jan. 14 to file bills. We will update this list after the filing deadline.
HB 1041: Student eligibility in interscholastic sports.
Description: Prohibits transgender women from playing on women’s sports teams at the university level, and requires out-of-state teams to notify Indiana teams if a trans athlete is allowed to play on a women’s team.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1045: Teacher compensation
Description: Includes school social workers and school psychologists in the definition of “teacher” for purposes of the requirement for school corporations to expend a certain percentage amount of state tuition support on teacher compensation.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1064: School athletic events.
Description: Requires a school corporation to offer a cash payment option at athletic events
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1069: Tuition caps.
Description: Requires that, except for cost of living adjustments, the tuition rate and mandatory fees at specified postsecondary educational institutions may not increase from the time the student initially enrolls until the student graduates for an undergraduate student who is an Indiana resident.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1070: Hunger-free campus grant program.
Description: Establishes the hunger-free campus grant program to provide grants to state educational institutions for purposes of addressing food insecurity among students
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1071: Resident tuition rate.
Description: Would make undocumented students who have graduated from Indiana high schools eligible to pay the resident rate for tuition at state universities.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1102: Contracting for preschool programs.
Description: Removes language restricting school corporations from entering into a contract with a religiously affiliated nonprofit preschool program.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1136: School corporation reorganization.
Description: Provides that, if more than 50% of students who have legal settlement in a school corporation were enrolled in a school that is not operated by the school corporation on the 2024 fall average daily membership count date, the school corporation must be dissolved and all public schools of the school corporation must be transitioned to operating as charter schools.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1160: Student immunizations.
Description: Provides that a student enrolled in a health profession education program may not be required to receive an immunization as a condition of clinical training or clinical experience required by the program when the student has a medical or religious exemption.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1163: School wellness grant fund.
Description: Establishes the school wellness grant fund to provide grants to school corporations to support local wellness initiatives developed by the school corporation.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1164: School transportation.
Description: Provides that the governing body of a school corporation must minimize or eliminate school bus route stops that require a student to cross certain roads.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1173: Ban on university practices.
Description: Provides that a state university may not investigate or discipline student speech concerning politics, affiliations, perceived bias, prejudice, stereotypes, or intolerance, as long as the speech is protected under the First Amendment. Bans universities from considering a student’s race for admission, financial aid, or scholarships.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1195: Pornographic material.
Description: Requires school governing bodies to adopt procedures allowing community members to request that sexually explicit material be removed from schools. Requires schools to make catalogues of all curricular and library materials available online.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1201: Education matters.
Description: An omnibus bill focused on absenteeism and graduation.
- Requires the Department of Education to create a list of best practices for student discipline and to reduce chronic absenteeism, and to study schools’ rationale for excused absences and unexcused absences, as well as suspensions and expulsions categories.
- Establishes the Indiana next generation high school success grant program, which gives grants to public high schools that have nonwaiver graduation rates below the state average.
- Requires public schools to use the department’s early warning dashboard and take appropriate intervention measures regarding students with attendance issues. Requires a public school to hold an attendance conference not later than 10 instructional days (instead of five instructional days) after the student’s fifth absence.
- Prohibits a public school from expelling or suspending a student solely because the student is chronically absent or a habitual truant.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1207: Space science and technology grant program.
Description: Establishes the space science and technology grant program to provide grants to public and private schools to develop and implement educational opportunities focused on atmospheric and outer space exploration.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1210: Student behavior.
Description: Establishes the behavioral health fund for the purpose of improving funding for individualized education programs that have a behavioral intervention plan component for certain schools. Provides a procedure for a principal to place an aggressive student, who has been removed from a class, into the aggressive student’s original class, another appropriate class or placement, or in-school suspension.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1222: Resident rate tuition.
Description: Would make undocumented students who have graduated from Indiana high schools eligible to pay the resident rate for tuition at state universities.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1229: Local government finance.
Description: Abolishes property taxes and proposes a new fee and funding structure for schools to offset lost revenue.
Status: Referred to Committee on Ways and Means.
HB 1230: School board elections.
Description: Each school board candidate’s political party must be displayed on the ballot.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1231: Display of the Ten Commandments.
Description: Requires each school corporation to display the text of the Ten Commandments in each school library and classroom.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1246: Comprehensive student support program.
Description: Establishes the comprehensive student support program for the purposes of funding the formation and staffing of school based and district level comprehensive student support teams, and improving staffing ratios for student support personnel.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1253: Child care changes.
Description: Various changes to childcare requirements, including removing the requirement that children receiving care from a school must be children of students or employees.
Status: Referred to Committee on Family, Children and Human Affairs
HB 1256: College savings tax credit.
Description: Increases the college savings tax credit.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1258: Teacher compensation.
Description: States that after June 30, 2026, a school corporation shall expend an amount for teacher compensation that is not less than an amount equal to 70% (instead of 62%) of the state tuition support distributed to the school corporation
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1285: Special education.
Description: Makes several changes to special education practices, including:
- Establishes the special education classroom grant program.
- Requiring schools to have electronic recording equipment in special education classrooms and other spaces.
- Requires schools to employ at least one behavioral interventionist.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1303: Sex ed
Description: Specifies that if a school provides sexual health education, the instruction must be comprehensive.
Status: Referred to Committee on Education.
HB 1306: Classroom supplies tax credit.
Description: Increases the maximum amount of the income tax credit for classroom supplies from $100 to $300.
Status: Referred to Committee on Ways and Means.
HB 1321: Social media use by minors.
Description: Prohibits social media use by minors without parental permission.
Status: Referred to Committee on Judiciary.
HB 1326: Student and teaching scholarships.
Description: Removes the income requirement and lowers the age threshold for a student to receive a scholarship from a Scholarship Granting Organization to attend a nonpublic school. Also makes changes to teaching scholarships.
Status: Referred to Committee on Education.
Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.
