Statehouse Update

Statehouse Update

February 24, 2023

This Statehouse Update provides a summary of bills the IU State Relations team is tracking and that moved during the seventh week of session. Lawmakers raced to meet the deadline to move bills out of committee and to the floor before the end of the week. Additionally, many important bills hit the floor of the House and the Senate for second reading, which is the opportunity for the whole chamber to offer amendments on the bill. By the middle of next week, we will know all the bills that passed out of their originating chamber and are still eligible to become law. 

House Bills 

HB 1001: State budget
Passed House 66-29

• The House’s biennial budget includes operating funding recommendations for a 4% increase in FY24 and 6% increase in FY25 (equaling $134 million new higher education operating funding over the biennium).

• In FY24, 2% of the funding is run through the legacy outcomes-based funding model and the other 2% is a base support increase.
  
  
• In FY25, 2% of the funding is run through the legacy outcomes-based funding model, 1% of the funding is run through the new prospective outcomes-based funding model and the other 3% is a base support increase.
  
  
• IU Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, and the health sciences programs at IU Fort Wayne, are funded outside of the formula process and received a 4% increase in FY24 and 6% increase in FY25.

• Higher education line-item funding was held flat in the House budget, except for increasing dual credit funding back to $50 per credit hour from $45 in the previous biennium.
  
  
• The House cash funded all state educational institutions’ top priority capital projects (rather than using debt service funding), which included $89.5 million for the Wells Quad renovation at IU Bloomington.
  
  
• The House budget fully funds the Repair and Rehabilitation Formula at 0.5%, resulting in a $10.3 million increase in each year of the biennium (which equals a $4.5 million increase each year for Indiana University).
  
  
• In FY24, the House budget provides $10 million each for both IU Indianapolis and Purdue Indianapolis in start-up funding.

HB 1002: Education and workforce matters 
Passed House 70-25 
 
The bill aims to "reinvent" high school by providing more job training to students in order to address skills gaps and employee shortages. The legislation would create career scholarship accounts to pay for students in grades 10-12 to take apprenticeships directly from employers. It would also change graduation requirements and allow students to use money from the 21st Century Scholars and Frank O'Bannon Grant programs on job training instead.

HB 1201: Rare disease advisory council 
Passed House 92-0 
 
The bill establishes the rare disease advisory council, to be administratively managed by the Indiana Department of Health, to address various issues concerning the needs of patients in Indiana with rare diseases and their caregivers and providers.  Additionally, it establishes the rare disease fund to provide funding for both publications and grants for studies and research concerning rare diseases. 

HB 1281: Financial literacy 
Passed House 93-0 
 
Thebill provides that, beginning with the cohort of students who are expected to graduate from a public school, a charter school or a state-accredited non-public school in 2027, an individual must successfully complete a personal financial responsibility course before graduating high school. The bill also creates requirements for content that must be covered in the course.

HB 1511: Reservist tuition supplement program 
Passed House Ways and Means 23-0 and engrossed on 2nd Reading 
 
The bill establishes the reservist tuition supplement program and fund to be administered by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to administer the program and fund.  It provides that an eligible applicant for a: (1) reservist tuition supplement program, (2) a national guard tuition supplement program, or (3) an educational costs exemption may apply a scholarship or exemption to a state educational institution or an approved postsecondary educational institution under certain conditions.

HB 1558: Science of reading 
Passed House 91-0 
 
The bill defines the "science of reading" and establishes the science of reading grant fund for the purpose of assisting school corporations in placing literacy instructional coaches in elementary schools, obtaining science of reading training for teachers and complying with science of reading curriculum requirements. The bill requires the Indiana Department of Education to develop guidelines for science of reading integration into teacher preparation programs.

HB 1637: Teacher education programs  
The bill was engrossed on 2nd Reading 
 
The bill increases the annual Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarship amount, from $7,500 to $10,000 and the Earline S. Rogers Student Teaching Scholarship for Minority Students, from $4,000 to $5,000. It creates the Next Generation Hoosier Minority Educators Scholarship for black and Hispanic students with similar requirements to the Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarship and a $10,000 annual award amount. Finally, it removes the 200 new applicant per year limit on the Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarship.

Senate Bills 

SB 167: FAFSA 
Passed Senate 43-3 
 
The bill requires all students in their senior year of high school to complete and submit the FAFSA unless certain conditions are met.

SB 402: Reading Standards and Curriculum 
Passed Senate 45-0 
 
The bill defines "science of reading" and requires the Indiana State Board of Education to adopt academic standards that use the science of reading. Beginning July 1, 2024, it requires the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) to review teacher preparation programs for science of reading integration. Beginning in the 2024-2025 school year, it requires local school corporations to adopt curriculum that is based on the science of reading. After June 30, 2025, IDOE may not grant an initial practitioner license as an elementary school teacher to certain individuals unless the individuals successfully pass a foundation of reading exam.

SB 486: Education matters 
Passed Senate 28-20 
 
The bill (among other provisions) repeals teacher training requirements regarding: (1) criminal gang organizations awareness; (2) identifying and reporting human trafficking; (3) use of bleeding control kits; (4) the appropriate use of effective alternatives to physical restraint and seclusion; (5) certain information concerning homeless students; and (6) recognizing the signs and symptoms of seizures and the appropriate steps to be taken to respond to the symptoms; and requires that information concerning these subjects be included within the curriculum of teacher preparation programs. The bill requires the Indiana Department of Education to establish or license for use an online platform to provide information and training concerning these and other subjects.