Education

A new data tool from the state aims to make it easier for families to access school information.

After proposing more than 100 education bills, lawmakers face a key legislative deadline next week. House lawmakers proposed fewer education-focused bills than the Senate, but only about a dozen made it through to the session’s next half. 

A bill going to the Senate floor would create a program for high schoolers to try out careers while performing community service, called the Indiana Youth Service Program. 

Educators have long asked for state lawmakers to cut back on the number of policy changes and requirements placed on schools, but some efforts at the statehouse are receiving mixed feedback. 

Indiana lawmakers are moving quickly with a measure to avoid penalizing schools for a drop in student scores on the state’s new ILEARN test, with both the House and Senate having moved the hold harmless bill through committee just days into this year’s legislative session. 

Efforts to keep state funding out of schools that discriminate against staff and students are back at the statehouse. 

Gov. Eric Holcomb is defending his timeline to hold off on taking significant statewide action on teacher pay raises until 2021, despite calls from teachers to send more funding support to schools in 2020 when lawmakers aren’t likely to open the state budget.

The Indiana State Board of Education approved a proposal that will cut state funding from some family and consumer science (FCS) classes starting next school year, after board members held a procedural vote at a special meeting Friday.

The state’s largest early learning nonprofit says 2019 was a year of progress, and should set up 2020 to be “transformative” for early learning providers and families looking for improved access. 

In the small town of Carlisle, south of Terre Haute, Carlisle Elementary School has a unique hallway that kids love to visit. If the timing’s right, you’ll see kids hopping, spinning, and waving their arms in the air. It’s called the sensory path hall. A series of stickers in various colors and shapes on the floor and walls leads kids from one end to another, and back again, in a big loop. 

Athletics programs around the state and country are facing a shortage of school sports officials, and a class of students at IUPUI in Indianapolis is trying to tackle the problem by sharing possible solutions to different elements of the problem. 

The number of homeless students enrolled in Hoosier schools nearly doubled between 2008 and 2018.