Final legislative roundup includes health care, absenteeism and school accountability

Yahoo

25-04-2025

The Indiana House voted on dozens of bills on the last day of the legislative session, April 24, 2025. (Niki Kelly/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
One-hundred-and-seven days after the General Assembly convened, this year's legislative session came to a close early Friday morning after a marathon day at the Statehouse.
Dozens of bills sprinted across the finish line in the final days — and hours — before the sine die gavel strike brought policymaking business to a close.
Thursday alone saw more than two dozen proposals sent to Gov. Mike Braun's desk.
And although the next state two-year state budget was the highlight of the night, debate swirled around other major bills, too, including those dealing with education 'deregulation,' pharmaceutical pricing and public retiree bonuses.
Lawmakers also compromised on measures to connect Hoosiers to broadband; curb local energy project moratoriums; address K-12 chronic absenteeism; reinstate an A-F school grading system; and create separate bans on marijuana advertising and lab-cultivated meat.
Tensions rose in the Senate before the chamber voted, barely, to send a Republican-backed education 'deregulation' measure to the governor.
Heated debate on House Enrolled Act 1002 centered around last-minute conference committee changes, which included a dozen new code repeals.
Sen. Mike Young, R-Indianapolis, was displeased with the rush to approve a long bill with new language.
'I can't be in the dang room because I don't know what's in it,' Young said.
After the extremely narrow 27-21 vote, he approached the floor mic again — this time raising his voice.
'This is bull crap. You've got a 116-page bill. You've got 30 minutes to read it. We should have more time than that,' said Young, the only senator to refrain from voting. Twelve of his GOP colleagues cast unfavorable votes alongside Democrats. That's after the House voted the bill out 61-25.
'I am so mad about this,' Young continued. 'Our one job is to do what's right for our constituents, and we can't do it if we don't have a chance to read the dang bill.'
Democrats, including Indianapolis Sen. Andrea Hunley, agreed that the bill required 'a little bit more scrutiny.'
She referenced a repealed requirement for charter schools to publish economic interest statements. Also removed was an existing requirement for administrators to contact employment references before hiring teachers or other school personnel.
Despite its length, the legislation will strike multiple sections of current state education code.
This is bull crap. You've got a 116-page bill. You've got 30 minutes to read it. We should have more time than that.
– Sen. Mike Young, R-Indianapolis
Examples include the removal of dozens of 'may' provisions, eliminating specific COVID-19 pandemic requirements and striking duplicate code. Republican bill author Rep. Bob Behning estimated that the cuts would reduce state education regulations by nearly 10%.
There were bipartisan concerns earlier in the session about the bill's deletion of existing requirements for teachers to complete training in social and emotional learning (SEL) trauma-informed care and cultural competency.
Some of that language was added back in the final version to ensure teachers are prepared to '(support) students who have experienced trauma that may interfere with a student's academic functioning.'
Other legislation to further address widespread chronic school absences among Hoosier students earned mostly bipartisan support in both chambers; an 84-8 vote in the House and a 48-2 in the Senate.
Sen. Stacey Donato's Senate Enrolled Act 482 specifically seeks to beef up the state's absenteeism statute.
The measure has multiple parts, including a new definition in state code for chronically absent, specified in the bill as missing 10% or more of the school year, regardless of whether it is excused. Another provision allows local prosecuting attorneys to hold 'intervention meetings' with parents to help improve a student's attendance before any legal action is taken.
A final section of the bill prohibits K-8 students from expulsion 'solely because the student is chronically absent or habitually truant. Current law permits students in those grades to be expelled for missing too much school.
Indiana officials say chronic absenteeism rates are improving, but there's still more work ahead
In the final days of the session, however, a conference committee added language to sunset the expulsion prohibition on July 1, 2026. After that date, students could be removed from school once again if they miss too many days of class.
The latest attendance numbers released by the Indiana Department of Education last fall reported that 17.8% of K-12 students — roughly 219,00 kids — were 'chronically absent' during the most recent 2023-24 school year, meaning they missed at least 18 days.
There was less consensus on a different bill to bring back a statewide letter grade system for Indiana's K-12 schools. It was sent straight to Braun after a quick 65-25 House vote.
Earlier this week, lawmakers appeared to disagree on a final draft of House Enrolled Act 1498. Any serious conflicts were quashed behind closed doors; Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, called his measure for a final concurrence vote in the House Thursday evening, signaling a truce with the opposing Senate chamber.
Behning said his bill seeks to put the state education board's recently unveiled accountability draft — or something like it — into action.
In its final form, the legislation will strip back much of the previous accountability framework and task Indiana's State Board of Education (SBOE) with building a new A-F rule — that looks beyond just academic performance and graduation rates — by the end of 2025.
Once approved by the governor, a new round of grades will be assigned to Hoosier schools around the start of the 2026-27 academic year.
Although the state board is responsible for hammering out the particulars, the bill does require the new grading system's methodology to be based on data from the state education department's existing GPS dashboard and proficiency rates from state assessments, including the IREAD. It also has to prioritize students earning new diploma seals recently approved by the state board.
Yes, we certainly should hold people accountable. We should hold school leaders accountable. We should hold our children accountable. We should hold our parents accountable. But I don't think we should give them a label of an F (to show) that you're failing.
– Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary
School grades have been effectively suspended since 2018, when Indiana shifted from ISTEP to a new state standardized test and later grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic.
House Democrats 'still had a problem' with the final draft, said Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary.
'We do feel like we need to look at our school accountability process, but we don't feel like we need to hold the Department of Education accountable for using the model of A through F,' he said.
'Yes, we certainly should hold people accountable. We should hold school leaders accountable. We should hold our children accountable. We should hold our parents accountable. But I don't think we should give them a label of an F (to show) that you're failing,' Smith continued, saying he preferred an earlier idea to give schools a 'need for improvement' designation, rather than a 'bad' letter grade. 'I just don't think that we need to do this.'
A bid to boost Indiana's electricity supply — by side-stepping often-hostile local zoning authorities — squeaked through to the governor despite opposition from advocates of local control and renewable energy.
A negotiated compromise for Senate Enrolled Act 425 just barely earned the constitutionally required majority of supportive votes during a 51-40 vote in the House. It enjoyed stronger margins in the Senate, with a 31-19 tally.
Under the legislation, the owner of a proposed power plant wouldn't have to seek any local zoning approval in certain circumstances. But the Senate explicitly excluded solar and wind installations.
Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, said it's ironic that a small modular nuclear reactor — 'which uses radioactive fuel and will generate radioactive waste' — would encounter less local scrutiny than solar panels and wind turbines.
'It's not consistent with the rhetoric that we hear on this floor all the time about how we are an 'all the above' energy state,' Pierce added.
The measure's House sponsor, Rep. Ed Soliday, has maintained the Senate wouldn't allow it.
'There was just no hope of putting it back in,' he said Wednesday. '… We went back to them several times and they said 'no.''
The eased requirements apply if a project is located on land that already hosts an electric generation facility — even it's not operational — or a former mine. State regulators would also have to either grant a certificate of public convenience and necessity for construction or decline jurisdiction.
Senate Enrolled Act 425 also aims to stop 'abuse' of moratoriums on electric generation projects by local authorities. It caps them to one year and prohibits renewals.
'I've seen how moratoriums can be abused,' Rep. Kendell Culp, R-Rensselaer, said Monday.
He argued the 'real purpose' of moratorium is to create a 'pause' while a local government hurries to adopt an ordinance. But some keep moving the 'goal posts.'
'If there's a certain type of development your jurisdiction does not want, then just say 'no' upfront and save all the headache,' Culp said.
Additionally, lab-cultivated meat could soon be banned from production or sale in Indiana for two years with violators to face $10,000 per-day fines.
That's if Braun approves of House Enrolled Act 1425, which is coming his way after final votes of 74-15 in the House and 43-7.
But a state study of the products' safety was shelved as lawmakers look to cut spending.
'We were supposed to have a study, I guess to determine what we would do after the moratorium, and apparently the fiscal people said we're broke, so take the study out,' Pierce said. 'So it makes me wonder what we're going to actually be learning in the next two years.'
The Senate introduced the study and a one-year moratorium following pronounced confusion in that chamber's committee. In addition to cutting the study, the final version of the legislation extends the moratorium to two years.
In another governor-bound proposal, those advertising marijuana within state lines could face fines of up to $15,000 apiece under a once-inconspicuous agency bill.
Also in the co-opted House Enrolled Act 1390 — originally focused on the Bureau of Motor Vehicles — are contentious regulations for towing and overgrown rural intersections.
The advertising ban would also apply to the rest of Indiana's Schedule I list of controlled substances. Contracts locked down before the measure's passage would be exempt. Hoosiers who live around the edges of the state have seen billboards and other advertising pop up because adjoining states have legalized marijuana.
Other provisions would set standards for how law enforcement agencies handle their towing contractors, how much companies can charge for emergency towing, how owners can recover their towed vehicles and more.
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Both concepts landed in the final bill draft after being stripped out three weeks ago. In between, they were added to a bill about the sale of utility trailers and then removed.
Lawmakers also folded in a weaker take on a tragedy-sparked push for better sightlines at overgrown, uncontrolled rural intersections. Counties would be able to mow or maintain vegetation in state- or county-owned right-of-way with permission from the Indiana Department of Transportation. The onus was previously on landowners.
The legislation retained plenty of Bureau of Motor Vehicles changes, too.
It would allow the agency to issue electronic registration certificates, requires that toll road operators invoice drivers within a year, caps the amount private driving skills trainers can charge for exams, and more. One other provision allows for real-time electronic insurance verification after accidents. The current system is unwieldy and often results in license suspensions.
It eased through the House in an 81-9 vote, but encountered greater opposition in the Senate's 31-19 vote.
Large numbers of Hoosiers will now be carved out of a bill regulating pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. Senate Enrolled Act 140 will require insurers and PBMs ensure network adequacy and restricts anticompetitive practices — but Medicaid, managed care organizations and the state employee health plan are all exempt due to concerns about cost increases.
Instead, the issue of contracting under Medicaid and the state employee health plan is punted to an interim study committee — though at least one sponsor said it was 'kind of up to debate' whether or not there would be an added cost.
'We don't have a fully transparent model. So the fact that there could be a fiscal on it — and with this current budget situation — that's what's putting the pause on it,' said Rep. Julie McGuire, R-Indianapolis, before a Thursday committee.
A bill seeking to define a 'squatter' encountered several hurdles this session, too, with critics concerned about whether vague language would unintentionally harm tenants with informal or unwritten rental agreements.
Under the finalized Senate Enrolled Act 157, law enforcement officers can remove an individual on a property without the permission of the owner within 48 hours, unless there is 'credible evidence that the person is not a squatter.'
It would also penalize someone who tries to evict someone who might have a right to the property.
'We don't want an unscrupulous landlord to be able to use the wrong date or something very simple like that as a means to abuse this part of the code,' said Rep. Joanna King from the floor.
Still, the changes weren't enough for a handful of lawmakers. Pierce, a Democrat who voted no, previously indicated his doubts that such a law was necessary.
However, it got a unanimous nod in the Senate — its originating chamber — and now goes to the governor.
Indiana's public sector retirees are set to get a coveted bonus by October under legislation on its way to Braun — but with a 5% discount.
The thousands of former state and local employees who live off pension benefits that don't keep up with inflation would've gotten nothing after Senate edits. But they would've won several years worth of full-amount bonuses through the original version of House Enrolled Act 1221.
'The 5% cut, it's not what we wanted. One year is not what we wanted. But, we live to … advocate for another day,' said Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis.
'This is the spot we landed on to preserve something,' Rep. Mike Karickhoff, R-Kokomo, told the Indiana Capital Chronicle after the 90-0 vote. He authored the legislation.
The 13th check would range from $143 to $428, based on years of service for former teachers; excise, conservation and gaming officers; and most other retirees. That's instead of the typical $150 to $450 range. Former Indiana State Police employees would get checks for 0.95% — instead of 1% — of their maximum annual pension amounts.
The bonuses would cost about $31.8 million, with the 5% cut saving about $1.7 million. That's according to an earlier fiscal analysis, which estimated the full-amount bonuses would've totaled $33.5 million in the 2026 fiscal year.
Others were dissatisfied, arguing that a dismal revenue forecast shouldn't affect the checks. They're paid out of supplemental reserve accounts — featuring money from retirees themselves and employer matches — not the General Fund.
Pierce accused the Senate of 'insisting' on the cut to 'send a message' of fiscal responsibility. He called it a 'kick in the teeth.'
In the Senate, however, the 39-11 vote featured opposition exclusively from worried Republicans.
'The math is not math-ing,' said Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis.
Under one of the final bills approved this session, a whopping $870 million in federal incentives could be on the way to help Indiana connect its last 150,000 Hoosiers to high-speed internet. That's if the state's own service providers don't get in the way, though.
'Number-one obstructionist': Electricity co-ops lambasted for slow broadband rollout
Lawmakers' attempt to mediate utility pole attachment disputes between electric utilities and telecommunications companies crossed the legislative finish line Thursday night, after languishing on the Senate's calendar for four days.
'Obviously, I passed on this bill a lot of times,' Sen. Andy Zay, R-Huntington, told his colleagues. 'I had a lot of consternation whether … it was time for this.'
Senate Enrolled Act 502 would give both sides a 60-day deadline to meet after a government broadband grant contract is executed. They'd have four months to reach a project management agreement after the National Telecommunications Information Administration approves the Indiana Broadband Office's proposal for spending the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) money.
It also sets detailed deadlines for cooperation if they can't concur. And the office could set up a 'rapid response mediation process' when disputes arise — pulling back from the hefty fines previously considered.
That's the compromise lawmakers reached in the House after several rounds of edits. Zay filed a motion to concur with that chamber's changes, but waited to call it for a vote.
'I wasn't certain whether to bring it forward this year or wait until next year when we're in the throes of the BEAD program,' he confessed.
Ultimately, he decided that having 'this process in place will be a great start as implementation hopefully begins later this year,' adding that lawmakers could simply adjust it next year if needed.
Zay's proposal sailed through the Senate on a concurrence for of 47-2. It heads to Braun for final approval.
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