INDIANAPOLIS – Thousands of Hoosier students are headed back to school this week and next — and with the start of a new academic year comes a slew of new policies affecting testing, curriculum, and classroom behavior.
State lawmakers passed more than a dozen K-12 education laws during the 2024 session which went into effect July 1. Some details, like changes to IREAD tests and high school diplomas, are still being hashed out by state officials and won’t become official for several years.
Although newly enacted legislation brings minimal changes to schools’ finances, the second year of the biennial budget does bring some dollar boosts.
Per-student funding increases improved 5.3% in Fiscal Year 2024, and another 1.8% for this fiscal year, which began July 1. Schools received $8.84 billion for tuition support last fiscal year, and $9.03 billion this year. Private school vouchers and public charter schools also get part of this funding.
Indiana’s next two-year budget will be crafted in the 2025 session and take effect July 1 of next year.
As kids return to classrooms this year, these are some of the changes to expect next year:
- IREAD and third-grade retention
- Religious instruction
- Cell Phones
- Career Scholarship Accounts
- Chronic Absenteeism
Read more about the changes this year and in 2025 in the Casey Smith story for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, here.
