This week, Republican Senator Jean Leising introduced SB 428 which specifically targets homeschooling families in Indiana for scrutiny. The bill itself amends the current practice of gathering information on child fatalities involving families of adoptees. With this bill, the Indiana Child Services report would be required to report annually on how many child fatalities “solely…
Category: IAHE Action
IAHE Action Responds: Hidden dropouts?
The Indiana Association of Home Educators (IAHE) and IAHE Action are grateful for Chalkbeat’s report on the push-out problem in Indiana schools. The most recent data shows a large escalation of what IAHE Action reported in 2016 during the School to Prison Pipeline hearings. “Indiana Association of Home Educators (IAHE) and IAHE Action first learned…
2019 Legislative Session Wrap-up
IAHE began this legislative session in January by monitoring 69 bills of concern. By mid-session, we were actively monitoring twenty-one bills with the potential to impact homeschool families, three of which were very concerning. While the majority of bills were education issues that we typically monitor every year, the emergence of mental health bills unexpectedly…
SB 567: Homeschoolers as dropouts?
On April 9, 2018 Chalkbeat Indiana posted an article regarding SB 567, a bill to provide oversight to Indiana’s virtual, public school programs. The article referenced Rep. Bob Behning, the Indianapolis Republican who chairs the House Education Committee as saying: Students who leave any public school — virtual or traditional — to be homeschooled would…
UPDATE: HB 1004
As we’ve shared here previously, HB 1004 has provisions dealing with mental health issues of high schoolers with virtually no parental protections. And, virtually no penalties if anyone was sloppy with protecting confidential information. Sen. Kruse led a successful effort to get HB 1004 amended to include strong parental protections and the bill passed the…
Support Sen. Kruse’s Amendment to HB 1004
UPDATE: Amendment #25 was pulled and rewritten as amendment #27. It was approved by the committee. Thank you for your action to protect parental rights! URGENT: Please call your State Senator to support Sen. Kruse’s Amendment #25 to HB 1004. As you already know, thanks to your calls and emails, Senate Bill 266, after a…
What About SB266?
We applaud the intentions of the authors to address the concerns that public schools are facing today, but tragic situations lead to bad legislation.
UPDATE SB266: Mental Health Screening
Last week, IAHE Action shared about Senate Bill 266 which allows for mental health screening for all children through the age of 22. (Read the original post here.) Based on our conversations with one of the bill’s authors Sen Dennis Kruse we asked families to call and ask for the original language of the bill…
SB 266: Mental Health Screening for All Children
Dear Friends, Yesterday we saw an uprising on Facebook with a call to action over proposed legislation, SB 266. It’s the kind of bill we worry about every day the General Assembly is in session. You should know, right off the bat, we need you to contact your State Senator right away. One of our…
What Do You Mean Kindergarten Isn’t Mandatory in Indiana?
Kindergarten isn’t mandatory in Indiana, but almost all children in Indiana already begin kindergarten at age 5. It is so common to start school at age 5 that most people assume that kindergarten is mandatory when a child is eligible. Indiana educators are now pushing to lower the compulsory school age to 5. (It’s also…