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Indiana Education Impact Alerts 2/01/2022

 Indiana Education Impact Alerts

(This is a short summary focused on impacts to students with disabilities please read the full bill for more information. This is the views of one Special education advocate and not that of Community Inclusion Ambassadors Inc. )

House Bill 1107 - http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2022/bills/house/1107#digest-heading

Special Education Impact Areas for House Bill 1107: 

1. Turning the burden of proof from the parents to the schools. Currently parents have to prove that the school didn’t provide FAPE. If this passes the school will now have to prove how they provide FAPE to the student.  

2. Requiring schools to have training on Bullying for all staff and volunteers. 

3. Provides that a public agency shall not require, as part of a resolution of a due process hearing or a dispute relating to the provision of special education services to a particular student, that a parent of a student or an emancipated student enter into a nondisclosure, nondisparagement, or confidentiality agreement or clause. ( This means no more forcing families to be quiet about the injustice and mistreatment of special education students in schools. Currently many times a special education dispute is resolved before a hearing and the local school district will require a non disclosure before they will provide the needed services for a student. If the family does not sign then the process could drag out years without the student receiving critical educational services.  )

House Bill 1134 and Senate Bill 167 

HB1134- http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2022/bills/house/1134#document-7671e6e6 

SB167-  http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2022/bills/senate/167#document-859f4618 

Special Education Impact Areas for 1134 and 167: 

1. There is a section about psychological services to a student.  This is concerning as Psychological services are a related service under IDEA ( Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)  If a student is in need of this type of services the school would need to start child find and develop an IEP to full meet the students needs with Supports, IEP related Services( psychological services) and Developing IEP goals to help the student. 

2. This is being marketed to families as a “share your lesson plans with parents” Bills. ( We currently have laws that require children to get daily physical activity in school yet we have schools refusing to follow this law. It's hard to believe these bills will help families and teachers. We need the state to develop resources on making programs and systems to streamline communication for educators and parents ie: parent portals that truly allow families to see the homework assignments and access online textbooks and communicate with teachers so that families can help our students with an easy user interface. We need the burdens of administration work back onto the school administration not on the frontline classroom educators. )

3. These bills cover a large area of issues and it's concerning that some of the issues are not addressed as free standing bills to better serve the children of Indiana.