Welcome to INPEA's Early Childhood Newsletter!

The Indiana Non-Public Education Association is proud to be the voice of non-public schools, including preschools and early childhood centers, at the Indiana Statehouse! Please forward this message to your team and send us the names of anyone who should receive future newsletters.

You can view our December 2024 newsletter here.

2025 Legislative Session Updates

This legislative session, INPEA is tracking multiple bills that could impact non-public schools. We wanted to alert you to three bills directly related to preschools and Pre-Ks. 



• HB 1102 Contracting for preschool programs, allows public school districts to contract with religiously affiliated nonprofit preschool programs. This bill has been referred to the Senate. 
• HB 1326 Student and teaching scholarships, lowers the eligibility of SGO funds to PreK 3 students and proposes universal eligibility for the SGO tax credit program. It has passed out of the Education and Ways and Means committees.
• SB 366 Education Matters includes a proposal to provide some regulatory relief for Pre-K programs that are attached to an accredited elementary school. This bill would move Pre-K oversight from FSSA to IDOE when the Pre-K is connected to a K-8 school. INPEA asked that non-public schools be included in this bill but were told there was not sufficient support in the Senate to add us. Depending on the interest, this could be revisited by the House. 

Make sure you are following INPEA on social media for updates throughout the legislative session! When needed, we will ask you to engage with your legislators on bills that impact our non-public schools. 

Professional Development Survey

Help us identify topics for future newsletters and professional development opportunities! Submit this brief survey to let us know which topics you would like to learn more about.

Share Your Knowledge!

Have you attended a great professional development lately? Found any helpful resources for your team that are worth sharing? We are looking to build out our early childhood content on our website, for future newsletters, and for professional development opportunities. If you have any resources you’d like to share, please send those to Andrea Anderson at aanderson@inpea.org. 

Save the Date for INPEC 2025

Join us at the Indiana Convention Center on September 18 and 19, 2025 for the Indiana Non-Public Educators’ Conference! INPEC 2025 will feature two outstanding keynotes and hundreds of sessions. There will be a dedicated learning strand featuring sessions related to Early Childhood (Pre-K-2nd grade). These sessions will promote best practices for supporting young learners in the foundational years of education. Sessions will explore developmentally appropriate strategies for fostering literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional growth in early childhood classrooms as well as how to engage families and communities to create a strong, collaborative support system for young children’s success.

Learn more about INPEC 2025 at https://bit.ly/INPEC2025. Conference registration will open later this spring.

EdReports Curriculum Reviews Expanded to Pre-K

EdReports has announced that it plans to expand its free, Consumer Reports-style reviews to include Pre-K learning materials. The organization will assemble a team of teachers to review whether various early childhood materials align with research-based priorities and hope to launch the first reviews by the end of 2025. Read more at https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/edreports-expands-curriculum-reviews-to-pre-k/2024/07.

Celebrate the Week of the Young Child

Join NAEYC in celebrating the Week of the Young Child, April 5-11, 2025! Check out their resources and activities at https://www.naeyc.org/events/woyc. 

Resources from the Indiana State Museum 

The Indiana State Museum is pleased to offer several early childhood programs. Visit the State Museum for Family Literacy Day on March 1 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a fun-filled day of activities for kids age 6 and younger. Download the flyer below for more information. 

Firefly Landing offers monthly early childhood offerings at the State Museum for toddlers and young children. Download the flyer below to see all the monthly offerings through May 2025. The State Museum also offers Stay and Play and Messy Mondays. Download the flyer below for more information.

Summer camps are also available. For more information, click on the link below. 

Early Childhood Resources

NAEYC

Indiana Department of Education Early Learning 

U.S. Department of Education Early Childhood Education  

ChildCare Education Institute

Edutopia Pre-K Programs

National Institute for Early Education Research

Zero to Three

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