The 2024 Legislative Session, not being a budget year, is about defense. Protecting against more and more regulations being imposed on non-public schools is one of our greatest challenges. Advocacy efforts by schools are as important in non-budget years where we are playing defense as they are when we are advocating for expansions or new programs.

So our “asks” are the same. Engage your school community in reaching out to their elected representatives. Appoint a legislative liaison and set two advocacy goals. This is a short session so we need to get started now! You can get started by showing our annual advocacy video to your boards and stakeholder groups. See the link below!

Bills We Are Following

Week two of the legislative session has come to a close and it was a busy one! INPEA is tracking 48 bills related to education. Here are a few of the bills we are following:

• HB 1001 Education and Higher Education Matters: Makes some changes to the Career Scholarship Account (CSA) program. 
• HB 1002 Enforcement of Equal Educational Opportunity: Defines "antisemitism", specifies that the public policy of the state is to provide educational opportunities free of religious discrimination, and provides that antisemitism is discrimination on the basis of religion. 
• HB 1042 Transition to Teaching Scholarships: Provides additional money for these scholarships. 
• HB 1233 Robotics Competition Program: John Elcesser testified on Wednesday in support of amending the bill to include third-party accredited non-public schools. 
• HB 1243 Various Education and Workforce Related Matters: Addresses high school diploma requirements, adds the requirement of a computer science course starting with the graduating class of 2029. 
• SB 1 Reading Skills: We encourage elementary schools to familiarize themselves with this bill. There are potentially a number of new regulations impacting our schools as it relates to reading instruction, intervention, and remediation. It would also impact retention decisions as it relates to passage on IREAD 3. 
• SB 6 Reading Proficiency: Would require IDOE to develop a method of identifying struggling readers in grades 4-8 and develop guidance for supporting these students. 

Legislative Advocacy Training

INPEA needs all non-pub stakeholders ready to engage this legislative session! Take advantage of these resources to help you and your stakeholders prepare for the legislative session. We need everyone's help to make the most of this session!

We held our final legislative training session on January 4 and the link below includes a recording of that session. If you have never attended an INPEA legislative advocacy training, we encourage you to check out the webinar for an overview of the legislative process as well as updates and priorities for 2024.

Legislative Advocacy Video

Each year, INPEA records a legislative advocacy video that outlines our priorities and encourages stakeholder engagement. You can watch our new video at the link below. We encourage you to share this video with board members, parents, and other non-pub stakeholders. Thank you to Barry Roberts, TV Broadcasting Teacher at Cardinal Ritter High School in Indianapolis, for producing our 2024 video.