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In a truncated legislative session, Indiana lawmakers still passed a number of bills that will reshape Indiana schools and affect students and their families.
Among them are a new restriction on social media for minors and a ban on cellphones during school hours, which could change how students spend their time while reducing fights and distractions that spill over into the classroom, teachers said.
The social media restriction passed nearly unanimously after lawmakers added it to HB 1408 in the final few days of session. It requires social media providers to determine a user’s age, and to get parental permission for the account of anyone under 16.
The bill also requires companies to limit algorithmic content and communication for these minor accounts, and to give parents monitoring tools.
Social media restrictions for teens received significant support from educators, counselors, and Secretary of Education Katie Jenner, who said social media use affected teens’ mental health and academic performance. If passed into law, it may face a legal challenge, as similar bans have in other states.
“We know the battle we’re up against and to be very clear, when it means standing up for something that is right and protecting our kids, I’ll battle all day,” Jenner said earlier in the session.
Other bills that Indiana lawmakers passed this year may make significant changes at the school level. A wide-ranging immigration bill, SB 76, will require local governments like school districts to cooperate with immigration enforcement.
And with HB 1423, lawmakers approved a plan to reshape Indianapolis district and charter schools with a new appointed board to oversee transportation, buildings, and a new system of accountability.
The GOP supermajority did not pass as many social-issue bills as in previous years, declining this year to move a bill permitting teachers and principals to display the Ten Commandments. But they did pass SB 88 to require schools to teach students to graduate from high school, get a job, and wait until marriage to have children — a series of steps that advocates say is linked to avoiding poverty.
Some notable bills that would have affected schools did not pass, including a ban on ultraprocessed foods as defined in HB 1137. Though that bill cleared the House, it did not receive a hearing in the Senate. Meanwhile, SB 182, which would have required public school students to use restrooms that match their sex rather than their gender identity, did not move forward after passing the Senate.
And while lawmakers passed restrictions on both phones and social media, they did not advance SB 159, which would have required that school technology policies allowed parents to set stronger filters on school-issued devices while they’re at home.
Below are the education bills that Indiana lawmakers passed in the 2026 legislative session. Unless otherwise noted, they still need a signature from Gov. Mike Braun to become law.
Senate education bills that passed
SB 4: Fiscal matters — child care vouchers
A provision in SB 4 authorizes the state budget agency to use funds from the 2025 state budget to fund the Child Care and Development Fund.
SB 15: Foster youth Bill of Rights
Requires the department of child services to create, publish, and distribute a statement called “the foster youth bill of rights” that summarizes a foster youth’s rights and responsibilities.
SB 78: Wireless communication device policy
Bans cellphones, personal laptops, smartwatches, and other devices from schools for the full school day and specifies that any learning on devices must be done on school-issued devices. Read more here.
SB 88: Identity instruction and teacher licensing exemptions
- Requires public schools to teach students to: (1) obtain at least a high school diploma and acquire additional training in preparation for the workforce; (2) secure full-time employment; and (3) wait until marriage to begin having children; into student instruction.
- Requires a state educational institution to accept a Classic Learning Test score for admission consideration.
- Allows teacher candidates in alternative pathways to request a waiver from the state teacher licensing exam and substitute their ACT, SAT, Classical Learning Test, or GRE scores instead.
SB 200: Education matters — contracts
Requires schools to allow organizations like the Scouts to talk to students once per year. Requires public school to allow military personnel to provide information to students if they allow a postsecondary educational institution to do so. Nullifies vendor contracts for schools that include indemnity, choice of laws, or autorenewal clauses.
SB 204: Education matters
- Provides that an individual who has obtained a license to teach in a charter school may be eligible to obtain an initial practitioner license under certain conditions.
- Removes a requirement that an individual must hold a bachelor’s degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics as a component of certain pathways to receive an initial practitioner license.
- Provides that a student enrolled in a health profession education program may not be required to receive an immunization as a condition of: (1) participating in; or (2) obtaining; clinical training or clinical experience required by the program if a parent of the student or student objects on religious grounds.
- Provides that academic needs-based salary increases may not apply to all eligible teachers in a bargaining unit uniformly or be based on certain other factors like experience.
SB 239: Education matters
Requires the Department of Education to compile a list of businesses that provide incentives to students who have completed the honors employment plus seal. Allows a school district to convert schools into charter schools but bars the district from serving as the authorizer. Prescribes how an innovation network charter school may have an agreement with more than one school district. Requires parental notification if a school determines a student is at risk of not achieving grade level proficiency in mathematics.
SB 254: Ivy Tech
Changes and expands the duties and governance of Ivy Tech Community College.
House education bills that passed
HB 1004: Education matters
A massive deregulation bill repealing 40 provisions in education and higher education and making changes to 15 more topics, including powers of the governing bodies of school corporations and public-private agreements by charter schools for the construction or renovation of schools.
HB 1018: School age child care
Removes transportation requirements in the approval criteria for the school-age child care project fund.
Signed by the governor.
HB 1035: Permissible unsupervised activity
Specifies that a child does not need Department of Child Services intervention for engaging in independent activities like staying home or in a car alone, or playing or biking outside, unless a parent has endangered the child’s safety by allowing them to do the activity, based on the child’s “maturity, condition, or ability.”
Signed by the governor.
HB 1242: School corporation report
Requires the Department of Education to prepare a report compiling statewide data on school corporations and charter schools, including enrollment, performance, and population, as well as recommendations to increase school corporation administrative efficiencies and reduce school corporation administrative costs. Requires the Department of Local Government Finance to conduct a study of operational funding disparities.
HB 1266: Education matters
Creates a new qualification option for a transition to teaching program participant who seeks to obtain a license to teach in grades 5-12. Allows individuals to renew emergency permits up to two times if they are enrolled in an alternative teacher certification program.
Requires the Department of Education to:
- Create a teaching and learning framework for the implementation of mathematics academic standards.
- Develop a data science math pathway.
- Develop strategies to support academic and fiscally underperforming schools, and a plan to intervene.
- Participate in the new federal tax credit scholarship program
- Establish processes to identify programs eligible for workplace Pell grants
HB 1325: Behavioral intervention and special education
Requires the Department of Education to make recommendations on behavioral intervention services for children and special education.
Signed by the governor.
HB 1408: Education matters and social media
Adds requirements for the governance of Ivy Tech Community College. Also includes language limiting minors’ social media access.
HB 1423: Indianapolis Public Education Corporation
Establishes the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation to oversee key aspects of district and charter schools in Indianapolis by managing school buildings, operating a transportation system, creating an accountability system that includes a procedure for closing low-performing schools, distributing property taxes, and more.
Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.
