New Indiana law expands religious education time, relaxes STEM licensing, shortens bullying alerts

High school students will be able to leave school for longer periods to receive religious instruction under legislation passed by Indiana lawmakers.

SEA 255 also creates additional licensing routes for STEM teachers and shortens the window in which schools must notify parents about bullying.

The bill lets high school students leave school for religious instruction each week for an amount of time equal to one elective course. The current cap is 120 minutes a week.

Sen. Spencer Deery (R-West Lafayette) is the bill’s author. He said the change will reduce the amount of class time students miss for religious instruction.

But the bill’s opponents say increasing the amount of time students can leave school automatically means less instruction time.

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The measure also allows anyone who holds a bachelor’s degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics and has completed at least nine education credits to earn an initial practitioner teaching license if they pass a knowledge test in their specialty.

Additionally, schools must alert parents about bullying investigations by the end of the next school day once they’re aware of the incident.

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