A bill pending in the House Education Committee would permit Indiana high school students to leave school daily for outside religious instruction. (Getty Images)
An Indiana bill intending to curtail missed class time might actually do the opposite by widening the door for high school students to leave school for religious instruction.
The Senate proposal was heard for the first time Wednesday in the House Education Committee, stirring debate — and some confusion — among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Hoosier students are already permitted to miss up to 120 minutes of class each week for optional religious instruction hosted off school grounds.
Sen. Spencer Deery, R-West Lafayette, framed his Senate Bill 255 as a means to tighten up existing law by preventing public high school students from missing large amounts of time from one class for out-of-school faith-based lessons.
Rather, his proposal would allow older students to effectively replace an elective course with religious instruction. The existing two-hour limit for elementary and middle school students would remain the same.
“My argument would be that it’s better for schools and teachers and students to not take a class — or find another way to be able to take that class — than to sign up for a class and miss instruction time,” Deery said. “I’m trying to avoid having students miss instruction time for a class period that they’re signed up for, and the current law doesn’t allow them to do that.”
But House Democrats questioned how an increased exemption for religious instruction would benefit students, emphasizing that Deery’s proposed changes could permit daily absences and more than double the amount of time that can be spent away from traditional classes.
“What you’re trying to prevent is exactly what you’re creating,” said Rep. Tonya Pfaff, D-Terre Haute. “You’re giving up a whole course. I understand you don’t want them to leave half of the time. Of course, I get that. But your (bill) changes this and permits a kid to leave my school corporation every single day for a 50-minute class time.”
Committee chairman Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, withheld a vote on Wednesday, conceding that lawmakers need more time “to make sure that we all thoroughly understand exactly what is happening” within the bill.
A new religious instruction carveout
An option has long existed for Hoosier students to receive voluntary religious instruction during regular school hours. Multiple organizations around the state — mainly Christian-centered — actively offer out-of-school curriculum for religious teaching.
A 1952 U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirmed that “released time” programs are constitutional nationwide. As such, Hoosier parents can request religious instruction time for their child, but until last year, school administrators did not have to give approval.
State lawmakers took away that “veto power” over parents during the 2024 session. Now, school principals are required to allow a student to attend religious instruction offered by “a church, an association of churches, or an association that is organized for religious instruction and incorporated under Indiana law, as an excused absence.”
The instruction can’t exceed two hours per week and must take place off school property, with private transportation provided. The entity offering religious instruction must additionally collaborate with the school principal to ensure the time when the student attends outside instruction is “least disruptive” to the student’s academic instructional time.
Specific language in Deery’s measure stipulates that “the period or periods” during which a high school student receives religious instruction can’t exceed “the amount of time that is equivalent to attending one elective course” during the week.
The senator maintained the exiting two-hour-per-week cap for high school students “means, in effect, that you’re likely missing class about two-and-a-half days of the week.”
“That’s not good for the schools. That’s not good for the student. It’s not good for anybody,” Deery continued. “What this does is raise that cap to the equivalent of one elective course so that you could say, take summer school, and then substitute a woodworking class — or just some other elective — that you want for that ‘release time’ instruction, in order to keep kids in class for the entire time.”
Our concern remains that we’re allowing students to miss out on vitally important instruction, during the school day, that would be necessary for graduation.
– Joel Hand with the Indiana Coalition for Public Education and the American Federation of Teachers of Indiana
Pfaff, along with Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary, asked why religious instruction couldn’t instead take place before or after regular school hours, or during lunchtimes.
Joel Hand with the Indiana Coalition for Public Education and the American Federation of Teachers of Indiana noted that typical class periods last 60 minutes and meet five days per week. Replacing a course with instruction would mean students miss “300 minutes of instructional time.”
“Our concern remains that we’re allowing students to miss out on vitally important instruction, during the school day, that would be necessary for graduation,” Hand said.
Senate committee tackles school grades, college sports
Across the hall in the Senate education committee, a slew of education bills advanced to the full chamber, including one to bring back a statewide letter grade system for Indiana’s K-12 schools.
Behning’s House Bill 1498, which unanimously passed out of the Senate committee, would strip back much of the previous accountability framework and task Indiana’s State Board of Education (SBOE) with building a new A-F rule — that looks beyond just academic performance and graduation rates — by the end of 2025.
A-F grades set to return for Indiana schools as lawmakers consider new accountability system
If approved, that means a new round of grades would be assigned to Hoosier schools around the start of the 2026-27 academic year.
School grades have been effectively suspended since 2018, when Indiana shifted from ISTEP to a new state standardized test and later grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Behning said his bill seeks to put the state education board’s recently unveiled accountability draft — or something like it — into action.
The Senate panel also approved House Bill 1499, a follow-up to last year’s literacy overhaul law that requires reading-deficient third graders to be held back a year in school.
Current statute requires that — if after three attempts — a third grade student is unable to pass the IREAD assessment, they must be held back a year in school.
This year’s bill looks to give students two more chances to retake the exam over the summer to avoid retention. In 2024, roughly 10,500 Hoosier third graders were still unable to pass the IREAD after retaking the exam once over the summer, according to a legislative fiscal analysis.
It also allows schools whose student population is comprised of at least 50% English language learners to register those students with the Indiana Department of Education for an exemption from the retention requirement until Fiscal Year 2028 if they are unable to pass the IREAD.
The exemption would apply to an estimated 550 third grade English language learner students annually across 25 Indiana public schools.
Pushback continues against collegiate sports bill
No vote was taken on another proposal, House Bill 1041, which would require all sports teams at Indiana’s public and private higher educational institutions to be either male, female or coeducational. Athletes assigned male at birth would be barred from participating in a “female, women’s, or girls’ team or sport.”
Colleges and universities would have to establish grievance procedures, and students who are “deprived of an athletic opportunity” or are injured as a result of violations would be able to file civil lawsuits.
Lawmakers approved a separate bill in 2022 to ban transgender girls from participating in K-12 sports.
More than an hour of testimony on the bill echoed what was provided in the House, with Republican lawmakers and other proponents calling it “equal opportunity” legislation that “ensures fairness” in collegiate sports and “protects opportunities for female athletes.”
Democratic senators — and more than a dozen others who spoke in opposition — called it a “devastating,” “dangerous” and “damaging” measure that “unfairly targets” transgender athletes.
The bill is expected to come up for a committee vote next week; if successful, it heads to the Senate floor.
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Casey Smith
Lawmakers debate if students should miss some — or all — of a class for religious instruction