HEA 1635 Summary

• Expands the Indiana Safe Schools Fund to provide grants for school-wide programs improving school climate, including professional development in alternatives to suspension and expulsion, classroom management, positive behavioral intervention and support, restorative practices, and social emotional learning.

• Modifies school reporting requirements to replace ISTEP program test scores with "all state standardized assessment scores" and adds disaggregation of expulsion, dropout, and suspension data by race, grade, gender, free or reduced lunch status, and special education eligibility.

• Requires the Department of Education to develop guidelines for teacher education institutions incorporating culturally responsive methods and research-based alternatives to exclusionary discipline, including restorative justice, positive behavioral interventions and supports, and conflict resolution.

• Changes property disposition rules for consolidated school corporations, allowing transferred township or city property to be sold or leased to nonprofit organizations instead of being restricted solely to park and recreation purposes.

• Establishes definitions for "culturally responsive methods" and "exclusionary discipline" in the Indiana Code, effective July 1, 2015.