Bill > HB1540

This bill establishes a comprehensive policy to address chronic absenteeism in Indiana schools, defining a chronically absent student as one who misses at least 10% of school days during a year and has not responded to intervention strategies. The bill requires the Department of Education to review absence categorizations, create best practices for reducing absenteeism, and develop intervention guidelines. Schools must implement an early warning system that tracks indicators such as excessive absences, suspensions, and academic performance, and assemble a school-based team to monitor this system. The bill introduces a tiered intervention approach, with schools required to take progressively more intensive steps when students begin to miss significant amounts of school. For students absent seven to ten percent of days, schools must convene attendance conferences and develop targeted strategies. For students absent ten percent or more, schools must develop more comprehensive intervention plans that focus on keeping students in educational settings, prohibit out-of-school suspensions for absences, and provide support services. Schools must also collect and document detailed data about student absences, including disaggregated information about chronically absent students by various demographic categories. Starting in 2026, schools must report this data annually to the state, and the Department of Education will develop improvement targets for schools with high absence rates and investigate the underlying causes of absenteeism.

Education

https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2025/bills/house/1540/details