Not every bill the General Assembly passes gets the attention it deserves, so I’m going to take a moment to highlight some unheralded successes from this year’s legislative session.
A number of the bills I am applauding relate to children, and specifically child care.
It’s no secret the lack of child care seats is holding Indiana’s economy back. It keeps Hoosiers out of the workforce. And if you are lucky enough to find a spot for your child, you are paying higher than national average costs.
House Bill 1177 — which is headed to Gov. Mike Braun’s desk — would expand a tax credit for businesses that provide child care services for their employees. Lawmakers passed a version last year that only benefited those with 100 or fewer employees, and none applied. So, this year’s bill raises that cap to 500 employees. The tax credit is a maximum of $100,000 per employer.
Senate Bill 4 also has a small provision that allows Braun’s administration to tap the Financial Responsibility and Opportunity Growth Fund to provide funding to the struggling Child Care and Development Fund voucher program. CCDF been closed to new children for more than a year due to funding constraints, and the waitlist for vouchers has topped 30,000.
The $300 million fund was set up in the current budget but was originally only allowed to be used for prisons, child protection and Medicaid.
The bill is in the conference committee process and could pass Friday.
Another child care measure is House Bill 1152, which says homeowners associations can’t block people from operating Class 1 child care homes in their dwellings. It is also headed to the governor’s desk.
“Childcare is not just a family issue – it’s a workforce issue,” said Vanessa Green Sinders, Indiana Chamber president and CEO. “When parents can’t find or afford care, businesses struggle to hire and retain employees. These bills are important pieces of a larger puzzle that must be assembled to help Hoosiers stay in the workforce and allow employers to fill open jobs.”
While we are talking about kids, here are two other key bills.
House Bill 1257 allows the Indiana Department of Child Services to provide more information to the public when a child dies from abuse or neglect. This especially means they can now correct misinformation from spreading.
Secrecy is never the way to accountability.
It now needs the governor’s signature.
Another measure, House Bill 1035, would protect parents from child abuse investigations simply for allowing their children freedoms such as riding a bike to the park or staying in the car when a parent is in the store.
There is still some discretion in the law if a parent is “so reckless as to endanger the health or safety of the child,” taking into account the child’s “maturity, condition and ability.”
Braun signed it into law Tuesday.
Crime victims, phones
On another topic, I applaud a bill that protects victims’ rights in criminal cases. I covered courts in Allen County for several years and have sat through hundreds of sentencing hearings. Never once did a defendant refuse to attend.
But testimony on Senate Bill 9 showed it happens — a frustrating disappointment for victims who deserve the right to confront their assailants and tell them how they changed their lives. The legislation will require a defendant to be in the courtroom at sentencing unless it’s a safety risk.
It is now on Braun’s desk.
Although most of these are uncontroversial, my final bill does bring some discussion.
Senate Bill 78 would impose a true cellphone ban in schools, which I think is imperative to keep students on task and focused on learning. There are questions about implementation and cost, but those are secondary to breaking a real technology addiction we are seeing in our children.
The bill received final approval Wednesday and now heads to the governor.
Fort Wayne Community Schools instituted a ban last year.
“It’s working, folks,” said Steve Corona, a longtime Fort Wayne school board member and president of the Indiana School Boards Association. “We have the data to show that grades are up, fights and disruptions within our buildings are down.”
All of these bills are good public policy and help Hoosiers. They may not be huge swings, but they are important advancements that shouldn’t be ignored.