Key education bills affecting students across the state are moving forward after the midway point for the 2026 legislative session in Indiana. Those bills focus on cell phones in schools, math instruction, access to restrooms, and teaching students to wait until marriage to have children in order to avoid poverty.
Under a truncated timeline due to the early start of the session, lawmakers proposed and passed fewer education bills than in recent past years. And they withdrew several controversial measures, like those that would have required public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments and banned minors from social media, as well as a bill that would have created an appointed board to oversee South Bend schools.
But the bills that have advanced through their originating chambers could have a significant impact on schools and students. And bills that failed to pass could reappear in other bills as the legislative process continues.
Below are key statewide issues lawmakers are advancing through the 2026 session. For a full, updated list of where education bills stand, see our bill tracker. Additionally, lawmakers advanced a proposal to create the Indianapolis Public Education Corporation, you can read more here.
Lawmakers plan to adjourn by the end of February. Bills must pass by Feb. 24.
School cell phone restrictions pass, but social media ban fails
Tightening Indiana’s existing school cell phone ban has arguably been GOP lawmakers’ top education priority during the 2026 legislative session, with proponents saying it would relieve teachers of the responsibility to confiscate cell phones and enforce policies.
SB 78 requires districts to either ban students from bringing personal devices such as cell phones, tablets, laptops, or smartwatches from schools, or to require that devices be stored away during the entire instructional day. The bill includes exemptions for medical needs, translation services, or special education purposes.
It also specifies that any learning done on devices during the school day must be done on school-issued devices.
A related bill, SB 159, also seeks to place limits on those school-issued devices by specifying that students cannot use the devices for noneducational purposes during instructional time. It also requires schools to give parents the option to set stronger content filters on school devices — a potential hurdle for districts to implement, according to the Indiana CTO Council.
However, not all bills targeting technology use are moving forward. Language that would have restricted Indiana children from making social media accounts was removed last week from SB 199. Such bans have drawn legal challenges in other states.
Ten Commandments bill stalls, but other social issue bills move forward
For the last several legislative sessions, GOP lawmakers have sought to restrict instruction on racism, sexism, and other ideas related to diversity in Indiana schools. That process continued this year with SB 88, which initially prohibited these concepts in the teaching of the United States national identity.
The amended bill removes that language, but still requires schools to teach students the importance of graduating college, getting a job, and waiting until marriage to have children — a series of steps known as the “success sequence.” While advocates characterized it as an anti-poverty measure, critics questioned the bill’s origins in model language from conservative policy organizations.
SB 88 would also expand the use of the Classic Learning Test — an alternative to the SAT and ACT that primarily uses texts from Western history and antiquity — for college admissions in the state.
In another bill defining gender and sex in Indiana statutes, lawmakers also inserted a provision that requires schools to designate multiple occupancy restrooms and changing rooms for use by males or females, and requires individuals to only use the restroom that matches their sex, rather than their gender identity.
But HB 1086 that would have permitted teachers and principals to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms died in the House on Monday.
Lawmakers also declined to take up a bill this year to allow school chaplains to serve as counselors in schools — a proposal that has cleared the Senate in past years.
New requirements for math instruction
Math instruction has not necessarily received the same attention as reading instruction did during Indiana’s years-long push to improve literacy scores through the science of reading.
Still, new bills this year would build on last year’s math instruction legislation.
HB 1266 requires the Department of Education to create a teaching and learning framework for math focused on K-5 grades that recommends at least 60 minutes daily of math instruction time and another 20 minutes daily for intervention.
HB 1176 and SB 239, meanwhile, build on last year’s legislation to screen young students for math skills beginning in 2026-27. The bills add a requirement that schools inform parents when their students are deemed at risk of not achieving proficiency in math.
Funding for child care via vouchers, employer subsidies
While Indiana’s GOP supermajority is unlikely to consider sweeping changes to child care such as offering universal preschool, lawmakers are advancing some proposals to address child care issues.
Language in SB 4 allows lawmakers to use a $300 million fund from the 2025 budget to supplement funding for the Child Care and Development Fund voucher program, which helps low-income families pay for child care. The state froze the program and implemented a waitlist last year due to a lack of funding.
Another bill, HB 1018, would remove a transportation requirement in a grant for school-aged child care providers. And HB 1177 expands a child care tax credit to larger businesses in the hopes that more employers will choose to offer child care to their employees.
No employers have opted to use the credits under current statute, which limits it to businesses that have 100 or fewer employees, according to HB 1177’s author, Rep. Becky Cash.