The 2025 regular session of the Indiana General Assembly has concluded, ending the current legislative period. Three laws that have been passed may affect PHS in the future—the laws impact athletics, school accountability, and absenteeism.
House Bill 1064 affects students who try to switch schools for athletics and athletic reasons. In years prior, students could not transfer schools just to play on a different school’s team. However, this bill removes that limitation and allows students to transfer for athletic reasons if desired.
On May 5, the Indiana High School Athletic Association adopted the First-Time Transfer Proposal. According to the press release from the IHSAA, after a student in their freshman year spends 15 days at a specific school, that school is considered their “home school”. Any time during the freshman-junior year, a student can transfer to a different school for athletics once. They can only transfer back to their first school if they want to transfer again. On a second transfer, the old rules apply, where a student has to be at that school for 365 days. If a student wants to transfer their senior year for athletics, it must be 30 days from the first scheduled event for their specific sport.
Athletic Director Darek Newkirk does not see the law having a big impact here.
“I don’t think it will affect us like other schools. I believe schools in and around Indiana’s bigger cities will be affected the most,” said Newkirk.
Another bill passed into law changes the way schools are assessed. House Bill 1498 concerns school accountability. It eliminates the system of using statewide assessment scores to categorize school performance and requires the State Board of Education to create a new system for determining school performance. The bill extends the expiration date of provisions requiring schools to post certain information and allows proposals to align diploma waiver statutes with new diploma requirements, potentially including an option to remove diploma waivers entirely.
Senate Bill 482 concerns absenteeism and how schools can, or cannot, hold students accountable for their absences.
The law states that a school is no longer able to expel or suspend a student who is chronically absent or habitually truant.
Assistant Principal Adam Stroud thought this bill would not change much in PHS.
“As far as that goes for our school, we have not been suspending a lot of people for being chronically absent or truant. We do give students ways to make up their time, and we do that with evening schools. When kids get suspended, it’s usually for behavior. For chronic absenteeism, we’re not gonna see much change,” said Stroud.
These new laws take effect on July 1, 2025.