by Sophia Waldridge and Tyler Conley

As the school year continues, new laws regarding Indiana classrooms have become an important topic among teachers and students. Some laws have been favored by the community, while others have sparked debates on if the law should be enforced. 

New policies regarding student behavior, cell phone bans and improved absence tracking are being put into place for the new year. Specific laws address rising teacher pay and closer parental involvement in truancy cases.

 Senate Enrolled Act 482 aims to better understand chronic absenteeism by improving the data reported to the Indiana Department of Education.

State lawmakers passed a two-year budget, which adds a 2% increase to school budgets for every year. They also expanded vouchers to private schools for 2026 so parents no longer have to pay for textbooks.

Student absences have always been a worry with parents and school administrators. This year, schools will be required to provide a list of chronically absent students.

Sophomore Leandra Willis thinks the new laws regarding absences are too strict, and students’ personal lives need to be taken into consideration.

“I think the new laws are bogus. What if something happens and you can’t get excused because the school decided to make a law saying no absences can be excused, like a funeral,” she said. 

New phone laws have sparked some controversy with students. The new law suggests that students cannot have their phones during instruction time, with the exception of medical reasons or emergencies. 

Willis believes this new law could break a connection from students to parents in case of an emergency.

  “If something bad happens or we need to know how to get home if they can’t pick us up, we wouldn’t know since we can’t have our phones,” she said. 

Sophomore Perry Coats agreed with Willis and thinks the new policies against students are too strict, and should have more leeway to be independent.

“I think the new policies are inhumane and not right. We should have freedom; we’re almost adults,” He said. 

Principles of Human Services teacher Kyle Keplinger said that the laws help students in school and also make it easier on teachers to get students to listen. 

“The rules help teachers keep students focused and on track; these laws really benefit everyone in the long run by letting teachers save energy and helping students stay focused on doing their work and having good grades,” he said. 

He says that he agrees with all the laws, but that some of them are a little too harsh.

  “The tardy and absence laws are a little too harsh; they should make certain things excused because students could potentially need to be called out of school for something and not be excused. That could lead to truancy and students don’t need that if they’re out for important reasons.”

English 9 teacher Eric Watson agreed with Keplinger, saying, “The absence laws seem to be working. I think that absenteeism is a problem and these laws are doing a good thing by putting pressure on parents to get their kids to school and by putting pressure on the kids to show up more.”

He said that the cell phone law helps students “lock in” and get good grades

“Teachers should have the latitude to snatch a kids phone without having the repercussions for doing so,” he said. 

Principal Pamala Hall said that the laws and cuts in schools throughout Indiana may affect students negatively, but could also help some in positive ways.

 “These laws and cuts affect class size and staff cuts, and even affects what we can feed you at lunch.”

She added that the cell phone laws limiting phone usage in classrooms are appropriate for schools because they keeps students focused, but that Indiana schools could be stricter with attendance laws.

“The schools can’t do the attendance alone because they make them at state levels and then there’s nothing to hold them in place, and I don’t find it fair that someone can miss 40 days of school and only log into Google Classroom and have the same grade as someone who never misses a day.”

Many students and staff agree with each other on certain policies, but also disagree on others. They agree that the absence laws should be more lenient, but disagree with other policies,  including phones.