Stricter cellphone bans, more focus on STEM and increased school “efficiency” are shaping up as some of the highest-priority education debates Indiana lawmakers will tackle during a fast 2026 legislative session that starts back up next week.
The session will be shorter than usual — ending by late February — after legislators already convened for two weeks in December on redistricting. Senate bills must be filed by Jan. 9, and House bills by Jan. 14.
Multiple education bills have already moved, and one — a cellphone crackdown proposal — was heard in the Senate education committee in early December. Caucus leaders in the Republican-dominated General Assembly won’t formally roll out their priority agendas until next week, however.
At an annual legislative conference hosted last month in Indianapolis, lawmakers and Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner previewed a crowded policy landscape shaped by academic recovery concerns, declining enrollment, student disengagement and growing unease about children’s use of technology.
Cellphones in classrooms — and beyond
One of the most visible education debates of the coming session is already underway: whether Indiana should expand restrictions on student cellphone use to cover the entire school day.
Under current law — approved by lawmakers in 2024 — schools must prohibit cellphone use during instructional time unless a teacher permits it for academic purposes. Senate Bill 78 would go further, requiring public schools to ban cellphone use “from bell to bell,” including during lunch and passing periods, with limited exceptions.
The bill already received public testimony in the Senate Education Committee in December and was authored by committee chairman Sen. Jeff Raatz, R-Richmond. Raatz said the committee is likely to vote on the measure early this month.
Supporters argue the change would reduce distractions and improve student focus and mental health. Opponents — including some parents and students — have raised concerns about safety, emergencies and local control.
Jenner signaled broader alarm about technology’s impact on children, calling for a statewide conversation that extends beyond classrooms.
“I cannot tell you how much it is impacting our children,” Jenner said. “We are seeing seven- and eight-year-old[s] with social media accounts. We are seeing nine-year-old[s] on anxiety medicine because they’re obsessed with the number of likes and the comments.”
House Education Committee Chair Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said lawmakers are also exploring ways to regulate social media platforms themselves, particularly the algorithms that keep children engaged.
“We’re also … looking at some language that could potentially avoid litigation, but goes after the algorithms,” Behning said. “That’s what’s getting the endorphins … that impact their cognitive ability.”
More work on literacy
Lawmakers and education officials continue to tout Indiana’s recent gains in early literacy, driven by state investments in reading instruction and intervention. But Jenner said the work is far from finished — and may prompt additional statutory changes on top of major policies passed in the last two sessions.
“We’ve seen some great success in reading, but we have a lot more work to do,” Jenner said, noting that the state saw a 5% jump in reading proficiency. Current law requires schools with fewer than 70% of students reading proficiently to participate in a state literacy cadre program, which provides targeted, evidence-based instructional support for teachers.
“What we wanted to see is … should we adjust that percentage a bit, or should we do a rolling average of some sort,” Jenner said. She emphasized that any changes should avoid creating an unfunded mandate.
One persistent challenge, she added, is middle school literacy.
“The only needle that we have not moved in Indiana is middle school reading,” Jenner said, pointing to seventh- and eighth-grade outcomes as key concerns heading into 2026.
Doubling down on STEM
Beyond literacy, lawmakers and state officials signaled a renewed push to strengthen math and STEM instruction — an area they acknowledged is lagging behind recent reading gains. STEM is shorthand for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Behning said Indiana’s success with literacy initiatives could serve as a model for future investments in math, particularly early numeracy.
“We know that if we’re going to be successful in STEM, we have to be successful in math,” Behning said. He pointed to the state’s literacy cadre as an approach lawmakers could look to replicate in math classrooms.
Behning added that many educators were never trained in “foundational, explicit skills in math,” leaving schools struggling to improve outcomes without additional state support.
Funding equity and school operations
Education funding is also expected to remain a flashpoint, particularly for districts with weak property-tax bases. Rep. Ed DeLaney, an Indianapolis Democrat who sits on the House Education Committee, warned that public schools’ share of the state budget has declined over the past decade and urged greater state investment to support high-need districts.
“If we move money to them from the state,” he said, “that may free up some local property taxes.”
But legislators are also watching closely as Indianapolis leaders advance recommendations from the Indianapolis Local Education Alliance, which calls for a new authority to manage school facilities and transportation across traditional public, charter and innovation schools.
Supporters say the plan could reduce costs and allow school boards to focus more on classroom outcomes. Critics worry about local control and whether similar models could spread statewide.
“I think we’ll be able to learn some things and probably apply them more broadly in Indiana,” Jenner said, while stressing that conversations around consolidation and shared services look very different outside Indianapolis.
Rural lawmakers and education leaders, she added, are closely watching how urban proposals could influence policy elsewhere, particularly in counties facing population decline, long bus routes and limited resources.
Jenner cautioned legislators against using enrollment alone to drive decisions, however, instead urging them to weigh student outcomes and fiscal health when considering changes.
“I would challenge the General Assembly that those are the two elements, at the very least, that we need to understand statewide,” Jenner said.
Other priorities rolling in
Education advocacy groups are also beginning to roll out their own legislative priorities, calling on lawmakers to address school funding, staffing and student supports.
The Indiana Coalition for Public Education has called for greater state investment in K-12 schools, more equitable funding for districts with limited property-tax bases, and caution against additional mandates without funding.
Meanwhile, the Indiana School Boards Association is urging lawmakers to focus on local flexibility, shared services, school safety and workforce-related learning, while reducing regulatory burdens on districts.
The Indiana State Teachers Association, the state’s largest teachers union, has not yet released its 2026 agenda.
Indiana Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Indiana Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Niki Kelly for questions: info@indianacapitalchronicle.com.
