Legislation

While these bills are framed as protecting faith-based organizations, prospective foster parents, and prospective adoptive parents from “discrimination,” they could prevent the state from making placement decisions based on child safety and welfare.

As amended, this bill adds the Ten Commandments to the state’s current list of “protected” historical documents, which would allow schools and teachers to post the text or parts of it in classrooms freely.

HB 1408 now includes the SB 199 language requiring platforms to verify users’ age and Indiana residency and to maintain a 10-year “age estimation” system tied to usage/activity and demographic data.

SB 138 would let public schools and charter schools hire, or approve as volunteers, school chaplains who meet specified education background requirements. Chaplains would provide secular guidance and support to students and staff. They could also provide nonsecular services with permission from the student and, in the case of minors, a parent. This bill would violate important separation of church and state constitutional protections. Chaplains are religious advisers by definition. School counselors are trained to provide secular support for students. Chaplains are not. Placing them in an official role inside public schools — whether paid or voluntary — creates an environment ripe for religious coercion and indoctrination, especially in a school setting where authority dynamics are unavoidable.