It’s back to school time in Michiana, meaning it’s time again for drivers to watch for school bus stop arms and kids crossing streets. For parents and students, there are some new laws affecting the classroom.
Mishawaka students had their first day of the school year Wednesday, South Bend and Elkhart schools start Thursday, and Penn-Harris-Madison schools go back next Wednesday.
Schools can choose which day students return, as long as they complete 180 days on the year, but they’ll all have to follow rules from three hotly debated bills passed by this year’s Indiana General Assembly.
Schools must adopt new policies banning phones and other wireless communication devices during instructional time. The law leaves it up to schools to figure out how that will be enforced.
Schools must release students for up to two hours of off-campus religious instruction per week. Schools already are allowed to release students for religious instruction but the new law prohibits them from denying such releases if a student request them.
And perhaps most controversial, third-grade students must pass the state reading exam, I-READ3, to be promoted to fourth grade. Critics worry this will lead to overcrowding in third grade classrooms, but supporters say kids who don’t have foundational reading skills by fourth grade are more likely to struggle in school and their lives later.
