2011 Legislative Preview

Advocacy Update Written By: Mindi Goodpaster

Happy New Year and welcome to the Indiana General Assembly’s 2011 session.  The session officially started on January 5 and will prove to be an interesting on to say the least.  Being a budget session, which will last through April, many tough decisions will be on the agenda and MCCOY will be watching to see how those decisions will affect youth and families in Marion County and beyond.  Some key issues that the legislators will be grappling with include education reform, cuts to unemployment benefits, redistricting and balancing the budget while not raising taxes.

Some legislation that has been introduced that MCCOY will be following include:

• SB0004 – Suicide Prevention Training for School Personnel - introduced by Senator Miller

o Requires the Division of Mental Health and the Department of Education to develop programs for training teachers on how to recognize signs of child suicide for the purpose of prevention.

• SB0056 – Child Care Regulation – introduced by Senator Holdman

o Ensures consistency among child care providers in certain health and safety requirements.

• SB0085 – Study of Schools with Low Graduation Rates – introduced by Senator Leising

o Creates a high school graduation study committee to study the causes of low graduation rates in certain schools and how the graduation rates can be improved.

• HB1019 – Training for Child Suicide Prevention – introduced by Rep. Charlie Brown

o Same as SB0004

• HB1042 – Dissemination of Sexual Material – introduced by Reps. L. Lawson and Foley

o Provides that schools may offer programs regarding the risks and consequences of “sexting” or sharing sexually suggestive materials via cell phones, social media or other digital media. Also includes a provision that schools must prohibit cyberbullying in their discipline policies.

This list is not inclusive of all potential legislation, as more will be introduced. A few other bills to watch include:

• SB0143 – Corporal Punishment by Parents – introduced by Senator Randolph

o Specifies that parents have certain legal rights related to reasonable corporal punishment based on certain conditions.

• SB0061 – School Board Elections – introduced by Senator C. Lawson

o Provides that school board members be elected in the general elections instead of the primary elections.

MCCOY looks forward to providing you with regular legislative updates and will be creating a legislative alert e-mail with more in-depth information local, state and federal policies and legislation that pertain to youth and families. Stay tuned for how to sign up to receive this newsletter!