“If doctors can identify young children who are going to struggle more with learning to read as they get older, they can target those families with books and other support early on, Klass added.

“We’re hoping with…the books the caregivers are taking home, the child is learning a motivational lesson: ‘I like books. If I carry a book and give it to my parent, they might sit down and talk to me in that voice,’” Klass said. 

Klass said no one needs to tell parents to “teach” this idea to their children. The children will sort it out if they grow up around books and reading. A baby doesn’t want or need an authority on literacy to walk through the door and teach them how to read, Klass said. A baby wants their parent’s voice, presence and back-and-forth interactions. 

“Your baby wants to be on your lap hearing you read. Your baby will love books because your baby loves you.”’

“Stevie Pactor, an attorney with the ACLU of Indiana, warned that Braun’s threat could have broad implications for teachers’ speech.

“Teachers still have First Amendment rights when they’re talking as private citizens about matters of public concern on their social media or anywhere else,” Pactor said. “This idea of chilling their speech is absolutely where my mind went to.”

She pointed to a line from a 1978 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which asserted that “The First Amendment needs breathing space to survive.”

“If I were a K-12 educator, I would absolutely be very, very cognizant of what I was putting on social media in this climate, and to a degree that’s not really justified by what the law allows,” Pactor continued. “These posts are clearly their private speech. There’s no question that this is private speech.”’

“‘The things that our staff organizes to help families is above and beyond,” Walker said. “For example, we give gift certificates to the laundromat; parent doesn’t have a vehicle, we’re going to pick a kid up for school so that they don’t miss school; a parent doesn’t have insurance, we’re going to try to link them up with community resources to help them get insurance.”

Walker said the school has the Full Service Community Schools grant, which funds the opportunities to do extra things for families. The school also adopts families each Christmas season, does a survey to see what families need and buys those items.”

“Rates for infant and toddler care, for instance, will drop by 10%. Rates for preschoolers between the ages of 3-5 will be cut 15%. And rates for school-age children will be cut by 35%.

The new rates go into effect Oct. 5, with the first pay date being Nov. 6.

[OECOSL Director Adam] Alson acknowledged some providers might drop out of the program.

“There’s definitely}a possibility of that occurring. That’s part of the regrettable part of this decision, right? That it does affect business models of child care businesses throughout the state of Indiana. There’s no getting around that,” he said.

“"We’re seeing the improvements … crossing all demographics, all types of students,” Keller said.

But officials said the academic consequences of ongoing chronic absenteeism remain. Keller warned that for some students, the problem compounds.

“There are some students whose absences can actually be measured in months and years, not just in a single school year, and that becomes a big challenge,” Keller continued.

IDOE’s data showed chronically absent third-graders had a 74% IREAD pass rate in 2025, compared to 89% of their peers who attended more regularly. In English and math proficiency, the gaps were more than 20 points. 

“When you miss a month of school, that’s going to show up somewhere else, and where it’s showing up is in student outcomes,” Keller said. “Outcomes matter and are impacted, at least correlated to attendance.””

The new data revealed that 87.3% of third graders — about 73,500 out of more than 84,000 students statewide — demonstrated proficient reading skills in 2024-25. That’s roughly 6,000 more proficient readers than a year ago and the highest rate since before the pandemic.

In 2024, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General released a blistering report of Indiana’s growing ABA clinic landscape. The report tells a cautionary tale of a field with no billing caps, no quality control, no oversight, no parent voice, and audacious fiscal improprieties. According to the report, Indiana made at least $56 million in improper fee-for-service Medicaid payments for ABA therapies from 2017-2020.

““We are the quietest, most successful 60-year old program in the federal government’s history,” boasted Rhett Cecil, the organization’s executive director. “… (our programs) are going to support their families and children. They’re allowing families to work or get job training or further education. And our services — that child care and early education — are free for those families.”

Just under 13,000 families in all 92 counties utilize the program, which receives roughly $181 million in federal funding annually. That budget line was briefly threatened by the Trump administration, which walked back proposed cuts in favor of flat funding — which does mean services will be lost as inflation and other costs eat into the bottom line. “

“The 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health survey measured a host of experiences with mental health conditions, substance abuse and treatments for people ages 12 and older. About 14,000 adolescents aged 12 to 17 were interviewed throughout 2024 for the annual survey.

“These data are incredibly valuable to researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and others, allowing for greater understanding of the nation’s behavioral health, and to help inform actions in support of President Trump’s vision to Make America Healthy Again,” said Art Kleinschmidt, SAMHSA principal deputy assistant secretary, in a statement. SAMHSA is an office within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.”

“Educational experts often cite third grade as a pivotal point in a student's life, where, if foundational reading skills aren't mastered, it could lead them to be academically behind for the rest of their lives.

Final scores for this year’s IREAD results won’t be released until August, but schools are already anticipating the need to adjust staffing and classroom sizes as more students are held back.”