INDIANAPOLIS — The countdown is on for Indiana lawmakers who are preparing to head back to the Statehouse for what’s known as the “Interim Study Session.”
During the “Interim Study Session,” small groups of legislators debate several issues — one of which is education. State Sen. Jeff Raatz (R-Richmond), who serves as the Senate Education Chairman, said one of his goals this interim is to study the effectiveness of a truancy bill signed into law this year.
”We’re going to take a little bit (of a) deeper dive on truancy,” Raatz said. ”We’ll take a look at what we did and then see if there are any other additional things in the short term as we wait to see essentially how what was done works.”
According to Raatz, the education committee will also study student-to-counselor ratios statewide. Raatz’s ambition stems from a bill that died last session. Next time around, he hopes to get the legislation across the finish line.
If passed, the bill would spell out the minimum amount of time school counselors must spend helping students each day.
”My hope for the summer study committee is to be able to one, take a look at, OK, here’s the student-counselor ratio across the state,” Raatz said, “and what can we do to help schools make sure that counselors are spending the majority of their time counseling students.”
But some Indiana Democrats on the committee have expressed concerns that Raatz’s approach could complicate things for school counselors, and that it wouldn’t address the root of the problem.
”The primary issue that I’m concerned with is discipline in our schools,” State Rep. Vernon Smith, (D-Gary), said.
According to Smith, the education committee will also look into creating strategies schools statewide can use to address student behavioral problems.
”We spend so much time punishing our children and dealing with that than we do trying to get into the minds and the spirits of our young people so we can prevent the behavior problems that are present in our schools,” Smith said.
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