Dear John,

In a little over a month, we will be in the midst of the 2023 General Assembly session. This being a budget year means it’s an extremely important session. We need to build upon the successes of the 2021 budget session and once again, we have high hopes! As in the past, it will take all of us to have a successful session.

PLEASE start deciding NOW how you and your school will engage. In short, make sure your stakeholders are trained (see below), appoint your legislative liaison, set your two public policy goals, and DO YOUR PART!

Help us put a face on the important issues this session by finding families willing to tell their stories. If you need suggestions on how to get involved or have stakeholders who want to get more involved, have them reach out to John or Andrea. Let’s do this!

Sincerely,

John, Andrea, and Beatrice

The INPEA Team

Legislative Training Sessions

Join INPEA for one of these regional legislative training sessions to gear up for the 2023 legislative session. Please encourage your school’s stakeholders to attend the session in your area! 

11/30: Southeast Region Legislative Training Session

Christian Academy of Indiana

Wednesday, November 30 at 6 pm ET

Register at https://bit.ly/INPEANewAlbany

12/5: Northwest Region Legislative Training Session

Bishop Noll Institute

Monday, December 5 at 6 pm CT

Register at https://bit.ly/INPEAHammond

12/7: Central Region Legislative Training Session

Archdiocese of Indianapolis Catholic Center

Wednesday, December 7 at 6 pm ET

Register at https://bit.ly/INPEAIndy

12/12: Northeast Region Legislative Training Session

Bishop Luers High School

Monday, December 12 at 6 pm ET

Register at https://bit.ly/INPEAFortWayne

12/14: Southwest Region Legislative Training Session

Diocese of Evansville Catholic Center

Wednesday, December 14 at 6 pm CT

Register at https://bit.ly/INPEAEvansville

Stories Wanted!

INPEA and IQE are teaming up to produce legislative tools that tell the good news of school choice and non-public school education. We are looking for:

• General stories about how choice or our school have impacted students’ and families’ lives
• Stories about graduates who were the beneficiaries of school choice and have gone on to school or work and have success stories to tell.
• Stories about families impacted by the 2021 expansions AND families that just missed the financial cut off and still need assistance.

We know you all have stories like these in your school. It just takes a little time to identify them. If you would identify families and find out if they would be willing to help us continue to defend and grow school choice in Indiana, we (INPEA/IQE) will follow up with them. The publication is time sensitive, although we will continue to look for stories throughout the session. If you are able to provide a few names of families for “the faces of choice publication” it would be extremely helpful. Publication deadline for stories is December 8. Because of the tight timeline for this use of the stories, we will be reaching out to some of you directly. Thanks for your help!

School Meal Program Eligibility Guidelines 

The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) is sharing federal eligibility guidelines for free or reduced-price meals or free milk served under the federally-funded National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program, Special Milk Programs, and Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP). 

Household size and income criteria, which are used to determine eligibility, are available here. Each local school corporation office and organization participating in a School Nutrition Program or CACFP has a copy of the guidelines that may be reviewed by any interested party.



Please note that there is a Title IX religious exemption that religious based schools can claim. The IDOE understands that this may alter how schools communicate the new discrimination clause (e.g. using last year’s poster, removing SOGI language from application materials and website postings). We are confident that all INPEA schools participating in the federal hot lunch program do not discriminate against any enrolled student participating in the hot lunch program. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.

IDOE Updates

GPS Dashboard

The new GPS Dashboard is now live. Have you checked out your school? Let us know if you have feedback.

Virtual Transition to Kindergarten Summit

December 2 from 10:00-11:30 a.m.

IDOE’s Office of Kindergarten Readiness and FSSA invite administrators from elementary schools, community-based preschools, and Head Start programs to attend a virtual summit dedicated to the success of early transition. Register here. 

Grant Calendar and State Ombudsman Office Hours 

For a comprehensive list of grants pertaining to non-public schools, please check out this Grant Calendar. 

Garrett Wilson has recurring office hours to handle federal grant questions every Thursday from 2:00-2:30 p.m. You can join his office hours here. 

Indiana Learns Matching Funds

The Indiana Learns program officially launched in October. Eligible families can now access $500 to support learning recovery and this amount will double with the investment of $250 of federal funds per eligible student from matching school corporations. There are several ways for matching partners to support students.  

1) Matching school corporations can work with Indiana Learns to identify and promote an already approved Indiana Learns partner to their students.  

2)  Matching school corporations can serve as the learning partner for their students.  

For more details about completing the process to become a matching school corporation, contact Seana Murphy at smurphy@indianalearns.org. 

You can also download a digital toolkit of resources to help promote the program to your school families. 

INPEA Data Survey Reminder

Thank you to the 114 member schools that have already completed the 2022-2023 Data Survey! We ask all schools to complete the survey by December 16. This information will be used to help us prepare for the 2023 legislative session. If you need your school's login credentials resent, please reach out to Andrea. 

City Connects and Marian University

An updated approach to student support is growing in Indiana schools. 

Last year, thanks to a partnership with Marian University’s Center for Vibrant Schools, City Connects launched in 30 public and charter schools in Indiana. This year, the practice is in 80 public, charter, and non-public Indiana schools.

What is City Connects? Incubated at Boston College’s Mary E. Walsh Center for Thriving Children, it’s an evidence-based and school-based practice for school counselors and school social workers that integrates education with existing social services, youth development, health, and mental health resources. 

By leveraging existing community-based and in-school resources, it offers a systematic way for schools to connect every student to the right support at the right time. Students who experience City Connects are more likely to attend school, improve their academic grades and test scores, and are less likely to drop out of high school.

The expansion of City Connects into more schools has created opportunities to serve more students – and it has grown City Connects’ community of practitioners, including expansion into non-public parochial schools as well as nondenominational Christian and Islamic schools and a private school without any religious affiliation.

Read more about the Indiana expansion on this blog post.

Learn more about City Connects here.

Legislative Liaison Corner

Thank you to everyone who has signed up or recommitted for an additional cycle as a legislative liaison! We are continuing to gather new contact information from the data survey and are planning to send out a separate communication to all legislative liaisons in early December. Stay tuned for that! 

Preparing for the 2023 Legislative Session 

The 2023 legislative session begins in January and it will be an important one for non-public schools.  With this being a budget year, there is so much on the line and we ALL must be prepared to protect and defend school choice! 

Here are some ways you can prepare for the 2023 legislative session:

1. Attend an INPEA regional legislative training session. Learn more and RSVP here: https://bit.ly/2023INPEATrainings. 
2. Work with school leadership to complete the 2023 Legislative Planning Worksheet. 
3. Schedule time to meet with PTO leaders, school commissions, etc., to explain the importance of legislative advocacy and communicate the school’s legislative priorities. 

Welcome, Eduscape!

We are excited to welcome our newest Business Partner, Eduscape! Representatives from Eduscape presented to the INPEA Board earlier this month and we are thrilled to introduce or reintroduce our member schools to all they have to offer. Eduscape’s mission is to empower educators to unlock the potential of every learner. They bring quality and consistency to professional learning by designing content that uses research-based practices and encourages teachers to adopt an intentional continuous improvement approach in their classrooms. We hope you will consider Eduscape as you consider your future needs. If they reach out, we would encourage you to take the time to meet with them.

Free Planned Giving Resources for Schools

Former INPEA board member and author Tad Dickel has a new book out called “Catholic School Planned Giving.” This book covers a variety of topics and includes resources that can help your school develop a planned giving society. You can read more about Tad’s book and download some free resources at Catholic.tadickel.com. 

Contact: Cathy Tooley

Contact: Dr. Ken Britt

Agudath Israel of America

Archdiocese of Indianapolis

Association of Christian Schools International

Christian Schools International

Diocese of Evansville

Diocese of Fort Wayne- South Bend

Diocese of Gary

Diocese of Lafayette

Indiana Association of Independent Schools

Indiana Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Lutheran Church Missouri Synod - Indiana District

The Lutheran School Partnership