Some social media posts and at least one news article have incorrectly described the changes made to Indiana's laws about student absences from school in Senate Enrolled Act 482.

Below is some information that corrects these misconceptions. 

#1 – SEA 482 doesn't change when a student is counted as absent, and it doesn't require schools to change their local attendance policies.

SEA 482 does not speak to a parent's ability to have their child excused from school – that's still up to each school district. The bill only deals with how schools categorize absences when they report absentee data to the state.

In the past, schools already reported the reason for each excused absence, but there was no uniform set of absence categories. The new category labels under SEA 482, which were finalized by the DOE after the law passed, create a statewide reporting framework, but they do not limit what schools can count as an excused absence. SEA 482's reporting framework for schools will help state officials get more consistent data from each school district about why students are missing school.

Local school districts have almost total flexibility to decide what counts as an excused absence or an unexcused absence for their students, and SEA 482 does not limit that flexibility.

#2 – SEA 482 does not require a parent meeting for students with excused absences.

Another part of the bill requires schools to ask a student's parents to have a meeting with school officials if their child has at least 5 unexcused absences in a 10-week period. The goal of this meeting is to identify ways to help the child get to school more consistently, not to punish anyone.

Some posts claim this meeting requirement applies if a student has excused absences. That is false. The meeting is only triggered by too many unexcused absences, and each local school district still determines what counts as an unexcused absence.

#3 – Prosecutors are not notified about a student's absences if they are excused.

Some posts also claim parents can be referred to a prosecutor if their child has too many excused absences. That is false. Existing state law says this referral is required only if a student has 10 unexcused absences in a year. SEA 482 did not even change that part of existing Indiana law.