IndianaHB 1088Second Regular Session 124th General Assembly (2026)HouseWALLET

Technical corrections.

Sponsored By: Kyle Pierce (Republican)

Signed by Governor

Summary

Addresses technical issues in the Indiana Code, including those related to spelling, tabulation, formatting, grammar, and cross-references. Resolves technical conflicts from the 2025 legislative session. Makes conforming amendments. (The introduced version of this bill was prepared by the code revision committee.)

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

33 provisions identified: 14 benefits, 8 costs, 11 mixed.

Preschool vouchers bring priority and conditions

Beginning July 1, 2026, an eligible child must live with a parent or guardian who works or attends training or school. For limited-eligibility children, a parent’s Social Security disability, Supplemental Security Income, or Veterans Affairs disability benefits also provide a qualifying route. Children of child care employees receive priority. Parents must agree to attendance, program participation, evaluation, family engagement, student-number, kindergarten, and weekly reading requirements. The office may set additional conditions.

Emergency waiver priority for vulnerable people

Indiana must seek federal approval for emergency placement priority under a Medicaid waiver. Priority covers people whose main caregiver has died or is at least 80, and people facing abuse or neglect. Other health or safety risks qualify when the division director finds public services and family or community supports insufficient. Federal approval is required, and priority does not guarantee placement. The division must report quarterly on applications, people served, and waiting lists for waivers with approved priority.

Safeguards before Medicaid drug restrictions

Indiana cannot further restrict a Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program drug’s status before board review of its drug group. The state must also implement that group on the preferred drug list before further restrictions. The state generally cannot use an unapproved list or amendment, subject to a statutory exception. Prior approval for an excluded drug requires the board to make findings required by state law.

Trust-owned homes keep deduction eligibility

A trust-owned home can qualify for Indiana’s standard homestead property-tax deduction when its resident meets the statutory trust-residence requirements. The law removes the former expiration-based limit on this eligibility. This provision does not set a household’s deduction amount.

Military learners gain college credit recognition

Indiana state colleges must adopt policies awarding enrolled students undergraduate credit for qualifying military courses, exams, and accredited college coursework. Qualifying learning must occur during active, reserve, or Indiana National Guard service, or after an honorable discharge. The college must find the credit comparable, applicable, and needed for the student’s degree. College-Level Examination Program exams require scores of at least 50. Credit is capped at 75% of degree requirements when any course requires attendance in person, or 70% for fully online programs.

Stricter checks for Medicaid applicants

Indiana generally must verify Medicaid applicants’ income, residency, age, household makeup, caretaker status, and other health coverage. Federal requirements to accept self-reported information still apply. Required checks include monthly matches for deaths, correctional information, SNAP-related changes, and lottery or gambling winnings of at least $3,000. Wage and employment checks occur quarterly. The state must promptly review possible eligibility changes and end enrollment when verified winnings make someone ineligible.

Scholarship families face narrower school eligibility

Beginning July 1, 2026, choice scholarship schools must charge eligible scholarship students tuition, rather than transfer tuition. The definition no longer includes schools charging transfer tuition instead. Schools must still meet other participation requirements, including accepting eligible students and administering statewide assessments.

Medicaid suspension and help around release

Indiana must suspend Medicaid during covered incarceration or juvenile placement when federal law makes the person ineligible. Participation is restored after release only for eligible people. The correctional release process requires specified court orders and at least 40 days’ notice from the Department of Correction. Covered juvenile facilities must give at least 45 days’ release notice. The state must arrange mandated services for the 30 days before and after release.

Patients face investigational treatment consent rules

Beginning July 1, 2026, patients seeking individualized investigational treatment must provide written informed consent. They must attest to a life-threatening or severely debilitating disease and agree that approved treatments are unlikely to prolong life or improve it. The treatment-outcome description must reflect the treating doctor’s knowledge of both the investigational treatment and the patient’s disease.

Drivers must receive timely toll bills

Beginning July 1, 2026, toll road operators must send user-fee invoices within one year after the driver incurs the toll. The deadline runs from the toll date, not an operator-selected date. The provision does not change the toll amount.

Fewer parents face support cooperation duties

Beginning July 1, 2026, this child support cooperation requirement applies only when parents are separated or divorced. There must also be no existing court order for the child’s support. Only then must a parent cooperate with Indiana’s child support agency to obtain an order.

Transferred patients keep blood sample protection

When a patient transfers hospitals, the laboratory holding the first blood sample remains responsible for keeping it. Retention ends when the 21-day period expires, the receiving hospital discharges the patient, or the patient dies. The rule requires the laboratory to have received the whole-blood analysis order and required protocol notice. Medical necessity can prevent continued retention.

Mobile food businesses gain statewide licensing

Beginning July 1, 2026, the Indiana Department of Health must provide an application for a statewide mobile food business license. Owners and operators can use it to apply for and receive that license.

Electing businesses gain tax penalty protection

For tax years ending after December 31, 2024, electing entities receive an estimated-tax underpayment safe harbor. Required payments avoid the penalty when they reach the lower of 20% of current-year tax or 25% of prior-year tax. The rule applies to entities electing to pay Indiana’s specified entity-level tax. Underpayments outside the safe harbor remain subject to the statutory penalty rate.

Dam removal permits last through appeals

Beginning July 1, 2026, qualifying low head dam removal permits remain valid until two years after relevant appeals are finally decided. The rule covers permits issued after January 1, 2021. Relevant appeals include challenges to the removal permit or other local, state, or federal permits needed for the work.

Unaffiliated candidates receive blank ballot labels

Beginning July 1, 2026, county election boards must leave a blank space after certain candidates’ names. The rule covers candidates who disclose no party affiliation or are unaffiliated without identifying as independent. It applies to ballot cards and electronic voting system labels.

New oversight for Medicaid transportation

Indiana creates a commission to oversee nonemergency medical transportation. It reviews service quality for Medicaid fee-for-service recipients and whether brokers pay transportation providers on time. The state must supply staff and technical help. The provision does not change transportation eligibility.

Alternative teacher programs lose training mandate

Beginning July 1, 2026, alternative teacher certification programs no longer must include trauma-informed instruction and social-emotional learning curriculum. The change applies to programs used to qualify for the specified initial practitioner license. It does not set a tuition or licensing fee change.

Hospital funds support Medicaid financing

Beginning July 1, 2026, a new payer affordability penalty fund collects fines under specified state laws. It pays Indiana’s Medicaid share, fund expenses, and a hospital study on federal changes to disproportionate share hospital payments. Its money remains available across budget years and is continually appropriated for these uses. Separately, after collection of a specified hospital fee ends, remaining indigent-care funds must support designated Medicaid-related state payments. That transfer excludes money still needed for existing designated payments.

Higher taxes on tobacco and vaping

Beginning July 1, 2026, the wholesale-price tax on most tobacco products and cigars rises from 24% to 30%. The cigar tax cap rises from $1 to $3 per cigar. Taxes on moist snuff and alternative nicotine products rise from $0.40 to $0.50 per ounce. The closed-system vaping cartridge tax doubles from 15% to 30% of wholesale price. For cartridges packaged with devices, only the cartridge price is taxed when separately identified on the invoice. Distributors generally owe these taxes; consumers owe them when buying untaxed products.

Disability providers face possible training fees

Beginning July 1, 2026, Indiana may charge authorized service providers that employ direct support professionals an annual fee. The fee structure must account for workforce differences and cannot exceed $2,000 per provider each year. Collected fees support the direct support professional training program fund. The law does not require providers to pass the fee to households.

Schools lose bleeding-control grant spending option

Beginning July 1, 2026, secured school fund matching grants cannot fund required Stop the Bleed programs or bleeding control kits. The restriction covers school corporations, charter schools, and accredited nonpublic schools. Indiana’s office of school safety also takes over the education department’s duty to provide school safety policy materials and guidance. That guidance serves school corporations and charter schools, including safety specialists and school resource officers.

Schools lose express absence-planning option

Beginning July 1, 2026, the law drops language expressly allowing chronic absence plans within required school improvement plans. The Department of Education must still provide help, best practices, and guidance for chronic absence plans. The deletion does not itself state a ban on including those plans.

More nonprofit hospital billing faces rules

Beginning July 1, 2026, Indiana nonprofit hospital systems’ Medicaid billing is no longer excluded from the chapter’s requirements. Medicare and Medicare Advantage billing remain excluded. This provision does not state a change to patient charges or benefits.

Local governments must pause between bonds

Local governments must wait one year after a qualifying general obligation bond expires before issuing another general obligation bond. Covered bonds last two years or less, use property taxes, and finance projects outside the controlled-project and specified bond procedures. The rule covers qualifying bonds issued before May 1, 2025, as well as new qualifying bonds. The Department of Local Government Finance can waive the wait for a natural disaster, accident, or other unexpected emergency.

Child care licenses and records clarified

Child care home licenses last two years, while child care center licenses last three years. Revocation, suspension, probationary status, or voluntary return can change those terms. A timely renewal application keeps the existing license active during state review. Providers must display current licenses and make license status, complaints, violations, agency contacts, and county referral information public.

Home closings change deduction notices

For covered single-family, first-lien purchase mortgages and refinancings, the pre-closing form must explain how to end an ineligible homestead deduction. It addresses customers or spouses losing eligibility after moving into the property, including tax consequences and penalties for unlawful claims. Closing agents no longer must submit post-closing database forms or obtain signed compliance verification. The law removes the related $25 penalty, examination and enforcement provisions, and specified protection against customer damage claims. The pre-closing form remains required.

Certain utilities lose cyber-reporting duty

Public utility departments established under the specified Indiana utility law are excluded from this state cybersecurity incident reporting requirement. The law removes them from the chapter’s definition of public entity. This exemption does not itself change utility prices or household service.

Charter schools face approval and materials rules

Covered school boards and nonprofit colleges that had not issued charters before July 1, 2015, must obtain current authorizing approval. Registration is free; qualifying school boards must be registered within 60 days, and nonprofit application decisions are due each July 1. School boards authorize within attendance areas; nonprofits can receive local, regional, or statewide authority through renewable six-year initial contracts. Covered authorizers cannot act without current registration or a contract. Beginning July 1, 2026, charter schools also must follow state rules on buying, providing, and renting curricular materials.

Schools must devote more to teachers

For school years in state fiscal years beginning after June 30, 2025, the teacher-compensation minimum rises from 62% to 65%. The percentage applies to school corporations’ applicable state tuition support. Support for students taught entirely online by teachers employed by contracted third-party providers is excluded. Curricular materials fund distributions deposited in the education fund are no longer excluded. The rule does not guarantee an individual teacher a raise.

Charter schools share new referendum revenue

Beginning in 2028, county auditors divide qualifying new school referendum levy revenue between eligible charter schools and the school corporation. The levy must first apply to property taxes payable after December 31, 2027. Qualifying charter enrollment must reach the greater of 100 students or 2% of the corporation’s spring enrollment count. Students must be legally settled in the corporation and receive no more than 50% virtual instruction; virtual charter schools and adult high schools are excluded. Charter schools can opt out; recipients must meet annual budget, public-presentation, filing, and prior-year certified fall enrollment requirements.

Education department oversees savings account providers

Beginning July 1, 2026, the Department of Education takes over education savings account provider oversight from the Treasurer of State. It handles provider applications, program requirements, revocations, and related account actions. Providers must meet participation criteria and provide legally required services. When revoking participation, the department may require repayment of improperly received funds. This provision does not change household eligibility or benefit amounts.

Schools receive revised career grant counts

School corporations count pupils enrolled in designated career and technical education programs when calculating enrollment grants. A pupil can count in multiple programs when enrolled in each on the counting date. Later state adjustments to average daily membership apply retroactively to grants. Overpayments and underpayments are settled on a Department of Education schedule approved by the Budget Agency.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

  • Kyle Pierce

    Republican • House

Cosponsors

  • Aaron Freeman

    Republican • Senate

  • Edward DeLaney

    Democratic • House

  • Greg Taylor

    Democratic • Senate

  • Karen Engleman

    Republican • House

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 137 • No: 1

Senate vote • 2/12/2026

Third reading: passed

Yes: 47 • No: 1

House vote • 1/20/2026

Third reading: passed

Yes: 90 • No: 0

Actions Timeline

  1. Signed by the Governor

    2/24/2026House
  2. Public Law 23

    2/24/2026House
  3. Signed by the President of the Senate

    2/23/2026Senate
  4. Signed by the President Pro Tempore

    2/19/2026Senate
  5. Signed by the Speaker

    2/18/2026House
  6. Returned to the House without amendments

    2/13/2026Senate
  7. Third reading: passed; Roll Call 156: yeas 47, nays 1

    2/12/2026Senate
  8. Second reading: ordered engrossed

    2/10/2026Senate
  9. Committee report: do pass, adopted

    2/5/2026Senate
  10. First reading: referred to Committee on Judiciary

    1/27/2026Senate
  11. Referred to the Senate

    1/21/2026House
  12. Senate sponsors: Senators Freeman, Taylor G

    1/20/2026House
  13. Third reading: passed; Roll Call 55: yeas 90, nays 0

    1/20/2026House
  14. Second reading: ordered engrossed

    1/15/2026House
  15. Committee report: do pass, adopted

    1/12/2026House
  16. Authored by Representative Pierce K

    1/5/2026House
  17. Coauthored by Representatives Engleman, DeLaney

    1/5/2026House
  18. First reading: referred to Committee on Judiciary

    1/5/2026House

Bill Text

  • Enrolled House Bill (H)

  • House Bill (S)

  • Introduced House Bill (H)

Related Bills

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