INDIANAPOLIS — A bill in the statehouse is aimed at improving how bullying, abuse and neglect are reported inside schools and in the department of child services.
"I've honestly never felt more helpless about anything than to know that I'm required by law to send my son somewhere where he's abused. They know he's abused and they're not protecting him," said Rachel Van Alstine.
In April 2023, Van Alstine consoled her teenage son. He was having suicidal thoughts from school bullying.
Now, she is advocating for HB 1404. If passed, it would add safety plans between school districts and the Department of Child Services.
DCS would intervene within two to five days in certain cases of reported or suspected abuse.
It would also allow the department to release unredacted reports to a school's designated liaison if a child is at risk of harming themselves or others.
Reasons include:
- The child's parent, guardian, or custodian is actively engaged in chronic use of a controlled substance.
- There is a rebuttable presumption that removal of the child from the child's home under section 1(a)(3) or 1(a)(4) of this chapter is in the child's best interests; and
- The court shall include in the dispositional decree an order requiring the parent, guardian, or custodian to participate in drug abuse treatment services; and submit to routine drug testing on a random schedule determined by the department.
"Currently that does not exist, that leaves a massive gap in child safety in our state," she said.
The bill pushes for accountability if a parent fails to step in.
Licensed speech pathologist, Tiffany Glick, hopes the bill will open the lines of communication.
During testimony on Wednesday, she said she was met with silence when she reported about one of her former students who later died.
"All of our training and phone calls did nothing to protect her. All we could do was clean her up each day she entered our building," she said.
Indiana's new DCS Director Adam Krupp said DCS is opposed to the bill as written saying it changes the mission of DCS.
"I don't have a solution, but I don't believe the right solution is asking the Department of Child Services, by mandate, to handle every allegation of bullying in our schools, child on child, and doing so within a five day period," said Krupp.
The author of the bill says the goal is to find a solution when it comes to addressing school bullying.
