A BILL FOR AN ACT to amend the Indiana Code concerning education.
SB 138 would authorize public schools, including charter schools, to employ or approve volunteer school chaplains. The bill defines a school chaplain as someone whose primary role is to provide advice, guidance, and support services to students and employees, and it sets qualification standards that include a relevant divinity, theology, or religious studies degree plus specified counseling experience. It also requires an expanded criminal history check and expanded child protection index check, and bars individuals with certain disqualifying convictions unless those convictions were reversed, vacated, or set aside.
The bill allows chaplains to provide secular support services to students and employees, and to provide nonsecular services only with permission: for adult or emancipated students, with the student’s consent; for employees, with the employee’s consent; and for unemancipated minors, with both the parent’s and student’s permission. It also creates a confidentiality framework under which student communications to a school chaplain are privileged and confidential, with a narrow exception requiring disclosure to a school counselor if the communication concerns self-harm or an intent to harm others.
SB 138 would amend Indiana education and evidence-related statutes to add school chaplains as a recognized school personnel category and to create a new chapter governing their employment, qualifications, duties, and confidentiality obligations. It also updates existing provisions on school employee selection, school counselor confidentiality, and privileged communications to include school chaplains, and adds a cross-reference in the child abuse/neglect evidence rules. The bill would affect public school corporations and charter schools, as well as students, parents, school employees, and chaplains serving in either paid or volunteer roles.
Based on the bill text alone and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes, the measure appears to be framed as a permissive support-service option rather than a mandatory program. The overall tone of the bill is structured and protective, emphasizing background checks, consent requirements, and confidentiality limits. Because no discussion or vote history is provided, there is no documented public sentiment in the materials beyond the bill’s apparent intent to expand student support services in schools.
The main points of contention likely center on the role of religion in public schools, especially whether allowing chaplains to provide nonsecular guidance could blur the line between secular education and religious activity. Another likely issue is student privacy and mandatory reporting: the bill makes chaplain communications confidential but requires disclosure for self-harm or threats to others, and it also interacts with child abuse and neglect reporting rules. Supporters would likely emphasize added counseling capacity and optional access, while critics may focus on church-state concerns, parental consent for minors, and whether chaplains should be treated similarly to counselors in schools.