Indiana Governor Mike Braun has signed a bill into law that requires schools to provide excused absences for students taking part in off-site events for FFA and 4-H.
“4-H and FFA are critical assets for our students in Indiana. I think the lifelong skills that you learn from those activities stay with those kids for their lives,” says State Representative Beau Baird (R-Greencastle), who wrote the legislation (House Bill 1660).
The new law now requires both public and private schools to allow students up to six days each school year to travel for events hosted by National FFA, Indiana FFA or an Indiana 4-H club without being marked as absent—or being penalized by the school. That includes traveling to the annual National FFA Convention and Expo in Indianapolis in late October.
Even though you’d think that the bill would be a no-brainer and that all lawmakers would be supportive, Baird tells Hoosier Ag Today that wasn’t the case.
“In the Education Committee [of the Indiana House], I got some pushback that we don’t want every organization coming in mandating that they have excused absences and how many. The difference though is that FFA is a co-curriculum in many of our schools already. Because it’s a co-curriculum, that’s why I thought it was important that we show our support for the program,” says Baird.
“I added 4-H on there—while it’s not a co-curriculum, a lot of those events are held in conjunction with each other, and so for those schools that don’t have FFA, I wanted those students to have an opportunity to participate in such critical programming.”
Baird also shared that the bill got across the finish line because of all the support it received from students serving in Indiana FFA and 4-H.
“I told [the Indiana FFA and 4-H students], ‘You guys have to come and testify.’ For me, watching them testify in committee was just extraordinary because that’s what this is all about. It’s about education. It’s about learning. It’s about experiences. For me, that was instrumental in watching those kids testify in committee and probably the highlight for me of carrying the bill,” says Baird.
Governor Braun signed the bill into law on Wednesday.
CLICK HERE to read the new law.
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