National & local legislators

Improving School Transportation in Indiana

School Transportation impacts the lives of more than 650,000 Hoosier students. While our state has made strides to provide a wide variety of education options to families, transportation policy and systems need to catch up. Families should be empowered to share their feedback on new school transportation systems and be given the opportunity to access transportation at the school that works best for them.

Likewise, educators should have the opportunity to choose vehicles and partnerships that allow them to best deliver high-quality transportation to families. Learn more about this issue in our policy paper, Protecting School Choice: How Flexibility in Transportation Can Improve Access and Efficiency. The paper provides an expenditure analysis, in-depth overview of the current challenges, and detailed policy and operational recommendations.

Impact on students and families

In the 2022-2023 school year, 58.3% of students within Indianapolis Public Schools’ (IPS) boundaries attended an independent public charter or IPS innovation network school.

• 26,241 students attend charter and Innovation Network Schools
• Charter and innovation network school enrollment has increased 14% over the last five years
• 40% of IPS students attend an innovation network school
• 85.4% of students enrolled in autonomous schools during 2020-2021 identify as students of color

Closing proficiency gaps

In a 2022 study, researchers from Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes found that:

• Students in Indianapolis charter schools made learning gains equivalent to 64 days of additional learning in reading and 100 days of additional learning in math
• Students in Innovation Network Schools made learning gains equivalent to 38 days of additional learning in reading and 47 days of additional learning in math
• Black students in charter schools made learning gains equivalent to 86 days of additional learning in reading and 144 days of additional learning in math
• Latino students in charter schools made learning gains equivalent to 73 days of additional learning in reading and 109 days of additional learning in math

On the 2022 ILEARN, independent charter schools in Indianapolis increased their overall proficiency by 3.8 percentage points, matching or surpassing increases for all of the 11 Marion County school districts. In addition, Indianapolis Black, Latino, and low-income independent charter school students all saw proficiency percentage point gains that surpassed the state average. Lastly, 2022 SAT results showed that charter and innovation students were more likely to be college-ready in both math and reading/writing compared to the majority of their peers across Marion County.

While unacceptable proficiency gaps continue to exist for Black and Latino students relative to their white peers, we continue to see that students of color who attend autonomous schools are much more likely to demonstrate proficiency.