INDIANAPOLIS — The state is getting rid of a law that requires schools to publicly report when a school employee is injured on the job by a student.
Current law requires Indiana schools to track school employee injuries and annually report the data to the Indiana Department of Education.
IDOE then compiles the numbers, broken down by school district, into a publicly available report posted on its website.
Under the new law, HEA 1249, schools will be required to report “workplace battery” reports to the Indiana Department of Labor starting in July 2027.
The new law also does not require the DOL to publicly report school employee injury data.
The change does not sit well with Cathy Wendorff, a former teacher at Decatur Central High School.
Wendorff says she was injured by a teenage student during an outburst.
“She shoulder-checked me,” said Wendorff. “She purposefully threw her shoulder into my shoulder.”
Wendorff says she needed a sling and physical therapy as a result of the injury. She resigned from her teaching job in February for safety reasons.
“I do feel it’s an epidemic right now. Lots of teachers are getting injured and it’s not getting reported,” said Wendorff. “That’s why I’m speaking out about this. It wasn’t the students who made me leave, it was the lack of support.”
She’s concerned that the law will hurt teacher safety.
“Parents and the community need to realize teachers should feel valued,” said Wendorff. “We aren’t feeling valued.”
WRTV Investigates has been looking into the problem of teacher injuries since 2019.
We found all kinds of injuries — teachers hit, punched, kicked, hair pulled, headbutted and some suffering from concussions.
Current law requires public schools and charter schools to report if the injury:
- is required to be reported to the public school's worker's compensation carrier
- causes the employee to miss all or part of one (1) or more work days or
- is required to be reported to the public school pursuant to the public school's reporting policy.
The last public report from IDOE will be issued in August 2026.
WRTV Investigates contacted the lawmaker behind the language repealing the reporting requirements, Rep. Alex Zimmerman, R-North Vernon.
"We removed the requirement to report to the Department of Education and realigned those reports to be sent to the Department of Labor, which would be a more robust report on these unfortunate situations,” Zimmerman said in a statement to WRTV. “This is simply a measure to avoid duplicative efforts and streamline government where we can while keeping in place important reports to the state regarding workplace violence."
The Indiana State Teachers Association is opposed to the change, especially the fact that the Indiana Department of Labor is not required to publicly report school employee injury data online.
“It feels like whether that's the intent or not that people don't really want to have a conversation about what is happening in schools,” said Jennifer Smith-Margraf, president at the Indiana State Teachers Association. “The idea behind the existing requirement is to make sure that we're seeing where students are struggling and what they're struggling with, so that we can make sure that we're directing funds to help support them."
ISTA says under the new law, schools will no longer report a wide-range of incidents.
“Sending it to the Department of Labor means that it has to rise to the level of battery in order to be reported and most teachers do not want to say that what happened to them on behalf of a student is battery, because then that will also involve the police,” said Smith-Margraf.
Smith-Margraf points out that individual school districts can adopt more restrictive policies, such as the policy just passed by the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation.
PREVIOUS | School board approves new policy to track employee injuries
Last summer, our investigation introduced you to Melissa Streeval, a teacher who resigned from the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation after she says she was hurt on the job by students.
Cathy Wendorff is not sure if she will return to the classroom.
“It’s not ok for teachers to not feel respected and not feel supported and work so hard,” said Wendorff. “We give everything.”
WRTV Investigates contacted MSD Decatur Township for a response and we are still waiting to hear back.
According to the Indiana Department of Labor, the data will be subject to a public records request under the Indiana Access to Public Records Act (APRA).
“The act does not contemplate posting the reports online,” said Kenneth Boucher, Deputy Commissioner of Labor in an email to WRTV. “We may revaluate later based on the number of APRA requests received for the data.”
You can contact Investigative Reporter Kara Kenney at Kara.Kenney@wrtv.com.
