Overview
- The U.S. Department of Education approved the waiver on Tuesday, June 16, 2026, allowing Indiana to merge five federal K‑12 funding streams into a single state‑managed pool totaling about $50 million over four years.
- The waiver recognizes Indiana’s state school accountability model for federal reporting and estimates roughly $20 million in compliance savings over four years from reduced paperwork and oversight requirements.
- The merged grants are Title I, Part B (assessment), Title II, Part A (teacher development), Title III, Part A (English learners), Title IV, Part A (enrichment), and Title IV, Part B (21st Century Learning Centers).
- Federal officials denied major parts of Indiana’s original request: the state cannot redirect School Improvement Grant dollars away from low‑performing schools and full district‑level merging was not authorized, though a pilot will let up to 15% of districts combine Title II and Title IV, Part A funds.
- Advocates warn the change could weaken federal guardrails that target funds to high‑need students and reduce public transparency, while state leaders say funding formulas will still allocate dollars per student and allow faster local use of resources; this waiver follows smaller ones granted to Iowa and Louisiana under the administration’s Returning Education to the States initiative.