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Timeline › 2023 › May › 4

May 4, 2023

3 entries on this date.

Indiana enacted HB 1447, barring 'obscene' materials from school libraries and stripping educators' 'harmful to minors' defense

On May 4, 2023, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed House Enrolled Act 1447, which bars public school and charter school libraries from making available materials deemed "obscene" or "harmful to minors" and requires published catalogs and challenge-and-removal procedures. The law also removed the "legitimate educational purpose" affirmative defense that had shielded schools and their employees from Level 6 felony prosecution for disseminating material "harmful to minors." The library-restriction language, originally a stalled standalone bill, was inserted through a closed-door conference committee without public testimony.

Indiana Gov. Holcomb signed HB 1608, barring K-3 instruction on human sexuality and requiring schools to notify parents of gender-identity requests

On May 4, 2023, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed House Enrolled Act 1608 into law, creating a new statute (IC 20-30-17) that bars schools, employees, and third-party vendors from providing any instruction on "human sexuality" to students in prekindergarten through grade 3. A separate provision (IC 20-33-7.5) requires schools to notify a parent in writing within five business days whenever an unemancipated minor student requests to be identified by a different name, pronoun, or title. The bill passed the House 65-29, took effect July 1, 2023, and is codified as Public Law 248-2023.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed SB1237, extending the state's transgender school-sports ban to private schools

On May 4, 2023, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed SB1237 into law as Public Chapter 285, limiting a private-school student's eligibility for interscholastic athletics governed by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association to participation "in accordance with the student's immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth." The law extends to TSSAA-affiliated private schools a transgender-athlete restriction Tennessee already applied to its public schools.