---
type: "Bill"
title: "Education matters."
description: "Provides that a school, an employee or staff member of a school, or a third party vendor used by a school to provide instruction may not provide any instruction to a student in prekindergarten through grade 3 on human sexuality. Provides that a school employee or a school staff member is not prohibited from responding to a question from a student regarding certain topics. Requires a school to notify in writing at least one parent of a student, if the student is an unemancipated minor, of a request made by the student to change the student's name or pronoun, title, or word to identify the student."
jurisdiction: "us/states/in"
legislature: "Indiana General Assembly"
session: "2023"
identifier: "HB 1608"
citation: "Indiana HB 1608 (2023)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["CHILDREN AND MINORS generally", "SCHOOLS generally (K-12)", "SCHOOLS", "Curricula"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Gary Byrne", "Jeff Raatz", "Michelle Davis", "Stacey Donato"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 24
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2023-01-19"
last_action: "2023-05-04"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/658d3fca-256a-4b32-b1f8-25ac242ba82e"
source_url: "http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2023/bills/house/1608"
source_hash: "fa4819ea9d233de0451cec54db1c666836f522242a12dc4df8cc377cec16e533"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-in"]
---

# Indiana HB 1608 (2023) — Education matters.

Provides that a school, an employee or staff member of a school, or a third party vendor used by a school to provide instruction may not provide any instruction to a student in prekindergarten through grade 3 on human sexuality. Provides that a school employee or a school staff member is not prohibited from responding to a question from a student regarding certain topics. Requires a school to notify in writing at least one parent of a student, if the student is an unemancipated minor, of a request made by the student to change the student's name or pronoun, title, or word to identify the student.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Engrossed House Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2023/bills/HB1608/versions/HB1608.04.ENGS)
2. **Enrolled House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2023/bills/HB1608/versions/HB1608.05.ENRS)
3. **House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2023/bills/HB1608/versions/HB1608.02.COMH)
4. **House Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2023/bills/HB1608/versions/HB1608.03.COMS)
5. **Introduced House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2023/bills/HB1608/versions/HB1608.01.INTR)

## Votes

- HB 1608 - Davis M - 3rd Reading — **65–29** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Gary Byrne — primary (person)
- Jeff Raatz — primary (person)
- Michelle Davis — primary (person)
- Stacey Donato — primary (person)
- Chris Jeter — coauthor (person)
- Jake Teshka — coauthor (person)
- Robert Heaton — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2023-01-19** Coauthored by Representatives Teshka, Jeter, Heaton
- **2023-01-19** Authored by Representative Davis
- **2023-01-19** First reading: referred to Committee on Education `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2023-02-20** Committee report: amend do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2023-02-22** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2023-02-23** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 220: yeas 65, nays 29 `passage, reading-3, reading-3`
- **2023-02-23** Senate sponsors: Senators Donato, Raatz, Byrne
- **2023-02-24** Referred to the Senate `referral`
- **2023-03-06** First reading: referred to Committee on Education and Career Development `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2023-03-27** Committee report: amend do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2023-04-06** Amendment #12 (Donato) prevailed; voice vote `amendment-passage`
- **2023-04-06** Amendment #11 (Yoder) failed; Roll Call 335: yeas 14, nays 34 `amendment-failure, failure`
- **2023-04-06** Amendment #5 (Ford J.D.) failed; Roll Call 336: yeas 9, nays 39 `amendment-failure, failure`
- **2023-04-06** Amendment #4 (Yoder) failed; voice vote `amendment-failure, failure`
- **2023-04-06** Second reading: amended, ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2023-04-10** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 345: yeas 37, nays 12 `passage, reading-3, reading-3`
- **2023-04-11** Returned to the House with amendments `receipt`
- **2023-04-24** Motion to concur filed `filing`
- **2023-04-24** House concurred in Senate amendments; Roll Call 489: yeas 63, nays 29
- **2023-04-28** Signed by the President of the Senate `passage`
- **2023-04-28** Signed by the President Pro Tempore `passage`
- **2023-05-01** Signed by the Speaker `passage`
- **2023-05-04** Signed by the Governor `executive-signature`
- **2023-05-04** Public Law 248 `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/658d3fca-256a-4b32-b1f8-25ac242ba82e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Indiana legislature records).