---
type: "Bill"
title: "Adoption and foster care matters."
description: "Prohibits a governmental entity from discriminating against a person in adoption and foster care matters based on the person's sincerely held religious belief, unless the discriminatory act as applied to the person is required to advance a compelling government interest and is the least restrictive means of advancing the interest. Specifies that a governmental entity may consider whether a person involved in adoption or foster care matters shares the same religion or faith tradition as a child or the child's parent when considering placement of a child. Allows a person to bring a cause of action against a governmental entity for discriminating against the person, or raise a violation as a claim or defense in a judicial proceeding, and allows for certain remedies. Provides that there is a two year statute of limitation for a discrimination claim."
jurisdiction: "us/states/in"
legislature: "Indiana General Assembly"
session: "2026"
identifier: "HB 1389"
citation: "Indiana HB 1389 (2026)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["CHILDREN AND MINORS; Adoption", "CHILDREN AND MINORS; Foster Care", "CHURCHES AND RELIGIONS", "CIVIL RIGHTS", "STATE GOVERNMENT; Generally"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Greg Walker", "Shane Lindauer", "Stacey Donato", "Tyler Johnson"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 27
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2026-01-08"
last_action: "2026-02-26"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/1ea6f107-3b7a-4f20-abb5-a015bd533e57"
source_url: "https://api.iga.in.gov/2026/bills/hb1389"
source_hash: "cee80c4cde413db585d15f6b0b6c3a0cc8f7efed9f8e07bfafe8bd19d250610b"
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 1389 (2026) — Adoption and foster care matters.

Prohibits a governmental entity from discriminating against a person in adoption and foster care matters based on the person's sincerely held religious belief, unless the discriminatory act as applied to the person is required to advance a compelling government interest and is the least restrictive means of advancing the interest. Specifies that a governmental entity may consider whether a person involved in adoption or foster care matters shares the same religion or faith tradition as a child or the child's parent when considering placement of a child. Allows a person to bring a cause of action against a governmental entity for discriminating against the person, or raise a violation as a claim or defense in a judicial proceeding, and allows for certain remedies. Provides that there is a two year statute of limitation for a discrimination claim.

## Version chain

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

1. **Enrolled House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://iga.in.gov/pdf-documents/124/2026/house/bills/HB1389/HB1389.04.ENRS.pdf)
2. **House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://iga.in.gov/pdf-documents/124/2026/house/bills/HB1389/HB1389.03.COMS.pdf)
3. **House Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://iga.in.gov/pdf-documents/124/2026/house/bills/HB1389/HB1389.02.COMH.pdf)
4. **Introduced House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://iga.in.gov/pdf-documents/124/2026/house/bills/HB1389/HB1389.01.INTR.pdf)

## Votes

- HB 1389 - Johnson T - 3rd Reading — **44–0** (pass) · upper
- HB 1389 - Lindauer - 3rd Reading — **69–29** (pass) · lower
- HB 1389 - Lindauer — **84–12** (pass) · lower
- HB 1389 - Lindauer - 2nd Reading — **29–62** (fail) · lower
- HB 1389 - Lindauer - 2nd Reading — **26–63** (fail) · lower

## Sponsors

- Greg Walker — primary (person)
- Shane Lindauer — primary (person)
- Stacey Donato — primary (person)
- Tyler Johnson — primary (person)
- Brian Buchanan — cosponsor (person)
- Chris Jeter — coauthor (person)
- Dale DeVon — coauthor (person)
- Gary Byrne — cosponsor (person)
- Liz Brown — cosponsor (person)
- Mike Gaskill — cosponsor (person)
- Robert Heaton — coauthor (person)
- Scott Alexander — cosponsor (person)
- Spencer Deery — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2026-01-08** Authored by Representative Lindauer
- **2026-01-08** First reading: referred to Committee on Judiciary `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2026-01-13** Representatives Jeter, DeVon, Heaton added as coauthors
- **2026-01-27** Committee report: do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2026-01-29** Amendment #2 (Garcia Wilburn) failed; Roll Call 158: yeas 26, nays 63 `amendment-failure, failure`
- **2026-01-29** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2026-01-29** Amendment #3 (Garcia Wilburn) failed; Roll Call 159: yeas 29, nays 62 `amendment-failure, failure`
- **2026-02-02** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 196: yeas 69, nays 29 `passage, reading-3, reading-3`
- **2026-02-02** Senate sponsor: Senator Johnson T
- **2026-02-03** Referred to the Senate `referral`
- **2026-02-05** First reading: referred to Committee on Judiciary `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2026-02-09** Senator Buchanan added as cosponsor
- **2026-02-09** Senator Walker G added as second sponsor
- **2026-02-09** Senators Deery, Byrne, Brown L added as cosponsors
- **2026-02-12** Committee report: amend do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2026-02-16** Senators Gaskill, Alexander added as cosponsors
- **2026-02-16** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2026-02-16** Senator Donato added as third sponsor
- **2026-02-17** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 194: yeas 44, nays 0 `passage, reading-3, reading-3`
- **2026-02-18** Returned to the House with amendments `receipt`
- **2026-02-19** Motion to concur filed `filing`
- **2026-02-19** House concurred with Senate amendments; Roll Call 300: yeas 84, nays 12
- **2026-02-23** Signed by the Speaker `passage`
- **2026-02-24** Signed by the President Pro Tempore `passage`
- **2026-02-25** Signed by the President of the Senate `passage`
- **2026-02-26** Public Law 43 `became-law`
- **2026-02-26** Signed by the Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/1ea6f107-3b7a-4f20-abb5-a015bd533e57`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Indiana legislature records).