A new school year starts for many Hoosier students in the next two weeks, as COVID-19 cases are on the rise.

About 70 percent of Indiana schools had lower attendance rates in 2020-21 compared to the previous year, a sign of the toll that the fragmented education during the pandemic took on students.

IU High School is an online school and shared its curriculum and courses with schools when students everywhere were forced to learn remotely. Now, the school is using grant funding from the state to develop more than 60 virtual, free K-12 courses for any Hoosier teacher to use.

Communities across the state are weighing what COVID-19 health and safety measures to continue this summer and into the fall, as the governor's mask requirement for schools expires at the end of June.

The total number of Individualized Education Program evaluations completed in the 2019-20 school year — just more than 25,000 — dropped by about 16% compared to the 2018-19 school year, when nearly 30,000 evaluations were completed. The total number of evaluations initiated also dropped by about 13% over that period.

School employees in Kokomo are fighting to organize a union after the school corporation voted not to recognize it earlier this year.

As the school year comes to a close, districts across the state are announcing their choices for teacher of the year. Each local winner will advance to the state level for consideration for the 2022 Indiana Teacher of the Year, which is announced in the fall.

Some parents of online learners still have lingering concerns about sending their children back to school specifically for in-person standardized tests but the state says most students have already taken their federally required assessments, and there aren't consequences if they don't.