The Indiana State Board of Education approved a new temporary, special education teaching license designed to help schools address the special education teacher shortage.

Indiana will spend $2 million to help fully license special education teachers by offering scholarships for required training and streamlining required coursework.

Some Indiana lawmakers are weighing whether schools should have the option to locally license or permit new teachers. It was a main point of conversation during the General Assembly's final education study committee meeting Tuesday.

Indiana is switching up its teacher licensing program in response to complaints about low pass rates under the current testing program, in hopes of addressing a shortage of teachers in the state.

More than 22,700 about a third of all teachers in the state have started the process to renew their licenses compared to just 514 at this time last year.

The new law requires teachers earn 15 of the 90 professional development points they need to renew their license, through workforce and career-navigation focused programs.

Here's a recap of some legislation Indiana lawmakers proposed, passed, and denied around education policy during the 2018 legislative session.

Lawmakers from both chambers say they agree on a final version of a teacher licensing bill that stirred controversy in recent weeks.

Lawmakers made significant changes to a bill around teacher licensing, aiming to get more teachers in the classroom and ease the pressure of licensing exams.

A bill designed to address the teacher shortage was met with some concern by members in the House Education Committee Thursday.