New guidance from the department emphasizes the requirement that schools provide behavioral supports for students with disabilities. It's a measure officials hope can reduce suspension and expulsion.

In general, U.S. schools send home about one in 16 students. Indiana schools choose exclusionary discipline more often, sending home one in 14 students.

In 2014, Pence stopped the Indiana Department of Education from applying for an $80 million grant that would have established a similar system.

State superintendent Glenda Ritz says the money established the Indiana Center on Teacher Quality at Indiana University, which focuses on increasing the number of qualified special education teachers in the state.

The program allows universities to partner with prisons to help inmates work toward a college degree.

With only two months left in the calendar year, Indiana schools are now one step closer to finally seeing their standardized test results from last spring.

The U.S. Department of Education says Janell Uerkwitz of Murdock Elementary School in Lafayette in one of this year's recipients of the Terrel H. Bell Award for Outstanding School Leadership.