HB 1001 was destroyed by Senator Mark Messmer’s amendment at the Senate hearing.
Now it has no state protections for religious exemptions. It only allows for religious exemptions based on current Federal law for the Civil Rights Act. We already have that available to us, we don’t need a state law to say it is available to us. It also removed the part that says an employer cannot take an adverse action against an employee with an exemption. That means we can be fired and poorly treated for having an exemption.
HB 1001 is now a bill protecting businesses while they discriminate against staff. It puts into law for twice a week testing paid for by you and puts masks into state law for those with exemptions.
WHY WOULD WE WANT FORCED TESTING AND MASKS PUT INTO STATE LAW, WHILE IT GIVES US NOTHING MORE THAN CURRENT FEDERAL PROTECTIONS? There is no longer any benefit to this bill.
It also makes standing orders for children’s vaccines which we do not support. That will allow children to be vaccinated at some random pop up clinic in a mall where they don’t have any medical history.
CALL THE SENATE AND TELL THEM TO MAKE AN AMENDMENT to add protections back to HB 1001 and fix it after Senator Messmer wrote an amendent THAT STRIPPED THE BILL of everything good.
317-232-9400
Make sure to tell the legislative aides that you are disgusted with the Republican party, and you will be voting for any primary challenger over the incumbents due to their refusal to protect Hoosier jobs with a state religious exemption.
Although it is possible that the bill could get an amendment on 2nd reading, it’s highly unlikely. Senator Messmer, the majority leader of the Senate, did the amendment. Other Senator’s aren’t going to go against his leadership as the author of the amendment. Rep Lehman said during the hearing that he supported the amendment. Don’t believe him if he tells you that he does not support the amendment. He clearly said he did during the hearing.
We cannot trust the leadership of the legislature. I have watched them lie more than once, and I don’t believe they are going to fix HB 1001.
If it passes the full Senate, it will go back to the House to be consolidated due to being a completely different bill than the House passed.
The House can let it die, agree with it, or work on making changes with members of the Senate.
Unless they make the bill go back to what it was when it passed the House, we have to kill this bill. Allowing it to pass is not a good option. It puts discrimination into law for anyone who gets an exemption, it allows employers to deny exemptions, and it makes staff pay for testing. It is worse than getting nothing, because it gives us many bad parts while giving us nothing more than we already have with the Federal Act. The risk of allowing this to pass into law is too great to wait and see if the House will fix it. I believe it is highly unlikely to happen, and that Holcomb and Senator Bray had a hand in ensuring the exemptions in the bill were destroyed.
One reason for making staff pay for testing was the fact testing can be free. I applied for reimbursement for home test kits. This is what the insurance company said: Insurance WILL NOT cover tests used for employment.
Complete and submit your claim
Test(s) included in this claim:
Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home Tests
Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home TestEdit Flowflex COVID-19 Antigen Home TestDelete
02/17/2022
Signature required: Any person who knowingly and with intent to defraud, injure, or deceive any insurance company, submits a claim or application containing any materially false, deceptive, incomplete or misleading information pertaining to such claim may be committing a fraudulent insurance act which is a crime and may subject such person to criminal or civil penalties, including fines, denial of benefits, and/or imprisonment. I certify the at-home COVID-19 test was purchased for my own personal diagnostic use (or use by a covered member of my family), not for employment purposes, has not been and will not be reimbursed by another source, and is not for resale. I certify that I have read and understand this form, and that all the information entered in this form is true and correct.
The archive of the hearing is on the website now. It starts around minute 28 where Senator Messmer reads off what his amendment does. There is still nothing posted in writing for it online yet. Only about 10 people showed up to the hearing to testify FOR medical freedom. That was disappointing in itself.
Today the Indiana Republican party leadership worked as a team to make Senate Amendment 13 to destroy HB 1001 for employee exemptions. Senator Mark Messmer, Senate Majority Leader, worked with big business and the Chamber of Commerce to destroy the bill.
There were people who testified with heartbreaking stories about being fired when their medical and religious exemptions were denied, and they have been unable to find any employment, because everywhere is requiring the covid vaccine for new hires.
None of that mattered to our public servants. They voted yes on amendment 13, and all those who came in support of HB 1001 switched to Oppose based on that surprise amendment. However, that amendment was not a surprise to the legislators or the Chamber of Commerce who had helped write it.
The lobbyists for the Chamber of Commerce changed their Opposition to Support after the amendment passed.
HB 1001 is no longer a bill that allows all employees guaranteed religious and medical exemptions. It has been turned into a bill that supports big business and does nothing more than what current Federal Civil Rights Act gives. This is what amendment 13 was said to do when read verbally at the hearing. It probably will not be posted online until the next day or so.
1.It removed the part that made the bill good: Religious exemptions are NOT guaranteed. They removed the part about “no further inquiry” for exemptions. They are saying to just follow current Federal Civil Rights Act for exemptions even though people spent hours telling them that businesses ARE NOT FOLLOWING FEDERAL LAW FOR EXEMPTIONS. The “public servants” don’t care. They stuck with their marching orders from leadership on this.
2. Now it allows for testing twice a week paid for by you if the employer decides they want you to pay for their required testing.
3. It took away getting unemployment if you are fired for refusing a vaccine or having an exemption denied.
4. It removed all healthcare workers from the exemption bill due to the CMS Supreme court temporary ruling. However, there is another lawsuit on the CMS mandates that is traveling through the courts. Nothing in the Supreme court ruling disallowed exemptions for healthcare workers, so allowing them to have exemptions does not conflict with Federal code.
5. It removed the part about the state of emergency for SNAP and other benefits, because they have already put that same language in SB3 that they are passing.
6. It took away the six months of natural immunity clause and replaced it with only 90 days allowed for natural immunity. The “public servants” know the science shows natural immunity lasts longer than 6 months, but they don’t care, because they are bowing to their masters at the Chamber of Commerce and leadership.
7. They removed all sports venues and concert venues from allowing employees to have exemptions. They said the some of the performing artists want the staff vaccinated, so they took away the rights of those staff to have exemptions in state law.
There were already bad parts for HB 1001, but I overlooked those parts, because it guaranteed religious exemptions to the covid vaccines without further inquiry. That part has been removed. The bill is not anymore helpful than our current Federal law is. It is worse to pass it now.
It also allows standing orders for all vaccines for young children. Current law makes children get vaccines at their providers office. With this bill, young children can be vaccinated at Wal Mart, Target, CVS, etc. where they have no medical records or good way to document reactions. I did not support that part, but the religious exemption guarantee was worth it to support the bill. The bill adds testing and masking into law, but I was willing to overlook that based on guaranteed religious exemptions.
The bill also allows businesses to opt out as long as they are following the Federal guidelines, and it excludes Federal workers.
I tried for the past two years to save peoples’ jobs. These Republicans need to be voted out in the May primaries. If you have not registered to vote, please register. We have to band together and vote out the incumbent legislators that are not helping us, which is all of them except maybe two.
It is possible that Senators could write amendments on the 2nd reading, but with Senate leadership being the ones who destroyed the bill, good amendments seem unlikely. It puts masking employees into state law. I know a lot of people are angry about being forced to mask at work. This puts into law that if you refuse to mask, you can be fired. Lawsuits against masks will be hard, I don’t see that happening with it passed into state law. The Senate is eager to pass the bill for businesses.
It could possibly be changed when it is sent back to the House due to the Senate changing it and the House needing to agree with the amendment. But I do not trust the House to put the bill back the way it was before the Senate change.
Here is the ACTION YOU CAN TAKE
Call Mark Messmer and tell him that he sold the people of Indiana out with his amendment. Demand that he support returning the bill to the original House version. The Chamber of Commerce lobbyist said she would meet with Messmer further to discuss wording of the bill. Tell him we are tired of him listening to big business over the people, and we will remember that in the 2024 primaries.
317-232-9840
Call Matt Lehman the bill author and tell him that he should have withdrawn his support for the Senate amendment. He actually said this was a good bill and had support for the amendment. Tell him that you demand he return the bill to the version from the House. Remind him that you are going to help promote his primary challenger in the May elections.
317-234-9380
Call your Senator. Tell them that you demand an amendment to remove what amendment 13 took away. Testing must be the employers’ responsibility to pay for if they want to require it. Religious exemptions must be guaranteed. Healthcare workers need to be included.
You can be transferred to them by calling
317-232-9400
Emails are NOT enough. You need to call them, and meeting with them would be more helpful. We are talking about being fired and unable to get another job, and the people of Indiana have been standing back doing nothing to save their freedoms for too long. Please take action now. Call and leave a message in the evening. Call tomorrow, call this weekend. Make them pick up the phones.
Much to my surprise, HB 1001 is being heard Wednesday morning in the Senate Health and Provider Services Committee. The hearing starts at 9:00 am. There are a few bills being heard, and I don’t know if they will call HB 1001 first or last in order.
If you support this bill, please attend the hearing Wednesday morning in room 431 at the Statehouse in Indianapolis. I have already done other write ups to explain what this bill does and does not do. Please refer back to previous blog posts to learn more about the bill, and/or read it for yourself.
If you can’t make it to the Statehouse, and want to support the bill, here are the phone numbers for committee members. You can watch the livesteam at the link below:
Is this the type of “education” Senator Rod Bray thinks is okay for public schools to teach?
He is blocking a hearing and vote on HB 1134 to make teachers post this type of curriculum for parents to see BEFORE their children are exposed to it.
Call Bray and tell him he needs to at least allow a vote on the bill so we can see a voting record.
317-232-9416
Senator.Bray@iga.in.gov
Call Senator Raatz of the Education committee, and tell him to have a hearing and vote on the bill. We want a voting record.
317-233-0930
Senator.Raatz@iga.in.gov
You can leave a message over the weekend too
The Connecticut school is saying this assignment document was “accidentally” posted and “accidentally” used as an actual assignment in class for 8th grade students health class. It’s truly unbelievable that a teacher decided that this assignment was fine and used it.
IF this was actually posted as part of the curriculum by mistake, it’s major poor judgement that the teacher read it and used it. I don’t think it was a mistake. It’s possible the creepy teacher enjoyed reading about student desires.
The Senate Republicans are killing HB 1001 to allow for guaranteed employee exemptions.
After the OSHA mandate was placed on temporary injunction by the Supreme Court, the majority of people no longer seem to care about getting exemptions.
Things for mandates with our jobs could change at any time. We really need guaranteed exemptions in state law. There are many jobs that are still mandating.
Some people have been led to believe the only way forward is to ban all mandates or do nothing. Indiana will never ban all vaccine mandates. We are a pharma controlled state. It will never happen. Move to a state that doesn’t have Eli Lilly, Rouche, IU Health, Cook, Boston Scientific, etc if you want to truly fight for a mandate ban.
Due to a lack of support, we are not going to get a guaranteed exemption bill passed to save the people put on unpaid leave when they ask for an exemption. Hb1001 would have ensured healthcare workers had exemptions approved without having to get an attorney.
Thanks to medical freedom activists going to oppose HB 1001 at the hearing, there’s a record of strong opposition from the people which was mentioned against the bill.
The state took the parts of HB 1001 that people opposed, and is passing the emergency measures into law with SB 3, and they’re getting the temp licenses for healthcare workers passed with HB1003. The state gets what they want without giving exemptions to the people. I tried to tell people that was going to happen.
It’s regrettable that people opposed HB 1001. If it doesn’t get a hearing and vote by 2/23/2022, the bill will be dead.
HB 1003 will have a hearing on Wednesday morning 9:00 am in the Health Committee of the Senate. We OPPOSE this bill. If you can make it to the Statehouse in Indianapolis this Wednesday, please go to testify against this bill.
HB 1003 allows ongoing temp licenses for students with an end date of when the Federal government ends the emergency which could be years, reduces actual clinic hours for students and replaces them with simulation, and makes the process to bring in foreign trained nurses easier than bringing out of state nurses to Indiana. It says “shall” issue a license to foreign nurses by endorsement, and the current law for out of state nurses says “may” issue a license by endorsement.
Call all of these legislators and tell them to AMEND OUT ALL THE FOREIGN NURSES SECTIONS. We already have a system in place for foreign nurses to come here. Nothing against foreign workers, but we don’t need to make it easier to bring them in to replace unvaccinated Indiana nurses. The international workers will be fully vaccinated, and will replace staff who refused to take the vaccines.
Tell them that it is UNACCEPTABLE for students to practice on temporary licenses for years without passing a licensure exam. It is not safe or best practice to allow students to work that long on a temporary license. They need to put a specific end date on the temporary licenses. Allowed Joe Biden’s Federal people to decide the end date is UNACCEPTABLE.
Ed Charbonneau- head of the public health committee
317-232-9494
s5@iga.in.gov
Mark Messmer-majority leader of the Senate floor
317-232-9840
Senator.Messmer@iga.in.gov
Ethan Manning-author of 1003
317-232-9619
h23@iga.in.gov
Brad Barrett-coauthor
317-234-2993
h56@iga.in.gov
Next call your Senator and tell them to oppose HB 1003 all together. The only acceptable portion of the bill is allowing healthcare programs to increase class sizes. Everything else is not needed and not good for patient safety.
Alright everyone, I have some news about HB 1001 for exemptions, and it’s not good.
The Republicans did something I’ve never seen before, they moved the bill to the public health committee without sending it through the labor committee after it went through labor in the House. They gave no explanation. I’ve searched through the other bills, and NONE of the bills for other issues had this done to them.
The more we demand freedom, the more lawless our “representatives” become.
Hb1001 has little chance to get a hearing and a vote to pass in the Health committee of the Senate. Instead they’re passing the state of emergency into law with SB 3 and HB 1003.
Basically, do you want HB 1001 to pass? If we want to pass it, we need to SHOW UP big time at the state house and demand they help us.
ACTION ALERT FOR HB1001-employee exemptions
Call these legislators ASAP.
Script ideas:
1. Tell Senator Bray it is unacceptable that he switched committees from Employment to the Health in the Senate. Tell him we know he did that to kill HB 1001 and allow Hoosiers to be fired over a covid vaccine mandate, and we’re mad. He needs to make protecting our jobs priority. OSHA has temporarily stopped, but many Indiana jobs are still mandating.
Senator Rod Bray-decides where to place bills-Pro Temp
317-232-9416
S37@iga.in.gov
2. Call and ask Rep Lehman why he’s not pushing harder for his bill to pass. Demand he tell you why he picked Senator Ed Charbonneau as the Senate bill sponsor when he knows Charbonneau Is against HB1001. Is he playing around with the rest of leadership to kill his own bill? Also tell him he needs to add prospective employees to the language.
Rep Matt Lehman-bill author
317-234-9380
H79@iga.in.gov
3. Call and demand that Senator Charbonneau give a hearing and vote for HB1001. The people of IN have been jerked around with empty promises from the GOP for several months. Other Red states have already passed laws even better than HB 1001, yet the Indiana GOP refuses to help employees. Give HB 1001 a hearing immediately.
Senator Ed Charbonneau-bill Senate sponsor-head of Health committee
317-232-9494
s5@iga.in.gov
Basically they are playing games with us. The House members are all up for reelection, so they pretended they cared about people being fired over covid vaccine mandates. They “rushed” to pass HB1001 in the House. They killed all the other vaccine related bills.
The Senate is NOT up for reelection, so they don’t have to pretend they care about people getting fired. Rep Lehman is the author, but please understand that he doesn’t want this to pass. He did it to pretend he tried his best. He named Senator Charbonneau, head of the Senate health committee, as a Senate bill sponsor. He knows Charbonneau is opposed to HB 1001, and he could have picked any other senator as a sponsor, but he chose Charbonneau to kill the bill. If people want this bill bad enough, we need a rally for it. Because the OSHA mandate was stopped temporarily and OSHA temporarily pulled back its rules, momentum against mandates has greatly slowed down. The Republicans are using that to their advantage.
Let me give you some facts on HB1001.
Myth: It does nothing more than give us what the Federal civil rights act already gives us. It does not offer any protections for employees.
Truth:1. it guarantees exemptions for employees that can’t be denied.
The federal civil rights act allows for denial of exemptions based on a perceived undue hardship on the business.
It gives a personal beliefs exemption (not religious or medical) exemption to anyone who agrees to test and wear a mask.
Federal act doesn’t give personal belief exemption.
It adds students doing clinicals/internships as “employees” so they are exempt from covid vaccine mandates.
The EEOC doesn’t cover them from what I understand. So this will cover even students from private schools doing internships.
It makes businesses who require testing pay for the testing. This will deter testing requirements on staff.
Federal law was trying to make employees pay for testing, but that’s temporarily on hold by the Supreme Court. Many other states and countries require employees to pay for weekly testing.
4. It makes it illegal to fire or take an adverse action on an employee who asks for or has an exemption over the covid vaccine.
Federal law doesn’t protect us from that, fed only prevents being fired due to religious beliefs.
5. If anyone is fired over refusing the covid vaccine, they qualify for unemployment benefits. That would be helpful during the time of possibly suing the employees for firing over the covid vaccine.
Current law doesn’t require unemployment benefits to be paid, and they are usually denied to people who are fired over refusal of the covid vaccine.
6. The employer cannot ask any further questions about your exemption. They can’t require a religious leader to sign off or grill you on your beliefs.
The EEOC guidelines do allow employers to ask about your religious beliefs. Not in the aggressive way many employers are doing by requiring a religious leader to sign off, but they can ask.
7. It gives a six month exemption for natural immunity that can be renewed with an antibody test that shows continued immunity. The employer cannot ask to see antibody status more than once every six months.
Federal law doesn’t do that.
8. It does allow businesses to require masks and testing. It says IF they require testing, it can’t be more than once a week and the business has to pay for it.
But currently employers are already allowed to require masks and testing for staff. So I don’t know that there’s a major difference. Pass the law, businesses can require testing and masks. Don’t pass the law, businesses can require testing and masks but staff might have to pay for testing.
No lawsuits in Indiana have stopped masks or testing for private businesses. The only one that briefly did was against an executive order by the West Lafayette Republican mayor. It was ruled above his authority, but the city council quickly voted it as a city ordinance, so masks were reinstated. However, private businesses have been allowed to require masks and testing. At least HB 1001 would stop them from testing more than weekly and make them pay for tests.
HB 1001 does add part of the state of emergency into code that allows the State to get Federal funding for SNAP, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits. It also allows for short term temporary licensing of medical staff. Currently, there are a few thousand healthcare workers on tempory licenses according to the representative for the Long Term Care Association testimony at the last hearing for HB 1001. In order to prevent a massive loss in staffing, they are working on phasing that out……. Let me explain that the same language for the emergency measures regarding receiving Federal funding is in SB 3. SB 3 already passed the full Senate without issue and is poised to pass the full House. The GOP also has HB 1003 that gives temporary licenses with no set end date to students and brings in foreign nurses with no end date. They are passing those two bills right along. We do not support SB 3 or HB 1003.
The point is, whether HB 1001 passes or not, Indiana is going to have the same language regarding emergency measures and Federal funding that many people oppose in SB 3. The tempory licensing issue is happening with HB 1003, but it’s even worse in that bill. That does need to be a phasing out period for those working under temporary licenses, but it doesn’t need to be years long. It needs to be a few months long.
Every other vaccine related bill has died. None of the others will get a hearing this year. HB 1001 is all that is left, and it looks to be highly likely that the Republicans, under Holcomb’s direction, are going to kill it too.
On January 21, the Indiana Department Health issued new guidance for schools. Schools with a mask mandate do not have to contract trace and quarantine students who were in close contact with a person who tested positive for covid-19 unless they become symptomatic. The Health Department even created a sample letter for schools to send to parents which is listed at the end of this.
What did Monroe County School Corporation in Bloomington do? They did not follow the advice of the IN Department of Health. Instead, they changed their policy to focus on students and student family members that have not received the covid-19 vaccines. Please read their letter and see the portions in bold that are concerning.
They recommend everyone to wear N95 or KN95 masks even though those are not available or medically recommended for children. There is no reason to push those type of masks on little children who are at statistically at zero chance of dying from catching covid. Los Angeles schools started requiring only N95 or KN95 masks for students, and Bloomington public schools seem eager to follow the same crazy restrictions.
They are going to continue to contract trace close contacts, but only for the unvaccinated. Additionally, even if the student without the covid vaccines is asymptomatic, they have to provide a negative covid test before being able to return after 5 days. If they cannot provide a negative covid test, their quarantine is much longer.
THIS IS NOT WHAT THE INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH RECOMMENDED TO SCHOOLS.
This is an effort to coerce parents into vaccinating their children to avoid the unnecessary removal from school for those families that do not comply. But Monroe County Schools aren’t stopping at just the student’s vaccination status. They want to know all household members vaccination status and other contacts outside the home vaccination status to determine the close contact rule for removal from school.
They have had so many complaints about their dictatorship-type policies, that the corporation created a specific hotline to call about it. But that is not going to do anything except ruin some low paid person who answers the call center phones day who doesn’t make any decisions.
Let’s go straight to the top, the Superintendent who is telling everyone in all caps to get vaccinated while referring issues with the policy to the call center.
812-330-7700
PHONE EXTENSION:40008
Tell Superintendent Hauswald, that treating healthy students differently based on the covid vaccine status is unacceptable. Treating students differently based on unvaccinated household contacts is a privacy invasion. Monroe county schools need to follow the current IN Dept of Health guidelines and remove quarantine due to having their mask mandate in place.
January 25, 2022
Dear MCCSC Students, Families & Staff,
Tonight, the MCCSC Board of School Trustees approved significant changes to our COVID-19 Re-Entry Procedures. These new procedures are a result of rapidly-changing realities and understandings associated with the COVID-19 variants and a recognition that due to the number of cases and staffing limits, maintaining our current procedures has become impossible. Underlying these decisions is a clear desire to keep our schools open to in-person learning and to maximize the time by which students can attend in-person instruction while simultaneously maintaining safety procedures to help limit the spread of COVID-19 in our schools.
In order to fulfill these two goals simultaneously, our students, staff and visitors MUST continue to wear masks. We encourage you to adhere to federal officials’ guidelines that surgical-style disposable masks, as well as top grade N95 or KN95 respirators, provide more protection to the wearer than cloth masks. MCCSC is working to quickly provide additional higher-quality masks to those who need one. If these masks are not possible, identifying better-designed cloth masks, including those with multi-layered cloth materials, are better. Information on where to obtain free N95 masks and a link to videos on effective mask wearing can be found on MCCSC’s COVID-19 Information and Impact Page.
Second, MCCSC continues to remind our community that FDA-approved vaccines, including boosters, are highly effective at preventing COVID-19. Many of the situations in which students and staff are temporarily removed from school can be avoided with full vaccination. We understand that situations exist where vaccinations are not possible. However, we ask those who are eligible to speak to their personal physician about vaccinations. More information on vaccines, including locations, can be found at .
Important changes to our COVID-19 protocols are outlined within this letter and have come as a recommendation from district administration on behalf of a working group of school health officials, administrators, county health and experts in medicine and public health. A more complete description of COVID-19 changes approved tonight can be found in the “Covid-19 Information and Impact Page”.
SUMMARY:
• Those who test positive for COVID-19 will be allowed to return to school after isolating for five days if they receive a negative lab antigen test and their symptoms are resolved or resolving.
• Our contact tracers will prioritize the highest risk cases for notification.
• An unvaccinated individual who is notified that they have been identified as a close contact will be required to quarantine, but may return to school after five days if they have no symptoms AND can provide the results of a negative lab antigen test or a negative home antigen test. • For many single symptoms, students will be allowed to return the next day without testing.
Prioritizing Higher Risk Cases for Contact Tracing: MCCSC officials will now prioritize case investigations and general contact tracing procedures focusing on notifying positive cases and people at highest levels of risk. This prioritization seeks to ensure that those with the highest risk levels are contacted in a timely manner.
Dedicated staff will attempt to reach as many individuals as possible; however, circumstances may arise where it is not possible to contact trace all lower-risk individuals.
When notified, some close contacts will still be required to quarantine. Situations that require quarantine are: unvaccinated household close contacts, unvaccinated close contacts at school, and unvaccinated outside-of-school self-reported close contacts.
Updated Return to School Procedures after Isolation for Positive COVID-19:
(Please note, for each of the scenarios below, the first day of symptoms or a positive test is Day 0.)
• If asymptomatic OR no fever for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and symptoms improving, an individual may return no sooner than Day 6 with a negative lab antigen test performed no sooner than Day 5. Must wear well-fitting mask upon return.
• If test cannot be obtained OR if symptomatic on Day 5, an individual may return on Day 11.
• Cardiac clearance is required for student athletes returning from Post-COVID isolation in accordance with IHSAA guidelines.
Updated Return to School Procedures after Quarantine for Close Contacts: • Unvaccinated, asymptomatic close contacts who can follow “enhanced precautions” through Day 14 (see MCCSC “enhanced precautions” on the COVID-19 Information and Impact page at ), may return on Day 6 from last exposure if a negative test is performed no sooner than Day 5. (Lab antigen test preferred, home antigen test accepted when lab antigen tests are not readily accessible.) To expedite a student’s return, proof of the test result (such as a photo) should be provided directly to the school office prior to return.
• Unvaccinated, asymptomatic close contacts who cannot obtain a negative test result but who can follow “enhanced precautions” through Day 14, may return on Day 11 without a test.
• Unvaccinated, asymptomatic close contacts who cannot obtain a negative test result and who cannot follow “enhanced precautions” through Day 14, may return on Day 15.
• All students who return to school after a quarantine may participate in extra-curricular activities with a mask through Day 14.
Finally, based upon new information regarding optimal data for understanding current COVID-19 realities, and an inability to accurately provide current COVID-19 data at the school and/or district level, we will stop updating the MCCSC COVID-19 Impact Chart and other direct reports of general COVID-19 data on the Corporation website. Updates to the COVID Impact Chart may resume in the future or the COVID Impact Chart may be redesigned with new information.
Thank you, again, for your continued support during these challenging times. Additional information regarding these changes and other COVID-19 protocols may be found on the website at . For individual questions, please contact your child’s school office, or contact the MCCSC “Call Center” at (812) 349-4757 or email . Most importantly, please continue to stay safe: Check for symptoms daily – If you are sick, stay home. Wear a high-quality mask. Continue to follow social distancing protocols. And, PLEASE get vaccinated if you are able.
Dr. Jeff Hauswald
Superintendent
———————————————————–
THIS IS THE EXAMPLE LETTER THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDS SCHOOLS TO SEND TO PARENTS
NEW FROM THE INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: Contact Tracing and Reporting
The Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) is seeking to reduce the contact tracing and reporting burden for schools with mask requirements in place. Schools should continue to notify parents of a positive case in the classroom and reinforce mitigation strategies at school and home. To assist with this, a sample letter for parents can be found here. Emphasize to families the need to monitor for symptoms and keep students home who become symptomatic. Effective Friday, January 21, schools with mask requirements in place that have positive cases will only need to report the following to the IDOH K-12 portal:
· Positive Case First and Last Name
· Date of Birth
· Sex
· Category (student, staff, teacher)
· Date reported to school
· Race
· Ethnicity
Schools that do not have a mask requirement in place must continue to report both positive cases and close contacts, as well as all associated fields, to the IDOH K-12 portal. For questions, please contact backtoschool@isdh.in.gov.
This is their example letter that schools can send out to parents per the Indiana Department of Health’s recommendations:
Dear Parent,
You are being notified that your student was in class today with an individual who is positive for COVID-19. Because we require masks during the school day, your student does not need to quarantine.
However, we ask that you monitor your student for symptoms of illness for the next 10 days and do not send your student to school if they are ill or become symptomatic. If symptoms develop, keep your student home, and obtain a COVID test.
If the COVID test is positive – your student should remain at home for at least 5 full days (may return on Day 6) as long their symptoms have improved, and they are fever free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications such as Tylenol or Motrin. Please keep your student home even after 5 full days if they are still experiencing symptoms.
If the COVID test is negative – your student should remain at home until their symptoms are improved and they are fever free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever reducing medications such as Tylenol or Motrin. If your student is still sick 24 hours or more after a negative COVID test, consider getting a COVID PCR available at sites throughout the state. Visit to locate a testing site near you.
Please contact (insert contact information here) at (insert school name here) if you have additional questions.
HB 1032 is being heard Monday 1/24/22 at 8:30. That Monday is a busy morning for bills.
While people are being forced to take unsafe and ineffective covid vaccines to keep a job or attend venues, the GOP has not done anything to protect us yet. However, they are prioritizing decriminalizing donating blood with HIV and knowingly transmitting HIV to others without any repercussions.
HB 1032 needs 7 members to vote yes to pass committee. There are already 5 guaranteed yes votes, all the Dems and Republican Cindy Ziemke.
Call these committee members, especially the first two because Wendy is the chair of the Courts and Criminal Code committee.
Wendy McNamara Phone: 317-232-9816 Email:
Donna Schaibley Phone: 317-232-9753 Email:
Chris Jeter Phone: 317-232-9850 Email:
John Young Phone: 317-232-9648 Email:
Sharon Negele Phone: 317-232-9816 Email:
Michael Alylesworth Phone: 317-234-9447 Email:
Stephen Bartels Phone: 317-232-9863 Email:
Greg Steuerwald Phone: 317-234-3827 Email:
Example of talking points:
Current law is still making it a felony to knowingly give someone any form of Hepatitis or TB. Many forms of Hepatitis cause mild infection that goes away over time. HIV never goes away. It eventually causes death unless the person takes pharmaceuticals drugs for life. It makes no sense to continue to criminalize spreading Hepatitis or TB, but to remove HIV from the list.
Currently, IN is forcing people with covid to be quarantined if positive. Covid has a very high survival rate, and it goes away over time. HIV stays with a person for life. Restrictions for covid infections will actually be harsher than passing HIV to others if this passes.
As a covid survivor, I am not happy with IN allowing transmission of HIV while forcing me to be confined to my home under threat of being arrested if I declined self quarantine while positive for covid-19.
Either decriminalize all infectious disease transmissions or leave HIV on the list. How would you feel if your partner didn’t tell you they were HIV positive and transmitted HIV to you? You then have the option to waste away and die from AIDS caused by HIV or take drugs for the rest of your life being dependent on medical insurance to cover the drugs, worry about the side effects and drug interactions, and struggle to find new partners that are HIV negative. That’s life changing and all because some partner wasn’t afraid of any repercussions from knowingly giving you HIV!
I understand that stigmatizing people with a disease can be problematic, but I bring your attention to the fact that the law criminalizing the spread of Hepatitis and TB remains.
(Those are just a mix of ideas to bring up). People with HIV can live full lives on medication, but that doesn’t mean they should knowingly and secretly spread the disease to others. It doesn’t make sense to have any diseases on the criminal list if HIV is going to be removed from it.
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For anyone that is available to be at the statehouse on Monday, here is a list of bills that might be of interest:
Monday at 8:30 in the House education committee. HB 1041 protects women’s sports. This is going to be Amend and Vote only, no testimony.
HB 1190 is about free speech at state educational institutions and is being heard in the House Education committee at 8:30 with testimony. SUPPORT
HB 1032 is being heard for testimony at 8:30 in the Courts and Criminal Code committee. OPPOSE or amend
Bills on Second Reading that could be amended on Monday in the House are:
HB 1107– protects parents from being forced to sign nondisclosure agreements in due process by the school- SUPPORT as long as that part stays in the bill
HB 1134-education matters, gives parents more information about school cirriculum-Support
HB 1158-public health bill that is not good-OPPOSE
HB 1169– They are removing the term intemperance as a reason to remove a local public health officer from office (fire them), this means that the health officers who shut down counties can be even stricter and harsher with their unreasonable restrictions with no way to remove them to being too harsh-OPPOSE-Unless they add intemperance back as a reason for removing a public health official.
We are also opposing HB 1003 that was referred to the Senate. We are closely watching HB 1001, the exemption bill, which was also referred to the Senate. SB 3 puts some the state of emergency into law has passed the Senate and was referred to the House. SB 3 is not going to be stopped. There was a previous post about it in relation to HB 1001.
HB 1169 just passed out of committee and gets a 2nd reading in the House on Monday. It removes intemperance, which means lack of restraint, as a reason to remove a public health officer.
We experienced that many local health officers were intemperate the past two years. We can’t let them remove that term. The health department officials will just get worse and stricter if this happens.
Go to the Indiana General Assembly website iga.in.gov to find your legislators. Get their phone number and call over the weekend to leave a message and send them and email telling them to oppose removing intemperance. Vote NO or amend HB 1169 to put intemperance back in. We don’t want more out of control public health officers.
On Monday, call the House 317-232-9600 tell them to add intemperance back in as a reason to remove a public health officer for HB 1169 or vote NO.
We are tired of having of the restrictions and intemperance the Indiana general assembly and local health departments have already shown the
Action Alert: This is a list of sponsors and authors of HB 1003
HB 1003 passed the full house. They are moving this bill as fast as they can to avoid opposition. This allows ongoing temp licenses for students with an end date of when the Federal government ends the emergency, reduces actual clinic hours for students and replaces with simulation, and makes the process to bring in foreign trained nurses easier than bringing in out of state nurses. It says “shall” issue a license to foreign nurses by endorsement, and current law for out of state nurses says “may” issue a license by endorsement.
Call all of these legislators and tell them to AMEND OUT ALL THE FOREIGN NURSES SECTIONS. We already have a system in place for foreign nurses to come here. Nothing against foreign workers, but we don’t need to make it easier to bring them in to replace unvaccinated Indiana nurses.
Ed Charbonneau- head of the public health committee 317-232-9494
s5@iga.in.gov
Mark Messmer-majority leader of the Senate floor 317-232-9840
J Michael Davisson-co author 317-232-9619 h73@iga.in.gov
Next call your Senator and tell them to oppose HB 1003 all together. The only acceptable portion of the bill is allowing healthcare programs to increase class sizes. Everything else is not needed and not good for patient safety.
317-232-9400
They will transfer you to your Senator.
Technically they are already addressing the temp licenses in part of HB 1001 the exemption bill.
