Thousands of Indiana school employees hurt by students

INDIANAPOLIS—The Indiana Department of Education just released a first-of-its-kind report on how often teachers are hurt on the job.

Indiana school districts reported 3,032 incidents of school employees physically injured on the job by a student during the 2023-2024 school year.

IDOE also reported 485 incidents in which an employee had to miss work because of the injury.

“We want to make sure our students are getting the best education possible,” said Keith Gambill, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA). “That’s only going to happen if we have our best educators there and that they’re able to be on the job and not recovering from an injury.”

House Rolled Act 1591 took effect July 1, 2023.

The law requires schools to track teacher injuries and report the data to the Indiana Department of Education.

WRTV Investigates has reported on the growing problem of teacher injuries. We found all kinds of injuries — teachers hit, punched, kicked, hair pulled, headbutted and some suffering from concussions.

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In 2023, a student at Franklin Community High School injured a teacher.

Franklin Community Schools reported 9 school employee injury incidents during the 2023-2024 school year.

Other examples of school employee injury incidents:

• MSD Wayne Township 83
• MSD Decatur Township 14
• MSD Pike Township 22
• Lafayette 70
• North West Hendricks 5
• Greenfield-Central 38
• Hamilton Southeastern 72
• Muncie 25
• Plainfield 32
• Southern Hancock 7
• Shelbyville 21

Read the full report here.

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“This is a very positive start because it first recognizes an issue we have now,” Gambill said. “This is the first-time schools have been asked to collect this data. The first time they’re using this process.”

WRTV Investigates is looking into why some school districts, including Indianapolis Public Schools, are not included in the report.

“Indiana Code does not provide IDOE with statutory enforcement authority to ensure reporting compliance,” read the report. “For the 2023-2024 school year, schools submitted the required data through Data Exchange during the final reporting window. This reporting window ended on July 15, 2024.”

The goal of the reporting requirement is to help schools get the resources they need to address the issue, which impacts teacher turnover.

“This is critical information. It helps us determine What training and professional development we need for our educators that serve our students, what ways we need to work with the student at home to make sure we have as safe environment as we can for all of our students and all of our staff,” Gambill said. “We just want to continue doing everything we can to keep everyone safe. That’s the student and educator alike.”

If you’re a teacher and you’ve been injured on the job or you see your school district is not listed, contact [email protected]