Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. On June 30, 2017, the Indiana Department of Education released the first draft of Indiana’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan for public comment. ESSA is the federal law for K-12 schools enacted in 2015 that replaced the federal law No Child Left Behind. It requires states to create student academic achievement goals – based on outcomes like test scores and graduation rates – as well as a detailed plan for ensuring every school receives the necessary assistance to support all students in Indiana. While reviewing the academic proficiency goals proposed by the Indiana Department of Education […]

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. In Indiana and across the United States, the opioid epidemic continues, with drug overdose deaths involving opioids exceeding 47,000 nationwide in 2017. To help stem the tide, the federal government allocated $11 billion to states in fiscal years 2017 and 2018, according to a recently released report from the Bipartisan Policy Center. In Indiana, which received $159 million in federal opioid funding, this funding has been deployed by the state to strengthen prevention, treatment and recovery efforts and to support research and programs in the criminal justice system. At first glance, Indiana’s portion of federal […]