DEI Didn’t Disappear From Indiana Schools. It Just Changed Its Name.

7/13/2026

A new independent audit from the Indiana Family Institute finds that despite state and federal efforts to eliminate DEI, Indiana public schools have largely rebranded it – not removed it.

In January 2025, Governor Braun signed Executive Order 25-14, eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives across Indiana’s state government. Months later, the legislature passed SEA 289, barring schools from requiring training or instruction that teaches students someone is inherently superior, inferior, or collectively responsible for past actions based on race, sex, religion, or other personal characteristics. At the federal level, the administration took a series of executive and agency actions aimed at eliminating unlawful DEI practices and race-based discrimination in federally funded schools.

The Indiana Department of Education reported that more than 95% of school corporations and charter networks submitted federal compliance certifications affirming that they were not engaging in unlawful discrimination through DEI programs and practices

For many Hoosiers, that announcement may have created the impression that DEI had been eliminated from the public school system. This audit tells a different story. DEI is alive and well in many Indiana public schools.

After months of reviewing strategic plans, board policies, staff directories, curriculum materials, and firsthand documentation from parents and educators across a sample of Indiana districts, the Indiana Family Institute found a very different picture than the compliance paperwork suggests.

Rebranding, Not Removal

The audit’s core conclusion is simple: many districts changed the label, not the practice.

• In Anderson Community Schools, the district’s “DEI” administrator title quietly became “SES – Student and Employee Services” between December 2024 and July 2025. The organization chart shows no other change – same person, same box, new name.
• Fort Wayne Community Schools shows the same pattern in its own board records: administrators recommended, and the Board of Trustees approved, changing the “Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion” title to “Director of Students & Staff Relations” – with no evidence that the underlying job duties changed. 
• Concept Schools, which manages the Indiana Math and Science Academies, restated its DEI framework in its 2024-2029 strategic plan using the words “fairness,” “belonging,” and “access,” while keeping its network-wide Equity Committee and Equity Plan fully intact.

Some Districts Didn’t Bother Rebranding at All

Several districts audited kept DEI language front and center in official policy:

• Indianapolis Public Schools lists “Promote Racial Equity” as strategic Priority #2,  with a strategic-plan initiative calling for all staff to be equipped as “anti-racist advocates” and a stated goal of ensuring student outcomes “cannot be predicted by race and ethnicity” – alongside a 2020 board resolution affirming Black Lives Matter and explicitly prioritizing the recruitment and retention of black teachers and school leaders. 
• South Bend Community School Corporation has a “Director of African American Services” whose stated first responsibility is supporting outcomes specifically for African American students – with no equivalent published metric for any other student group.
• Monroe County Community School Corporation maintains active board policies titled “Anti-Racism” and “Equity-Centered Sexual Identity and Gender Inclusive Policy,” which address “the unique needs and challenges faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, and expanding identity (LGBTQIA+) students and families.” Both policies were adopted or revised in 2024.
• School City of East Chicago approved a strategic plan built by an outside consultant, Revolutionary ED, LLC, whose stated mission is to help school systems “dismantle systemic racism” through cultural-bias and antiracism training.

DEI in the Curriculum

We also found several instances in which DEI was incorporated into the Indiana Department of Education’s (IDOE) own state-recommended curriculum list.

• Wit & Wisdom, a K–8 reading curriculum included on IDOE’s High-Quality Curricular Materials advisory list,opens Kindergarten with a module that includes Diego Rivera’s Flower Day – a painting that encodes social hierarchy, labor exploitation, and the subordination of the poor – alongside a video framing a 1930s tap dancer, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, through the lens of racial segregation. These materials are introduced to children who have not yet learned to read independently. 
• IDOE’s own High School Course Titles and Descriptions catalog still includes state-approved courses like Understanding Diversity, Relationships and Emotions, Ethnic Studies, and Ethnic Literature – courses that function as DEI content under neutral-sounding names. 

Since the completion of this audit, the Indiana Department of Education has begun reviewing the concerns identified in this report and is taking steps to remove or revise DEI-related materials and references, including changes to information available on its website. IFI appreciates IDOE’s engagement and willingness to address these concerns. 

In the Classroom

Photographic evidence submitted by parents and educators documents DEI-adjacent material still visibly present in many classrooms – LGBTQ+ signage is displayed in every school in the Noblesville district. Similar signage was photographed in Carmel High School classrooms alongside a daily “feelings check-in” that prompts students to disclose private and sensitive information.

Recommendations

IFI’s audit charts a five-part path forward:

1. Independent, third-party audits of every district – not self-audits by administrators or IDOE.
2. Increased parental oversight, including formal complaint channels and the Attorney General’s “Eyes on Education” portal.
3. New state legislation closing the loopholes that let districts rename rather than remove DEI programs.
4. Local school board action – districts don’t need to wait on the legislature to change their own policies. School boards have policymaking authority.
5. A full state-led audit of IDOE’s own curriculum recommendations, given that DEI content was found embedded in state-endorsed materials themselves.

Bottom Line

Indiana set a clear policy direction in 2025. As this audit shows, DEI remains deeply embedded in many public schools. Policy changes on paper and meaningful changes in practice are two different things. It’s time to take a closer look at what our children are being taught and hold districts accountable when they fall short of state and federal law and address policy gaps that allow DEI to remain in Indiana schools.

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Have information about DEI practices in your child’s school district? Contact us HERE.

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