Seymour Community School Corp. students are now out for summer break, but when the time comes for fall enrollment, there will be one less fee.

A change in textbook rental rates will be in place for the 2023-24 school year for public schools in Indiana.

During the board of education meeting June 13 at the Seymour Central Service Center, Chief Financial Officer Steve Nauman made a textbook rental announcement.

Nauman said he had good news to share, which was no more book fees for students beginning July 1.

“That whole process has changed, but we still have to calculate those book rentals and create the bills like we would send them,” he said. “But then we calculate that total and submit that to the state on Oct. 1 along with our ADM (average daily membership) because ADM moved from September to Oct. 1.”

Nauman said the state tallies all of that information and divides the book rentals by the ADM to determine the per pupil reimbursement, and had that happened this year, the reimbursement would have been $152 per student.

“This change is permanent unless the state of Indiana changes the state statute,” he said. “The only exception would be that we can charge fees for dual credit classes if we don’t give them high school credit, which defeats the purpose of dual credit for the student.”

This all comes as part of Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s 2023 Next Level Agenda, which he unveiled Jan. 4 and proposed to prohibit textbook and curricular material fees for Indiana K-12 families.

Indiana is one of seven states that charges families for textbooks, according to in.gov.

Holcomb’s plan is for the cost of textbooks and other curriculum materials for more than 1 million students at all traditional public and charter schools and eligible students in nonpublic schools to be fully funded.

Indiana has set aside $160 million per year in the state budget to lighten the load that parents and schools have to pay.

“Over the past few years for Seymour schools kindergarten through eighth grade, the book fee was $80,” Nauman said. “The high school was normally over $100, based on the student schedule.”

He said students will basically be renting the books for free, and just like in the past, the books will need to be returned at the end of the year.

“This has all been made possible through the Indiana General Assembly state tax dollars,” Nauman said. “Parents will be saving at least $80 per student.”

He said this also will save money for taxpayers, and the schools will no longer have to collect for state unpaid free and reduced students, so this is great news for parents.

According to in.chalkbeat.org, private school students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch also will see their textbook fees waived, according to the budget.