IC 20-42.5-2
    Chapter 2. Authority to Allocate Expenditures to StudentInstruction and Learning

IC 20-42.5-2-1
Actions to reduce noninstructional expenditures
    Sec. 1. A school corporation individually, in collaboration withother school corporations, and through the educational servicescenters may undertake action to reduce noninstructional expendituresand allocate the resulting savings to student instruction and learning.Actions taken under this section include the following:
        (1) Pooling of resources with other school corporations forliability insurance, property and casualty insurance, worker'scompensation insurance, employee health insurance, visioninsurance, dental insurance, or other insurance, whether bypooling risks for coverage or for the purchase of coverage, or bythe creation of or participation in insurance trusts, subject to thefollowing:
            (A) School corporations that elect to pool assets for coveragemust create a trust under Indiana law for the assets. The trustis subject to regulation by the department of insurance asfollows:
                (i) The trust must be registered with the department ofinsurance.
                (ii) The trust shall obtain stop loss insurance issued by aninsurer authorized to do business in Indiana with anaggregate retention of not more than one hundredtwenty-five percent (125%) of the amount of expectedclaims for the following year.
                (iii) Contributions by the school corporations must be setat one hundred percent (100%) of the aggregate retentionplus all other costs of the trust.
                (iv) The trust shall maintain a fidelity bond in an amountapproved by the department of insurance. The fidelitybond must cover each person responsible for the trust foracts of fraud or dishonesty in servicing the trust.
                (v) The trust is subject to IC 27-4-1-4.5 regarding claimssettlement practices.
                (vi) The trust shall file an annual financial statement in theform required by IC 27-1-3-13 not later than March 1 ofeach year.
                (vii) The trust is not covered by the Indiana insuranceguaranty association created under IC 27-6-8. The liabilityof each school corporation is joint and several.
                (viii) The trust is subject to examination by the departmentof insurance. All costs associated with an examinationshall be borne by the trust.
                (ix) The department of insurance may deny, suspend, orrevoke the registration of a trust if the commissioner findsthat the trust is in a hazardous financial condition, the trust

refuses to be examined or produce records forexamination, or the trust has failed to pay a final judgmentrendered against the trust by a court within thirty (30)days.
            (B) The department of insurance may adopt rules underIC 4-22-2 to implement this subdivision.
        (2) Electing, as an individual school corporation or as more thanone (1) school corporation acting jointly, to aggregate purchasesof natural gas commodity supply from any available natural gascommodity seller for all schools included in the aggregatedpurchases. A rate schedule that is:
            (A) filed by a natural gas utility; and
            (B) approved by the Indiana utility regulatory commission;
        must include provisions that allow a school corporation orschool corporations acting jointly to elect to make aggregatedpurchases of natural gas commodity supplies. Upon requestfrom a school corporation, a natural gas utility shall summarizethe rates and charges for providing services to each school inthe school corporation on one (1) summary bill for remittingpayment to the utility.
        (3) Consolidating purchases with other school corporations orunits of government of the following:
            (A) School buses and other vehicles and vehicle fleets.
            (B) Fuel, maintenance, or other services for vehicles orvehicle fleets.
            (C) Food services.
            (D) Facilities management services.
            (E) Transportation management services.
            (F) Textbooks, technology, and other school materials andsupplies.
            (G) Any other purchases a school corporation may require.
        Purchases may be made by contiguous school corporations, aspart of regional consolidated purchasing arrangements, or fromconsolidated sources under multistate cooperative biddingarrangements.
As added by P.L.2-2007, SEC.240.

IC 20-42.5-2-2
Shared services arrangements
    Sec. 2. A school corporation may use shared servicesarrangements with other school corporations and units ofgovernment, including:
        (1) the use of shared administrative services overseeingtransportation, food service, facilities, or other operations;
        (2) the use of shared administrative services to manage finance,payroll, human resources, information technology, purchasing,or other administrative services; and
        (3) the use of shared resources to provide instruction,supplemental services, extracurricular activities, or otherstudent services.School corporations are not required to merge schools, consolidate,or otherwise relinquish control of curriculum, instruction, or studentactivities to use shared services arrangements.
As added by P.L.2-2007, SEC.240.

IC 20-42.5-2-3
Collaboration with contiguous school corporations
    Sec. 3. A school corporation may collaborate with contiguousschool corporations to explore the use of cooperatives among schoolcorporations, commonly managed school corporations, or theconsolidation of school corporations to provide effective andefficient management of the school corporations or functions of theschool corporations.
As added by P.L.2-2007, SEC.240.

IC 20-42.5-2-4
Support by educational service centers; reporting of efforts to stateboard
    Sec. 4. (a) Educational service centers established underIC 20-20-1 shall support and facilitate actions by school corporationsunder this article, including by the use of an educational servicecenter's existing cooperative agreements.
    (b) School corporations and educational service centers may usethe division of finance of the department and the office ofmanagement and budget to provide technical assistance under thisarticle.
    (c) Not later than August 31 of each year, the educational servicecenters shall report to the state board the results of the efforts of theeducational service centers under this article during the precedingschool year.
As added by P.L.2-2007, SEC.240.