Sec. 7. (a) When a factfinder is requested or required under IC 20-29-6, the board shall appoint a factfinder.

     (b) The factfinder shall make an investigation and hold hearings as the factfinder considers necessary in connection with a dispute.

     (c) The factfinder:

(1) may restrict the factfinder’s findings to those issues that the factfinder determines significant;

(2) must restrict the findings to the items listed in IC 20-29-6-4; and

(3) may not impose terms beyond those proposed by the parties in their last, best offers.

     (d) The factfinder may use evidence furnished to the factfinder by:

(1) the parties;

(2) the board;

(3) the board’s staff; or

(4) any other state agency.

     (e) The factfinder shall conduct the factfinding hearing in public in a room or facility owned by the county or local unit of government located in the county in which the school employer is located, or if the school employer is located in more than one (1) county, in the county in which the greatest number of students who attend the school employer’s schools reside. The public hearing may begin not earlier than November 15 in the first year of the state budget biennium and must be concluded by February 15 of the calendar year after the start of formal collective bargaining.

     (f) The factfinding process may not exceed thirty (30) days from beginning to end, and not more than two (2) of those days may be used for public testimony, which may be taken at the discretion of the factfinder. During the public hearing, each party shall present fully its last, best offer, including the fiscal rationale for the offer. Only education fund revenue and, for a school employer for which the voters have passed an operating referendum tax levy under IC 20-46-1 or a school safety referendum tax levy under IC 20-46-9, the amount of revenue certified by the department of local government finance, excluding money distributed to a charter school under IC 20-46-1-21 or IC 20-46-9-22, may be considered a source of the funding for items. Money estimated to be or actually transferred from the school corporation‘s operations fund to its education fund may not be considered a source of funding for items.

     (g) The factfinder shall make a recommendation as to the settlement of the disputes over which the factfinder has jurisdiction.

     (h) The factfinder shall:

(1) make the investigation, hearing, and findings as expeditiously as the circumstances permit; and

(2) deliver the findings to the parties and to the board.

     (i) The board, after receiving the findings and recommendations, may make additional findings and recommendations to the parties based on information in:

(1) the report; or

(2) the board’s own possession.

The board may not make any recommendations to the parties related to any items not specifically identified in IC 20-29-6-4.

     (j) At any time within five (5) days after the findings and recommendations are delivered to the board, the board may make the findings and recommendations of the factfinder and the board’s additional findings and recommendations, if any, available to the public through news media and other means the board considers effective.

     (k) The board shall make the findings and recommendations described in subsection (j) available to the public not later than ten (10) days after the findings and recommendations are delivered to the board.

[Pre-2005 Elementary and Secondary Education Recodification Citation: 20-7.5-1-13.]

As added by P.L.1-2005, SEC.13. Amended by P.L.48-2011, SEC.28; P.L.229-2011, SEC.183; P.L.219-2015, SEC.6; P.L.214-2017, SEC.6; P.L.244-2017, SEC.58; P.L.272-2019, SEC.7; P.L.189-2023, SEC.27.