<p><strong>Y</strong>ou will pay slightly more when you fill up your tank starting this weekend as new laws take effect across the state.</p>
<p>Sunday, July 1 is the start day for a slew of new laws approved by state lawmakers in this year’s legislative session, ranging from a one-cent increase in the state gas tax to the color of your headlights to new screenings for newborns and the number of children allowed in foster homes.</p>
<p>As part of legislation approved in last year’s legislative session, the gas tax is increasing from 28 cents per gallon to 29 cents. Lawmakers approved a 10-cent increase in state gas taxes last year to invest more money into road improvements, and as part of that legislation allowed the tax to be increased each year. With the increase, you will pay more than 61 cents per gallon in state and federal fuel taxes.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
<p>A big theme of other legislation this year: addressing impacts of the opioids crisis.</p>
<p>Under new state law, county coroners are now required to do more investigation and report more information to the state when someone dies of a suspected overdose.</p>
<p>Coroners must check the state prescription database for information about the person who died, order testing to look for controlled substances in the person’s system and then report that information to the Indiana State Department of Health, according to the legislation. According to the Johnson County Coroner’s Office, 32 deaths were investigated as possible overdoses in 2017.</p>
<p>And if someone sold the drugs to the person who overdosed, they could now face a felony charge.</p>
<p>The seriousness of the charge ranges from a level 1 felony that carries 20 to 40 years in prison to a level 3 felony with a sentence range of three to 16 years in prison, depending on the type of drug that was sold.</p>
<p>The charge is one parents of people who died of overdoses have requested, wanting to see someone held accountable for what happened to their children.</p>
<p>Tyler Coffey was 23 when he died of an overdose of fentanyl laced in heroin. His mother knows her son made the choice to use drugs the day he died, and he paid the ultimate price for that choice, Jeanette Mails said.</p>
<p>But she wanted the person who sold her son the drugs that killed him to also face consequences. She knew who that person was, and had seen the messages exchanged with her son on the day he died. And she hoped that the legislation would hold drug dealers more accountable, and even get some drugs off the streets, she had said.</p>
<p>Opioids are having a significant impact on multiple parts of the community and state. Lawmakers also approved allowing nine more opioids treatment programs and giving probation officers and community corrections employees the power to use Narcan to help reverse the symptoms of a drug overdose and potentially save someone’s life.</p>
<p>But another big impact has been on children, especially ones going into foster care because their parents are unable to care for them due to their addiction. Recent data has shown that Indiana has more children in foster care than surrounding states, and a huge spike in cases has been due to parents struggling with addiction.</p>
<p>And the need for foster homes across the state is huge, officials have repeatedly said.</p>
<p>One new law increased the number of children allowed in a foster home from five to six, allowing current foster families to take in more children.</p>
<p>But another piece of legislation requires the state department of child services to work with foster families, child placement agencies and others who work in the foster care system to develop a foster parent bill of rights. That statement, which would be included on the department of child services’ website, would include both the rights and responsibilities of foster parents, according to the legislation.</p>
<p>Foster families are a key piece of the system that Terry Stigdon, who took over as Indiana’s Department of Child Services director late last year, wants to work with.</p>
<p>And families who are fostering children in Johnson County say change is needed, too.</p>
<p>Lauren Roller, who was a foster parent for more than two years, has heard from so many families about the struggles of foster parenting, from not having the supplies they need when they get the call that a child needs a home now to not feeling respected by case workers or the parents of the child they are caring for.</p>
<p>Roller and other foster parents joined together to form Love One, a group that helps foster and adoptive families get supplies and support to help them to take in children in need.</p>
<p>The group provides items families need when they take in a child, from bedding to high chairs to car seats and diapers. And they support each other through the struggles of foster parenting, which families said they need desperately.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="New laws" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Here is a look at other new laws that take effect this weekend:</p>
<p><strong>Rape kit tracking</strong></p>
<p>A study committee is being formed to create a plan to better track rape kits and their testing.</p>
<p><strong>Sex education</strong></p>
<p>Schools must get consent from parents to teach children sexual education.</p>
<p><strong>New screenings</strong></p>
<p>Infants will get two more health screenings, for spinal muscular atrophy and severe combined immunodeficiency.</p>
<p><strong>No bail</strong></p>
<p>A person charged with murder will not be eligible for bail from jail in most cases.</p>
<p><strong>Student discipline plan</strong></p>
<p>The state department of education has been tasked with coming up with a plan to improve student behavior that would reduce out of school suspensions, limit referrals to police and arrests and include policies to address bullying and cyber-bullying.</p>
<p><strong>Headlight color</strong></p>
<p>Vehicle headlights can only be white or amber.</p>
<p><strong>Jail improvements</strong></p>
<p>Counties can increase the local income tax up to .2 percent for rehabilitational or correctional facilities.</p>
<p><strong>Scleral tattoos</strong></p>
<p>Prohibits scleral tattooing, where the whites of the eyes are permanently colored.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
