The Fulton County Chamber of Commerce and Fulton County Farm Bureau’s 2026 Legislative Breakfast Series kicked off on Saturday with Senator Stacey Donato and Representative Jack Jordan at the Kewanna-Union Township Library on Saturday.
The event was an opportunity for community members to communicate one-on-one with Indiana State Legislators and was open to the public. Donuts and coffee were offered to attendees before a legislative preview and remarks were given by the state legislators followed a question-and-answer period.
During the discussion Representative Jack Jordan addressed legislative priorities that focused on reducing costs for families with housing affordability and energy costs. Other highlights from Jordan included government efficency cuts with House Bill 1003, that would reduce the size of government by eliminating dozens of boards and commissions that Republican lawmakers describe as redundant or inactive to help with efficency and effectiveness.
Senator Stacey Donato highlighted a bill she recently authored that would allow for a jury duty exemption for breastfeeding that would allow courts to excuse a woman from jury duty if she gave birth in the year. 22 states have enacted laws allowing for similiar exemptions as of 2025.
“This exemption would allow new mothers to have the ability to prioritize giving their baby the best care for the first year of the baby’s life,” Donato commented said.
Donato also focused on education with topics like the ongoing push to keep students away from cellphones during school hours. Under current law, approved by Indiana lawmakers in 2024, schools must prohibit cellphone use during instructional time unless permitted by a teacher for academic purposes. The proposed Senate Bill 78 would take that a step further by requiring public schools to band cellphone use “from bell to bell,” including during lunch and passing periods, with limited exceptions.
Several community members questioned Donato about crack down on absenteeism after a bill was signed into law in 2024 aim to improve those statistics, defining “chronically absent” among other provisions. The bill charged IDOE with creating a system to differentiante between excused and
unexcused absences by collecting absence data from schools and report the collected information. Schools would then adopt policies based on that framework.
“We have one year of data and it is remarkable what we are finding out,” Donato said.
The next breakfast in the series will be on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 7:30 a.m. in the Akron Community Center, 815 E. Rural St., Akron, featuring U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym.
The final breakfast will be on Saturday, March 14, at Fulton County Public Library, 320 W. Seventh St., Rochester, and will feature County Commissioners Bryan Lewis, Rick Ranstead and David Sommers and Rochester Mayor Trent Odell.
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