New Indiana laws include requiring civics test for students

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Several new state laws are being set in motion starting in July, from a required high school state government test to allowing wrongfully incarcerated individuals to collect $50,000 a year.

Starting Monday, Indiana high schools will have to administer the U.S. naturalization test, as part of a mandatory government course, that's given to immigrants hoping to become U.S. citizens. An initial plan had proposed that students had to pass the test to earn a high school diploma, but that plan was scrapped.

Other new laws include allowing people who are wrongfully incarcerated be eligible to receive $50,000 for each year behind bars once a conviction is vacated due to innocence.

Also, the head of the Indiana Department of Education will now be appointed by the governor, starting in 2021.