What you need to know about new Indiana laws going into effect July 1

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- In Indiana, July 1 marks the time when several laws will take effect which range from bringing back Happy Hour, to tackling kids' ability to read.

After nearly four decades bars can offer Happy Hour discounts again.

Starting July 1, bars and restaurants can offer reduced price alcoholic drinks for up to four hours a day and 15 hours a week.

Indiana originally banned the deals to try and reduce drunk driving in the 1980s.

In the classroom, recent IREAD test scores showed Hoosier children, like many others nationwide, are struggling to read.

These are two new initiatives to help.

One requires schools to hold back third graders who fail the state reading test.

Another new law requires the Indiana Department of Education to develop guidelines for schools to help any fourth through eighth grade students who are still struggling to read.

Lawmakers also want kids to put their phones down in the classroom.

A new law prohibits all wireless device use during instructional time unless given the OK from the teacher or during an emergency.

As for missing school, all schools are now required to have a truancy prevention plan specifically for kindergarten to sixth grade.

And for those deemed habitually absent from class, schools are required to report them to the juvenile court for possible discipline.

Several different crime laws were also updated.

It's now a misdemeanor for possession of Xylazine, a horse tranquillizer being found in street drugs and it's a level 5 felony for dealing it.

Lawmakers are also trying to crack down on Artificial Intelligence generated child pornography and revenge porn.

It's now a crime to use AI to create porn of a real person without their consent.

Another new law requires pornographic websites to verify user's ages. But a federal judge in Indiana has issued a preliminary injunction to block the law from going into effect.