Indiana House Bill 1296, introduced in the 2026 session, requires every recovery residence in the state to register with a designated state division, pay a registration fee, agree to recognized ethical standards, and appear on a public registry. The bill also protects the term “recovery residence” so that only registered facilities can use it, and it writes a definition of “integrated reentry and correctional support” into Indiana law. Representatives Bascom, Barrett, Goss-Reaves, and Porter are listed as sponsors.
Who Must Register and What the Application Requires
Every owner of a recovery residence has to register the facility with the state division named in the bill. Before HB 1296, Indiana had no uniform registration system for these homes, which provide residential and supported housing for people in addiction recovery. The application has to include:
- Information about the owner’s qualifications and work experience, with a certification that the information is accurate.
- Official documentation showing the facility meets all applicable zoning and legal requirements.
- Three letters of reference.
- Proof that the owner and all recovery residence staff are at least 18 years old.
- A signed statement that the owner will follow the ethical standards defined in the bill.
- Any other documentation the division requires.
The division reviews these materials to confirm the facility is equipped to provide safe housing for residents in recovery. Owners who skip registration, or who submit inaccurate information, risk losing their ability to operate under the recovery residence label.
Fees, Renewal, and the Multi-Location Cap
Initial registration costs $500 per residence. Owners who run more than one facility pay the fee for each location, but total registration fees are capped at $2,000 per registration period no matter how many homes an owner operates.
Registrations last two years. Renewing means updating anything that has changed since the original filing and paying $350 per residence. The same $2,000 ceiling applies to renewals. The cap keeps the system workable for operators running several smaller homes across the state.
Ethical Standards Operators Are Agreeing To
HB 1296 does not spell out the ethical standards itself. Instead, it ties them to recognized industry bodies:
- The National Alliance for Recovery Residences (NARR), the primary national standard-setting organization for recovery housing.
- The Indiana Affiliation of Recovery Residences, the state-level affiliate.
- Other organizations the division determines are comparable.
Anchoring the definition this way links Indiana’s requirements to the current best practices in the field rather than to a static checklist. Owners commit to those standards when they register, and documented violations become part of the public record.
Protection of the “Recovery Residence” Label
A facility, organization, or program that provides recovery residence services cannot use the phrase “recovery residence” in any title or description unless it holds a current registration in good standing. This targets a real pattern in the recovery housing market: homes that advertise themselves as structured sober-living environments without meeting any recognized standard of care. Protecting the term gives it a defined meaning under state law and gives families and referral sources a reason to look for it.
The Public Registry and the Division’s Rulemaking Authority
The division has to post a list of registered recovery residences on its website. Each listing includes the facility’s name, address, contact information, registration status, and any documented ethical standards violations. For families, case managers, and courts trying to vet a home, this is the first centralized place to confirm registration and check for a history of problems.
The division is also directed to adopt rules implementing the chapter. That means the operational details, including how violations are documented and how the registry presents them, can continue to develop after the bill takes effect.
Integrated Reentry and Correctional Support
The bill writes a formal definition of “integrated reentry and correctional support” into Indiana law. The term covers mental health and substance use services, including certified peer support recovery resources and treatment, provided both during incarceration and during the reentry period after release.
Defining the phrase in statute matters because other programs, appropriations, and grant mechanisms can now reference a term with a precise legal meaning. The explicit inclusion of certified peer support puts peer recovery specialists, who draw on their own lived experience with addiction or mental health conditions, inside the statutory framework for reentry services.
What HB 1296 Does Not Change
HB 1296 is a recovery residence bill. It does not alter Indiana’s provider credentialing rules for insurers and health maintenance organizations, which sit in separate parts of Title 27, and it does not change the state’s All Payer Claims Database, which was established by House Bill 1402 in 2021. If you came to HB 1296 looking for credentialing timelines or claims data reporting rules, those live elsewhere in the Indiana Code.