2025 Legislative Session

Amend KRS 335B.010 to define terms related to licensing and public employment qualifications; amend KRS 335B.020 to narrow the class of offenses to which the chapter applies, prohibit disqualifying individuals from pursing a professional license solely due to a finding that the applicant lacks good character, add consideration of the age of the person at the time the crime was committed, the evidence relevant to the circumstances of the crime, and evidence of rehabilitation in making licensure decisions..

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to require African history instruction in certain middle and high school world history and civilization courses; require Native American history instruction in certain middle and high school United States history courses; require the Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations establishing academic standards for the required historical instructions; require superintendents to adopt curricula for required instruction; require the Department of Education to collaborate with the Kentucky Center for African-American Heritage and the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission to develop recommended curricula and instruction guidelines for the required historical instruction, elective high school course offerings in African history and Native American history, and relevant professional development materials.

Amend KRS 158.033 to allow a student admitted to an inpatient facility to receive home and hospital services effective on the day of admittance.

Create new section of KRS Chapter 14 to define terms; require the Secretary of State to create a grant database that will be a central repository for information on all available state or local government grants; require state and local agencies to report grant opportunities to the Finance and Administration Cabinet for inclusion in the grant database.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 160 to establish a process for the creation of new independent school districts; define terms; establish a petition process for voters of a qualifying city to place the question of creating a new independent district and local board of education on the ballot; specify the requirements for the question and the board of education provisional election; establish the initial terms of office for the interim board of education; establish the transition of authorities from the originating district board of education to the boards of both the altered originating district and the new independent district; require the Kentucky Department of Education to calculate assets and liabilities of the originating district for division to the altered originating district and the new independent district; authorize the altered originating district to maintain control and use of assets until the scheduled transfer to the new independent district and authorize the continued payments of debts; establish a negotiation process between the altered originating district and the new independent district to resolve the division of the originating district's assets and liabilities; establish a deadline for the negotiation to conclude; provide a process for resolution of disagreements; establish a deadline for the transfer of all assets and debts; authorize the altered originating district to continue to assess and collect taxes for both districts until the close of the tax year in which the new independent district is fully operational; provide for the distribution of collected taxes during the transition period; require the mayor of the city to call the newly elected interim board of new independent district to meet; allow the interim board to request assistance from the Kentucky Department of Education; establish the transition process for the new independent district to become fully functional; allow the interim board to submit a waiver request for a statute or administrative regulation to the Kentucky Board of Education; authorize the interim board to enter into service contracts with another school district during the transition; establish a process for the interim board to vote to terminate the establishment of the new independent district due to financial nonviability during the transition; establish the transition from an interim board to a fully functional board of the new independent district; require the continued collection of taxes restricted to the payment of debt or interest; waive the requirement for school-based decision making for the first year of operations of the new independent district; require the interim board of the new independent district to develop a transition plan and establish the requirements of the plan; create a new section of KRS Chapter 157, relating to state formula funding calculations, to establish a projection model for the first year of full operations of the new independent district and the altered originating district.

Amend KRS 161.048 to allow employment in substitute teaching to qualify as part of the required residency or paraprofessional component of an Option 9 alternative teacher certification program.

Amend KRS 156.095 to require the Kentucky Department of Education to create a professional development training schedule for certified personnel; require each local district to implement the schedule; require an additional day to be added to the school calendar if required training cannot be completed in a single calendar day; require school districts to submit a report to the department on the status of professional development training.

Allow local school districts to make up days missed by adding instructional time to student attendance days; notwithstand the requirement for the student instructional year to have 170 student attendance days; allow waiver of up to five student attendance days if a school district is unable to provide the required 1,062 hours of instruction by June 4, 2025; require local boards of education seeking to revise its calendar to submit a plan for approval to the Department of Education; allow instructional time made up and days waived to count as employee contracted days; EMERGENCY.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 6 to require the Legislative Research Commission to prepare a family impact statement for every bill, concurrent resolution, joint resolution, amendment, or committee substitute introduced during a regular or extraordinary session of the Kentucky General Assembly; define terms; establish procedures.

Amend KRS 158.840 to require the Education Professional Standards Board, rather than the Council on Postsecondary Education, to ensure teacher education programs provide highly skilled teachers; require the board to report to the Legislative Research Commission every three years and regularly report program data to an external evaluator.

Amend KRS 161.155 to provide 20 maternity days to district employees who give birth; establish the terms and conditions for use of maternity days.

Amend KRS 164.773, relating to the Student Teacher Stipend Program, to specify that an eligible student is a Kentucky resident as determined by the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority (authority) and is student teaching at a Kentucky public school or certified nonpublic school; specify that the authority shall disburse stipend funds to eligible students directly or through the participating institution; allow the authority to establish criteria for an eligible student who is student teaching outside of Kentucky but is otherwise eligible.

Appropriate necessary funds for local school districts to provide a five percent salary increase to eligible employees in fiscal year 2025-2026; APPROPRIATION.

Amend KRS 158.307 to define "dysgraphia"; require the Department of Education to annually review and update the dyslexia toolkit; expand dyslexia toolkit required guidance and include dysgraphia and other reading and writing difficulties; require rather than allow local boards of education to develop a policy on dyslexia; require rather than allow the policy to include certain items; require the department to compile and maintain data on dyslexia reported by local school districts; require the department to report dyslexia data to the appropriate Interim Joint Committee on Education; amend KRS 164.304 to require postsecondary institutions offering teacher preparation programs to include instruction on dyslexia by the 2026-2027 school year, rather than the instruction being contingent on availability of funding.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to define "Success Sequence"; require all students to receive instruction on the Success Sequence during grades 7 and 10 beginning with the 2026-2027 school year; require the Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations to establish academic standards for instruction on the Success Sequence; require the Department of Education to develop guidelines for implementing Success Sequence instruction; permit superintendents to partner with Kentucky-based nonprofits to develop required curriculum.

Amend KRS 160.041 to provide a merger process for any contiguous school districts; require the Kentucky Board of Education to determine the terms of merger for an insolvent district if no agreement between the school districts can be reached, and to promulgate administrative regulations regarding mergers due to insolvency.

Amend KRS 160.346 to require the Kentucky Department of Education to annually identify schools for comprehensive support and improvement (CSI); require the audit of a CSI school to include an assessment and recommendation regarding the principal's capacity to lead the turnaround effort; remove the required use of a turnaround vendor by a CSI school; require the department to establish professional learning for teachers in a CSI school; require the superintendent of the district in which the CSI school is located to adopt evidence-based curriculum and select high-quality instructional materials for the school.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 156 to establish the Adult Workforce Diploma Pilot Program; define terms; establish eligibility criteria for the program; direct the Education and Labor Cabinet to administer the program; provide payments to program providers for students who complete specified milestones; require program result reporting to the Kentucky Board of Education, the Secretary of State, and the Legislative Research Commission; specify a program end date of July 1, 2028.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to direct the Kentucky Community and Technical College System to develop academic career pathways and integrated academic bridge programs to prepare military healthcare personnel for licensure in various healthcare-related fields.

Amend KRS 160.160 to authorize a local board of education to establish minimum score requirements for certified positions within the district on specific assessments related to content knowledge, competency in educational practices, or both; require the district include minimum score information in any posts or notices for a related certified vacancy; amend KRS 161.030 to remove successful completion of assessments prior to receiving a teacher certification; amend KRS 161.048, 161.010, and 161.053 to conform.

Amend KRS 158.1411 to require one credit in financial literacy during the eleventh or twelfth grade for students entering grade nine during or after the 2026-2027 school year; direct minimum topics to be covered in the course; direct that the financial literacy course be accepted as a math, social studies, or elective course graduation requirement; require the Department of Education, in collaboration with the Kentucky Financial Empowerment Commission, to determine which courses meet the financial literacy course requirement.

Amend KRS 211.690 to require the Health Access Nurturing Development Services (HANDS) Program to provide educational information about maternal and postpartum depression; make technical corrections.

Amend KRS 164.2951 to require the Council on Postsecondary Education to create statewide transfer pathways between the public postsecondary institutions in the high-demand baccalaureate programs; require the council to define, identify, and publish on its website a list of the high-demand baccalaureate programs and the available transfer pathways; require the council to maintain transfer pathways once created; require postsecondary institutions to accept transfer credit, earned or accepted at the prior institution within pathways as general education or program general education credit before applying credit as elective.

Amend KRS 158.060 to require teachers to be compensated for noninstructional planning time within their school day during which they are required to supervise or instruct students.

Amend KRS 158.070 to provide that certified school personnel shall be compensated for professional development activities required outside of the days scheduled in the school calendar or regularly scheduled hours in the school work day.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to define terms; establish the prospective educator scholarship; define eligibility for the program; direct the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority to administer the program; provide monetary awards for student loan repayment for eligible students who complete qualified teaching service; establish the prospective educator scholarship fund.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to define terms; establish the English learner enhanced support program under the Department of Education to help bring English learners with little or no formal education to grade-level proficiency within three years; require the department to set standards for program, contract with a provider meeting certain standards and with record of success with qualified English learners, identify eligible districts or schools, offer the program to as many students as funds permit, and report to the Legislative Research Commission regarding progress of program; permit KDE to promulgate administrative regulations to administer the program.

Amend KRS 199.884 to require the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to establish new procedures related to the Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership Program.

Amend KRS 164.787 to define "adjusted gross income" and limit eligibility for the Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship Program to a workforce student with an adjusted gross income of less than 250% of the median household income in Kentucky.

Appropriate $26,000,000 in General Fund in fiscal year 2024-2025 to the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) budget unit from the Budget Reserve Trust Fund Account; APPROPRIATION; EMERGENCY.

Amend KRS 199.894 to define "Child Care and Development Fund" and "Child Care Assistance Program"; create a new section of KRS 199.892 to 199.896 to establish income eligibility requirements for the Child Care Assistance Program.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to define terms; establish the future Kentucky teacher scholarship; define eligibility for the program; direct the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority to administer the program; provide monetary awards for student loan repayment for eligible students who complete qualified teaching service; establish the future Kentucky teacher scholarship fund.

Amends KRS 199.896 to change the requirements for when instructional programs for school-age children are exempt from all child-care licensure administrative regulations.

Amend KRS 160.350 to require a majority vote instead of a four-fifths vote of board members to remove the superintendent; delete requirements for approval from the commissioner of education to remove a superintendent; amend KRS 160.180 to remove the relative employee eligibility requirement for candidates for the local board of education; require a local board member obtain at least one hour of open records and open meetings training per term; amend KRS 160.160 to establish a one-year term for chair and vice chair of the local board of education; require superintendents to submit reports on closed personnel investigations to the local board of education for the purposes of policy oversight and evaluation of the superintendent's performance; amend KRS 160.210 to establish new numbers for membership of a local board of education based on district enrollment; require the Kentucky Board of Education to determine the required number of members every 10 years; provide for the election of additional members and for the reduction of membership; require local boards of education to report new electoral divisions to the Kentucky Board of Education and the Legislative Research Commission; amend KRS 160.200 and 116.200 to conform; require the Kentucky Board to make initial determinations of board size by December 31, 2025 and local boards to conduct required division changes; require superintendents to submit reports on previous investigations closed during the superintendent's contract to the local board of education within 30 days of the effective date of this Act.

Amend KRS 157.360 to require that English language learners receive an additional factor of 0.24 in a school districts average daily attendance for the program to support education excellence in Kentucky, beginning with the 2026-2027 school year; amend KRS 160.1596 to conform.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 156 to establish a procedure for a local board of education to submit a waiver request to the Kentucky Board of Education to waive a statute or administrative regulation; set the terms and limitations of a waivers; authorize the identification of schools of innovation and establish parameters for the status; establish procedures for the renewal of approved waivers; provide the conditions and procedure for rescinding waivers by the state board; authorize the promulgation of administrative regulations to adopt necessary forms and procedures to process waiver requests; amend various sections to conform; repeal KRS 156.108 and 160.107; provide that the Act may be cited as the School Innovation Act.

Amend KRS 159.030 to create an exemption for compulsory attendance in school for a child who is at least 16 years old and has obtained a High School Equivalency Diploma.

Amend KRS 164.769 to remove repayment obligations from the teacher scholarship program; amend scholorship terms; provide that the scholarship amount shall not exceed the highest in-state tuition rate for a teacher preparation program at a Kentucky public university; amend KRS 164.786 to add eligibility for high school freshmen and sophomores to the dual credit scholarship program; require an approved dual credit course to be in the statewide general education core; permit up to 20 dual credit courses in a teacher and learning career pathway; provide that scholarships shall be awarded in order of application date; revise scholarship to allow two career and technical dual credit courses in each academic year of high school and two general education dual credit courses in the grades 11 and 12; amend KRS 164.787 to conform; repeal KRS 164.771, relating to the Teacher Recruitment Student Loan Forgiveness Pilot Program, effective June 30, 2026; provide that funds appropriated to the Teacher Recruitment Student Loan Forgiveness Pilot Program shall be disbursed through the teacher scholarship program on and after June 30, 2026; EFFECTIVE, in part, June 30, 2026.

Amend KRS 164.020 to define Kentucky residency in the postsecondary education system to require a student to be a citizen, national resident, or permanent resident.

Prohibit the commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Education, the Kentucky Board of Education, and the Kentucky Department of Education from establishing or implementing, or requiring a school district to implement, any cap, limitation, or restriction on enrollment for a virtual program; prohibit the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Board of Education from reducing or withholding any funds due to a school district from the fund to Support Education Excellence in Kentucky based on the district's operation of a virtual program; sunset prohibitions on June 30, 2026.

Amend KRS 164.7879 to increase the Kentucky educational excellence scholarship base amount for each eligible grade point average; increase the supplemental award amounts; require a supplemental award for eligible Cambridge Advanced International scores; amend KRS 164.7882 to increase the award amount for an eligible student enrolled in a comprehensive transition and postsecondary program; amend KRS 164.7874, 164.7881, 164.7884, and 164.7885 to conform; EFFECTIVE July 1, 2025.

Amend KRS 157.320 to include costs paid on behalf of districts in the definition of "Support Education Excellence in Kentucky"; define "distributable cost" and "on-behalf cost"; amend KRS 157.330 to include appropriations of on-behalf costs in the fund to support education excellence in Kentucky; amend KRS 157.360 to provide for the calculation of total cost of the program to support education excellence in Kentucky to include on-behalf costs and distributable costs; provide for the calcuation; provide for the determination of on-behalf costs; EFFECTIVE July 1, 2026.

Amend KRS 160.180 to remove the definition of "relative"; remove prohibition for local school board eligibility for individuals directly or indirectly interested in sales for which school funds are expended; prohibit employees of the board from being eligible for local school board membership; remove prohibition that a local school board candidate have no relative employed by the district; provide that board members may be removed from office after election for becoming an employee of the board, failure to abstain from board votes in which they have an interest, or for violation of the board's code of ethics; amend KRS 160.290 to require each local school board to create a board code of ethics; provide that a code of ethics cannot prohibit relatives of board members from being employed by the school district.

Amend KRS 158.645 to change the required learning capacities of Kentucky public school students; amend KRS 158.6451 to provide that schools shall expect a high level of academic achievement and shall develop students' ability to think critically and independently; amend KRS 156.010 to include career and technical education; amend KRS 160.345 to remove the reporting requirement relating to physical activity of students; amend KRS 157.065 to remove the reporting requirement relating to participation in breakfast programs; amend KRS 424.250 to reflect that school boards are tax levying authorities and do not file budgets with the county clerk; require district budgets to be published in the same manner as school financial reports; repeal KRS 157.061 and 158.856.