Kentucky School Advocate
May 2020
By Brenna R. Kelly
Staff writer
The 2020 regular session of the General Assembly quickly changed as the COVID-19 pandemic reached the Commonwealth. With the Capitol closed to the public, legislators quickly turned their attention to passing a state budget. In light of the pandemic and uncertain state revenues, the General Assembly passed a one-year spending plan instead of the typical biennial budget. In the final budget most education funding remained flat, including the SEEK per-pupil base which was held flat at $4,000. The budget does include $40 million to fund parts of the School Safety and Resiliency Act, including $18.2 million in bonding capacity for building security, $13 million for the Kentucky Center for School Safety and $7.4 million to hire more school-based mental health professionals.
Legislators will return to Frankfort in January to enact a budget for the second year of the biennium.
COVID-19 related bills that passed: Senate Bill 150: Extends deadline for responding to Open Records Act requests to 10 days and suspends the open meetings laws to allow for live audio or live video teleconference meetings. Boards must provide specific information on how any member of the public or media can access the meeting.
Senate Bill 177: Addresses many issues facing school districts in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Allows boards to approve emergency leave to any full-time or part-time classified or certified employee if the local board determines it is necessary in relation to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Does not require employees to file a personal affidavit in order to take the emergency leave.
• Local school districts may, when submitting the Superintendent's Annual Attendance Report (SAAR), use attendance data for school year 2018-2019 for attendance data for school year 2019-2020.
• Allows written notices to classified and certified school district employees regarding salary or nonrenewal of contracts to be delivered via regular mail or via email instead of in a letter.
Education related bills that passed: Senate Bill 8: Made updates to the 2019 School Safety and Resiliency Act including requiring school resources officers be armed, allowing a school campus to share SROs, sets a goal of one school counselor or school mental-health professional for every 250 students, allows SROs to receive death-in-the line of duty benefits and allows flexibility in the requirement that classroom doors be locked.
Senate Bill 42: Requires ID badges for students in grades six through 12 to have phone numbers for domestic violence, sexual assault and suicide prevention hotlines.
Senate Bill 56: Raises the minimum age to purchase tobacco, alternative nicotine and vapor products to 21.
Senate Bill 57: Requires water bottle filling stations in new construction only, not in renovations.
Senate Bill 63: Allows local school boards to create a virtual high school completion program for students who are at least 21 years old and have at least 16 credits.
Senate Bill 79: Amends the law on child abuse and neglect (CA/N) background checks for school employees to prevent a person from appearing on the CA/N registry unless their substantiated finding of abuse or neglect had either been upheld on appeal or was not appealed.
Senate Bill 193: Establishes a state goal of increasing student participation in computer science courses by underrepresented groups, such as minority students, female students, students with disabilities, English language learners and students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
Senate Bill 158: Allows locally elected school board members to forgo charter authorizer training until a school board receives a charter application. The bill also amends the state accountability system, changes the definition of achievement gaps and when schools are identified for assistance. The bill changes the state’s graduation requirements, by eliminating the state requirement that students receive a minimum score on a statewide assessment, and prohibits local boards from requiring a minimum assessment score in local graduation requirements.
House Bill 312: Helps schools improve the education of students in foster care by enhancing information sharing among districts and between social workers and schools, especially when a child first comes to enroll in a new district. This bill, one of KSBA’s top priorities, requires a foster child’s caseworker to contact school districts to inform them of a foster child’s enrollment and accompany the child to enroll or contact the school. It also requires student records to be transferred within one day of being requested.
House Bill 366: Recognizes the Model Laboratory School operated by Eastern Kentucky University similarly to the Craft and Gatton Academies. Model will not receive SEEK funding and only receives money from the state if appropriated as a separate line-item in the state budget. For determining equalization and local effort, model school students must be included in their residing district's average daily attendance.
House Bill 484: Brings independence and accountability to the County Employee Retirement System, of which just over half the members are school district classified staff. CERS and Kentucky Retirement Systems will have separate boards as of April 1, 2021. The systems will share staff under the oversight of the Kentucky Public Pensions Authority, an eight-member board that will have members of both boards.
House Bill 570: Makes it easier for government entities including school boards, to enter into interlocal agreements with other government agencies. The bill also makes it easier for school districts to partner with colleges and universities.