Education

Amend KRS 158.070 to permit a local board of education to amend its school calendar by adding time to the school day to reach the required 1,062 hours of instructional time; for the 2025-2026 school year, 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 5 student attendance days if a school district is unable to provide the required 1,062 hours of instruction by June 10, 2026; require a local board 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; provide that districts that used 10 or fewer nontraditional instruction days and choose not to use any waived days shall have the district's average daily attendance calculated by deducting 5 low attendance days in addition to the 5 days deducted under KRS 157.320(2); EFFECTIVE, in part, July 1, 2026; EMERGENCY.

Direct the Department for Libraries and Archives and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to cooperate in exploring ways to increase enrollment in Dolly Parton's Imagination Library Program; direct the department and the cabinet to submit a report on the progress of identifying ways of increasing enrollment in the program to the Governor and the Legislative Research Commission by November 1, 2026.

Amend KRS 158.1415 to exclude puberty instruction from the prohibition of human sexuality instruction for students in the fifth grade and below; make human sexuality instruction opt-out for parents instead of opt-in.

Amend various statutes to remove references to public charter schools; repeal various sections of KRS Chapter 160 and KRS 161.141 relating to public charter schools.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to define terms; establish the robotics competition fund; establish the Robotics Funding Selection Committee to award grants from the fund to eligible robotics teams competition sponsors; establish committee membership, duties, and set terms; require the Kentucky Department of Education to promulgate administrative regulations to establish procedures for grant applications and distribution of awards by April 1, 2027; set requirements for grant applications; require annual report by August 1 to Legislative Research Commission; provide for initial staggering of appointments; require the committee to hold its first meeting by October 15, 2026; provide that the Act may be cited as the Advanced Manufacturing Through Robotics Education Act.

Amend KRS 158.832 to include intranasal epinephrine to list of medications used to treat anaphylaxis; amend KRS 158.836 to include intranasal epinephrine as permissible for schools to keep.

Amend KRS 161.500 to allow members of the Teachers' Retirement System to recover up to 10 unpaid days that were missed to observe religious holidays; include the recovered days in count of days worked for service credit; EMERGENCY.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 157 to require a salary supplement for school social workers who have been nationally certified by the School Social Work Association of America and are employed by local boards of education if funding is provided for such purpose, permit local boards of education to provide a supplement from other resources if funding is not provided, and require inclusion of the supplement for Kentucky Teachers’ Retirement System calculations; create a new section of KRS Chapter 157 to require a salary supplement for school psychologists who have been nationally certified by the National Association of School Psychologists and are employed by local boards of education if funding is provided for such purpose, permit local boards of education to provide a supplement from other resources if funding is not provided, and require inclusion of the supplement for Teachers’ Retirement System calculations.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 159 to require a local school district to enroll a student on a part-time basis for courses or programs in a school, subject to standard enrollment policies and procedures; permit part-time enrollment in a local school district to partially satisfy compulsory attendance; prohibit part-time enrollee participation in interscholastic athletics; amend KRS 158.120 to specify that a nonresident pupil policy shall not discriminate on certain factors; prohibit a local school district from charging tuition to a parent or guardian; require school districts to determine and publish nonresident enrollment capacity; require the Kentucky Board of Education to create nonresident pupil enrollment application forms and specify the application process; require reporting by school districts and the Kentucky Department of Education on nonresident enrollment; create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to define terms; create a formula for distribution of any state appropriated funds to eligible school districts for nonresident students; amend KRS 156.070 and KRS 157.350 to conform; require each school district to report on nonresident pupils and tuition charged during the 2026-2027 school year; require the Kentucky Department of Education to submit a compiled report to the Legislative Research Commission; EFFECTIVE, in part, July 1, 2028.

Amend KRS 164.515 to allow the spouse or a child under the age of 26 of a disabled veteran free tuition at public universities, colleges, or vocational traiing institutions for up to 128 credit hours of undergraduate instruction.