Rep. Mary Lou Marzian

Repeal and reenact KRS 158.1415 to require each school district to provide healthy relationship education instruction to all public school students; establish minimum requirements for the instruction; establish minimum requirements for the healthy relationship curricula and instructional materials; prohibit a school or school district from restricting the ability of an instructor to answer a question related to the instruction; require that a school make the healthy relationship curricula and instructional materials available upon the request of a parent or guardian and establish a procedure for a parent or guardian to opt a student out of the instruction; require the Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations necessary to implement, administer, and enforce this section; require the Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations requiring that each school district submit a report on healthy relationship instruction in the district biennially; require the Kentucky Department of Education to maintain a list of recommended healthy relationship curricula and instructional materials; permit a parent or guardian to file an enforcement action in Circuit Court; provide that the Act may be cited as the Education for Healthy Youth Act.

Maddy summaryHB 803 repeals Kentucky Revised Statute 338.062, which previously set occupational safety standards capped at federal levels and exempted public employees from certain state regulations. This bill directly affects how Kentucky enforces workplace safety rules, removing the federal cap on state standards and ending the specific exemption for public employees. The repeal is procedural, with no new standards or mechanisms added - only the removal of the existing statutory language. The bill is currently in committee review after its February 2025 introduction.

Amend KRS 403.720, relating to orders of protection, to define "coercive control" and "stalking"; amend the definition of "domestic violence and abuse" to include coercive control of a family member or member of an unmarried couple; amend KRS 456.010 to define "coercive control"; amend the definition of "dating violence and abuse" to include coercive control of a person with whom the perpetrator is or has been in a dating relationship; amend KRS 209A.122 to require the Administrative Office of the Courts to provide information on petitions for orders of protection where the basis of the petition is coercive control and whether parties to a petition for an order of protection were represented by a legal representative.

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.

Maddy summaryHB 656 adds "weight" as a protected characteristic under Kentucky's employment discrimination law, prohibiting employers from discriminating against job applicants or employees based on body size in hiring, firing, compensation, or workplace conditions. It updates existing law to include weight alongside categories like race, sex, and disability, while clarifying that employers must provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy-related needs (e.g., breastfeeding breaks) without requiring unpaid leave. The bill also requires employers to provide written notices about these protections to new hires and post them visibly, and specifies that health plan differences based on smoking status remain legal. This directly affects all Kentucky employers and employees covered by state anti-discrimination laws.

Maddy summaryThis resolution designates March 2025 as Kentucky Maternal and Infant Mortality and Disparities Awareness Month. It directly highlights racial disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes, specifically noting that Black women in Kentucky face a maternal mortality rate of 55.3 per 100,000 compared to 19.1 for white women, and Black infants have an infant mortality rate of 10.6 per 1,000 live births versus 5.4 for white infants. The resolution does not create new policies or funding but aims to raise public awareness about these health gaps. It focuses on acknowledging systemic issues like structural racism and underfunded healthcare in Black communities, as documented by CDC data. This symbolic recognition is intended to foster dialogue, not enact immediate policy changes.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 311 to define terms; establish a qualified terminally ill patient's right to voluntarily request medication to self-administer to cause death; establish conditions required to make request; permit patient to rescind request at any time; permit an attending physician to provide medication; establish requirements for attending physician to inform patients and document request; require disposal of unused medications; establish residency requirements for qualified patients; require report by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services; establish provisions for contracts, insurance policies, and beneficiaries; prohibit applicability of provisions to ending a patient's life by lethal injection, mercy killing, or active euthanasia; establish that a health care provider is not required to provide medication to a qualified patient; permit health care providers to prohibit persons or entities from participating in a qualified patient's request during or on the premises of employment; prohibit reporting a health care provider to a licensing board for participating in a qualified patient's request; state that actions under this Act do not authorize lethal injection, mercy killing or active euthanasia; establish that actions under this Act do not constitute suicide or homicide; create a form for a qualified patient to make a request; create a form for an interpreter for a qualified patient making a request; create a new section of Subtitle 12 of KRS Chapter 304 to establish provisions for insurance policies and beneficiaries of qualified patients; amend KRS 507.020 and 507.030 to create an affirmative defense to a charge of murder and manslaughter in the first degree; provide that the Act may be cited as the Kentucky Death with Dignity Act.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to require each public school that includes any of grades six through 12 to provide free menstrual discharge collection devices to students; require each local board of education to adopt policies for the distribution of free menstrual discharge collection devices; define "menstrual discharge collection devices"; amend KRS 139.010 to define "menstrual discharge collection devices"; amend KRS 139.480 to exempt from sales and use tax the sale or purchase of menstrual discharge collection devices; APPROPRIATION; EFFECTIVE July 1, 2025.

Amend KRS 61.315 to make a technical correction and include additional cancers which, when they are the cause of death of a firefighter, would make the firefighter eligible for death benefits.

Repeal and reenact KRS 344.010 to define terms; amend KRS 344.020, relating to the purpose of the Kentucky's civil rights chapter, to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; amend KRS 344.025, 344.040, 344.050, 344.060, 344.070, and 344.080, relating to prohibited discrimination in various labor and employment practices, to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; amend KRS 210.033, 344.030, 344.100 and 344.110 to conform; amend KRS 344.120 and 342.140, relating to prohibited discrimination in places of public accommodation and advertisements therefor, to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; amend KRS 344.170, 344.180, 344.190, 344.300, and 344.310, relating to the state and local human rights commissions, to include prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in the scope of their powers and duties; amend KRS 344.360, 344.370, 344.380, and 344.680, relating to prohibited discrimination in certain housing, real estate, and other financial transactions, to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; amend KRS 344.367, relating to prohibited discrimination in certain insurance sales, to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; amend KRS 344.400, relating to prohibited discrimination in certain credit transactions, to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; amend KRS 18A.095 to conform; make technical corrections.