Rep. Chris Fugate

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.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to define terms; establish the Classroom Library Grant Program; provide that the Kentucky Department of Education to implement the grant program through selection of a program administrator; establish the qualifications and duties of the program administrator; appropriate $5,000,000 from the General Fund to implement the Classroom Library Grant Program; APPROPRIATION.

Amend KRS 441.005 to define "restricted custody center" and make technical changes; create new sections of KRS Chapter 441 to require the Department of Corrections to promulgate administrative regulations providing the minimum standards for holdover facilities; require the Department of Corrections to contract with a fiscal court of a county or local or regional correctional authority to provide correctional services to state prisoners; allow prisoners being held for a nonviolent or nonsexual misdemeanor conviction to be housed in a restricted custody center; require jailers to get permission from the Department of Corrections before transferring a Class C or Class D felon to another jail unless required by statute or an emergency exists; establish the regional jail authority construction fund, and establish requirements for the Department of Corrections to submit a list of regional jail construction projects to the Legislative Research Commission; establish the regional jail conversion fund and establish requirements for receiving grant funds; amend KRS 431.215 to require the Commonwealth to pay a county a fee per day based on the county's actual costs to house prisoners for the time the prisoner was held before a conviction if the sentence the prisoner receives in whole or in part includes the amount of time served prior to judgment; amend KRS 441.025 to allow counties to contract with the Department of Corrections to house state prisoners and operate holdover facilities; amend KRS 441.045 to require the Commonwealth to pay counties for the costs of providing health services to prisoners the county is responsible for; amend KRS 441.420 to require the Department of Corrections to pay for architectural plans and engineering services associated with any tentatively approved construction of a local correctional facility; amend KRS 441.430 to allow a regional jail authority to receive tentative approval for new regional jail construction; amend KRS 441.520 to specify the rate that a jail that receives a transferred inmate can charge the originating jail; amend KRS 441.810 to require that the jailer of each county within a regional jail authority be a member of the board; amend various sections to conform.

Amend KRS 61.702, relating to the Kentucky Employees Retirement System and the State Police Retirement System, to increase the hazardous duty under age 65 retiree health subsidy to $50 per month for each year of service, respectively, for those members who meet the "career threshold" who began participating in the system on or after July 1, 2003, and who are eligible for a fixed-dollar retiree health subsidy not tied to the premium; extend the employee contribution used to fund retiree health benefits to include hazardous duty members who began participating in the system on or after July 1, 2003, and increase the current hazardous employee contribution rate to 2% of pay for those eligible for the fixed-dollar retiree health subsidy; make technical amendments regarding the retiree health premium reimbursement program to conform to current policy; provide that the amendments to the employee contributions shall be effective July 1, 2027; for calculation of the retiree health subsidy increase, provide that the change shall apply to service earned prior to the effective date of this Act by eligible members, including retirees, and shall prospectively be adjusted annually by the 1.5% increase currently provided in statute; provide that subsidies payable to impacted retirees shall begin on or after January 1, 2027, to coincide with the next health plan year; direct the Public Pension Oversight Board to continue to review the retiree health fund actuarial data and evaluate potential legislative options to address any future continued improvements in the funds.

Amend KRS 139.495 to define "educational or charitable institution" and "religious institution"; exempt purchases and sales of tangible personal property, digital property, or services made by qualifying religious institutions from state sales and use taxes; make technical changes.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 40 to define terms; create the Residential Ease of Access for Disabled Veterans Program for funding the construction and installation of accessibility ramps on residences of disabled veterans; establish the Residential Ease of Access for Disabled Veterans Program grant fund to be used for the program and administered by the Kentucky Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Create a new section of Subtitle 17A of KRS Chapter 304 to require coverage for emergency ground ambulance services; establish minimum allowable reimbursement for out-of-network emergency ground ambulance services; establish requirements for reimbursement of out-of-network ground ambulance providers; prohibit balance billing by out-of-network ground ambulance providers; establish construction clause in the event of conflicts; amend KRS 18A.225 to require the state employee health plan to comply with emergency ground ambulance coverage and payment requirements; provide that Act applies to health benefit plans issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2027; EFFECTIVE January 1, 2027.

Appropriate $96 million from the Kentucky Permanent Pension Fund in fiscal year 2026-2027 to the Kentucky Public Pensions Authority to fund 1-time supplemental payments on July 1, 2026, to recipients of a retirement allowance who have been retired for at least 12 months from the Kentucky Employees Retirement System (KERS) and the State Police Retirement System (SPRS); allow the Board of Trustees of the County Employees Retirement System to, by board decision, provide a one-time supplemental payment to recipients of a retirement allowance who have been retired at least 12 months by increasing employer contribution rates over a one-year or two-year period; specify that the 1-time supplemental payment shall be equal to the monthly payment received by the recipient in the month of June 2026; APPROPRIATION; EMERGENCY.

Amend KRS 158.1415 to require a school district to adopt health curricula that includes human growth and development instruction that meets specific criteria; set restrictions for the instruction that grants parents an opportunity to review materials and opt their child out of instruction.

Create a new section of KRS 164.740 to 164.7891 to establish a coal county paramedic scholarship to be administered by the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority (KHEAA); define terms; establish a fund in the State Treasury to be administered by KHEAA for providing coal county paramedic scholarships.