Rep. Timmy Truett

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 164 to define terms; prohibit a public postsecondary education institution from providing differential treatment or benefits on the basis of an individual's religion, race, sex, color, or national origin; from influencing the composition of the student body or scholarship recipients on the basis of religion, race, sex, color, or national origin; from implementing a student housing assignment plan on the basis of religion, race, color, or national origin with designated exceptions; from expending any resources on diversity, equity, and inclusion, the promotion of discriminatory topics, or bias incident investigations; from soliciting statements on an applicant's experience with or views on religion, race, sex, color, or national origin; from requiring a course dedicated to discriminatory concepts; or disseminating or profiting from any research, work product, or material that promotes or justifies discriminatory concepts; prohibit a public postsecondary education institution from requiring any individual to endorse or condemn a specific ideology or viewpoint; prohibit the Council on Postsecondary Education from providing differential treatment or benefits on the basis of an individual's religion, race, sex, color, or national origin or from expending any resources on diversity, equity, and inclusion or discriminatory topics; establish exclusions for legal compliance; require each governing board of a public postsecondary education institution to ensure compliance with specific sections of this Act no later than June 30, 2025; authorize the Attorney General to bring an action for a writ of mandamus to compel the council or a public postsecondary education institution to comply; create a cause of action to permit a qualified individual to file a civil action against council or a public postsecondary education institution for injunctive relief and limited damages arising from a violation of certain sections of this Act; waive sovereign and governmental immunity for the limited purpose of bringing this claim; prohibit retaliation; require each public postsecondary education institution to submit and publish a certified annual report on governmentally mandated discrimination to the Legislative Research Commission by October 1 each year; provide that a public postsecondary education institution or the council cannot claim a federal, state, judicial, contractual, or accreditation mandate as a defense to a civil action filed under this Act unless the policy, practice, or procedure upon which the complaint is founded is listed and clearly and accurately described in the public institution's annual report filed in accordance with this Act; require each public postsecondary education institution to provide the Personnel Cabinet and State Treasurer the name, job title, duty station, and salary or wages of each employee each month beginning January 1, 2025, and to post its itemized annual budget; amend KRS 164.020 to prohibit the Council on Postsecondary Education from approving a degree, certificate, or diploma program that includes discriminatory concepts or diversity, equity, and inclusion iniatives; amend KRS 164.011, 164.131, 164.321, and 164.821 to conform; direct the Council on Postsecondary Education to consider certain enumerated conditions when considering the elimination of an existing program; direct each public postsecondary education institution and the Council on Postsecondary Education to discontinue designated programs and follow designated procedures when implementing this Act; provide specific instructions for public postsecondary education institutions and the Council on Postsecondary Education to follow in implementing this Act; direct public postsecondary education institutions and the council to submit a report on implementation of this Act.

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.

Amend KRS 158.305 to require kindergarten students to be given a universal screener within the final 10 instructional days of the school year; beginning with the 2025-2026 school year require that a student remain in kindergarten for an additional year if he or she did not make adequate progress in kindergarten; prohibit a school from requiring a student who turns seven by August 1 to remain in kindergarten; require the school to reevaluate the reading improvement plan of any student remaining in kindergarten; allow a student provided an additional year in kindergarten to advance through the primary program when it is determined to be in the student's best interest.

Amend KRS 186.450 to allow persons who are at least 15 years of age to apply for a motor vehicle instruction permit; establish that an instruction permit is valid for four years; amend KRS 186.410, 186.452 and 159.051 to conform; EMERGENCY.

Amend KRS 322.040 to allow an individual to qualify for licensure as a professional engineer if he or she has graduated from a fire protection engineering technology program of four years or more accredited by the Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.

Maddy summaryHB 132 allows students admitted to inpatient medical facilities (like hospitals) to begin receiving home or hospital instruction on the day they are admitted, rather than waiting for administrative processing. This directly affects students with medical conditions requiring inpatient care and their school districts, ensuring they can start receiving educational support immediately upon admission. The bill maintains existing requirements, such as needing a doctor's statement and meeting minimum instructional standards (two sessions weekly, one hour each, by a certified teacher). It also clarifies that students receiving this instruction count toward school attendance requirements under state law. The change streamlines access to education during medical treatment without altering disability-specific placement procedures.

Maddy summaryHB 545 authorizes payment of $208,000+ in previously approved claims against Kentucky that remained unpaid due to expired budget funds or missing procurement paperwork. The bill directs state funds to specific vendors and individuals, including companies like Murtco Inc. and legal entities like the University of Kentucky Research Foundation, for claims audited and approved under existing law but not paid for technical reasons. It creates a one-time appropriation to settle these outstanding obligations, declaring an emergency to expedite payments. This is a procedural funding measure, not a new policy, directly affecting the named claimants who have pending approved claims.

Urge the United States Congress and the United States Army Corps of Engineers to assist with the prevention and mitigation of flood damage in Kentucky.

Amend KRS 211.190 to make water fluoridation programs optional; allow the governing bodies of water systems subject to regulation by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to decide whether they participate in water fluoridation programs; provide that a water fluoridation program in place on the effective date of the Act continues until action is taken by its governing body to end its participation; provide that any decision regarding participation in a water fluoridation program made by the governing body of a water system shall be binding on all water systems it supplies.

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.