Officials said the number of bills passed in the Kentucky General Assembly’s short sessions, or odd numbered years, has slowly crept up for the last few decades. 2025 was no different, introducing approximately 200 relevant to education.
Some of the bills passed through this year’s session were the result of collaboration between state education officials and legislators. Brian Perry, the Director of Government Relations with the KDE, highlighted some of these bills that can benefit districts, such as House Bill 190.
“It hopefully will simplify by creating one unified high school dual credit scholarship. And then we’ll have the work ready Kentucky scholarship for adults once they’re out of high school,” said Perry. “So hopefully, this will make it a little clearer for your students and families to help understand what scholarships are available and how to best utilize them to reach their educational goals.”
Perry said House Bill 241 successfully passed as law, allotting more emergency non-traditional days after numerous weather events statewide. However, a senate committee amendment on the bill is also requiring the KDE to limit enrollment for virtual k-12 education.
“The other half that got rolled in relates to virtual programs and make some really big changes that again, here at the department we’re still sort of working through to understand how we’re going to implement that half of this bill. Broadly, it will put a one percent cap on nonresident enrollment on full time virtual programs,” said Perry.
The legislation instructs schools to stop enrolling full-time virtual nonresidents by 2028 unless they are children of active military members or medically unable to attend school. The KDE will release their official legislative guidance for school districts and administrators, covering all new non-urgent laws, in May.
KDE Commissioner Robbie Fletcher also spoke at the meeting regarding federal COVID relief funding that was recently rescinded. Fletcher said he is communicating with districts that were relying on these liquidated funds for various projects, and he has submitted a request for the USED to reconsider the decision.