Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education Legislation topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Votes at a glance: Senate education committee advances multiple bills on instruction, scholarships and licensure
Summary
The Senate Standing Committee on Education approved several bills on Feb. 14, including measures on home/hospital instruction, dual‑credit scholarships, educator licensure timing and a student‑teacher stipend payment change. Most measures passed unanimously; HB 241 was the principal contested item (8‑2‑1).
The Senate Standing Committee on Education moved a package of education bills forward in a single meeting, approving several items with little debate and one item that prompted extended discussion.
House Bill 132, relating to home and hospital instruction, passed unanimously with a favorable expression. Representative Nick Wilson told the committee HB 132 would allow districts to be compensated for providing home or hospital instruction in shorter absences related to mental‑health stays; under current law funding is triggered when a student is out five days, and Representative Wilson described many local stays lasting two to four days.
House Bill 193, a cleanup measure for dual credit scholarships, also passed unanimously. Representative J.T. Payne and Joe Carol Ellis, director of Kentucky Higher Ed Assistance, said the bill consolidates academic and CTE dual‑credit scholarship language into a single statute to reduce administrative confusion and better align funding sources.
House Bill 251, described by presenters as a statutory cleanup aligning the Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) and the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE), passed unanimously. Presenters said the bill also changes a reporting requirement from annual to once every three years for a specified evaluation and aligns numeracy evaluation with existing literacy evaluation processes.
House Bill 263 (presented as HB 2 63 in committee), which changes the mechanism for issuing student‑teacher stipend checks so universities — rather than the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance — can issue scholarships directly, passed unanimously. Kimbanta, the bill sponsor, said the technical change allows universities to distribute stipend checks as scholarships.
House Bill 241 generated the committee's lengthiest debate; the committee adopted a substitute that preserves the Cloverport Virtual Academy under a three‑year sunset and changes a ‘‘shall’’ to ‘‘may’’ for commissioner authority to grant up to five disaster days. That bill passed 8 yeas, 2 nays and 1 pass. A title amendment was also adopted.
The committee closed with a procedural note that an agency amendment to an administrative regulation (KR 3535) was ruled out of order for missing the three‑day filing requirement. The committee adjourned after adopting the remaining measures.
Votes recorded in committee were consistent with the roll calls for each bill and are summarized below.
