Committee hears bill to let children in state custody stay in school of origin; debate centers on transportation and a two-business-day records-transfer rule
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Summary
House Bill 23 20 would allow children in the custody of the Secretary for Children and Families to enroll or remain in a school of origin, require coordination of transportation costs, and impose a two-business-day rule for districts to transfer records; proponents cited placement shortages while school boards warned the timeline and funding language are aggressive or unclear.
Committee members heard House Bill 23 20, which the sponsor described as a statutory alignment to allow children in the custody of the Secretary for Children and Families to enroll in or remain in a school of origin when it is in the child's best interest.
Nick, presenting the bill, said it would broaden current open-enrollment provisions for children in state custody, require a coordinated transportation plan (with options for cost-sharing among the secretary and school districts), and impose a duty for school districts to transfer educational records "as soon as possible following receipt of that notice, but not later than 2 business days following such receipt." He said similar two-day language would apply to special-education records and that, if enacted, the bill's statutory changes would take effect on publication in the statute book (noted as 07/01/2026 in the presentation).
Proponents linked the bill to tangible placement and enrollment problems. Rebecca Gerhardt (DCF) said the bill codifies cooperative practices already used to keep children in their school of origin, helps ensure prompt enrollment even when records lag, and supports placement stability. Crystal Hedrick, CEO of the Children's Alliance of Kansas, told the committee that so far in the state fiscal year (July–January) providers logged "675 instances where we haven't been able to find a placement for a kid in foster care," primarily among middle-school and high-school youth; she said stable school enrollment is critical to securing longer-term placements and caregivers' ability to work.
Neutral testimony from Shannon Kimball of the Kansas Association of School Boards supported the bill's goals but raised implementation concerns: she described the two-business-day records-transfer timeline as "rather aggressive," warned that districts vary in staffing and calendars (holidays and closures) and questioned whether transportation decision-making and funding were sufficiently specified in the bill to avoid creating unfunded district obligations.
KSDE staff described a pilot "student lookup" tool intended to let districts claim a student's record from a sending district, but cautioned the pilot lacks course-mapping for secondary students and that many districts still export and email PDFs or print paper files to transfer records. Committee members pressed whether the two-business-day clock counts school-business days or calendar business days and whether holiday closures should be addressed in statutory language; KASB offered to propose alternative drafting.
No committee votes were taken; the hearing closed with members signaling willingness to work on technical amendments on timing and on transportation/funding language.
