During the recent 2021 General Assembly Special Session, Senate Bill 1 was enacted to address various public school operations that have been impacted by the continuation of the coronavirus pandemic. In Section 4 of SB 1, the Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH) was directed to develop a COVID-19 “Test to Stay” model plan that may be implemented by school districts – in whole or in part – to minimize the impact of quarantining non-symptomatic students, allowing them to stay in the classroom.

(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) released a new guidance document on Sept. 20 to support schools and districts as they implement Senate Bill 1 (SB1), which was passed on Sept. 9 during the General Assembly’s recent special session.

(FRANKFORT, KY) – As the Kentucky General Assembly's special session rolls on in Frankfort, the Senate Standing Committee on Education voted to amend Senate Bill (SB) 1, removing a section encouraging districts to develop vaccination incentive plans.

The original bill encouraged districts to create incentive plans for staff and student vaccinations. It also would have forbidden “intimidation tactics or negative incentives.”

(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has released a new guidance document, Guidance for Offering a Hybrid Performance-Based Schedule, to support districts in implementing a hybrid schedule for grades 5-12 by utilizing their board’s policy on performance-based courses. Districts may use a hybrid schedule at the request of students and families as an additional COVID-19 mitigation strategy to assist with social distancing.

(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH) released new guidance on July 28 for schools on recommended masking guidelines ahead of the 2021-2022 school year.

Currently, the Kentucky Housing Corporation has expended just under $30 million of an available $220 million to program applicants. They are actively seeking applications from both tenants and landlords for rent and utility assistance.

KDE updates guidance on Supplemental School Year Program

During a “normal” year, students eat together, play games together, laugh together, cry together, and grow together. But this year, the unprecedented disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic has meant students have fewer opportunities to interact meaningfully and authentically with each other—often having their togetherness reduced to a Zoom room.

(FRANKFORT, KY) – Four Kentucky teachers addressed the Kentucky Senate Education Committee on Jan. 7 regarding the impact of remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH) has created a four-color metric to guide school officials in deciding whether to offer in person, virtual or hybrid instruction amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gov. Andy Beshear and DPH Commissioner Steven J. Stack announced the new metric on Sept. 14, a day during which Kentucky recorded 54 new cases of COVID-19 among people under age 18, about one-sixth of the day’s new case total.

For Many Schools, It’s Back to Distance Learning. Let’s Make It Better.

Schools have been under enormous pressure this summer to reopen as soon as possible—from families, from data showing the learning students lost this spring, even from the White House. And system leaders have been working tirelessly to solve the dizzying array of logistical challenges to open school buildings safely.

FRANKFORT, KY) – School districts throughout the Commonwealth were informed June 24 that the state is taking steps to provide unlimited non-traditional instruction (NTI) days during the 2020-2021 academic year.

This announcement came in the form of a memorandum submitted by Interim Education Commissioner Kevin C. Brown and signed by Lt. Gov. and Secretary of the Education and Workforce Cabinet Jacqueline Coleman. The memorandum temporarily suspends the statute capping NTI days at 10 and indicates that Brown will recommend an administrative regulation to the Kentucky Board of Education providing for unlimited NTI days for the next school year. It came on the same day Gov. Andy Beshear announced the release of the Healthy at School guidance during his daily press conference on the COVID-19 pandemic.

(FRANKFORT, KY) – In preparation for the reopening of school for the 2020-2021 school year, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) would like to better understand families’ and caregivers’ experiences with distance learning last school year due to COVID-19.

1. Select a video teleconferencing* platform that will be easily accessible to your members, the public, and candidates.
2. Send out notice of a special called meeting clearly stating the meeting is a video teleconference,* and make a link available for interested parties to attend. Notify the media if you have requests on hand.
3. Since you will start and end the meeting in open session and go into closed session for interviews and discussion of candidates, you can create two links/logins. One will be for the open portion of the meeting that you share on the agenda/notification with members, the public, and media. Estimate the earliest time you will return to open session and be sure the open meeting isn’t reactivated BEFORE that time; after is understandable.
4. Schedule a different Zoom (or other video platform) log-in link/login for the closed portion of the meeting and share that only with the council members (and any additional person who is an official part of the interview).
5. When returning to open session, record in the minutes that you interviewed and consulted with the council if they were part of the interview.

 If the interview committee doesn’t include the council:

• The interview committee will still need to follow all of the above.
• You will need to have a council meeting for consultation after the interviews.

FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) released a new guidance document on May 15 about questions schools and districts should consider when they are making plans for how to restart school for the 2020-2021 school year.

(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) released two new guidance documents on April 30 to help districts work through how to safely handle graduation alternatives and other end-of-school procedures during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Association of School Administrators (KASA) recently sent out a survey to 260 Kentucky principals seeking their feedback on the two options about how high school graduation requirements will be met for seniors during the 2019-2020 school year.