KSDE Newsroom

Several education-related bills, passed during the 2024 Kansas legislative session, will go into effect Monday, July 1. The following highlights some key changes districts need to be aware of as the 2024-2025 school year approaches, including reporting requirements. 

With a sense of urgency, the Kansas Blueprint for Literacy advisory committee took the first of many steps this week in continuing the Kansas State Board of Education’s commitment to improving the reading levels of Kansas students. 

Using humor mixed with tough love, Mary Alice Kelly wants young Kansans to know they can stop vaping. 

“I tell them (students) that lung transplants aren’t pleasant,” said Kelly, a nurse at Shawnee Mission North High School. “I also let them know they’re not alone.”

Some educators in Kansas will have until 2028 to become trained or pass a test to show they are complying with the science of reading structured literacy requirements to renew their license. Members of the Kansas State Board of Education voted to approve the licensure renewal requirement this week during their June meeting in Topeka.  

Family, each student matters and the joy of teaching were the main themes that emerged this week during a presentation by members of the 2024 Kansas Teacher of the Year team to the Kansas State Board of Education. 

Kassidy Gallagher and her three kids initially came to Bonner Springs Elementary School this week for the Kids and Big Rigs event, hosted by Bonner Springs Unified School District 204 and Bonner Springs Parks and Recreation. When she saw free lunch was being offered to kids 18 years old and under, she decided to utilize that opportunity.  

Topeka – Members of the Kansas State Board of Education (KSBE) are expected to decide during their June meeting how most of the additional $75.5 million in special education state aid is going to be distributed to the state’s school districts.

As a former superintendent and new to his position as KSDE’s deputy commissioner of fiscal and administrative services for the Kansas State Department of Education, Frank Harwood can relate to the cliché, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” 

Harwood and Dale Brungardt, KSDE’s director of school finance, are preparing for this summer’s round of budget workshops for superintendents, business managers, clerks and other district officials June 12-26 in eight locations. As has been tradition, there will be a one-day session devoted solely to superintendents new to their position on July 2, in Salina. 

Making peer-to-peer and community-level connections is one way Kansas teens are trying to help each other navigate the complexities of mental health and substance use.

There will be a special meeting of the Kansas State Board of Education at 10 a.m., Friday, May 24.