Kansas legislators are on a three-week break, after they reached First Adjournment last week. They will return to the Kansas Statehouse Thursday, April 25.  When they return, they will have a couple of bills to consider for passage and any bills that are vetoed by the Governor. The veto session begins Monday, April 29.

Bills that have passed both chambers

SB 19 – EMERGE Program and cardiac plans

The contents of HB 2567 (EMERGE Program) and HB 2494 (developing emergency cardiac plans for schools) were added into SB 19.

The EMERGE Program is a master’s degree scholarship program for Kansas National Guard members.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) would be required to develop model emergency cardiac plans for schools and for local school boards to adopt an emergency cardiac plan.

The bill passed the House 119-3 and the Senate 26-2. It will now head to the governor's desk.

SB 73 – Current year enrollment

The contents of SB 73 were stripped from the bill and the contents of SB 386, as passed by the Senate, were inserted. Starting in 2024-2025, enrollment for funding will be based on the highest of current or prior year enrollment. For 2024-2025, the highest of current, prior or average of prior and second preceding year can be used.

The bill was passed in the House 120-3 and in the Senate 35-4. It will now head to the governor's desk.

SB 438 – AO-K Scholarship (now includes Blueprint for Literacy, State Board reporting requirements

The contents of four bills were added into SB 438, which originally only included eliminating the requirement to subtract other aid from the state payment in the AO-K program.

The following bills were added into SB 438:

• SB 544 – Establishes the Kansas Academic Excellence Scholarship to replace the Ethnic Minority Scholarship.
• HB 2645 – Nursing Service scholarship.
  • HB 2646 (Hero scholarship) was added into this bill by the Senate Committee on Education.
• SB 532 – Blueprint for Literacy
• HB 2731 – Reporting requirements for the Kansas State Board of Education.

The bill passed the House 98-22 and the Senate 34-3. It will now head to the governor’s desk.

Bills that have not passed either chamber

House Sub for SB 387 – K-12 budget package bill

Nine different bills were added into House Sub for SB 387. The following are other changes made during conference committee last week:

• HB 2738 – Special Education
  • Removed counting local option budget (LOB) as state special education aid.
  • Retained mandatory transfer from LOB to special education.
  • Reduced special education aid increase from $77.5 million to $67.5 million.
  • Retained district level excess cost calculation and reporting.
  • Retained requiring the Kansas State Board of Education to develop a method to distribute new special education aid based on district level special education excess costs.
• HB 2650 – At-risk
  • Removed the peer review requirement from provisionally approved at-risk programs and services.
  • Added an appeal process for items removed from the at-risk services and programs list.
  • Delayed the at-risk reporting and accountability provisions for two years.
  • Require the Kansas State Board of Education to do a two-year pilot with ten districts. KSDE would develop a process and it would be implemented in the 2025-2026 school year.
• HB 2489 – Disposing of district property
  • Removed the exemption for buildings that did not receive capital improvement state aid.
• HB 2802 – Governor’s KSDE budget recommendations
  • Stipulate the $5 million Public-Private Partnership Grant is for one year from KEY Funds.
  • Removed $1.9 million enhancement for professional development state aid.
  • Removed $1 million enhancement for teacher mentors.
  • Restricts $5 million in Safe and Secure Schools grant funds to AEDs, cameras and AI gun detection software, and reinstates the dollar-for-dollar district match.

The contents of the following bills were not changed in conference committee:

• HB 2506 – Virtual student participation in district of residence and virtual student funding.
• HB 2514 – Open enrollment.
• HB 2594 – Establishes the School Funding Task Force and abolishes the Special Education Funding Task Force.
• HB 2717 – Adult virtual student funding audits.

Although the conference committee came to agreement on all the above, the bill was not considered in either chamber before First Adjournment.

Bills of interest:

SB 28 – Codifying the Mental Health Intervention Team (MHIT) program administered by the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) in state statute.

• Included in budget proviso.
• Moving to KDADS with current funding. Accredited non-public schools would become eligible.

SB 96– Transferring certain childcare programs to the Kansas Office of Early Childhood and separating licensing duties between the secretary for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the executive director of early childhood.

• Passed the House 110-10.
• Parents as Teachers will move from KSDE if enacted. KSDE will continue administration of 3- to 4-year-old at-risk and early childhood special education.
• It’s awaiting a vote in the Senate.