Two Bills Sponsored by Rep. Truett are Now Kentucky Law

Rep. Timmy Truett's amended bill (HB 241) and HB 240 are now Kentucky law. The amended HB 241 not only allows Kentucky schools to make up days lost to bad winter weather and floods, but also protects a controversial online school from enrollment caps imposed by state education officials.

Beshear allowed House Bill 241 to become law without his signature. The bill's passage in the General Assembly was uncertain for a time after the Senate amended Truett's bill, adding a provision to protect the Kentucky Virtual Academy after the Kentucky Department of Education sought to limit its enrollment due to poor student performance and failure to meet staffing requirements.

Rep. Truett introduced the bill originally to provide relief to Kentucky school districts running out of their 10 NTI days, or non-traditional instruction days, this school year. Even before Kentucky was hit with widespread floods in mid-February, some schools had closed and temporarily moved to virtual instruction due to bad winter weather or sickness.
Leading up to the veto period, a free conference committee made up of House and Senate members reached an agreement on the bill that allows public schools to waive five required days and make up for lost instruction by lengthening the school day, while the free conference committee also agreed to "guardrails" to limit enrollment at the Kentucky Virtual Academy.

Governor Beshear did not veto or sign the bill, instead simply letting it become law. A governor's office press release said Beshear's action "is due to the General Assembly's contradiction of their own actions and attitudes toward in-person learning." In 2021, lawmakers approved legislation ending a mask mandate in K-12 schools and limited school districts to 10 NTI days a school year.

"The General Assembly previously mandated that children return to in-person learning during the pandemic, yet now they are promoting all-virtual learning," the release said.
When Rep. Truett initially presented the bill to the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee, he said most educators know virtual learning is "not as good as in-seat instruction." He is an elementary school principal himself.

"I'm telling you firsthand -- it is not," Truett said. "It's not, but it does beat the alternative. When you're off school for two weeks because of weather or not going to see your kids for a month because of flooding, a virtual instruction day is so much more valuable than not seeing your kids at all."
Truett also said that he didn't think the Republican-controlled General Assembly would approve a bill that just increased the number of NTI days each school district gets.

One committee member, Rep. Felica Rabourn, R-Turners Station, voted against the bill at the time and said she strongly opposed giving more NTI days and would prefer schools "have zero."

Kentucky school districts are typically allowed no more than 10 NTI days in a school year.

However, Senate Republicans argued for their addition which would have blocked state-imposed limits on enrollment at the Kentucky Virtual Academy, which is based out of the Cloverport Independent Schools. They cited testimony from parents of students who are enrolled in the online program.

Concerns about the Kentucky Virtual School have been reported by the Louisville Courier Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader, which highlighted numerous accusations and lawsuits raised against Stride, a for-profit company that has a contract to run the virtual academy. While it serves students across the state through online instruction, the academy is attached to the district in Breckinridge County.

HB 240 - Kindergarten Readiness
A second bill (HB 240) sponsored by Rep. Truett became law. In previous years, more than 50% of Kentucky's students entered kindergarten ready. Today, that number has dropped to between 40% and 48%, leaving more than half of students behind from the start. 

To address this, Rep. Truett proposed HB 240, which strengthens early education by encouraging schools to hold back unprepared kindergarteners and first graders who lack the foundational literacy, math, and language skills needed to advance. This measure utilizes the universal screener from the Read to Succeed Act (SB 9, 2022) to assess student progress in kindergarten and first grade. Kindergarten students may be held back, but first-grade students must be held back if they do not make adequate progress. The ultimate goal is to intervene early when the biggest differences can be made. 

Governor Beshear chose to veto Truett's bill saying, "If the General Assembly wants to solve the issue of children not being prepared for kindergarten or first grade, it needs to fund universal pre-k education. In the current biennial budget I recommended $172 million be appropriated to begin funding universal preschool for Kentucky's 4-year-olds. The legislature did not act. House Bill 240 is not the answer. We should prepare, not punish, our youngest learners. Further - as an unintended consequence - the bill will keep some students from being eligible to play sports in their senior year. For these reasons, I am vetoing House Bill 240." 

However, members of the General Assembly voted to override Governor Andy Beshear's veto of HB 240. 

Representative Timmy Truett, the sponsor of HB 240, shared the following statement after House members voted to override the veto: 
 "Education continues to be a priority for this General Assembly. We've proven it with historic funding and countless policies aimed at improving how we teach reading and math, as well as classroom behavior, and chronic absenteeism. Lawmakers provided further evidence of their commitment by voting to strike the Governor's veto of legislation addressing kindergarten readiness. House Bill 240 provides teachers and parents an opportunity to intervene early rather than allow our kids to get further and further behind. 
 When elementary schools across Kentucky open their doors for the first day of school, more than half of the children arriving for kindergarten will not be prepared. This makes it harder for them to achieve their potential and leads to academic and behavioral issues."