Education bills moving early in the Kentucky 2019 legislative session

Two bills addressing education issues that have been an interest item for the Bluegrass Institute are moving in Frankfort. Both have cleared the Kentucky Senate on a 23 to 13 vote and now are on the way to the Kentucky House.

One of these bills, Senate Bill 3, addresses contentious issues with the governance of Kentucky’s schools using the School Based Decision Making (SBDM) process and the other attempts to professionalize the problematic Kentucky Teacher Tribunal system, which many fear is not serving the best interests of Kentucky’s students. The Bluegrass Institute has addressed both these issues in the past and is pleased to see action moving forward.

For more details on the bills, click the “Read more” link.

The first bill, Senate Bill 3, cosponsored by senators J. Schickel, M. Wilson, D. Givens, D. Seum, and S. West, makes a number of changes in the governance of Kentucky’s schools with a primary focus on the division of authority between local school boards, the school district superintendent, and the School Based Decision Making (SBDM) Council in virtually every school in the state. Some key changes include:

• Allowing a local board to require an annual report of activities from a school council;

• Reducing the minimum number of teachers serving on the council to two, which will make the ratio of parents to teachers on a school council equal (Note that larger size councils are allowed provided the ratio stays even, e.g. 3:3, 4:4, etc. This only specifies at least a minimum size must apply);

• Specifying that a council decision is appealable to the local board;

• Requiring the local board of education to adopt a policy allowing the board to initiate review of a school council decision;

• Specifying that there will be alignment of council policy with local board policy;

• Allowing a teacher to be transferred while serving on the school council;

• Specifying that local board members may attend council meetings (Incredibly, many local board members are afraid to do this due to some harsh rulings regarding past attendance of board members at a school council where the board member was deemed to have interfered with the rights of the council);

• Permitting a superintendent to forward qualified job applicants for a school to the principal instead of the council;

• Altering the principal hiring process by requiring a new principal to be selected by the superintendent after consultation with school council (Currently, in a process that seriously undermines accountability and the ability of the superintendent to run the school district, the school council selects a new principal);

• Requiring a school council’s authority to be transferred to the superintendent if a school is identified for comprehensive support and improvement (the new version of the former Priority Schools program).

The Bluegrass Institute has been working for years to get a more rational and accountable school governance model for Kentucky, including the creation of many blogs, legislative testimony, and even a major report about the SBDM problems.SB-3 does a good job of addressing many of our concerns, and while some tweaking could occur when the Kentucky House takes this matter up, it seems likely that many major concerns about school governance are finally going to be addressed.

For more on SB-3, see the Bluegrass Institute’s recent Press Release.SB-3 was overwhelmingly approved by a 23 to 13 vote by the Kentucky Senate on January 11, 2019 and now proceeds to the Kentucky House.

The second bill of interest is SB-8, which deals with problems with the current Tribunal process Kentucky teachers can use if they feel they are being unfairly treated in serious job actions such as firing. It is cosponsored by senators S. West, D. Givens, R. Alvarado, and M. Wilson.

We have written several times over the years (see here and here) about the obvious pro-teacher bias in the current Tribunal system, which does not conform to the standard Kentucky Hearing process, but should.

For sure, Kentucky’s Teacher Tribunal process has not been even-handed in the past. WDRB reported in 2014 that:

“More than 70 percent of the terminations that went to tribunals in Kentucky from 2005 through 2010 were partially or completely reversed, according to data requested by and shared with the state's Interim Joint Committee on Education in November 2011.”

Once you realize the considerable burden placed on superintendents to document a case for firing and the resulting reluctance of superintendents to undertake such actions, this ratio of reversal is obviously problematic if the goal is for every child to have a good teacher.

Now, SB-8 brings more professional and standardized approach to the Tribunals. Under the new rules, each tribunal hearing will now be headed by an attorney trained in Kentucky school law. This attorney will act as an official Hearing Officer, just as happens for many other types of hearings under Kentucky Statute 13B provisions, which cover all due process hearings in the commonwealth.

Some specific changes this bill makes include:

• Specifying that a board of education must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, and any other applicable federal law in placing a teacher or superintendent on leave due to a physical or mental disability;

• Prohibiting a board from requesting unnecessary medical information or disclosing any medical information;

• Amending KRS 161.790 to clarify the causes for which a contract of a teacher may be terminated;

• Requiring an attorney to serve as hearing officer and chairman of the tribunal;

• Removing the lay person from the tribunal;

• Establishing selection and training requirements for hearing officers;

• Establish a prehearing conference for motions and mediation;

• Establishing a tribunal's decision as a recommended order and allow parties to file exceptions to recommended order;

• Allow hearing officer to respond to exceptions by entering original recommended order or an amended order as a final order;

• Limit decisions to upholding or overturning the decision of the superintendent.

The requirements to comply with ADA, HIPPA and other federal laws is mostly housekeeping activity, but the material about hearings for teacher termination are new and will create a more professional and orderly Tribunal system. It was supported in the Senate Education meeting on January 10, 2019 by speakers from the Kentucky School Boards Association, the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and by Kentucky Commissioner of Education Wayne Lewis.

Again, the goal is to offer a fair and professional due process hearing to teachers while insuring that ultimately the best interests of Kentucky’s students are also considered. SB-8 was passed by the entire Kentucky Senate with an overwhelming 23 to 13 vote on January 11, 2019 and now proceeds for additional consideration by the Kentucky House.