With bad weather pummeling KY schools, bill advances giving districts 5 calamity days

With some Kentucky school districts dealing with repeated closures increased by weekend flooding and Wednesday’s snow storm, a legislative committee approved a bill that would allow for five days of relief from the required time students must be in class.

“We had a lot of districts reach out for some extra help,” said state Rep. Timmy Truett, R-McKee, who sponsored House Bill 241.

The legislation was approved by the House Standing Committee on Primary and Secondary Education Wednesday in a 13-2 vote. It now goes to the full House of Representatives for consideration.

Under state law, Kentucky schools must have 170 days or 1,062 hours of instruction. The law also allows ten days of non-traditional or learning from home instruction. That usually includes virtual instruction or teachers sending home paper packets of assignments.

As of Tuesday, 40 of Kentucky’s 171 school districts had used all of the 10 non-traditional instruction allowed under state law, according to Truett.

Multiple days of rain last week, followed by constant heavy rain Saturday, resulted in flooding across the state. A snow storm impacted many schools on Wednesday. Additionally, winter weather in January closed many school districts, as did episodes of student and staff sickness. Some districts canceled classes as police searched for a suspect in an interstate shooting.

Fayette County Public Schools has used seven NTI days as of Thursday.

Under House Bill 241, for the 2024-2025 school year only, the Kentucky’s Commissioner of Education can grant five disaster relief or calamity days to school districts to provide instruction in alternate settings when the school districts are closed for health or safety reasons.

With floods and snow “we have districts, we have schools, that are going to be closed for weeks. In some instances maybe a month,” Truett said.

Truett said NTI days, or virtual instruction, is not as preferable as in-person instruction, but it beats the alternative of closing schools altogether.

Kentucky Education Commissioner Robbie Fletcher previously said he’s been asking lawmakers for five additional NTI days to make up for the days Kentucky students have missed.

Under the bill, if a school district is unable to provide the required 1,062 instructional hours by June 4, the commissioner of education can waive up to five instructional days. Any school districts getting that waiver would have had to first make up days by adding time to each school day, the bill said.

State Rep. Felicia Rabourn, R-Turners Station, who cast a “no” vote against Truett’s bill and has filed House Bill 737 which would eliminate NTI days, said she strongly opposed NTI days.

“If it were up to me we would have zero,” Rabourn said.

This story was originally published February 19, 2025 at 3:17 PM.