Bill to protect controversial Kentucky school merged with weather relief legislation

Kentucky lawmakers on Thursday merged a bill that protects a fast-growing, low-performing virtual school with a bill that would provide relief for school districts that have missed days this year due to weather and other problems.

The merged bill passed the Senate with a vote of 23-14 and now heads to the House of Representatives.

Rep. Timmy Truett, R-McKee, a school principal and sponsor of the bill that would provide relief for districts that had missed classes, said he was so upset by the decision to merge the bills that he would not advocate for the legislation.

“I’m principled enough to know that if I think this is going to go on my bill, that’s going to harm public education. ... I will speak against my own bill and try my best to kill it,” Truett said.

Truett said his bill started off as something good for all Kentucky districts that was desperately needed.

The bill, House Bill 241, would provide five calamity days that don’t need to be made up, and add time to the end of the school day, in districts that have been ravaged by flooding and winter weather this year. Several districts missed significant time after severe flooding last month, including in Pikeville, where students still have not returned to classes.

But the Senate Education Committee on Thursday merged that bill with Senate Bill 268, which would bar the state from cutting funding or putting an enrollment cap on virtual schools for at least three years. Senate Bill 268 is sponsored by Sen. Aaron Reed, R-Shelbyville, and was previously approved by the Senate Education Committee.

The Kentucky Board of Education had sought such an enrollment cap as Cloverport Independent School District, which has about 250 students enrolled in in-person classes and about 2,800 enrolled in a new virtual academy, came under fire for issues including poor test scores, failing to administer state tests to enough students and failing to comply with state regulations on class sizes.

Cloverport Independent Superintendent Keith Haynes and some lawmakers have said the cap, which would essentially limit the number of virtual students at 10% of a school district’s in-person enrollment, would shut down the Kentucky Virtual Academy.

After the vote, Education Commissioner Robbie Fletcher told the Herald-Leader Thursday in an email that “maintaining the separation between House Bill 241 and Senate Bill 268 is important due to their distinct focuses.”

“HB 241 addresses adjustments to school district calendars, allowing local districts to compensate for missed days by adding instructional time, and permits waivers for up to five student attendance days, if necessary, in response to the extreme weather and safety events that we have had this year,” Fletcher said. “In contrast, SB 268 pertains to virtual education programs, prohibiting enrollment caps and the withholding of funds based on a district’s operation of such programs.”

Senate Education Committee Chairman Sen. Steve West, R-Paris, said a group of lawmakers felt, from a policy perspective, that Cloverport should not immediately be shut down since it had been operational for only one year. He said Cloverport’s “issues” needed to be addressed, but the school needed time to improve.

West said if large-scale virtual schools such as Cloverport start popping up all over the state, the General Assembly could quickly address that.

Truett noted that students at Cloverport are among the lowest-performing in the state.

The merged bill would allow, but not require, the state education commissioner to grant districts five calamity days under certain conditions.

It would include some guidelines for virtual schools too — virtual schools could not enroll more than 2% of another district’s students. If it wanted to enroll more than that 2% limit, it would have to submit a request to the local board of education to do that for one year only.

Virtual programs also could not continue to enroll nonresident students after June 30, 2028, under the bill, indicating the legislature will likely revisit the issue before then.

Cloverport’s online program, Kentucky Virtual Academy, has a contract with Stride, a for-profit company that has been scrutinized in other states. The district pays the company much of the funds it receives from the state.

Kentucky Republican lawmakers have long pushed for what they describe as school choice, which would allow for taxpayer funds to be used for programs other than public schools.

Truett said it makes no sense for Republican lawmakers to oppose the state’s non-traditional, or virtual instruction, program that allows kids to learn from home when in-person classes aren’t possible, and then also push to keep a low-performing, all-virtual school open with unregulated growth.

Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, Senate Minority Caucus Chair, said the amendment approved by the Senate Education Committee was a bad one and that Stride should not be allowed to operate in Kentucky. He voted against the legislation.

The committee approved the revised House Bill 241 with 8 yes votes, 2 no votes, and one pass before it was approved by the full Senate later Thursday.

On the Senate floor, Thomas was one of the lawmakers who spoke against the merged bill, saying it was rushed to the floor. He said citizens needed time to discuss the revised bill.

Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, asked on the Senate floor why more time was not given to debate the merged bill.

Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg, said multiple parents who spoke to the Senate Education Committee said the education their children were getting at the Kentucky Virtual Academy was helping them thrive.

This story was originally published March 6, 2025 at 12:22 PM.