A package of Kentucky K-12 laws takes effect July 15, 2026, reshaping student discipline, educator misconduct law, administrator compensation, school bus safety, and the governance structure of the state's largest school district. The measures include a mandatory 12-month expulsion requirement for students in grades 6 through 12 who intentionally injure school staff, a new crime of grooming minors with enhanced penalties for authority figures, restrictions on administrator pay raises, authorization for stop-arm cameras on school buses, and a restructuring of Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) that expands superintendent authority. The JCPS changes represent a second legislative attempt after the Kentucky Supreme Court struck down a nearly identical 2022 law.
Second attempt at JCPS restructuring
Senate Bill 1, enacted after a veto override on April 14, 2026, applies only to Jefferson County, the state's sole district with a consolidated local government and a population exceeding 500,000. The law requires the board to delegate day-to-day operations to the superintendent, including authority over contracts, transportation, personnel, and organizational structure. Superintendent-prepared rules and policies cannot be withheld except by a two-thirds board vote, and the superintendent may approve purchases and line-item transfers up to $250,000 without board approval. The board must approve a rolling five-year strategic plan by December 1 each year and an annual budget.
The law is the legislature's response to the Kentucky Supreme Court's December 2025 ruling in Coleman v. Jefferson County Board of Education. In that decision, the court struck down the prior 2022 SB 1 because it treated Jefferson County differently without what the court called a reasonably articulable natural and distinctive basis, violating the state constitution's prohibition on special or local legislation for managing common schools. The 2026 version adds legislative findings and broadens the class definition to include any county school district in a county with a consolidated local government adopted under KRS Chapter 67C or with 500,000 or more inhabitants. Practically, that class still contains only Jefferson County. SB 4, passed with an emergency clause, further reduced the JCPS board from seven to five members and placed all five seats on the November 2026 ballot; board members drew lots in May 2026 to resolve residency overlaps in the new districts.
JCPS has said it is rewriting nearly 100 policies to align with SB 1. A district policy executive noted that the law's language is not always clear and that the differing voting thresholds may create public confusion. The district also faces the implementation of the other new laws simultaneously.
Mandatory expulsion with alternative pathways
SB 101 amends state law to require local boards to expel for at least 12 months any student in grades 6 through 12 who recklessly with a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, or intentionally, caused or attempted to cause physical injury to a school district employee on school property or at a school function. Expelled students must receive educational services through alternative or virtual programs, and a pathway to return exists after 26 weeks if the student completes community service, maintains academic progress, and receives unanimous approval from a review panel that includes the victim and school leadership. The law also requires school employees to immediately report attempted assault of any school employee to law enforcement, with escalating criminal penalties for intentional failure to report.
The law includes a case-by-case modification provision, common among state mandatory expulsion laws. A review of such laws across all 50 states found that virtually every state has a mandatory expulsion law, but the majority apply it only to weapons or firearms offenses, with 20 percent including assault offenses. The JCPS superintendent has stated the district does not intend to use expulsion, saying students who commit violence under SB 101 would be reassigned to alternative schools rather than removed from the district entirely, except for some students with disabilities.
Research on mandatory expulsion and zero-tolerance discipline raises questions about such approaches. The American Psychological Association's Zero Tolerance Task Force found in 2008 that data directly testing the assumptions of zero tolerance were scarce, and the available data tended to contradict them. The review found that suspension predicted higher future rates of misbehavior, and that suspension and expulsion were moderately associated with higher likelihood of dropout and lower academic achievement, even controlling for socioeconomic status. A 2018 meta-analysis of 37 studies found that school-based interventions significantly reduced exclusion during the first six months, but the effect at 12 or more months was reduced by half and not statistically significant. The meta-analysis concluded that enhancement of academic skills, counseling, mentoring, and teacher training showed promise, but cautioned that independent evaluators reported lower effect sizes. A study of New York City's 2012 discipline reform, which eliminated suspensions for non-violent, disorderly behavior, found that math and reading scores rose in more-affected schools, with gains tied to improvements in school culture rather than the direct effect of reduced suspensions.
Grooming criminalization enters state law
HB 4 creates a new criminal offense for grooming a minor. For adults 18 and older who groom a minor under 14, the offense is a Class A misdemeanor, elevated to a Class D felony if the minor is under 12. For persons in a position of authority or special trust who groom a minor under 18, it is a Class D felony, or a Class C felony if the minor is under 12. The law defines grooming behavior as a course of conduct directed at a minor intended to establish an emotional connection through manipulation, trust-building, or influence to facilitate future sexual conduct or normalize the minor to sexual conduct. The conduct may occur online, in person, through third parties, or by other indirect methods, and no in-person meeting or completed act is required.
At least 17 U.S. states have passed laws defining grooming as a process of manipulating a child to gain trust for sexual abuse, and 15 of those criminalize it as a felony, according to a March 2026 analysis by the Enough Abuse Campaign. Arkansas was the first, in 2013. Texas and Oregon had grooming laws struck down on constitutional overbreadth grounds before being amended. Kentucky's HB 4 follows the pattern of enhanced penalties for adults in positions of authority or special trust, similar to provisions in Arizona, Vermont, Mississippi, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Wisconsin passed two laws in 2024 and 2025, first targeting school employees specifically and later expanding to all adults with enhanced penalties for those in positions of trust and for grooming children with disabilities.
The Enough Abuse Campaign's 2026 policy analysis also noted that grooming criminalization statutes face constitutional vulnerabilities including vagueness and overbreadth, and that grooming is usually identified only after abuse occurs, making standalone grooming charges function as add-on charges rather than prevention tools. The analysis concluded that criminalizing grooming is likely one piece of an effective approach, and that administrative and institutional strategies such as background checks, codes of conduct, and mandatory training are essential complements.
Administrator pay and bus safety
SB 2, effective with an emergency clause, makes a district ineligible for SEEK funds if superintendent or administrator contracts entered into on or after July 1, 2026 provide a percentage pay increase greater than the percentage increase provided to classroom teachers. Exceptions exist for professional advancement with significant job duty changes or uniform pay increases for a job category. The state education commissioner may grant waivers.
HB 7 allows school districts to install camera monitoring systems on school buses to enforce civil penalties against vehicle owners who illegally pass stopped buses. Penalties are $300 for a first offense and $500 for each subsequent offense within three years. No points are assessed against the owner's driving record. JCPS has issued a request for proposals for stop-arm camera vendors but had not selected a vendor or set an installation timeline as of mid-July 2026.
A 2021 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study of stop-arm camera programs in three districts found no significant decreases in the number of illegal passers after implementation. The study noted recidivism was very low: across 139,913 recorded illegal passes from 34 jurisdictions' vendor data, only 1.87 percent were repeat offenders. The agency called for consistent methodologies, public awareness campaigns, and high conviction rates to demonstrate full effectiveness.