First adjournment for the 2025 Kansas legislative session was Friday, March 28. Legislators are expected to reconvene on Thursday, April 10, for the veto session. The 90th day of the session will be Saturday, April 12.

In the meantime, Gov. Laura Kelly has signed two education-related bills: 

Substitute for HB 2102 was signed into law on March 28. It will go into effect July 1, 2025. The legislation provides for the advance enrollment of a military student whose parent, or person acting as a parent, will be stationed in Kansas, and correcting federal statutory citations in the interstate compact on educational opportunity for military children. Before arriving on the governor’s desk, the bill passed in the House 121-0 and in the Senate 40-0. To read more about the bill, click here.  

Gov. Kelly has also signed SB 2, on March 21, which validates the election results for the bond issuance question submitted by the Greeley County USD 200 board of education, at a special election held on May 21, 2024. It had passed the Senate, 39-1, and the House, 121-1. To read more about the bill, click here.

Bills enrolled and on Gov. Kelly’s desk: 

SB 114: Authorizing nonpublic and virtual school students to participate in ancillary public school activities and making it unlawful for the Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA) and school districts to discriminate against such students based on enrollment status. 

• Passed in the Senate as amended 32-8 and passed in the House as amended 83-39. A conference committee report was adopted by the House, 84-38, and the Senate, 32-8, on Wednesday, March 26. It was enrolled and presented to the governor on Monday, March 31. To read more, click here. 

SB 125/Senate Sub for Sub for HB 2007: Making and concerning supplemental appropriations for fiscal year 2025, and appropriations for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 for KSDE and various state agencies. The conference committee members appointed to work on the bill inserted the contents of Senate Sub for Sub for HB 2007 into SB 125. They agreed to the following: 

• FY 2025 funding for the Safe and Secure Schools grant, professional development, CTE transportation, the mentor teacher program, computer science advancement grants, and teacher excellence grants was retained (they took the House position). 
• FY 2025 funding for SparkWheel was eliminated (took the Senate position). 
• For FY 2026, $10 million was added for special education services state aid and for FY27 to meet maintenance of effort (MOE). 
• Did not add funding for toiletry grants in FY26. 
• Require KSDE to spend $500,000 from existing resources to provide the E-Rate match in FY26. 
• Require KSDE to spend $2 million from existing resources and issue an RFP for a supplemental American history online curriculum in FY26. 
• Require KSDE to spend $320,000 from existing resources for a virtual reality career exploration program in FY26. 
• Eliminate FY26 funding for professional development, the mentor teacher program, computer science advancement grants, and teacher excellence. 
• Fund CTE transportation at $1.5 million in FY26. 
• Require KSDE to spend $1.5 million from existing resources, specifically the CPI increase to the BASE in FY26, to provide grants for the purchase of AEDs. 
• Add $10 million SGF in FY25 to the attorney general’s office for 2-year firearm detection software program for public schools. After two years, districts may continue the program with district funds. 
• Add language encouraging expenditures from existing funds to be used to expand current efforts to train both elementary and middle school teachers in the area of Science of Reading, including assisting students to reach grade-level literacy for FY26. 
• Add language allowing foreign exchange students who live in the district to be permitted to enroll and not be subject to open-seat lottery FY26. 
• 1.5% lapse of KSDE operating funds. 

The budgets for the Kansas School for the Deaf and the Kansas State School for the Blind for FY25 and FY26 were approved. 

SB 125 was engrossed on Saturday, March 29, meaning it’s the final copy of the bill. The text amended by floor action was incorporated. It was enrolled and presented to the governor on Monday, March 31. To read more about the bill, click here. 
 

HB 2033: Including programs and services provided by nonprofit organizations accredited by the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council as approved at-risk educational programs. 

• Passed in the House 89-32 and passed in the Senate 31-9. It was enrolled and presented to the governor on Tuesday, March 25. For more information, click here. 

Senate Sub for HB 2382: Requiring the inclusion of a human fetal development presentation as part of the curriculum for any course that addresses human growth, human development or human sexuality. 

• The original bill that would have adjusted the daily compensation rate for members of the state board of education passed in the House 115-7. On Monday, March 17, the Senate Committee on Education voted to remove the contents of HB 2382 and insert the contents of SB 275 (see above). 
• On Tuesday, March 18, the Senate accepted the committee report that recommended the substitute bill be passed and passed it 29-11. The House voted to nonconcur with the amendments and a conference committee was requested. The motion to accede in the Senate was adopted. The Senate’s conference committee report, which was an agree to disagree, was adopted and a new committee was appointed. The report from this conference committee added language that would allow the State Board to set their own pay but without appropriating new funding. The Senate adopted the report, 31-9 and the House adopted it 84-40. It was enrolled and presented to the governor on Monday, March 31. To read more, click here. 

 
Bills awaiting action by the governor: 

Substitute for SB 45: Requiring the Kansas State Board of Education to calculate graduation rates for all school districts for purposes of accreditation using an alternative calculation. 

• Passed in the Senate 32-8 and passed as amended in the House 86-36. Since the House added amendments, the Senate voted to nonconcur and a conference committee was adopted to review the amendments. On March 13, the House voted to accede, and a conference committee was adopted on the House side to work the bill. The House adopted the conference committee report on Wednesday, March 26, on a 117-5 vote. The Senate adopted the conference committee report 40-0 on Thursday, March 27. 

HB 2069: Enacting the school psychologist licensure compact to provide interstate practice privileges for school psychologists. 

• Passed as amended in the House 119-0 and passed as amended in the Senate 39-1. 
• The bill includes three other multistate licensure compacts: the Dietitian Compact, the Cosmetologist Licensure Compact and the Physician Assistant Licensure Compact. The House acceded to all Senate amendments on the bill and the Senate adopted the conference committee report by a 40-0 vote.  The House also adopted the conference committee report on Wednesday, March 26, and approved it 121-1. It was engrossed on Monday, March 31 To read more, click here. 

 
Bills in progress: 

SB 44/Sub for HB 2299: Declaring antisemitism and antisemitic acts to be against public policy and establishing a statutory definition of such terms. 

• The contents of Sub for HB 2299 were inserted into SB 44 and then the conference committee report was adopted by the House, 102-21, and the Senate, 39-1. To read more, click here. 

SB 47: Requiring school districts to publicly list the names and email addresses of current board members; authorizing local school board members to add new agenda items to board meeting discussions, ask questions or engage in discussion with members of the public during meetings and access school property; authorizing members of the public to address school boards at board meetings; and authorizing payment of annual dues to any not-for-profit organization that provides services to member school districts. 

• Passed in the Senate 21-19. A hearing was held Tuesday, March 11, in the House Committee on Education and on Thursday, March 13, voted to pass the bill out as amended. It was withdrawn from the House calendar and rereferred to the House Committee on Education. To read more, click here. 
   

Education Funding Task Force 

The Education Funding Task Force looked at how other states do their education funding formula at their meeting on Monday, March 31. 

Jennifer Light with the Kansas Legislative Research Department (KLRD) presented a 50-state school finance memorandum as of March 2024 and defined the most common funding mechanisms used by states to give state aid in different programs and demographics. 

The primary funding model is determined either by students or resources in most states. In a student-based model, districts receive a base amount of funding per student with additional monies or weights added to provide additional services and support to students with unique needs. Kansas is one of those states that do this. 

Nine states use a resource-based model, where districts receive funding sufficient to pay for minimum required resources, such as staffing, services or programs. Four states use a hybrid model of both students and resources to determine funding, while two states use a separate funding model. 

Other KLRD employees took a closer look at school finance models of the following nearby states: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma. 

 
Click here to see calendars and journals of the House and Senate, and agendas for committees. Click here for other useful links and information from KSDE.