By Jay Scott, director of KSDE accreditation and design 

As the 2025-26 School Improvement (SI) Days have kicked off, the KSDE accreditation and design team wanted to share some information with you regarding reimbursements for the 2026-27 School Improvement Days.   

As many of you know, KSDE committed to paying for system district leadership teams (DLTs) to attend their respective School Improvement Day for the first two years of KESA 2.0. For last year and this year, KSDE has reimbursed our educational service centers (ESC) for registration costs ($35 per person) for all attendees of each School Improvement Day. KSDE will continue to reimburse our ESC partners through the end of the current school year.   

Beginning in 2026-27, KSDE will no longer reimburse our educational service center partners for all attendees at the School Improvement Days, so school systems need to prepare to pay registration costs to attend SI days after this year. Educational service centers will still host SI Days next year, but since school systems will now need to pay registration costs, school systems will now have the option to host their respective SI Day beginning in 2026-27. 

KSDE and service centers are currently working together to determine the 2026-27 School Improvement Day schedule over the next month. Once the schedule is set, we will release it to all school systems in KESA. From there, KSDE will share the process and expectations for school systems that would like to host their SI Day beginning in 2026-27. Remember that the ESCs hosting SI Days is the default; our ESC partners have been great to work with in hosting these important, collaborative days, but it is an option for school systems to begin hosting SI Days in 2026-27.  

Stay tuned for the 2026-27 School Improvement Day schedule along with the process and expectations if your school system wants to host their cohort’s SI Day in 2026-27.   

Contact Jay Scott, jay.scott@ksde.gov, with questions.