Legislative Summary

Published: May 2, 2026

Kentucky General Assembly — 2026 Session Summary

The Body

The Kentucky General Assembly is a bicameral legislature consisting of a 100-member House of Representatives and a 38-member Senate. Following the 2024 elections, Republicans hold a 31–7 majority in the Senate and an 80–20 majority in the House. Kentucky was one of 19 state legislatures in the country where Republicans held a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. The Democratic Party controls the governorship under Andy Beshear, creating a divided state government — though the supermajority means the legislature can and has overridden his vetoes with ease.

Session Overview — Now Complete

The 2026 Regular Session was a budget year and "long" 60-day legislative session. It began on January 6, 2026. The session adjourned sine die on Wednesday, April 15, 2026.

The session wrapped up three and a half months of work to pass a two-year state budget and more than 170 other measures out of roughly 1,300 bills filed. Notably, the Republican-led House and Senate overrode more than 30 vetoes made by Governor Beshear, with just a handful of his line-item budget vetoes left intact.

Major Legislative Actions

Budget: House Bill 500, the executive branch spending plan, boosts per-student funding through the SEEK formula by 4% over two years and reduces spending for several state agencies. The General Assembly also passed a measure appropriating $400 million from the Budget Reserve Trust Fund for water and sewer projects, economic development, and local infrastructure investments.

Jefferson County Public Schools: Two high-profile bills targeted Kentucky's largest school district. Senate Bill 1 gives the superintendent authority to manage more day-to-day operations of JCPS, while Senate Bill 4 changes the makeup of the JCPS school board, reducing it from seven to five members and redrawing school board districts.

Constitutional Amendment on Pardon Power: Senate Bill 10 will place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot seeking to limit a governor's pardon power at the end of their term.

Education and State Assessment — Key Legislation to Watch

The most significant education action from this session for those in the assessment and accountability space is House Bill 257, which Governor Beshear signed into law on April 13, 2026.

What HB 257 does:

HB 257 implements a new accountability and assessment system for public K–12 schools that focuses on community feedback and individual student learning. The Kentucky Department of Education expressed support for the legislation.

Key changes include: a shift from cohort-based "change" metrics to individual student growth in reading and mathematics; the introduction of locally developed indicators of quality that districts can set in collaboration with their communities; and a priority placed on student attendance within the accountability model.

One of the biggest shifts is the move from cohort-based "change" metrics to individual student growth in reading and mathematics. Previously, accountability compared groups of students from one year to the next. However, as of April 2026, KDE has not yet finalized how growth will be measured — the statute requires "measures of individual student growth in reading and mathematics," with methodology to be defined through administrative regulation.

Writing assessment changes:

HB 257 eliminates statewide writing assessments. Instead, local school districts will create and implement writing programs that "include disciplinary-specific writing across the curriculum" and "incorporate a variety of language resources, technological tools, and multiple opportunities for students to develop complex communication skills."

Writing is no longer assessed through the state test, but districts are now accountable for having a clearly defined and consistently implemented approach. Superintendents must adopt and publish a writing program policy.

The college admissions test question — a major watch item:

The Kentucky Department of Education is required to initiate a new competitive procurement process and award a contract only to a vendor whose assessment product satisfies all applicable state and federal statutory requirements for accountability and assessment purposes, to be in place for the 2026–2027 school year. Whether this signals a return to the ACT is uncertain — there may be room for legal debate, and since a contract is already in place, litigation is possible. This is perhaps the most consequential near-term development for vendors and assessment stakeholders to track.

Phonics and reading instruction:

HB 253 improves reading instruction by requiring schools to use proven, research-based methods like phonics, phasing out less effective approaches, and requiring K–5 teacher and staff training with updates to teacher preparation programs.

School choice — federal scholarship tax credits:

Kentucky opted into a federal scholarship tax credit program that offers a one-to-one tax credit up to $1,700 per year for contributions to K–12 scholarship-granting organizations, a move that may create pathways to private school funding that previously ran into state constitutional barriers.

Bottom Line for Education Stakeholders

The 2026 session represents a meaningful pivot in Kentucky's K–12 accountability infrastructure. The shift to individual student growth measurement, the dismantling of statewide writing assessments, the push toward community-defined local indicators, and above all the mandated reprocurement of the state assessment vendor are all live developments heading into the 2026–27 school year. The assessment vendor question in particular is unresolved and has litigation potential. The General Assembly does not convene again until January 2027.