(FRANKFORT, KY) – Members of the Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE’s) Local Superintendents Advisory Council (LSAC), during the council’s meeting on Sept. 29, recommended approval of a new accountability system that will now go to the Kentucky Board of Education for consideration.
As mandated by KRS 156.007, LSAC is charged to “advise the chief state school officer and the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) concerning the development of administrative regulations and education policy.”
The proposed amendment to the accountability system regulation, 703 KAR 5:270, comes after years of work by KDE and many different stakeholder groups to design an assessment and accountability system that is meaningful and useful to all learners. This work led to the passage of House Bill 257 during the 2026 legislative session, which provides districts with the flexibility to work more closely with their communities to establish priorities for their schools and help ensure all students have access to vibrant learning experiences.
The key regulatory changes under House Bill 257 mean Kentucky will use the individual growth in reading and mathematics performance on state assessments for each student in the accountability system instead of change in accountability indicators from year to year. The bill reduced testing by removing on-demand writing and editing and mechanics from Kentucky’s assessment exams, while chronic absenteeism replaced the quality of school climate and safety indicator in the accountability system.
As KDE staff has consulted with the KBE, a variety of advisory groups and other education stakeholders, the conversation has focused on the proposed table to value growth from year to year and the values assigned within it. The discussion has also focused on how much each indicator is weighted in the accountability system, including chronic absenteeism.
Following some of the most recent discussions – including with the KBE during its Aug. 5-6 meeting and with members of the School Curriculum, Assessment and Accountability Council during their Sept. 15 meeting – KDE Associate Commissioner Jennifer Stafford and Policy Advisory Jennifer Larkins presented a proposed final version of the accountability weight chart and the value table for how individual student growth in reading and mathematics is credited.
LSAC members recommended approval of the proposed amendment to 703 KAR 5:270, including changes to accountability weights for graduation rate as proposed by the School Curriculum, Assessment and Accountability Council and changes to track chronic absenteeism.
LSAC members also recommended using 100 days or more of enrollment to track chronic absenteeism, where a student must be enrolled in a district for at least 100 days before their attendance is factored into a school or district’s accountability, and only using days when a student is enrolled in the district toward a district’s accountability indicator.
Chronic absenteeism, as defined in KRS 158.6455, is when a student misses 10% or more of school time for excused or unexcused reasons throughout the school year.
“Chronic absenteeism is much different than testing,” said Commissioner of Education Robbie Fletcher. “A district should not be penalized by the attendance in another district. That’s my main concern.”
David Trimble, superintendent of Pikeville Independent, said he supports the 100-day minimum enrollment for chronic absenteeism.
“For me, 100 is better than 50, just because – back to the sample size – one bad case of the flu and a kid’s chronically absent in 50 days,” Trimble said. “… We can still run into that with 100, we all know that. … The challenge with chronic absenteeism is there (are) a lot of legitimate absences that are going to count against school districts that we couldn’t do anything about. But I do think that 100 days gives us a little better window to work with, and one legitimate sickness doesn’t cause a student to be chronically absent.”
LSAC members also recommended adjusting the proposal to add more weight to the high school graduation rate indicator in the accountability system proposed by the School Curriculum, Assessment and Accountability Council.
Fletcher said the input of the various stakeholder groups, in addition to work from the Kentucky United We Learn Council to gather more input from community members across Kentucky, is reflected in the proposed regulation amendment. He said there was “a lot of hard work throughout the Commonwealth by a lot of people – thousands of people – so we want to say thank you to everyone for that.”
The second reading of the accountability regulation will next be heard by the KBE during its meeting Oct. 7-8, followed by a public comment period upon KBE approval.
In other business, LSAC members approved for recommendation to the KBE:
- An amendment to 702 KAR 3:110, a regulation dealing with document filing dates, to conform with changes made by House Bill 67 (2026);
- Amendments to 780 KAR 2:040, a regulation on live work projects, to update work order agreement forms for Kentucky Tech schools; and
- Amendments to 780 KAR 2:060, a regulation on the discipline of students, to remove duplicative language and increase clarity.
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