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Dear Colleagues,
I want to personally invite you to the annual Kentucky Continuous Improvement Summit on Sept. 22-23 at the Central Bank Center in Lexington.
Each year, thousands of educators across the Commonwealth travel to Lexington for the opportunity to enhance their professional learning, make new connections and build upon existing relationships with peers across Kentucky. Attendees will hear up-to-date information from Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) leaders, including an assessment and accountability update, and learn how KDE can help address the unique challenges in the journey of continuous improvement.
Sessions during the conference include a variety of topics, from data-driven decision making, maximizing the impact of the principal and instructional coach partnership, high-quality instructional resources in math and literacy, and best practices and lessons learned from community schools. Presenters will share the most up-to-date information regarding the improvement planning cycle, as well as updates to the improvement planning templates for 2025-2026. Participants also will have an opportunity to learn from this year’s 13 Best Practice winners.
I encourage you to register for the event and even bring a team of leaders with you for the opportunity to grow in your continuous improvement journey. Visit the 2025 Kentucky Continuous Improvement Summit registration webpage for more information. By focusing on continuous improvement, we will continue to make a difference in the educational system for our students and their families.
I am proud of our educators and their “All In” commitment to giving Kentucky children engaging educational opportunities that will benefit them both inside and outside of the classroom.
Title Funding
On July 25, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) received notice from the U.S. Department of Education (USED) that beginning this week, USED will release the remaining Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title program funding that was previously withheld.
The following ESEA Title program funding, which was expected to be released to states and district on July 1, 2025, was previously withheld:
- Title I-C, ESEA: Migrant Student Education;
- Title II-A, ESEA: Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants;
- Title III-A, ESEA: English Language Acquisition;
- Title IV-A, ESEA: Student Support and Academic Enrichment State Grants; and
- Title IV-B, ESEA: 21st Century Learning Centers
On July 18, KDE received notice from USED that it would release the Title IV-B 21st Century Learning Center funding to states. On July 25, KDE received notice from USED that it would release the funding withheld under the remaining four ESEA Title programs.
KDE has not received official award notices, including the final amounts of each award. We will communicate with you as we receive this information regarding district allocations.
As always, thank you for being …
All In,
Robbie Fletcher
Commissioner of Education
School Report Card – Portal Open for District Data Review
The School Report Card Portal for district and school preview and approvals opened July 22. The School Safety domain is now open as well. Safe Schools Administrators can start reviewing data in the portal. The other domains will begin opening later this summer. Overview and Education Opportunity domains, and the Collector tool will open mid-August, and the Career and Technical Education and Transition to Adult Life will open mid-September prior to opening as a soft launch to the public in early October.
The School Safety review period will end Aug. 11, to meet KRS 158.444 deadlines for reporting to the Kentucky Center for School Safety and the Office of Education Accountability. Schools and districts should review data and use the approval tool to verify completion. The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has created the Validation of Safety Data for School Report Card Instructions to help guide completion of this work using the Safe Schools report in Infinite Campus. Reviewers will not be able to flag School Safety data issues in the portal; this functionality will be available as domains open in August. Additional details will be shared with Safe Schools Administrators.
After data is reviewed, districts should indicate completion by approving the domain. Districts can decide if each school should be approved or whether the district approval is enough to confirm that all schools are approved. KDE will monitor district level approvals only; school level approval can help districts monitor school-level review status if the district chooses to use.
Districts should plan to be SRC-ready for 2024-2025 SRC reporting. Start now by:
- Verifying that the appropriate contacts are defined in the Web Security Administrator (WSA) system.
- Reviewing the data reports to verify the accuracy of data in Infinite Campus and other systems before the data is loaded to the SRC for validation.
- Gathering data to enter into the SRC Collection Tool.
- The SRC Collector Items document details information on each collector item, including the School Profile Report.
- Having the collection information ready before the opening can help ensure everything is entered and processed in a timely manner.
- New for this year, only A1, A2, A3, A5, A8, B1 and D1 classified schools need to complete the School Profile Report.
- The window for entering data for the School Profile Report ends mid-September.
- The School Profile Report must be printed, signed and available in the local board office by Oct. 1.
As a reminder, the School Report Card suite consists of three important components: Open House/SRC datasets, the public SRC dashboard created by AnLar, and the Infinite Campus Parent and Student Portal. All components have valuable information available for schools, families, and communities.
KDE will release the 2024-2025 School Report Card (SRC) dashboard in a phased approach this fall. The first public release will be a soft launch in early October. All but assessment and accountability data will be released at that time. The official public launch will be mid-to-late November and include assessment and accountability data.
The SRC is a federal and state requirement, but it should be more than just a compliance activity. It is an opportunity to showcase the achievements of your schools each year. Now is the time to make sure your district is SRC ready by validating the quality of your data!
The School Report Card Resources webpage will continue to be used as a central repository for communications and resources. The SRC timeline, resources and all SRC communications will be posted to this webpage.
School Resource Officer Funding Available to Districts
The general fund appropriation included $18 million in fiscal year 2025-2026 to the Kentucky Department of Education to assist local districts in funding salaries for school resource officers, as defined in KRS 158.441, on a reimbursement basis.
In accordance with House Bill 622, the Kentucky Department of Education shall reimburse local school districts up to $20,000 for each campus employing at least one on-site full-time certified school resource officer. Once each local district has staffed and continues to maintain one school resource officer for each campus in that district, the local district is then eligible to apply for reimbursement for additional assistance in funding salaries for school resource officers, except that the assistance allowed under this paragraph shall be limited to:
- Funding available; and
- No more than one school resource officer for each academic building.
Monthly grants shall first be applied to the per-campus requirement across all local districts and then to districts that meet the per-campus requirement and have additional school resource officers, but only to the extent that funding is available.
Notwithstanding KRS 45.229, any portion of general fund money not expended for this purpose shall lapse to the Budget Reserve Trust Fund Account (KRS 48.705). Mandated reports shall be submitted pursuant to Part III, 24. of this Act.
In order to meet the requirement outlined above, the Kentucky Department of Education is asking districts that will seek reimbursement to complete the School Resource Officer (SRO) Funding Intent to Participate form by Sept. 15.
Information provided in the survey will determine funding amounts available to districts for SRO funding.
For questions, please contact Karen Wirth or Lalah Brewer.
National ESEA Distinguished Schools Program and Application for Category 1, 2 and 3
The National Association of ESEA State Program Administrators (NAESPA) – formerly the National Title I Association – selects examples of superior, federally-funded school programs for national recognition through the National ESEA Distinguished Schools Program.
Each year, states can identify up to two Distinguished ESEA Schools in three possible categories:
- Category 1: Exceptional student performance and academic growth for two or more consecutive years.
- Category 2: Closing the achievement gap between student groups for two or more consecutive years.
- Category 3: Excellence in serving special populations of students (e.g., homeless, migrant, English Learners, etc.).
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is now accepting applications for schools for Categories 1, 2 and 3. Schools may apply for recognition in only one category, and anyone interested in applying should fill out the National ESEA Distinguished Schools Program application. The application must be signed by the school principal and district superintendent and submitted by the deadline of Aug. 8.
If selected as a finalist, KDE staff will conduct a site visit to interview the principal and selected staff.
Two National ESEA Distinguished Schools from Category 1, 2 and/or 3 will be notified by email of their selection in November. For more information, email Tara Rodriguez or call (502) 564-3791, ext. 4042.
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