House Bill (HB) 257
The following press release was sent out today, Thursday, April 9, 2026, and may be of interest to District Assessment Coordinators:
Legislature passes House Bill 257, now waiting for governor’s signature
(FRANKFORT, KY) – House Bill (HB) 257, a bill to reimagine Kentucky’s state assessment and accountability systems, has been approved by legislators in both chambers of the Kentucky General Assembly and is now on the governor’s desk for his consideration.
HB 257 is sponsored by Rep. J.T. Payne, an assistant principal at the Henderson County Career and Technical Center. The bill would encourage districts to work more closely with their communities to establish priorities for their schools and help ensure all students have access to vibrant learning experiences.
“This is an important milestone in Kentucky’s efforts to reimagine assessment and accountability as systems focused on personalized, vibrant learning,” Commissioner of Education Robbie Fletcher said. “As we await the final outcomes of the 2026 legislative session, we recognize this as a critical step in our shared goal to launch an accountability system that is meaningful and useful to all learners.”
HB 257 was influenced by the work of the Kentucky United We Learn Council – an inclusive working group of students, educators, families, community members, legislators and other education stakeholders – that was tasked with reimagining what the Commonwealth’s assessment and accountability systems could look like.
“For years, the council received input from students and education stakeholders across the Commonwealth and this bill reflects their hard work,” Fletcher said.
HB 257 includes locally developed indicators of quality and a state accountability system that meets federal requirements. Local indicators of quality would include flexible options for districts to set their own indicators in collaboration with their communities that do not factor into the state accountability model.
Payne said the bill would make changes to the current state assessment and accountability system by:
- Reducing the state testing time;
- Using the individual growth of each student in the accountability system instead of change in accountability indicators from year to year, while retaining the ability to compare results; and
- Prioritizing student attendance in the accountability model.
Under the legislation, there will be less time on state testing.
The state indicators will continue to include math, reading, science and social studies. On-demand writing and editing mechanics will no longer be included in state assessments, which reduces testing time.
Fletcher said students developing their writing skills will still be a primary focus for the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE). Under the legislation, KDE is tasked with developing guidelines for writing programs across content areas aligned to the Kentucky Academic Standards.
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) will provide all school districts with professional learning to support effective, standards-aligned writing programs across all content areas.
Each district must adopt and publish a writing program policy that promotes disciplinary-specific writing across the curriculum and incorporates a variety of language resources, technological tools, and multiple opportunities for students to develop complex communication skills for a variety of purposes.
“We want our students to be effective communicators in our communities and that starts with being able to write well,” Fletcher said. “Under HB 257, our districts will be at the forefront of how we define what makes a good writer and how students develop effective communication skills for academic and life-long success.”
Among other changes in the legislation:
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Local indicators of quality encourage more collaboration between school districts and their communities.
- School districts will be encouraged to create their own local indicators of quality – also known as local accountability.
- Local indicators of quality must include:
- Vibrant learning experiences for students.
- Local measures of performance identified by community members.
- A method of displaying data that includes breaking down data by demographic groups.
- Local indicators of quality will not be a part of the state accountability system used in federal Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) calculations.
- Other changes include:
- The school climate and safety survey would remain as an option for districts to include in local indicators of quality, but the survey will not be included in the state accountability model.
- Chronic absenteeism would replace the school climate and safety survey in the state accountability model.
The bill includes a one-time payment to offset costs incurred by local school districts in the development of locally developed indicators of quality of up to $15,000, but there has been no adjoining legislation to fund the incentive.
Adopting local indicators of quality will be optional for districts. Language in the original bill that would have triggered statewide adoption once 60% of districts adopted the new system was taken out.
The bill also now requires "targeted quality measures" to be reported on the Kentucky School Report Card, which shall include a measure of the change from the prior school year on the following factors:
- The percentage of certified teachers within the school and district who have attained Rank II or higher or who are National Board certified;
- For schools and districts containing students in 8th grade, the percentage of students earning at least one high school credit upon the completion of the student's 8th-grade school year; and
- For schools and districts containing 12th-grade students, the percentage of students who have completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) by the student’s graduation date or officially opted out of completing it.
This would last until June 30, 2030. Beginning July 1, 2030, the targeted measures of quality would not only be reported in the Kentucky School Report Card, but also would be included as a new indicator in the state accountability system with a cumulative weight of no less than 5%.
An additional section was added to House Bill 257 requiring KDE to study middle school mathematics and advanced mathematics coursework opportunities and submit a report to the Legislative Research Commission for referral to the Interim Joint Committee on Education by Nov. 1.
The state accountability model would continue to assign color ratings (red, orange, yellow, green, blue) to schools and districts.
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