Week 4 of the 2023 Legislative Session
With the Senate’s adjournment on Friday, we have officially reached the halfway mark on the 2023 30-day Legislative Session. Week four was the most productive yet, as the Senate passed over 20 bills, sending them to the state House of Representatives for consideration.
Here are several bills receiving recent passage:
First, Senate Bill 80, a measure I introduced, was approved in the Senate by a vote 32-2. This is the bill I outlined in last week’s update that would restore protections to health care workers providing medical care in an emergency room by making a person receiving care guilty of third-degree assault if he/she injures or attempts to injure a health care worker with a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument or causes or attempts to cause them physical injury. Additionally, Senate Bill 80 would serve to further protect kids from sexual predators by keeping registered sex offenders from being within 1000 feet of schools, playgrounds, daycares, public swimming pools and splash pads. Finally, it would also restrict them from being the sole operator or occupant of any mobile business within 1000 feet of those locations. I appreciate my colleagues’ support of the bill and encourage the House to act on the proposal.
Senate Bill 5 cleared the Senate on Thursday. The bill ensures parental engagement in decision making regarding a student’s access to sexual materials that may be inappropriate or harmful to minors. It defines sex-related materials, programs, or events that a parent may reasonably consider offensive and unsuitable for children. The bill would require a local school board to adopt a complaint resolution policy to address parent/guardian objections to materials, programs, or events their child has access to that a parent or guardian may consider harmful. SB 5 establishes grievance levels for parents and guardians and outlines how parental complaints must be addressed, and decisions must be publicized.
I remain dismayed by some opposition to parental empowerment measures like Senate Bill 5. Deliberate misrepresentation of bill contents has become a regular occurrence. Fortunately, all bills are available for public viewing at Legilsature.ky.gov, so if something doesn’t sound right, I encourage you to review the legislation for yourself. The Senate is proving we stand with parents, guardians, students and teachers and will continue to strive for strengthened engagement and communication in our children’s education.
On that note, a bill passing the Senate on Friday would provide our teachers with legal liability protections. Senate Bill 3, establishes an Educators’ Employment Liability Insurance Program. The measure would give Kentucky teachers and each certified district employee with primary liability insurance coverage of no less than $1 million to protect the employees from liability arising in the course and scope of pursuing employment duties. This bill sets the needed statutory support for a liability insurance program for Kentucky educators with the intent to allocate funding during next year’s 60-day budget session.
Senate Bill 40, which I signed as co-sponsor, given my background in law enforcement, assists law enforcement agencies in closing out unsolved death cases. It would require the state medical examiner to conduct genetic testing on decedents under 40 in the case of unexpected deaths where the cause of death is undetermined. If genetic test results determine the cause of death, the notice of the death must be reported to the state registrar of vital statistics, which must then record the cause of death on the death certificate.
Senate Bill 99 is a relevant measure for families in our region who were impacted by December 2021 tornadoes. It aims to identify essential information about how relief funds are being distributed from the East and West Kentucky Relief Funds that the Governor created and future relief funds that may be created. The bill directs that a government agency head, cabinet secretary, or appointed official provide a report and analysis of all relief funds. The bill mandates specific information about the fund transactions be included to promote transparency and accountability. This information must be reported or submitted to the LRC by the end of each fiscal year.
Senate Bill 28 helps Kentucky’s small farm wineries thrive and boosts the commonwealth’s rich spirits industry by allowing small farm wineries to sell and deliver up to 12,000 gallons of wine to a retailer annually. Wineries would be responsible for paying wholesale wine tax and reporting self-distributed wines.
Senate Bill 70 requires some background. A statute was created in 2018 to allow for performance-based professional development by allowing school districts to model their teacher professional development after international professional learning systems. The change promotes collaborative teacher groups to add new knowledge to the profession based on projects yielding measurable student impact—the pandemic interrupted implementation.
The bill would allow, beginning in 2023-24 and through 2025-26, a school district to pilot an opportunity for two or more teachers to collectively receive professional development credit, satisfying up to three days of the state-required four days, for projects producing positive, measurable outcomes of student performance. Proposed designs of projects will have to address a classroom issue and must align with specific parameters established by a local school board. Local school boards could award stipends for the successful completion of a project.
Additionally, by August 2027, the Kentucky Department of Education must study the pilot projects, report its findings to the Interim Joint Committee on Education, and provide recommendations for professional development policies.
Senate Bill 94 creates a Collaborative Agreement for the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse’s Prescriptive Authority for Controlled Substances Committee (CAPA-CS); for the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) and the collaborating physician. The bill sets committee membership and expectations, which include bi-annual reviews of relevant statutes and regulations related to prescription drug authority for Advanced Practice Registered Nurses. This bill is a collaborative agreement among stakeholders, such as the Kentucky Board of Nursing and the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure, to find a better way forward concerning prescription authority.
My nuclear energy resolution (Senate Joint Resolution 79) that, if enacted, would establish a nuclear energy working group, crossed a big hurdle in the legislative process this week as it gained approval from the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee. The measure now qualifies for the full Senate’s consideration.
The Senate Majority Caucus sent a news release on the resolution and included information on the Energy Communities Alliance’s upcoming Nuclear Development Forum in Paducah. The release was published in the Marshall County Daily News. I appreciate those raising awareness on this topic. Kentucky stands to be a real leader on this front if we begin working now.
I was blessed to have my incredible daughter and wife join me in the Senate on Thursday. I also had the pleasure of recognizing several chiefs of police in the chamber and celebrating their service.
You can follow bill statuses at legislature.ky.gov and watch live legislative activity at KET/org/legislature. You can also track the status of other legislation by calling 866-840-2835, legislative meeting information at 800-633-9650, or leaving a message for lawmakers at 800-372-7181.
If you have any questions or comments about these issues or any other public policy issue, please call me toll-free at 502-564-8100 or email me at Danny.Carroll@LRC.ky.gov.
02-012-SJR-79-Release
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