Rep. James Tipton

Amend KRS 158.791 to specify the role of Department of Education in assisting local school districts with mathematics instruction, supports, and interventions; require the department to collaborate with designated agencies on mathematics programming, materials, and activities; amend KRS 158.840 to require students in grades four through eight needing to make accelerated progress in mathematics to receive intervention; require Council on Post Secondary to submit an annual report on the compliance of teacher preparation programs; require regular reports to an external evaluator on elementary and middle school mathematics instruction; create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to define terms; require the Department of Education to promulgate regulations defining multitiered supports for students in grades four through eight; require the department to provide technical support to school districts; require school districts to select a universal screener for mathematics by January 1, 2025; require schools to give the mathematics universal screener to all students in grades four through eight within the first 30 days of school beginning with the 2025-2026 school year; require the department to provide resources to teachers on specific screeners and instructional resources; require the department to establish reading teacher academies or coaching models by September 1, 2025, if funds are available; create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to require postsecondary institutions offering teacher preparation programs in elementary education and middle school mathematics education to include kindergarten through grade 12 instructional strategies and Department of Education identified mathematics resources; require the Education Professional Standards Board (EPSB) to develop and maintain a list of approved teacher preparation assessments; require the EPSB to develop an evaluation rubric for teacher candidates; require the EPSB to report elementary and middle school mathematics teacher preparation program data to an external evaluator; amend KRS 158.842 to change the composition of the Committee for Mathematics Achievement; create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to establish the Kentucky numeracy counts fund; provide that moneys in the fund shall not lapse; provide that the Act may be cited as the Kentucky Numeracy Counts Act.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 532 to define "violent felony" and enhance sentencing for a person convicted of a third violent felony; prohibit probation, parole, or other form of release for a person who commits a crime using a weapon that is stolen, defaced, loaded with restricted ammunition, or otherwise violates state law; amend KRS 610.070 to require a parent, legal guardian, or custodian to be present at court proceedings involving a child in the juvenile justice system; create a new section of KRS Chapter 610 to establish penalty; amend KRS 507.020 to expand offense of murder; amend KRS 507.030 to expand offense of manslaughter in the first degree; amend KRS 507.040 to expand offense of manslaughter in the second degree; amend KRS 218A.1412 to provide increased penalties for certain trafficking offenses; create a new section of KRS Chapter 515 to create a new offense of carjacking; amend KRS 512.020 and 512.030 to lower the threshold for criminal mischief in the first degree to $500; amend KRS 149.410, 506.160, and 525.220 to conform; amend KRS 520.050 to enhance promoting contraband to a Class B felony if the dangerous contraband is fentanyl, carfentanil, or a fentanyl derivative; amend KRS 16.220 to allow purchase of a confiscated firearm by a person who bids under the condition that they not take possession of the firearm, but instead leave it with the Department of Kentucky State Police for destruction; prohibit government agencies from purchasing the firearm; make technical corrections; create new sections of KRS Chapters 511, 198A, and 65 to establish the offense of criminal street camping and provide exceptions; amend KRS 503.080 to conform; amend KRS 202C.050 to reduce requirements to find a person subject to involuntary commitment pursuant to KRS Chapter 202C; amend KRS 186.417 to include felony offenders released from county jails and local correctional facilities among those who may be issued personal identification cards or operator's licenses under certain conditions; amend KRS 431.510 to define terms; prohibit any charitable bail organization from posting bail in excess of $5,000; prohibit any charitable bail organization from posting bail for any offense of domestic violence and abuse or dating violence and abuse, and for any offense under a civil court order or warrant under KRS 222.430 to 222.437; establish that any bond ordered forfeited following a new criminal offense shall be distributed to the victim of the new offense; require publication of records and annual reporting to the General Assembly; create new section of KRS Chapter 507 to create the offense of murder of a first responder and establish penalties; amend KRS 506.010 to conform; amend KRS 532.025 to include the murder of first responders as an aggravating circumstance for the death penalty; amend KRS 532.036 to allow restitution following a conviction for Murder of a first responder; amend KRS 439.320 to provide that members of the Parole Board shall serve at the pleasure of the Governor, that panels of the board shall consist of not less than three and not more than six members, and that all members of the panel must agree on a decision or the matter shall be referred to the full board; amend KRS 439.330 to require that parole be granted upon a two-thirds vote of the full board; amend KRS 433.236 to limit liability for shopkeepers; amend KRS 439.3401 to add a person who has been convicted of or entered a plea of guilty to a Class B felony violation of KRS 520.050 to the definition of "violent offender" and to include carjacking and attempted murder in the list of violent offenses; amend KRS 508.075 and 508.078, relating to terroristic threatening, to include any workplace or any gathering of 3 or more persons; amend KRS 524.040 to include harassing communications as conduct constituting intimidation of a participant in the legal process; amend KRS 439.340 to allow the Parole Board to order participation in a specific violence reduction program as a condition of parole; amend KRS 533.030 to allow a court to require participationin a specific violence reduction program as a condition of probation or conditional discharge; amend KRS 403.763 and 456.180 to enhance a second or subsequent violation of an order of protection within a five-year period to a Class D felony; amend KRS 500.080 to include family members, members of an unmarried couple, and persons in a dating relationship, in application of a particular definition of serious physical injury; amend KRS 514.020 to reduce the time required to establish prima facie evidence of theft by deception of rented or leased property that is not returned to the owner from 10 days to four days; amend KRS 196.031 to require the annual report to also include the percentage of offenders who commit new offenses within two years; amend KRS 520.095 to enhance fleeing or evading police in the first degree to a Class C felony; provide that the defendant shall not be released on probation, shock probation, conditional discharge, or parole until he or she has served at least 50 percent of the sentence imposed; amend KRS 520.100 to enhance fleeing or evading police in the second degree to a Class D felony; amend KRS 532.110 to provide sentences for two or more felony sex crimes shall run consecutively; provide that the defendant shall not be released on probation, shock probation, conditional discharge, or parole until he or she has served at least 50 percent of the sentence imposed; amend KRS 158.155 to require school employees to report certain enumerated crimes to law enforcement; repeal KRS 512.040, which establishes the crime of criminal mischief in the third degree and KRS 158.154, which deals with discipline in schools; EFFECTIVE, in part, August 1, 2025.

Amend KRS 159.140 to require a director of pupil personnel to file with the county attorney a complaint against a parent or guardian who has allowed a child in kindergarten to grade five to be absent without excuse for 15 or more days; allow the director of pupil personnel, after consultation with the court designated worker, to refer the case to the family, accountability, intervention, and response team; amend KRS 610.030 to require that a diversion agreement for a child against whom a complaint alleging truancy has been filed shall require that if the child is absent without excuse two or more times during the diversion, the child will be considered to have failed diversion and the matter shall be immediately referred to the county attorney.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 164 to define terms; establish the Kentucky Rural Veterinary Medicine Student Loan Repayment Program for an eligible livestock practitioner who engages in veterinary medicine in an underserved rural area or veterinary shortage area for five consecutive years; authorize the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority to promulgate administrative regulations; set forth program eligibility requirements; authorize the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority to award loan repayment benefits to applicants selected by the Veterinary Student Loan Repayment Selection Committee; establish compliance requirements; create the rural veterinary care trust fund; establish purposes of the fund; APPROPRIATION.

Require the Office of the Auditor of Public Accounts to conduct a full fiscal controls and operational performance audit of the Kentucky Department of Education and provide the report to the Interim Joint Committee on Education by July 1, 2025.

Amend KRS 158.141 to require, beginning with the freshman class of 2025-2026, a one-half credit course in civic literacy for graduation, including early graduation; provide a list of required topics to be taught in a civic literacy course; require the Kentucky Board of Education to promulgate administrative regulations establishing the academic standards for civic literacy.

Create new sections of KRS 438.305 to 438.340 to define terms; require the Secretary of State to create and publish a list of certain tobacco product retailers; require the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to create and maintain a tobacco noncompliance database and reporting system; require wholesalers to verify a retailer's presence in the database prior to transactions; establish and impose fines for wholesalers that unlawfully sell to a retailer that is in the noncompliance database; make ineligible any retailer with unpaid fines that are more than 60 days overdue from selling Tobacco Control Act covered products until the fines are paid; direct manufacturers of Tobacco Control Act covered products to provide safe harbor certification to wholesalers and retailers of their products; prohibit a retailer from selling Tobacco Control Act products to persons under 21 years of age; establish; amend KRS 241.060 to allow the board to conduct hearings and appeals under this Act and KRS 438.340. .

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 157 to make legislative findings and declarations; establish definitions for the section; establish the Adaptive Kindergarten Readiness Pilot Project; establish the duration and terms of the pilot project; require the Kentucky Department of Education to implement the pilot project through selection of a service provider; establish the qualifications and duties of the service provider; require the department to submit a report by December 1, 2025, to the Legislative Research Commission that evaluates the pilot project; provide the required components of the report; authorize the department to implement the section to the extent that funds are available; authorize the Kentucky Board of Education to select an entity that has already entered into a contract to provide substantially similar services to be selected as the provider for the pilot project.

Amend KRS 247.140 to add the North American Championship Rodeo and the National Farm Machinery Show's Championship Tractor Pull to the list of shows and expositions owned and operated by the State Fair Board.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 160 to prohibit a public school district or public charter school from entering a nondisclosure agreement relating to misconduct involving a minor or student; amend KRS 160.380 to define "abusive conduct"; require school district applicants to disclose being the subject of any allegations or investigations in the previous 12 months and consent to a reference check; require school districts to conduct reference checks; require nonpublic and public school districts to disclose any allegations or investigations related to abusive conduct of applicants; revise indemnification language to grant immunity for disclosures made about school employee conduct; require school districts to request all related information from public and nonpublic schools and the Education Professional Standards Board and require the schools and EPSB to provide the records; require requests for information to be satisfied in 10 working days instead of 10 days; require all public school personnel to submit to a state criminal background check every five years; require all school district applicants to list all schools of previous and current employment on the application; require a school district to internally report and investigate to completion all allegations of abusive conduct; require all records relating to an allegation of abusive conduct to be retained in an employee's personnel file unless the allegation is proven false; amend KRS 156.160 to direct the Kentucky Board of Education to include employment standards in the voluntary certification standards for private schools; make technical corrections; amend KRS 160.151 to define "certified nonpublic school"; require employees of certified nonpublic schools to submit to a national and state criminal background check and a CA/N check; require certified nonpublic school personnel to have a state criminal background check every five years; prohibit a certified nonpublic school from hiring a violent or felony sex crime offender; require a certified nonpublic school to conduct reference checks on all applicants; prohibit a certified nonpublic school from entering into a nondisclosure agreement related to misconduct involving a minor or student; amend KRS 156.095 to require the Kentucky Department of Education to develop a training related to sexual misconduct for employees to undergo every five years; make technical corrections; amend KRS 161.151 to conform.