Rep. Steven Doan

Amend KRS 65.013 to create a cause of action for violations of the use of tax dollars to advocate for or against public questions on the ballot or to lobby or participate in executive agency lobbying; establish time limitation to commence suit and appropriate venue; provide damages recoverable per violation; allow for a class action; prohibit persons held civilly liable from holding a position of public trust or profit for 10 years; create a new section of KRS Chapter 65 to establish a criminal penalty and a prohibition against holding a position of public trust or profit for 10 years for individuals found guilty of a violation.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 2 to exempt the Commonwealth of Kentucky from the advancement of time known as daylight saving time; require the Commonwealth of Kentucky and its political subdivisions to at all times observe the standard time of the United States; EFFECTIVE October 31, 2026.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 61 to define "boy," "equal," "female," "girl," "male," "man," "sex," and "woman"; prohibit any state or local law, regulation, ordinance, or policy from treating males or females unfairly from similiarly situated members of the opposite sex, but permit separation of the sexes if in the interest of maintaining safety, privacy, and fairness; provide a non-exhaustive list of examples of areas in which public entities may distinguish between the sexes; require any public school, public school district, state agency, department, local government, special district or any political subdivision of those entities that collects vital statistics to identify each person as either male or female; provide that the Act may be cited as the Kentucky Women's Bill of Rights.

Amend KRS 158.1415 to require a school district to adopt health curricula that includes human growth and development instruction that meets specific criteria; set restrictions for the instruction that grants parents an opportunity to review materials and opt their child out of instruction.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 61 to define "public agency," "harassment," "obscene," and "social media platform"; prohibit a public agency, or individual acting on behalf of a public agency, from disabling, deleting, blocking, hiding, or otherwise preventing a person or entity from commenting on a social media platform designated by the public agency to communicate government business or on an account of an individual with the authority to speak on behalf of the public agency acting on its behalf on his or her personal account; permit a public agency, or individual acting on behalf of a public agency, to disable or delete comments that are libelous or slanderous, obscene, would be considered harassment, or would pose an imminent threat to public safety as determined by a court; allow a person or entity to bring forth an action against a public agency, or an individual acting on behalf of a public agency, for any violation; create a new section of KRS Chapter 160 to define "official electronic school communication"; prohibit a public school, school district, or individual acting in his or her capacity on behalf of a public school or school district from directly or indirectly publishing an official electronic school communication to advocate for or against a political topic, party, candidate, or question; prohibit a public school, school district, or individual acting in his or her official capacity on behalf of a public school or school district from restricting lawful public commentary on a political topic, party, or question if the public school, school district, or person acting in his or her official capacity on behalf of a public school or school district directly or indirectly publishes such commentary on an official electronic school communication.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 159 to require a local school district to enroll a student on a part-time basis for courses or programs in a school, subject to standard enrollment policies and procedures; permit part-time enrollment in a local school district to partially satisfy compulsory attendance; prohibit part-time enrollee participation in interscholastic athletics; amend KRS 158.120 to specify that a nonresident pupil policy shall not discriminate on certain factors; prohibit a local school district from charging tuition to a parent or guardian; require school districts to determine and publish nonresident enrollment capacity; require the Kentucky Board of Education to create nonresident pupil enrollment application forms and specify the application process; require reporting by school districts and the Kentucky Department of Education on nonresident enrollment; create a new section of KRS Chapter 158 to define terms; create a formula for distribution of any state appropriated funds to eligible school districts for nonresident students; amend KRS 156.070 and KRS 157.350 to conform; require each school district to report on nonresident pupils and tuition charged during the 2026-2027 school year; require the Kentucky Department of Education to submit a compiled report to the Legislative Research Commission; EFFECTIVE, in part, July 1, 2028.

Maddy summaryHB 277 bans Kentucky public schools from selling or providing ultra-processed foods containing specific additives (like certain dyes and brominated oils) during the school day, starting in the 2027-2028 school year. It directly affects all Kentucky public schools and students by prohibiting these foods in cafeterias, vending machines, school stores, and student-organized fundraisers held during school hours. The bill defines "ultra-processed food" by listing 11 specific additives with their chemical identifiers, but does not restrict food sales at off-property fundraisers or outside school hours. This policy change aims to limit student access to foods containing the listed additives during the school day.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 216B to define terms; require hospitals to maintain a publicly available chargemaster of all standard charges, in dollar amounts, and descriptions for all standard facility items or services; require the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to promulgate administrative regulations to establish a template for each facility to use to create the chargemaster, monitor each facility's compliance, and provide administrative penalties; prohibit collective action of debt for noncompliant facilities.

Amend KRS 164.7874 to define "eligible noncertified school graduate"; amend definitions of "KEES award," "KEES award maximum," and "KEES base amount" for an eligible noncertified school graduate; amend KRS 164.7879 to establish an equivalent grade point average for eligible noncertified school graduates based on the graduate's ACT score; amend KRS 164.7881 and 164.7884 to conform.

Create a new section of KRS Chapter 38 to restrict the use of the Kentucky National Guard outside of state active duty unless Congress officially declares war or has taken official action pursuant to the Constitution of the United States and has satisfied any outstanding balance to the Kentucky National Guard; allow the Governor to deploy the National Guard under Title 32 of the United States Code to assist in border protection, for not more than 30 days, when the governor of a state or territory has declared an invasion; provide that the Act may be cited as the Defend the Guard Act.