The Kentucky Board of Education is scheduled to hear the second reading of proposed amendments to regulation 703 KAR 5:270 on October 7-8, following a September 29 recommendation for approval from the Local Superintendents Advisory Council. The revisions put into effect House Bill 257, signed into law on April 13, 2026, which overhauls the state's school accountability system starting in the 2026-2027 school year.
HB 257 amends KRS 158.6453 and 158.6455 to replace the current accountability system, which evaluates six indicators for both Status (current year performance) and Change (year-over-year difference). Under the new system, schools will receive a single Overall Accountability Score based on updated indicator weights. Schools will no longer receive separate Status and Change scores or performance labels such as "Very High" or "Decreased," according to the Kentucky Department of Education.
What changes under the new system
The law makes several specific changes to the indicators used in accountability. It replaces year-over-year indicator change scores with measures of individual student growth in reading and mathematics. It swaps the existing Quality of School Climate and Safety indicator for a measure of student engagement as tracked by chronic absenteeism. The law also eliminates on-demand writing assessments that had been administered in grades 5, 8, and 11, and increases the weight of high school graduation rates in the overall score.
The Local Superintendents Advisory Council recommended using 100 days or more of enrollment as the threshold for tracking chronic absenteeism, meaning a student must be enrolled for at least 100 days before their attendance is factored into a school or district's accountability. Chronic absenteeism is defined by KRS 158.6455 as missing 10 percent or more of yearly school time for excused or unexcused reasons.
Most advisory groups consulted by the Kentucky Department of Education recommended a low weight percentage for chronic absenteeism, noting factors beyond schools' control. Those same groups were, in the department's account, overwhelmingly supportive of using a growth value table model for individual student growth in reading and mathematics.
Advisory input and next steps
LSAC members at the September 29 meeting also recommended adjusting the proposal to give more weight to the high school graduation rate indicator, a change proposed by the School Curriculum, Assessment and Accountability Council. The council's recommendations are now before the state board for the second reading of the regulation.
After the second reading, the regulation enters a public comment period. The new accountability system will produce its first public reporting of data from the 2026-2027 school year in fall 2027. Percentile cut scores for color-coded performance levels will be determined through a standard-setting process involving educators and national psychometric experts in summer 2027. Those cut scores must be approved by the Local Superintendents Advisory Council and the Kentucky Department of Education, and they are set to remain in place for six years.
Targeted quality measures — including teacher credential percentages, 8th-grade high school credit attainment, and FAFSA completion — will be reported on the School Report Card until June 2030. After that date, they will become a state accountability indicator with a cumulative weight of no less than 5 percent, as required by the enacted bill text.