As Kentucky kids lose more learning to weather, lawmakers ponder relief

by McKenna Horsley, Kentucky Lantern
February 19, 2025

FRANKFORT — Snow, ice, sickness and now floods have kept Kentucky students out of classrooms this winter. 

Amid the “extraordinary circumstances,” state lawmakers are looking for ways to make up for missed instruction and relieve schools.

The severe flooding that hit Kentucky over the weekend is forcing some schools to close or use NTI — non-traditional instruction — days, when students participate in virtual learning at home. Districts are typically allowed no more than 10 NTI days in a school year.

Some schools are running out or have already run out of NTI days after bad winter weather or sickness in recent weeks. Kentucky law requires school districts to provide 170 student attendance days and offer a minimum of 1,062 instructional hours. 

A House committee this week advanced a bill that would allow schools to meet or have those requirements waived and make up missed days in a few different ways. 

One option under House Bill 241 would allow districts to lengthen the school day but not to longer than seven hours of instruction. Local school boards could revise their calendars and submit plans to the Kentucky Department of Education for approval, under the bill, and if a district cannot make up days by June 4, the state education commissioner could waive up to five student attendance days. 

The primary sponsor, Rep. Timmy Truett, presented the bill to the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee Tuesday. Truett, a McKee Republican and elementary school principal, introduced the bill the first week of February.

The committee amended the bill in response to the recent flooding by adding a provision also allowing Education Commissioner Robbie Fletcher to grant up to five “disaster relief student attendance days” when schools could provide instruction without having students in the classroom, Truett said. The bill makes no mention of NTI which Truett acknowledged has become unpopular.

Some school districts began using NTI days as a pilot program to make up for lost classroom time because of school closures for weather or sickness. During the coronavirus pandemic, all Kentucky school districts became eligible for NTI days in March 2020. 

NTI not popular but ‘beats the alternative’

Truett told his fellow lawmakers that most educators know that “the term NTI days is not a very popular word” and virtual learning is “not as good as in-seat instruction.” 

“I’m telling you firsthand — it is not,” Truett said. “It’s not, but it does beat the alternative. When you’re off school for two weeks because of weather or not going to see your kids for a month because of flooding, a virtual instruction day is so much more valuable than not seeing your kids at all.” 

Truett also acknowledged that the legislature would not approve a bill that would outright increase the number of NTI days.

“This is just a fix for this year,” Truett said. “Hopefully, we never have to see a bill like this ever again. But this is the only flexibility that we can give our districts at this point.”

Rep. Felica Rabourn, R-Turners Station, was the lone no vote on the bill. She said while questioning Truett that she strongly opposes more NTI days. “If it were up to me, we would have zero,” she said. 

As of Monday afternoon, 154 of Kentucky’s 171 school districts had used an NTI day during the 2024-25 school year, according to the Kentucky Department of Education. Of those districts, 37 had used 10 NTI days and one school district had used 13 NTI days. 

In most cases, school districts are allowed a total of 10 NTI days for a school year. The education commissioner retroactively approves the use of NTI days in late spring. Under the current law, NTI days exceeding 10 would have to be made up at the end of the school year. 

While most uses of NTI days have been for weather or health issues, some Eastern Kentucky districts used NTI days or closed amid a manhunt for a shooting suspect in September. 

Republican President Robert Stivers, of Manchester, told reporters Tuesday afternoon that lawmakers understand school districts are dealing with “extraordinary circumstances.” He said “the bottom line in these discussions with Tim (Truett) … and talking to the commissioner and talking to superintendents is, how do we most effectively get those students to maximize their learning capabilities and experiences?”

Stivers said that whatever solution is agreed upon will likely appear in Truett’s bill by the end of the legislative session. Stivers added that “we’re trying to be methodical about what we do” and there should be some discussions with superintendents about changing school calendars and those should happen “pretty soon.”

The processes proposed in the bill would not be available until it passes the General Assembly and is signed into law by the governor, Truett said. He estimated the solution was “two weeks at the best away.” 

“This is just an option, if needed, if you have some emergency days, some flooding, some bad ice storms, tornadoes,” Truett said. “In Kentucky, who knows? Who knows what we’re going to experience?”

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.

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