Statement on the Senate Adjourning Without Hearing House Bill 236

Upon the Senate adjourning late last night, they did not take up HB 236, our bill to allow school districts to choose to add a student to the superintendent screening process.

We are encouraged that our bill is still alive and still has a chance to be heard when the General Assembly reconvenes on March 23rd and 24th.  Our hope is to see it pass then without unfriendly amendments.

We are confident that the tweets, posts, texts and good old-fashioned letters and phone calls to legislators from our youth networks and adult allies made a difference!

Our plan in the week ahead is to let the senate know that we want our bill to be passed on its own merits.  In order for that to happen, we intend to keep the public pressure up to let it be known that childish political games are no match for civically-engaged students. In fighting for HB 236, we want to show the Commonwealth and the entire nation that #StudentVoiceMatters.

The Kentucky Student Voice Team is a statewide organization of young people who are co-creating more just, democratic Kentucky schools & communities as research, policy & advocacy partners. From 2012 to 2021, KSVT was incubated at the Prichard Committee, a nonpartisan, citizen-led organization working to improve education in Kentucky for all ages.