Kentucky Senate Bill 128 has been approved by both chambers of the Kentucky General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Andy Beshear. This bill, also referred to as KY SB 128 and known by some as the “redshirt” or the “do-over” bill, allows K-12 students currently enrolled in public or non-public schools to request to use the 2021-2022 school year as a supplemental year. Students who choose this option can retake and/or supplement coursework already completed.
Our district wants to take this opportunity to share some of the facts related to this bill so that you can make an informed decision about whether you would choose to have your child request to use the supplemental year. These requests must be submitted to the board office using the Google form by May 1, 2021 or paper form distributed to students at school and available below. The student and/or parents may rescind this request at any time before May 31, 2021.
Our school board is required to make a decision by June 1st, 2021 on whether to approve all or none of the requests for SB 128. School districts are not allowed to decide on an individual basis. If our board members decide to accept requests for a supplemental year, we will accept all requests and if we decide not to accept requests for a supplemental year, we will accept no requests.
Below are a few benefits and concerns surrounding the SB 128 decision for your child. Please call your child’s school with any questions.
Benefits:
- Students may make up/retake classes from prior year or take supplemental classes. For Example, if a high school student was enrolled in US History, they would retake US History, or they could take AP US History as a supplement.
- Students who fail a high school course can retake that same course for credit.
- Students who experienced learning loss because of the pandemic will have a full year of in-person instruction.
- Students may participate in extracurricular activities as long as they meet KHSAA age and other eligibility requirements.
Concerns:
- Students cannot explore new elective class offerings in “supplemental” year.
- Students will be returning to school with a new class of students as the vast majority of students in their grade will be promoted.
- Students may not be academically challenged by repeating the same class/courses.
- If the student is 19 before August 1st, 2021, they will be ineligible for KHSAA sports during the 2021-22 school year.