It's been the talk of school leaders and parents for months.

A 2025 law that sought to protect students by creating boundaries for communication between them and their teachers.

It bans certain electronic communications between them.

Now, state lawmakers say those rules need adjusting.

Our June Lefler kicks off tonight's legislative update.

Lawmakers passed a law last session to intervene in the case of inappropriate behavior between students and school staff.

Although the grooming of children can happen outside of electronic communications, recent data shows that nearly 90% of cases of sexual misconduct and grooming happen through this method.

So we have serious sexual misconduct.

We have grooming going on.

We had we have unauthorized communications with students without the consent of their parents.

And the legislature had to step in.

Both chambers passed the bill unanimously last session, and the governor signed it into law.

And we didn't hear a peep out of anybody till mid-July.

And and all hell broke loose then.

Yeah.

But anyway, just note to self what we do.

You know, we do have a lot of watchdogs in this as you've been, you've you've corrected all the things that were that people have concerns about.

State Senator Lindsey Warner presents an updated version in Senate Bill 181.

We have exempted virtual school instruction, electronic transit translation services, calling or texting a phone number provided by the parent.

So if a student accidentally picks up the home phone or a parent's cell phone and they call, that would be exempted.

Communications with a parent included as a recipient.

So having those parents along with the student in in any communication.

Voice communications on a telephone number affiliated with the school.

Social media posts and comments that are public.

Again, this is specifically tailored toward to address the private communications.

The Senate Education Committee passed the bill unanimously.

This may not be a simple bill, but it's to me is a very simple concept because to me, this bill is all about boundaries.

I came into this meeting, with the intent of.

Oh, no.

I was not going to go down that road again.

The bill was very unpopular in my district, and I heard about it quite often.

I do appreciate the intent.

I'm not going to commit to voting on the floor.

I want to study this further, and I want to hear from those within my district.

But, I absolutely do appreciate the intent and the work that you put into this.

Obviously, we had a lot of complaints.

But what I'm comforted by is it sounds like there is at least eight of our children out there, maybe 16 of our children out there in the last six months that have had somebody looking over their situation that are potential abuse, 16 kids, certainly eight.

That is worth what we did a year ago.

Senate Bill 181 now heads to the Senate floor for Kentucky addition.

I'm June Leffler.

Thank you June.

Senator says pass legislation may have prompted some unnecessary cases to the Educational Professional Standards Board.