Since the COVID pandemic, students in Kentucky and across the nation have been missing more school days.

As Kentucky additions June Lefler reports, state lawmakers hope to crack down on that trend.

Last school year, 30% of Kentucky students were chronically absent, meaning they missed about 71 school days.

Kentucky is not alone.

This is a national problem.

Since COVID, you know, we've conditioned parents that, you know, attendance is not the most important thing.

You know, if your child is not feeling well, you know, keep them home.

You know, and and it's something we're still fighting each and every day.

And as you all know, with funding, school funding, it's tied to attendance.

So we've got to if we want to give teacher raises, if we want to, you know, get kids to school on the school busses and provide meals, we need our kids in the seats.

Schools can intervene at any time.

But state representative and elementary school principal Timmy Truant says there is a point when the courts should get involved.

You've got three unexcused days.

We signed a three day later.

We get basically no response from that.

Then we'll turn we'll send a six day letter once again, very little response from that.

And then when the district sends the nine day letter stating that your case is being referred to the county attorney, that's when all of a sudden the mom or the dad shows up at school the next day with about 15 doctor's notes.

House Bill 611 would require schools to contact the county attorney when an elementary student misses 15 days of a school year for no excused reason.

Complaints would be filed against the parents.

State Representative Killian Timoney, who's worked for Jefferson and Fayette County School districts, asks if this will actually get students back to school quickly.

You know, I've worked with our county attorney on students that were truant before the pandemic and immediately they were those cases were kicked back to the district.

They were wanting evidence.

They were wanting interventions.

They were wanting all of these things that were going on.

My concern is the county attorney and JCPenney's in particular.

I mean, what's 10,000 cases going to do to the.

I mean, how effective is that process going to be?

When are you going to get before a judge and how many days are you going to miss until then?

Still, the House Education Committee.

Handedly advanced the bill to go to the full House.

The committee also approved House Bill 612, which would remove a defunct way of teaching reading from teachers toolkit.

Reading, experts say young students are looking for context clues to guess words when they need to be sounding words out.

Then they're guided to ask what word might make sense there.

Look at the picture.

See it?

That can guide you.

And those are all things that pull the eyes of the reader off the page, away from the word.

And that's not what skilled readers do.

They drop into that word.

They work through it sound by sound, and they read it.

The committee also signed off on changes to school transportation.

House Bill 447 would let school districts use passenger vans, not just busses.

That means more options to get students around, and more people could drive students to school.

Since you don't need a commercial driver's license to drive a van.

The committee also advanced House Bill 227, which would let smaller neighboring school districts merge together so they could consolidate resources.

For Kentucky, edition of June Leffler.

Thank you, June.

And in higher education, the House Education Committee approved Western Kentucky University's request to offer doctoral degrees, not just master's degrees.

All of these measures now await approval from the full House.

Following the House Education Committee hearing this morning, the Kentucky Association of School Administrators rallied in the Capitol Rotunda to commemorate public schools week in the Commonwealth.

Several elected officials, including Democratic Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman and Republican Representative James Tipton of Taylorsville, joined educators and students for the rally.

Tipton reassured the crowd that the debate over this year's education budget is far from over.

Every session has its own pace, and I know patience is sometimes very difficult.

But I will remind you the budget is a process.

We are word.

We're not even really halfway through that process yet.

As I've talked to many of you, you have thanked me for many things that are included in the House version of the budget.

But you've also shared with me some concerns that you have, that the funding is not adequate to meet the needs that you have in your local school district to support your schools, the support your teachers, and most importantly, to support our students.

Your work is my heart.

It's been my life's work.

And so to be here today to celebrate Public Education Week in Kentucky is exciting.

But I would be lying if I didn't tell you that every week should be Public Education Week in Kentucky.

Everybody that works in the school building deserves the exact same raise and care that our state employees, our law enforcement and our social workers have gotten in the last budget cycle.

The budget proposed by Governor Andy Beshear calls for an 11% raise for public school employees.

The House budget only encourages districts to give raises.