Federal changes are coming to Kentucky's schools.

Not every detail is settled, but the big beautiful bill and the federal government shutdown will have their impacts on K through 12 and higher education.

Our Jim Lefler has more as we kick off tonight's legislative update.

Amid the federal shutdown, the Trump administration has laid off hundreds of employees from the Department of Education.

Specifically those monitoring the civil rights of special education students.

This Democratic lawmaker is a special ed teacher in Louisville.

So last week, the Trump administration effectively gutted the Office of Special Education.

Can you explain, Jane, just based upon your insights, what will that mean for the $15 billion that is appropriated through that department?

Education funds are generally forward funded.

And so, there was a tranches of Ida funds that should have gone out on July 1st of this year, and then a larger tranche that was to be made available to states on October 1st.

As I understand that funding was made available to states on October 1st.

And so while there's, you know, at least for the time being, the availability of funding, I think there are now new questions around the department's capacity to implement the, many provisions of the individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

If these, staffing cuts are sustained and again, knowing that these were reported on on Friday and folks are still trying to gather Intel, the National Conference of State Legislatures spoke to a Kentucky education committee today.

The policy group advised them of what to expect from the big, beautiful bill.

Less students may qualify for free and reduced lunch or medical services in schools due to eligibility changes to Snap and Medicaid first, but many schools use participation in the Snap program as a proxy to certify participation in the free or reduced price lunch school meal program.

If a student is no longer eligible for Snap Snap benefits, the school will then need to directly certify the student through, usually a paper based application.

And that can oftentimes be complicated and can result in sometimes students who may be eligible not being counted for those meal programs in higher education, student loan borrowers will face a new reality.

Previously, graduate lending was effectively, unlimited at the federal level because the grad plus program, the previous program permitted students to borrow up to the cost of attendance, and the cost of attendance is set by the institutions.

And so, students effectively face no limits, on what they were able to borrow in order to pursue their graduate education through the Grad Plus program.

That program has been eliminated.

And there are now new specific limits on how much students can borrow.

Federal rulemaking is underway that will hammer out much of these details for Kentucky edition.

June Leffler.