We know that youth in Kentucky are key to creating positive change for kids, and their leadership galvanizes other youth, parents, educators, community leaders, and legislators. In the Kentucky Youth Speak Up series, students advocate for policies, encourage other youth to serve their communities, promote strategies for student success, and motivate all of us to build the best commonwealth for Kentucky kids. By Morgan Guess Morgan with Representative Derrick Graham and Senator Mike Wilson. I [...]

Kentucky kids deserve a safe environment to learn and grow. This session, legislators have the opportunity to strengthen the safety of children at public schools by passing SB 194. Below are the top six things you need to know about SB 194. The bill would require a background check for substantiated child abuse and neglect for all public school employees. While schools are required to conduct criminal background checks, they don’t know about cases where [...]

Kate was my best friend in third grade. We both had wild imaginations and loved to spend recess pretending to be fanciful creatures. Other kids didn’t seem to like to play “our” way or weren’t very good at pretending, so we stuck to ourselves and thought everything was fine—until we were called into the guidance counselor’s office and told we were a clique and making other kids feel bad for excluding them. By definition, we [...]