The Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children is a coalition of non-profit, public, and private organizations that stands on three pillars: thriving communities launch strong families, strong families launch successful kids, and successful kids launch a prosperous future for Kentucky. The Blueprint speaks with a common voice to create brighter futures for all Kentucky kids and their families. Learn more about the 2024 Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children priorities at kyyouth.org/blueprintKY. 

Facing a budget session, the 2024 General Assembly was presented with a chance to make meaningful investments in kids and families – and it ended with both wins and missed opportunities.

K-12 Education

Within the biennial state budget, we saw increased investments in SEEK funds – the funding model that allocates state funds to local school districts. SEEK per student funding will increase in both years, with over $4,326 spent per student in 2025 and over $4,586 in 2026. While there was no dedicated teacher raise, the increase in SEEK will allow districts to use the funds to meet their varied needs. We also saw an increase in SEEK Transportation funds, a significant investment in the Center for School Safety, and in the student-teacher pipeline. The budget also increased Tier 1 funding – which provides funding for districts with less property value income.

While K-12 education funding is a routine topic, it is only going to become increasingly more important if the constitutional amendment, authorized by House Bill 2, passes in the fall to allow public dollars that have been used for public schools to be used additionally in other educational spaces.

Health

In addition to legislative priorities that would protect kids from the harmful effects of nicotine, state lawmakers had multiple opportunities to make investments to address the vaping crisis among Kentucky kids. We are disappointed to see the status quo upheld on tobacco prevention and cessation funding, an area that has desperately needed an increase for many years to provide critical supports to those struggling with nicotine addiction. Additionally, a recent lawsuit with vape-giant JUUL for their marketing practices toward youth awarded Kentucky several million dollars over a number of years, funding that the legislature failed to allocate for a specific purpose. Without direction from the legislature, this funding is not guaranteed to support the prevention and mitigation of the widespread nicotine addiction among Kentucky youth.

Advocates across the Commonwealth also looked to the legislature to ensure increased funding to support the mental health needs of Kentucky kids. Although the final state budget did include sustained funding for school-based mental health providers, it failed to include the Senate recommendation to boost reimbursement rates for mental health providers in the Medicaid program. This increase is critical to ensure kids and their families have access to necessary mental health services in their communities.

Economic Security

State lawmakers made some major investments into the food security of Kentucky kids in this biennial budget, as well as made strides to support regional housing efforts. The legislature took direct action to address childhood hunger in this budget by including funding for Kentucky to participate in the permanent Summer EBT program. This program will operate similarly to the Pandemic EBT program, offering kids who qualify for free and reduced school meals $40 per month in grocery money. The legislature also gave food banks a boost by increasing funding for the Farms to Food Banks program, which helps food banks provide fresh, locally grown produce to food-insecure Kentuckians.

We were also grateful to see funding allocated to support regional housing efforts, including $5 million per fiscal year for the Rural Housing Trust Fund and $10 million for Lexington’s Transformational Housing Affordability Partnership. While regional investments are much needed and worth celebrating, we were disappointed that no funds were allocated to the statewide Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Families in every community across Kentucky are struggling to find and stay in safe, affordable housing, and communities in other areas of the state will now have to wait until the next budget session to see substantial investments in addressing their housing crisis.

Early Childhood

Kentucky’s early childhood community entered this session with a substantial financial ask to stabilize our child care system as part of the state’s necessary infrastructure. Advocates campaigned for an additional $150 million per year to maintain programs that were implemented with the federal American Rescue Plan’s one-time funding. However, the legislature budgeted close to an additional $70 million per year to maintain changes to the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) that were implemented in 2021, which was a historic investment. Those changes include reimbursing child care programs at the 80th percentile of the Market Rate Survey, which means paying the full cost of care at 80% of the child care programs in the state for families that are eligible for child care subsidy.

Also, the General Assembly included $16 million per year for the CCAP Income Exclusion for Child Care Providers, which allows child care employees to receive a child care subsidy for their own children. This program has encouraged employees to stay at child care programs while paying the full cost of tuition for the program to maximize income. There was funding included for the Employee Child Care Assistance Partnership (ECCAP) that was created in 2022, and there were new funds dedicated to an innovation grant fund that will be used at the discretion of the Cabinet for Health and Families Services to offer start-up funds for new types of child care programs in Kentucky.

The greatest loss of the session was that the General Assembly only dedicated enough funds for subsidy eligibility for families at 160% of the Federal Poverty Level or below. Currently, the one-time federal funds have allowed Kentucky to increase eligibility to 85% of the State Median Income. When federal funds run out, the Cabinet for Health and Family Services has indicated that over 16,000 of the current 34,000 children receiving CCAP will no longer be eligible. This could cause thousands of families to leave the workforce if they do not have the funding to pay for safe child care.

Many child care providers were also disheartened that Kentucky did not offer continued stabilization payments to support competitive wages for teachers and staff members, which could lead providers to face tough decisions leading up to closure over the next two years. It will be critical for Kentucky’s legislature to track child care capacity once all the one-time federal funds have been spent. If child care programs begin to close their doors, additional action may be needed to keep parents and caregivers in the workforce.

Juvenile Justice

While the legislative pendulum swung towards harsher penalties this session, state lawmakers made significant budget investments to improve services for kids in the juvenile justice system and to expand our capacity to address the root causes of delinquent behavior. Considering some of the findings from the Kentucky Auditor’s report, a $20 million allocation for medical services within Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) facilities, to include physical and mental health services, feels timely and crucial to meeting the needs of justice-involved kids. Investments were also made in alternatives to detention – which are community-based responses with a track record of improving public safety and outcomes for kids – and evidence-based programming.

With these investments, Kentucky can do more to keep kids out of detention, ensure that more of their needs are met while they’re involved with the juvenile justice system, and provide them with the tangible services and support they need to stay on the right track.

Child Welfare

We are grateful to see significant investment for Relative Caregiver placement and sustained investments in the critically important one-time relative placement support benefit. Providing supports for relative and fictive kin care can help to stabilize placements and ensure caregivers have what they need to help children thrive. We are also glad to see an increased investment in the foster care system to ensure we can adequately support and maintain both relative and traditional foster parents as they step in to support when parents are unable to safely keep their children in their homes.

Kentucky Youth Advocates will continue to monitor the implementation and impact of these biennial state budget investments. Read a recap of the 2024 legislative session and the Blueprint for Kentucky’s Children policy priorities here.