KentuckyHB 7782026 Regular SessionHouseWALLET

AN ACT relating to child welfare.

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

37 provisions identified: 20 benefits, 0 costs, 17 mixed.

More help for foster youth to 21

Eligible youth can extend or reinstate commitment or custody up to age 21 to get transitional living support. You must ask before you turn 20 years and 6 months. You can extend up to three times before that age without commissioner approval. The cabinet starts transition planning at least six months before your 18th birthday and must tell you about your right to extend. A court may grant an extension even if the cabinet agrees after age 20 years and 6 months.

Protections for reporters and child advocates

If you report suspected child abuse or neglect in good faith, you are immune from civil and criminal liability. Knowingly making a false report with malice is a Class A misdemeanor. Children’s advocacy center staff and agents are immune for actions within their job duties, and the Attorney General will provide a legal defense on request. Immunity does not cover negligence.

Fewer privilege shields in child abuse cases

Spousal and most professional privileges cannot be used to refuse to report suspected child abuse, neglect, or dependency, or to block evidence in court. Attorney‑client and clergy‑penitent privileges still apply. This helps investigators and courts get key evidence in child abuse cases.

Stronger abuse response and DCBS training

When the cabinet gets a report of abuse or neglect, it promptly investigates or assesses needs, acts, and offers protective services. If the report does not meet criteria, it refers the family to community agencies. After such a report, doctors may take photos, X‑rays, and confirmatory urine drug tests (including buprenorphine, fentanyl, methadone, and xylazine) without parent consent, and use results in court. DCBS must provide initial and ongoing training on domestic violence and elder abuse for supervisors and front‑line staff, and is encouraged to add pediatric head trauma and pediatric ingestion content.

Keep siblings connected in foster care

The cabinet shares needed information with relatives or a parent of the child’s sibling to help with placement, treatment, or visits. If siblings are removed and not placed together, the cabinet provides frequent visits or ongoing contact unless it would be unsafe.

Easier licensing for limited-hours programs

Preschools that run up to 20 hours a week are fully exempt if each child attends 10 hours or less, and are partially exempt if each child attends 15 hours or less (with written notice to the Cabinet and staff background and TB checks). Skill‑based programs for school‑age kids that run outside school, do not claim to be licensed child care, tell parents they are not licensed and explain physical risks, and complete abuse registry and in‑state criminal checks are exempt from child‑care licensing rules. Local governments cannot add extra licensure, certification, or training rules that target family child‑care homes beyond state law, though general local rules still apply. Licensing and certification fees go to a state special fund to run the program.

Independent panel reviews child deaths

The law creates an outside panel to review child deaths and near-deaths from suspected abuse or neglect. The panel meets at least quarterly, can access CHFS systems (TWIST/iTWIST), and must get unredacted case records within 30 days. It posts meeting updates online, publishes an annual report by February 1, and agencies must answer its recommendations within 90 days. The panel may close case discussions but must give an open-session summary; its records stay confidential and are destroyed after each case review. Members follow conflict, term, and removal rules and can seek outside experts as needed.

More police training and child ingestion policies

All Kentucky officers get more required basic training on topics like child abuse and sexual assault. Agencies must staff officers who completed a 40‑hour sexual‑assault course: 11–20 officers need 1 trained officer, 21–50 need 2, and 51+ need 4. Officers must also take domestic violence training every two years and pediatric ingestion/inhalation training every three years. By December 1, 2026, local units must have a policy to seek search warrants to test supervising adults when a child likely ingests or inhales a controlled substance; tests must screen for drugs like fentanyl, methamphetamine, buprenorphine, and more. Sheriff’s deputies can get Law Enforcement Foundation Program funds even if the sheriff does not participate. Missing an agency evidence deadline cannot dismiss a criminal case.

Emergency child care during disasters

The cabinet sets rules to identify emergency child‑care providers during a declared emergency. This helps families find essential child care when normal options are disrupted.

Tighter opioid prescribing and safety training

Prescriptions for Schedule II drugs to treat acute pain are capped at a three‑day supply unless specific exceptions apply or medical necessity is documented. Practitioners may dispense only a 48‑hour supply of Schedule II or hydrocodone‑containing Schedule III drugs, unless it is a licensed narcotic treatment program. If your doctor records medical necessity, a longer‑than‑three‑day Schedule II prescription is presumed valid at the pharmacy. Continuing education rules require at least 7.5% of hours on monitoring, pain care, addiction, or pediatric ingestion, plus one hour on pediatric ingestion/inhalation.

Unsafe child-care centers can lose subsidies

If a center fails to fix violations or keeps operating after an emergency action, the cabinet must enforce. It can stop child‑care subsidy payments to that center, seek court orders, or suspend or revoke the license. Families using subsidies at that center can lose those payments.

Stricter child-care licensing and inspections

You must be licensed to run or advertise a child‑care center. Initial and annual renewal fees are required but cannot be more than the cabinet’s administrative cost. The cabinet does unannounced inspections, including for unlicensed centers. Directors and staff who supervise or have direct contact with children must pass criminal record checks. Family child‑care providers must complete at least 6 hours of training each year, including 1.5 hours on abusive head trauma every 5 years and 1 hour on pediatric ingestion/inhalation every 3 years. Ads must show the care location address, and penalty amounts must reflect severity, past violations, diligence, and the amount needed to ensure compliance.

Stronger rules for child-care licenses

The cabinet uses a clear deficiency notice with facts, the rule broken, and a fix-by date. Centers get up to six months to fix problems before a license is refused or revoked, unless there is an immediate threat. Immediate threats must be corrected within five working days. Providers get an informal dispute option and can appeal within 20 days, but they must still fix violations. Family child-care homes must pass an unannounced inspection, display a nontransferable certificate, and renew every two years. Renewal fees cannot be higher than the program’s costs. The cabinet sets minimum staff-to-child ratios and can suspend operations in emergencies.

New rules and fees for boarding homes

Boarding homes must register every year and pay a fee set by the secretary, up to $100. The cabinet or local health department conducts unannounced inspections before initial and annual registration, and staff can enter at any time to inspect or investigate unregistered operations. The cabinet will set minimum standards for room size, sanitation, fire safety, food, and records, and local governments may adopt stricter rules. Hiding a past denial, revocation, or penalty brings a $1,000–$5,000 civil fine and immediate revocation. A prior denial, revocation, or penalty triggers a five‑year bar on registration. If conditions pose a significant health or safety risk, the cabinet may summarily suspend operations until fixed or a hearing occurs.

Family child-care homes need certification

If you care for 4 to 6 unrelated children, you must apply for certification; 3 or fewer may apply by choice. You cannot be certified if you have a prior abuse or neglect finding. You must provide two references, a doctor or APRN health statement, pass a criminal record check, have safety items in place, and complete a TB risk assessment within 30 days. You must also finish at least six hours of training within three months on health and safety, recognizing and reporting abuse, and age‑appropriate care.

Stronger child-welfare oversight and data sharing

If a child dies or nearly dies from abuse or neglect and the cabinet was involved, the cabinet must do an internal review and send an annual report by September 1. The cabinet may share confidential case data with the external child fatality and near fatality review panel and the Ombudsman. It may also share data with researchers under a data‑use agreement with strict privacy rules. Children’s advocacy center records stay confidential but can be shared with the panel, the Ombudsman, and parties in certain hearings. Records must be returned after proceedings, and centers can give testimony instead if release would harm a child.

Tighter oversight of controlled substance prescribers

Agencies may share reports of suspected bad prescribing or dispensing with each other within three business days. Prosecutors must notify the Attorney General and the licensing board within three business days after a public felony indictment tied to controlled substances. Boards can temporarily limit or suspend a license if patients or the public are at risk, must start an investigation within seven days of a complaint, and reach a charging decision within 120 days unless law enforcement asks for more time. Boards must use pain and addiction experts when needed, allow complaints without notarization (and allow anonymous ones only with corroboration), and work closely with law enforcement and other boards. New license applicants who can prescribe or dispense controlled substances must pass fingerprint checks by Kentucky State Police and the FBI.

More safety info for child-care parents

Family child‑care homes must display their certificate. They must give parents written info on certification and how to report violations. On request, the cabinet provides the past year’s inspection reports and correction plans, and details on denials, revocations, or suspensions. Parents can ask the home for reports from the past five years.

Stronger safety and transparency in child care

Parents can ask the state for a child‑care center’s license denials, suspensions, or violations. The state provides the last year of inspection reports and plans of correction, and tells parents that five years of reports are available from the center. The state keeps children’s and families’ identities private. Child‑care centers and certified family homes cannot use corporal punishment like spanking, shaking, or paddling. Quick contact to protect a child from immediate danger is still allowed.

Extended support for older foster youth

Youth who were committed to the Cabinet as dependent, neglected, or abused can ask to extend or reinstate commitment from age 18 up to 20 years and 6 months. This helps them join state or federal education programs or set up independent living.

Fee break for military social workers

Renewal fees are waived for certified, licensed, and clinical social workers actually serving in the Armed Forces. The waiver continues for six months after an honorable discharge, separation, or release. After that, the license lapses unless renewed.

Zoning path for family child care

Local governments with land‑use rules must name family child‑care homes in zoning so boards can consider conditional‑use permits in residential areas. During the 2020 or 2021 COVID‑19 emergencies, the cabinet cannot set child‑care capacity or group sizes below what was in place on February 1, 2020.

Family courts can decide neglect cases

Either the juvenile session of District Court or the family division of Circuit Court may decide placements and services in dependency, neglect, or abuse cases. This gives the courts more capacity to act in a child’s best interest.

Faster school safety notices, tighter records

When a child is in certain protective orders or a prosecutor finds probable cause, schools must be told within 24 hours. School officials and security staff receive notices. If a case is successfully diverted, the school is told and any school records of the incident are destroyed. Schools must keep juvenile offense records locked, and only an administrator or school resource officer may open them.

Manslaughter charge for fatal fentanyl sales

Selling fentanyl or its derivatives that causes a buyer’s death is first‑degree manslaughter, a Class B felony. This raises accountability for deadly drug sales.

Tougher child-abuse crimes for drug poisonings

Abuse or neglect now includes pain or injury from a child ingesting or inhaling a controlled substance. The protected age is now under 13. Third‑degree abuse becomes a Class D felony if a child under 13 suffers serious injury from ingesting or inhaling a controlled substance.

Tougher penalties for child abuse deaths

The law treats first‑degree criminal abuse or neglect as a violent offense. Neglect now counts, along with abuse, for first‑degree manslaughter when it causes the death of a child age 12 or younger or a physically or mentally helpless person. Terms for “abuse or neglect” are the same across the criminal code. These changes strengthen accountability for deadly child abuse or neglect.

Schools get notified of juvenile offenses

When a committed youth is placed in a local school, the Department of Juvenile Justice must give the superintendent and pupil personnel director the child’s offense history. A superintendent may name a school employee to receive notices and must provide the court clerk and court‑designated worker the designee’s name and contact.

Safer foster and kin placements

Before approval, foster, relative, fictive kin, and adoptive applicants—and adult household members—must pass state and FBI fingerprint checks or a conviction‑record check. The Justice and Public Safety Cabinet may charge you an actual‑cost fee for conviction records. At annual reviews, the cabinet may rerun checks or register adult household members in a rap‑back system. If a child stays with fictive kin more than 72 hours, the caregiver gets abuse‑reporting info; if the child is under five, the caregiver must complete a one‑time 1.5‑hour abusive head trauma training within five days. The cabinet must place children in the least restrictive, most family‑like safe setting.

Caregiver approvals: bans and disability protections

The Cabinet cannot approve a foster, relative, fictive‑kin, or adoptive placement if the applicant, an adult in the home, or a minor in the home is a sex‑offender registrant or a juvenile sex offender. The Cabinet cannot deny a placement only because a prospective caregiver has a disability and must consider supports or adaptations first. The law also clarifies “fictive kin,” including people with a strong emotional bond to an infant’s parent or siblings before placement.

Plan of Safe Care for exposed newborns

Health care providers must notify the state when a baby is suspected to be substance‑exposed at birth. The department assesses safety for the baby and other children, tries to contact caregivers before discharge, and completes a Plan of Safe Care on time. Being labeled substance‑exposed is not, by itself, abuse or neglect, and plan participation is supportive and cannot be the sole reason for a finding. The department must accept these notifications for assessment even without an abuse or neglect claim and report aggregate data by December 1, 2026 and every year after.

Safer boarding homes and medication rules

People convicted of abuse or neglect under KRS 508.100–508.120, or with a Cabinet‑substantiated abuse report, cannot be registered to run a boarding home. Boarding homes cannot handle, store, or give out residents’ medicines. If a resident asks, the home must provide a lockable compartment for prescription drugs.

More child-safety training for health workers

Physician assistants need 100 CE hours with 1.5 hours on pediatric head trauma in the first two years, one hour on dementia once, and one hour on pediatric ingestion every three years. Nurses must take a 1.5‑hour pediatric head‑trauma course once, one hour on pediatric ingestion every three years, and a one‑time one‑hour dementia course; APRNs need at least five pharmacology hours each licensure period. EMTs and first responders must do one hour on pediatric head trauma every two years, one hour on pediatric ingestion every three years, and one hour on sexual‑violence topics every two years. Urgent care centers must offer approved classes on pediatric head trauma every two years and pediatric ingestion every three years. The nursing board may charge reasonable fees to run these competency rules.

Training rules for child-care staff

New staff and owner‑providers who give care must finish six hours of orientation within three months. Every year, they must complete at least six hours of child‑development training, including 1.5 hours on abusive head trauma every five years and one hour on pediatric ingestion every three years. The cabinet provides a model curriculum and materials to help meet these rules. Centers may hire staff on probation while the background check is pending, but must request the check by the start date.

Police funding tied to reporting rules

Units of government and police departments must send criminal history data and file required reports to be eligible for Law Enforcement Foundation Program funds. Funding depends on following these statewide reporting rules.

School notice rules for juvenile cases

When a juvenile is adjudicated or a covered petition and disposition occur, the court clerk must notify the public school superintendent and director of pupil personnel, or the private school principal. Sharing of juvenile records is limited to the petition and disposition and only to certain staff: the superintendent, director of pupil personnel, administrators, counseling and transportation staff, the school resource officer, and teachers or employees who work with the student.

Tighter oversight of prescribers and licenses

Licensing boards, with the Office of Drug Control Policy, set prescribing and dispensing standards for Schedule II and hydrocodone‑containing Schedule III drugs. Boards must report discipline to the National Practitioner Data Bank and check the Data Bank for each applicant. Boards must permanently bar anyone convicted after July 20, 2012 of a felony controlled‑substance offense from prescribing or dispensing controlled substances and set limits for misdemeanors. Licensees and applicants must report convictions or discipline. Physician assistants must show current national certification at license renewal.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Nick Wilson
Republican • House

Cosponsors

Daniel Grossberg
Democrat • House
Samara Heavrin
Republican • House
Sarah Stalker
Democrat • House

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 220 • No: 0

Senate vote • 3/31/2026

3rd reading, passed

Yes: 38 • No: 0

House vote • 3/31/2026

passed

Yes: 88 • No: 0

House vote • 3/18/2026