2025 Regular Session - Day 27 - Comments on SB 19, Rep. Timmy Truett

I know that uh for people who may have not seen something like this before how this might be a little bit scary uh but I will speak um from a standpoint of a school that currently does this we have we have a an agreement made with some outside entities a different found we got we got a foundation that helps and we've got some local churches that help when you're in schools especially Elementary School like myself Community involvement is a big part of the school day Community anytime we can get community involved anytime we can get our especially at the elementary level that's a very important uh thing to do and and what what this looks like in my district and in my school is we take any third fourth or fifth grade student whose parents say that they want this and and they are transported to a local location it could be a church it could be a community a location whatever where whatever is made up in the agreement the outside entity pays for transportation we cannot require staff members to go but if a staff member decides to go on their own they can so we have liability coverage there all the people doing it have to go through a a a background check we're not turning our students loose with people who have not been vetted properly and I will tell you when my kids get to leave and come back it's amazing the smiles that they have I mean it's one of those things I I don't know any kid that doesn't like a little field trip and this is we do have to stay less than an hour and we're back so it is doable and I would encourage any school in the state of Kentucky that has an outside entity a church some type of Youth Organization that would like to partner up with your school to do something like this it is an awesome experience and I can speak firsthand that it's doable and I can vow that this is a great idea and for that I will be supporting this measure thank you