2026 Regular Session - Day 26 - HB 508 | Rep. Matt Koch

Thanks for your service, and let's pray a prayer of thanks. Father, you tell us in your word to give thanks in all things, for this is your will. And I just want to say thanks for the warmth, just the recovery, Lord, and the restoration of that. And Lord, the prediction of warmth in the future, we just say thank you for that. And we enter a season, Lord, here soon, where our time with you is deepened. We focus greatly deeper on your sacrifice, what you did on the cross, and then how you beat death in the grave. And we thank you. In the words of Paul, you're the indescribable gift. You've overcome death in the grave, and only through you that we have eternal life. And this prayer is just to say thank you. It's in the name of Jesus that I pray, amen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would you have the clerk report House Committee Substitute 1? Clerk, please report. House Committee Substitute 1 to House Bill 253. Gentleman from Spencer. Mr. Speaker, I move adoption. Motion is for the adoption of House Committee Substitute 1. Is there any discussion of the committee substitute? Seeing none, those in favor signify by voting aye. Aye. Those opposed, nay. House Committee Substitute 1 is adopted. Gentleman from Spencer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Back in 2022 session, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 9, known as the Read to Succeed Bill, putting a focus on what is referred to as the science of reading, often referred to as the five essential components of reading. We have made a lot of progress on that. In professional development and training of our teachers, the early results are promising. House Bill 253 is a follow-up to that legislation by removing a system that has shown to be detrimental to reading, and that's referred to as the three-queuing system. As amended by the committee sub by the fiscal year 2930, the teaching, any teaching using the three-queuing system of reading would not be allowed. It would also, let me briefly explain what that is. A lot of times, queues are given if a young child is reading a book or a picture. There was an example given in committee by the Chief Academic Officer for KDE. It might be a picture of a horse, and the student will read, Sally rode her pony to school. Students are learning to memorize words. They're not learning the sounds and phonics, and we want to prevent this because studies have shown that this is detrimental. Mr. Speaker, I have a letter sent to me this week by the Printer Committee. It says House Bill 253 of House Committee Substitute 1 takes an important and long-overdue step by ensuring that all students receive reading instruction grounded in the science of reading and setting a clear timeline for phasing out practices such as the three-queuing system that research has repeatedly shown to be ineffective. The establishment of an approved list of scientifically researched evidence-based curricula and interventions paired with clear expectations for district implementation will bring much-needed consistency and quality to early literacy instruction across the state. I knew that was coming from the gentleman from Wayne. This legislation also directs immediately our post-secondary teacher preparation programs to only teach the science of reading without implementing the three-queuing system. Also another important step in the next three years, the Department of Education will be providing professional learning to our teachers. There are 19,000 early education teachers in Kentucky. 7,000 of them to this point have completed the letter system. That's a very two-year intensive program, very positive results. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I'd like to yield to the lady from Jefferson 32. Chair recognizes the lady from Jefferson 32. Thank you, and I'll be brief. The most precious resource we have with our students is time, and what House Bill 253 will do is ensure that the time that we spend teaching our children to read will use the most effective, most research-based strategies, giving our children every chance in the world to become stronger readers. Thank you. Gentleman from Spencer. Mr. Speaker, I'd be glad to entertain any questions from the members, but at this time, I move for passage of House Bill 253 as amended by House Committee Substitute 1. This is nothing new to this House. We passed this in 2004 in the 2024 regular session 94-1. We just passed this out of BMAP 16-0. This is about regulating an already existing industry. This is about protecting our veterans. This is about veterans' rights and opportunities, and as a veteran myself, my father's a veteran, I recognize how complicated these claims can be, and so it's extremely important that you have the right people helping you navigate this very complicated system. Nobody, nobody wants to see veterans taken advantage of, and that's why in 508, we've clearly set parameters of which an organization must follow, and keep in mind, they're already operating in Kentucky, Kentucky with no parameters. These parameters will shut down the bad actors while allowing veterans to choose what works best for them. First and foremost, I want to make clear, this bill does no harm to any of the veteran service organizations in this Commonwealth. If you have one of these fantastic, one of these great VSOs in your community, they will be able to continue to operate and do the same great mission that they've been doing, cost-free to the veterans, and that's very important, cost-free to the veterans, and if you have availability to get to them, you need to go to them first. This bill requires the company to notify the veteran in 12 font on the front page. It must be given to them orally, it must be in writing, and the veteran must sign that, that they are aware that there are free services available to help with them. I don't know how to make that any clearer. No initial or refundable fee shall be charged. Fees shall not include interest. They shall not exceed five times the one month increase in benefits with a cap of $12,500. They shall not use international call centers. They shall not gain direct access to any of your personal information. Take your attention to the top of page three and read the entire disclosure that must be presented orally and in writing to that veteran. This year, we've added a reporting piece that any persons that receive compensation for this work must report annually to the Kentucky Department of Veteran Affairs. And finally, this is very important, we've excluded attorneys or law firms from this bill. This is important because in Louisiana that passed similar legislation, they did not. We were aware of this, we excluded them. It's the last four lines of the bill. We recognize that those some attorneys are accredited and we are not messing with their fee structure. Let's stop the bad actors, protect veterans while honoring their commitment to freedom. Mr. Speaker, I'm open to any questions or comments. I wanna applaud the gentleman from Bourbon from working on this. I know it's been several years that he's been working towards this and just trying to protect our veterans more than anything. We also wanna thank him for his service and several others on here, but I also wanna send a very special shout out to a gentleman in my area that's worked very hard to help veterans, make sure that they got the correct information and got the correct benefits to help them to the best of their ability. So just a special shout out to Lou Drowdy for all the help in his team that they do. Thank you.