Everyday Kansans Speak Up for Kids, Drive State toward Progress
If this session demonstrated anything, it’s that when enough Kansans speak about their experiences, lawmakers tend to listen more closely.
Kansans like you got loud about issues that matter – child care funding, summer food benefits for children, Medicaid expansion, K-12 funding, and sustainable tax relief for low- and middle-income families.
This has all led to progress on conversations surrounding a state child tax credit and equitable tax structures, investments in the child care system, establishing a unified early learning structure within the state, and helping more than 150,000 low-income Kansans access health care coverage.
And equally as important, we heard less and less about threats to family support programs and dangerous roll backs to public health and immunization policies.
It’s clear our multi-year effort to shift impactful narratives — no doubt with your continued support — is working.
We’re excited at what this means going into the next legislative session, setting us all up to make further inroads on pertinent issues that impact Kansas kids and their families.
This year, we’re marking the 2024 legislative session as a success. While we saw several good bills pass that will help kids, the progress we’re seeing in other ways beyond approved or rejected legislation is making our aspirations for what’s possible even more grand.
As you read the rest of the legislative recap, we hope you’ll spot an issue that you can help make progress on by sharing your experiences with your lawmakers after the elections this fall. With your support, we can go further than we ever have in passing policies that make a real difference in the lives of Kansas kids.
2024 Session at a Glance
Education
Child care became a hot topic again, leading to a compromise on a bill that initially made sweeping changes to child care safety standards. Although advocates presented information about the benefits of streamlining the early childhood system into the Office of Early Childhood, less-than-ideal amendments offered dangerous, burdensome changes that could have made regulations harder to reverse in the face of unintended consequences.
Thousands of providers and advocates banded together to stop ill-informed child care changes from moving forward while supporting a realigned early learning system that would be more efficient for all. Even though the compromise legislation passed overwhelmingly in the House, the bill was held up in the Senate and didn’t progress further.
While it’s disappointing the Legislature didn’t make much progress on child care – read more about an increase to the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit in the fiscal policy section – a wide door is opened to continuing conversations about policies that support providers and help families access quality child care.
Lawmakers zeroed in on literacy programs like the “Kansas Blueprint on Literacy,” which focuses on teaching the science of reading. This bipartisan effort is hoped to be the key to combat eroding reading proficiency levels among Kansas kids and get them onto a successful path early in their public education.
Kansas also fully funded schools again. Despite some lawmakers trying to use budget calculation tricks, lawmakers increased the amount reserved for special education after an uproar from public school advocates, teachers, and administrators. As the state prepares for reevaluating the school finance formula in 2026, everyday Kansans’ efforts show how fiercely protective we are of our public schools.
Health
After several sessions of health care discussions being taken over by dangerous anti-vaccine and anti-public health rhetoric, the 2024 Legislature turned its focus to several long-overdue beneficial policies.
Due to massive public pressure, Medicaid expansion hearings were held for the first time in years. Unfortunately, leadership blocked attempts to move the proposals forward, keeping health coverage out of reach for more than 150,000 low-income Kansans. We will not stop advocating for expansion, as it would benefit thousands of kids and families.
Some lawmakers again pushed to dismantle vaccine and public policy. However, after two hearings and one bill passing out of the Senate, no further discussion occurred. It was a welcome change after the past few years of last-minute and late-night debates. We remain committed to strengthening bipartisan opposition to proposals that would weaken communities’ defenses against infectious disease threats.
For the third consecutive year, the budget included a temporary fix to an eligibility error for the Children’s Health Insurance Program; we continue to work toward a permanent fix of this error. New to the budget this year was fully funding basic adult preventative dental care for KanCare members.
The Legislature addressed several health emergency situations, including expanding school nurses’ authority to administer emergency medications (albuterol and epinephrine), creating immunity for those responding to drug overdose situations, and giving EMS authority to leave behind over-the-counter medications with patients, including Narcan.
We are hopeful the 2025 Legislature will keep up the momentum on health policy that improves kids’ lives.
Fiscal Policy
The passage of a recycled set of rejected tax policies in the early days of session was a rare sight, setting off a back-and-forth series of bills and vetoes, without any package crossing the finish line. Lawmakers were called back for a special session on June 18 for another attempt to craft a more modest compromise.
The final tax package signed by the Governor includes relief that helps every Kansan — reductions to income tax rates, increases to the value of residential property exempt from the state mill levy, and elimination of state tax on Social Security. Unfortunately, an acceleration of the elimination of the state sales tax on food wasn’t included, keeping the original Jan. 1, 2025, date intact.
Tax conversations included more diverse and bipartisan alliances than we have seen in recent years. With a current, healthy state revenue picture, the cost of tax cuts was closely scrutinized and evaluated, leading to a final package all hope is sustainable.
Opportunities to help children through tax policy were at the forefront of our advocacy this year. KAC was excited to champion a state child tax credit, which garnered bipartisan interest and support. And KAC successfully advocated for an increase to the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, increasing the state match of this federal credit from 25% to 50%, which will help more parents be able to afford quality care.
Lawmakers also allocated millions in state dollars to include preventative dental care for Medicaid patients, new slots on the I/DD waiver waiting list, increases to select Medicaid reimbursement rates, and other notable items that improve the health and well-being of Kansans. While KAC would have liked to have seen lawmakers invest part of the state surplus into the child care system or passing a child tax credit, the budget work lawmakers accomplished this year will certainly benefit many.
Economic Security
Kansas is now the first state in the country to allow a fourth option for foster children 16 or older to create permanent, legal relationships with adults they trust while still allowing them to maintain close familial relationships. Called the SOUL Family Legal Permanency Option, it is seen as a transformative step forward for older children in foster care to get the support they need as they enter adulthood.
KAC continued closely watching the House Committee on Welfare Reform, ready to activate folks like you if bills restricting access to family support programs inched forward. One such bill would have banned Kansas from implementing the new Summer EBT program, which provides federally funded grocery benefits for kids eligible for the free and reduced-price meals program during the summer. Many Kansans contacted the Committee asking them to oppose this attempt to take food away from hungry kids, resulting in the bill not even having a hearing.
The Committee spent much of its time on homelessness, hearing from in-state service providers and data and policy experts. Unfortunately, the only homelessness-related bill considered would have placed stringent policies around a $40 million grant to increase homeless shelter infrastructure. KAC and its partners educated lawmakers about how much harm this policy would have done. Thankfully, they listened and the policy didn’t advance.
While the Legislature should work on bills that improve the lives of Kansas families living on low incomes, we’re encouraged just to see a shift in the narrative from demonizing families struggling to make ends meet to the system working against them. With several harmful bills being a non-starter for a majority of the Legislature, we believe this signals that future proactive opportunities are possible.
2024 Bill Breakdown
KAC monitored dozens of bills during the 2024 session across a variety of issues. We supported many proposals, but most were not advanced through the legislative process.
Statehouse Stats
We work diligently throughout session building relationships with lawmakers, presenting testimony on key issues, and researching policy solutions.
37 |
Pieces of testimony from KAC |
64 |
Number of partner organizations KAC worked alongside |
93 |
Number of lawmakers KAC staff met with during 2024 Session |
1,322 |
Number of people who participated in KAC action opportunities |
Where Do We Go Next?
You are receiving this mailing because you’ve been an essential contributor to our work this year — by contacting lawmakers, making a donation to KAC, or sharing your time and expertise to shape our work.
With a new batch of lawmakers coming into the 2025 session, advocates will have new opportunities to impact the next round of legislative action when it starts next January.
We’ve started to make a lot of progress toward a future where every Kansas kid has enough to eat for every meal, access to health coverage, affordable and quality child care so parents can get to work, and the ability to achieve financial success. And we can’t stop now.
As you imagine the future you dream of for kids and families, join us in taking concrete steps toward making your vision a reality. Your contributions toward a better life for kids can be as small as staying tuned in to the issues impacting Kansas families or as big as contacting your state lawmakers and meeting with them one on one.
Your support is crucial to building a coalition of everyday Kansans who can share their first-hand experiences with decisionmakers. Thank you in advance for making Kansas a place where every child has the opportunity to grow up healthy and thrive!
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