The Kentucky Senate approved a bill that is directed towards restricting how teachers and students electronically communicate.
On Jan. 27, revisions made to Senate Bill 181 were passed 33-0 by the senate. According to the Kentucky Lantern, among the proposed changes are that school employees and volunteers may not engage in “unauthorized electronic communication” with students, which is defined as a private message to a student without their parent as a recipient of the message and without parental approval from a consent form.
In addition, the Kentucky General Assembly stated other revisions, which included that parental consent forms for communication only extend to students enrolled within the same district as the school employee or volunteer, and that there is more flexibility for school districts in how they handle disciplinary actions for employees who violate the bill.
Aside from revisions, the bill had amendments made. According to the Kentucky General Assembly, Senate Floor Amendment 1 stated that it would require parental notification for all material phases of an investigation of or disciplinary actions arising from unauthorized electronic communication from students. In addition, in Senate Floor Amendment 2, electronic communication between students and school resource officers, or directors of pupil personnel, is not a part of “unauthorized communication” when designated school administrators are included in the communication.
In early 2025, Sen. Lindsey Tichenor introduced SB181 to the Senate in hopes of combating sexual grooming and inappropriate communication between teachers and students. While there was bipartisan support for the bill, and the passage in the General Assembly with Governor Beshear eventually signing the bill into law, it caused concerns for many public school employees.
Due to the bill limiting communication, simple actions, such as coaches updating players or students contacting teachers or volunteers during field trips, became more complicated. Employees now have to contact students through programs like Google Classroom, ParentSquare, etc. The lack of clarification regarding what forms of online communication are allowed led to the reforms in the bill.
Although the bill has caused controversy, namely between public school employees who disagree with the bill and activists who feel that the bill has room for improvement, it changes the way incoming teachers think about approaching the career.
“I understand the desire behind wanting to keep kids safe and protect them from things that shouldn’t be happening,” said junior education major Emma Popplewell. “But, also, I think [that for] the people who do want to do good, and show the love of God to people, it does make it kind of harder, because then it’s like they could be doing something so innocent and all of a sudden they’re in trouble.”
For many college students majoring in education throughout Kentucky, the public schools they work for, or plan to work for, are in smaller communities. In these smaller, more tight-knit communities where electronic communication between adults and students is commonly shared, the restrictions the bill poses can have a big impact.
“But I think too, with church and stuff, it could be difficult, because I’m an education major and I love being involved with the church, so I can’t just text whoever I want whenever I want whenever I graduate if I work in the county that I go to church at,” explained Popplewell.
Despite the possible challenges the bill poses for teachers, Popplewell seemed hopeful about her future in teaching.
“God will work it out, but it was just a lot at first whenever we first heard about it, because we were like, ‘What do you mean we can’t talk to each other,” said Popplewell.
As school districts begin implementing the law, education majors preparing to enter Kentucky classrooms may be among the first to experience how SB181 reshapes daily communication with students.
