Creating New Governance Structures
(Fall 1994 Networkshop)
Kentucky: An Interagency Partnership
The comprehensive, statewide education reforms that have taken place in Kentucky since 1990 were described by Tom Willis, a Legislative Fiscal Analyst for the Legislative Research Commission, who served on the staff of the Finance Committee of the Task Force on Educational Reform, and by Lois Adams-Rodgers, Deputy Commissioner for Learning Support Services, Kentucky Department of Education.
The Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA) was designed by the General Assembly in response to a 1989 order of the State Supreme Court mandating reform of the entire state education system. The General Assembly held numerous public hearings to solicit input from all special interest groups before drafting legislation. The Department of Education existing in 1990 had no formal involvement in the development of KERA and was, in fact, abolished and rebuilt by a new Commissioner of Education in 1991.
Virtually all elements adopted for the reform program were established practice somewhere in the nation, and some were in place in individual Kentucky schools or districts. KERA served to link these practices in implementation, affecting organizational structures and practices throughout the educational system, which serves 120 counties with 176 school districts, 1,400 schools, and 600,000 students.
One reform initiative targets $26 million in state funds to "enhance students' abilities to succeed in school by assisting children, youth, and families to meet their basic needs." This goal is being met through Family Resource Centers, serving children through age 12 and their families, and Youth Services Centers, serving adolescents ages 13 and older and their families. By fall 1993, there were 373 such centers (FRYSCs) serving 638 schools. It is expected that by the end of 1995, funding of $40 million will support FRYSCs in all eligible schools (those with 20% or more students in free lunch programs).
Adams-Rodgers addressed the relationship of the FRYSCs to the schools' need to create conditions for student success. Self-sufficiency through early "reduction of mental and physical barriers to learning" is a non-cognitive measure for which schools in Kentucky are held accountable under the reform statute. The function of FRYSCs is to help schools meet that goal, although maintaining districts' focus on it has been a "struggle"--particularly since there is not yet a "weighted" value given to this non-cognitive indicator in the Accountability Index for schools.
The $26 million support for FRYSCs is channeled through Kentucky's restructured Department of Education, which interacts with the Cabinet of Human Resources and the Task Force for FRYSCs to distribute funds to school districts. Requests for grants to establish centers are generated by local advisory boards and submitted through local boards of education. Representatives of schools, service agencies, and the community serve on the local advisory board, which oversees development of a community plan. There is no "model" for a FRYSC; sites vary widely in terms of location, number of schools served, and services provided.
At the agency level, the Department of Education is addressing the large number of overlapping health programs by creating a "matrix team," which serves as liaison with the Department of Human Resources. This cooperative effort is to be the basis for expanding the notion of FRYSCs to a broader community and family initiative which Kentucky intended to develop with support from the Pew Charitable Trust. Although Pew withdrew this grant opportunity, the system collaboration which occurred while the proposal was being developed has created an atmosphere for continued planning and focus on services for children. The Department of Education's Health Matrix Team and the Department of Education's Danforth/Stewart/Casey grant through the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) are now supporting this effort.
Kentucky is considering instituting a commission to oversee expanding the service delivery component of KERA. However, there is concern that the current system reform effort not simply "create another layer of bureaucracy." Kentucky's goal is to implement a fully-integrated, "one-stop shopping" opportunity for families, thus alleviating many of the difficulties associated with the existing bureaucracy.
