Jefferson County Public Schools rates 52 of the 192 fixes Kentucky's state auditor called for as Not Implemented. That count comes from the district itself. In its 136 page Corrective Action Plan, JCPS rates 32 recommendations Fully Implemented, 99 Partially Implemented, 52 Not Implemented and 9 Alternative Action.
The plan answers "A Special Examination of Jefferson County Public Schools," a 503 page report dated June 30, 2026, from Auditor of Public Accounts Allison Ball. It covers 14 chapters, from the school board and finance to bus safety and special education.
Every status in the plan is JCPS grading its own work. Nothing in the audit, the plan or the committee materials says the auditor has checked those grades.
What happened at the October 6 legislative hearing
The audit went before the Kentucky General Assembly's Interim Joint Committee on Education on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, at 11 a.m. ET in Annex Room 154 in Frankfort. The committee agenda listed Auditor Allison Ball, Superintendent Dr. Brian Yearwood and Board Chair Dr. Corrie Shull for the item.
The item was a presentation. The agenda shows no vote on the audit, and none was needed. The audit is a published, final report, not a bill or a regulation. Formal minutes of what lawmakers asked were not posted when we checked on October 16.
How JCPS describes its own progress
The slides JCPS showed lawmakers relabel the plan's 52 Not Implemented items as "Beginning Stages."
We recounted the statuses line by line in the plan's summary table and again in its detailed pages. Both add up to the same 192 items and the same 32, 99, 52 and 9 split the district printed.
The JCPS presentation to lawmakers frames the same work differently. Its status key reads "Fully Implemented," "Partially Implemented," "Beginning Stages" and "Alternative Actions." The written plan calls that third group "Not Implemented." The slides also say the audit "does not identify central office staffing levels as an area needing correction."
The most concentrated gap is the school board. Chapter 2 makes 10 recommendations to the Jefferson County Board of Education, and JCPS marks 7 of them Not Implemented. Among them, the audit found the board "has not completed a quarterly self-assessment in a scheduled public meeting since April 8, 2025," and that it lacks a governance framework centered on student outcomes "because there is no current District Strategic Plan and the Goals and Guardrails framework is stalled."
The audit also found the board's large consent agenda, the batch of items approved in one vote, "may be reducing public transparency." JCPS rates that one Partially Implemented. Its plan says the board "will continue to use the Consent Calendar" and that the chair and superintendent will decide which high impact consent items become separate action items.
What the audit found about JCPS buses
Bus Safety, Chapter 7, has 5 recommendations. JCPS rates 2 Fully Implemented and 3 Partially Implemented, with none Not Implemented. Our JCPS transportation guide covers eligibility, stops and who to call.
The first finding is about the routing contract behind the August 2023 bus breakdown. The audit says "the contract with AlphaRoute was not properly evaluated and documented as to the justification behind its eligibility for non-competitive procurement." JCPS marks the fix complete, pointing to noncompetitive purchasing procedures now posted on its Purchasing page.
The audit also gives JCPS credit. School leaders told auditors that buses have "become much more reliable and on time" since 2023. The report notes a centralized routing team, 167 new bus drivers hired between July 1, 2024, and August 1, 2025, and a May 2025 procedure that tightened Legacy Enrollment, the rule that once let rezoned students stay put under the name "Grandfathered Transfer."
Two findings speak directly to riders. One says per school survey data "reflected a concerning level of fear among students who ride the bus to school." JCPS rates its response Partially Implemented. The plan says a monthly committee will propose strategies to reduce student fear by November 1, 2026.
The other says that across 2022 to 2023 and 2024 to 2025, "33,358 out of 42,712 behavior incidents on a bus were committed by repeat offenders, indicating JCPS's disciplinary policies and processes for bus incidents and referrals are not effective." JCPS marks that Fully Implemented. Its evidence is that behavior consultants entered bus referrals and a committee reviewed referral data monthly through May 22, 2026. The plan does not report whether repeat incidents have dropped.
What the audit found about school climate and safety
Student Supports, Culture and Climate, Chapter 8, has 15 recommendations. JCPS marks 6 Not Implemented: 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.7 and 8.10.
Four of the six involve tutoring and support programs. The audit found "there is no documented and intentional process or procedure by JCPS to advertise the various tutoring programs offered to students, other than relying on word-of-mouth from classroom teachers." It also found the district website "still lists third-party tutoring vendors for which JCPS no longer has active contracts, including one that is no longer in business." The plan sets a May 24, 2028 target for one tutoring landing page.
Auditors also found JCPS "does not appear to be tracking or collecting performance data" on outside tutoring, and that families and staff "believe the District is insufficiently staffed and resourced to meet student needs."
On safety, the audit reported that "one-fifth of all JCPS students reported feeling 'unsafe' at school." JCPS rates that recommendation Fully Implemented. Its evidence is weapons detection at every middle and high school, a Risk Assessment Coordinator and school resource officer assigned to each school, and four police dog teams.
Yet a separate finding says JCPS "has not allocated adequate funding or school-level staffing resources to ensure the effective implementation and ongoing maintenance of the weapons detection systems." JCPS rates that one Partially Implemented. The plan does not say whether students feel safer than they did in the auditor's survey.
What the audit found about special education
Exceptional Child Education, Chapter 12, has 29 recommendations on plan pages 111 to 126. JCPS marks 4 Fully Implemented, 23 Partially Implemented and 2 Not Implemented. For the basics, see our JCPS special education guide and how an IEP differs from a 504 plan.
The findings parents of students with disabilities will recognize include these, quoted from the audit:
JCPS "is not meeting required state targets for Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) and the education of students with disabilities in general education settings." Least Restrictive Environment means students with disabilities learn alongside classmates as much as possible.
"Students with disabilities in JCPS are more likely to experience the use of physical restraint or seclusion than non-disabled students."
"Most students with disabilities in JCPS do not demonstrate grade-level reading proficiency."
"JCPS does not provide written guidance on IEP development for multilingual learners." An IEP is the Individualized Education Program that spells out a student's services.
The two items JCPS rates Not Implemented sit under the bluntest finding: "JCPS's early learning programs have consistently failed to prepare preschool students with disabilities for kindergarten." The plan promises a districtwide review of kindergarten readiness data and a study of other districts during the 2026 to 2027 school year, with a June 30, 2027 target.
The chapter also notes gains. The graduation rate for students with disabilities rose six percentage points between the 2022 to 2023 and 2024 to 2025 school years, reaching 81%.
What parents can check next
Each recommendation in the plan names an accountable leader and a target completion date. If your child's services touch one of these findings, those dates are concrete questions to bring to an ARC meeting (the Admissions and Release Committee that writes an IEP) or to a school board meeting. For example, a parent of a preschooler with an IEP can find the early learning recommendations in Chapter 12, on plan pages 111 to 126, and ask what the school has done toward the June 30, 2027 target.
The committee materials are posted on the Legislative Research Commission committee documents page. KET's legislative coverage carries interim committee meetings, and the agenda names the LRC livestream page as the backup. The October 6 agenda listed no public comment period.
The first bus deadline in the plan is November 1, 2026, when JCPS says its committee will propose ways to reduce students' fear of riding the bus.