Kentucky Youth Advocates is asking lawmakers to use dollars from a legal settlement reached with an e-cigarette company on nicotine use prevention, remove the certificate of need requirement for freestanding birth centers and more during the next legislative session. (Photo by Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent)

LOUISVILLE — Kentucky Youth Advocates is asking lawmakers to use dollars from a legal settlement reached with an e-cigarette company on nicotine use prevention, remove the certificate of need requirement for freestanding birth centers and more during the next legislative session.?

KYA released its policy priorities for the 2025 legislative session on Wednesday, which the organization’s executive director, Terry Brooks, said can help “make Kentucky the best place to be young.”

“As we look ahead to the new year and legislative session, we are once again calling on the General Assembly and the governor to put kids first in their decision making and policymaking,” Brooks said in a statement. “From family housing stability to child safety in schools and online to ending the youth vaping epidemic, all kids deserve safe, healthy and thriving childhoods.”???

KYA is a nonprofit committed to improving children’s lives through policy advocacy and research into child wellbeing.??

The group’s 2025 policy priorities include:?

• Reduce the risk of sexual abuse and exploitation of children by making sure school employees complete disclosures, checks and trainings. In 2022, there were 754 confirmed cases of child sexual abuse in Kentucky, according to KYA. Many victims of child sexual abuse — around 70% — do not disclose that the abuse happened.?
• Increase awareness of and ensure appropriate responses to sexual extortion. Nationally, there were more than 13,000 cases of online financial sextortion targeting minors between October 2021 and March 2023. As with sexual abuse, many do not report.?
• Protect kids from the harmful effects of vaping; license retailers selling tobacco and nicotine products, conduct annual compliance checks, and penalize those who sell to minors. Kentucky youth and advocates have urged lawmakers during the interim that current protections aren’t adequately keeping nicotine away from minors.?
• Ensure JUUL settlement dollars are used to reduce youth nicotine dependence, and support programs aimed at quitting smoking or vaping. Anti-smoking and cancer prevention advocates are also asking lawmakers to move JUUL settlement dollars from the general fund into the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program during the 2025 legislative session. Rep. Robert Duvall, R-Bowling Green, plans to file a bill on this. ?JUUL’s next payment to Kentucky — about $1.3 million — is due Dec. 31. Juul then owes the state slightly more than $2 million in December 2025 and again in December 2026.?
• Require training for child care providers on strategies to support children with disabilities; incentivize programs to serve children with disabilities. A KYA survey found that around 54% of child care directors had to expel a child over the last year because of “challenging behaviors.” Additionally, 71% said more staff training would allow them to care for children with disabilities.?
• Exempt freestanding birth centers from certificate of need (CON) requirements. The debate on this issue has lasted about half a decade in Frankfort. Proponents of removing CON for these birth centers, and thus paving the way for them to open in Kentucky, say the change could improve the state’s poor maternal health outcomes. Opponents have said the facilities could siphon money away from hospitals and could result in mothers facing complications without a doctor present. Hundreds of Kentucky women who want to birth in freestanding facilities travel to Indiana and Tennessee every year to access them.?