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Version 2.0

Kentucky, state file 17

Released September 28, 2026, in the SY 2025 (School Year 2024 - 2025) cycle. Figures are as of the release.

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This version

File number
17
Version
2.0
Cycle
SY 2025 (School Year 2024 - 2025)
Released
September 28, 2026
Next scheduled re-audit
Not yet scheduled

Cite this version

National Deaf Education Data Index, Kentucky state file version 2.0, SY 2025 (School Year 2024 - 2025), released September 28, 2026, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23253510, https://www.ndedi.org/states/ky/v2.0/

Other citation styles 
National Deaf Education Data Index, Kentucky state file version 2.0, SY 2025 (School Year 2024 - 2025), released September 28, 2026, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23253510, https://www.ndedi.org/states/ky/v2.0/

In plain language

Kentucky has run a state school for Deaf students in Danville since 1823, and the state Department of Education operates it as one of its own units. The school had 62 students on the state's 2024-25 report card and 74 on its December 2024 count, while the state counted 724 hearing-impaired students statewide that December, so most are taught in their local districts. The school's outreach arm advises 152 of the 171 districts at no cost, but only three districts name the school on their own websites.

This file read the website of every district, six other state-run units and the nine regional special education cooperatives, 186 in all. Eighteen publish a program or a staff position for Deaf and hard of hearing students, thirty-five mention hearing only in a list or in passing, one hundred thirty-three publish nothing, and every site was read. A district that publishes nothing may still serve its Deaf students well; the finding is about what a family can find. Eight districts each have ten or more identified hearing-impaired students and publish nothing about them.

Kentucky publishes how many hearing-impaired students each district has, hiding small numbers, but has not published where they are placed since December 2022. The funding formula gives a district extra money for each identified Deaf student, at the highest of its three weights. The school's budget is 12.8 million dollars for the year that began in July 2026. A federal tax credit for private school scholarships opened to Kentucky in July 2026, and nothing in it reports which students use it. In 2025 the state closed the classroom interpreter test as a route to a full interpreter license. No state document tells a family how to choose between the state school, a district program and a private one.

A summary of this version for any reader, written with the file. The figures and sources behind each sentence are in the sections below.

Coverage summary

  • NONE FOUND is a statement about publication, not about service delivery.
  • Obligations under IDEA are not evidence of a program.
  • 186Units in frameExhaustive frame
  • 186Readable subsetThe frame less NOT VERIFIABLE and NOT AUDITED: every unit whose pages were read
  • 15PROGRAM rows with a weak-evidence flag
Tallies by code, against the frame of 186 and the readable subset of 186
CodeUnitsPercent of framePercent of readable subset
PROGRAM189.7%9.7%
MENTION3518.8%18.8%
NONE FOUND13371.5%71.5%
NOT VERIFIABLE00.0%Outside the readable subset
NOT AUDITED00.0%Outside the readable subset
OUT OF FRAME00.0%0.0%
Coverage codes against the frameEach bar counts the units carrying that code. The codes record what agencies publish, not what they do.
Data sheet
Coverage codes against the frame
CategoryCountShare of 186
PROGRAM1810%
MENTION3519%
NONE FOUND13372%

Shares are of the frame count, 186 units.As of September 28, 2026.

Tallies by agency typeFor each agency type, the units under each code, in the order the file first records the types.
  • PROGRAM
  • MENTION
  • NONE FOUND
Data sheet
Tallies by agency type
CategoryPROGRAMMENTIONNONE FOUNDTotal
County district172479120
Independent district074451
Special education cooperative (SERTAC)0369
State agency program (district code in state data)0011
State residential dual-credit academy (district in state data)0011
State school district1001
State school district (blind counterpart)0011
State-operated ATC system (district code in state data)0101
University laboratory school district0011

As of September 28, 2026.

As of September 28, 2026, the release date of this version.

The two formulations

  • NONE FOUND is a statement about publication, not about service delivery.
  • Obligations under IDEA are not evidence of a program.

Full access and custom data

The full state file

This page and the summary CSV are free to everyone. The full Kentucky state file is licensed: the report and its evidence supplement, as PDF and Word, and the workbook with every sheet, with each year's update.

A licence is for one state, with a reduced-rate licence for Deaf-led and disability organizations; State Partner and national licences cover more.

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Custom data

We also prepare data for one organization under its own licence: one of Kentucky's standard regions, the counties, districts or service area you name, or another cut of the file. A custom cut is made from a released version of the state file and cites it and its DOI; it is not published.

The 5 standard regions of Kentucky, each a group of whole counties:

  • Greater Louisville and the Lincoln Trail 15 counties

    Jefferson, Oldham, Bullitt, Shelby, Spencer, Henry, Trimble, Nelson, Hardin, Meade, Breckinridge, Grayson, Larue, Marion, Washington

  • Northern Kentucky (the Cincinnati metro) 11 counties

    Kenton, Boone, Campbell, Grant, Pendleton, Gallatin, Carroll, Owen, Bracken, Mason, Robertson

  • The Bluegrass (Greater Lexington) 22 counties

    Fayette, Scott, Woodford, Jessamine, Clark, Bourbon, Madison, Montgomery, Harrison, Nicholas, Bath, Fleming, Franklin, Anderson, Mercer, Boyle, Garrard, Lincoln, Estill, Powell, Menifee, Wolfe

  • Eastern Kentucky (Appalachia) 34 counties

    Pike, Floyd, Johnson, Martin, Magoffin, Knott, Letcher, Perry, Breathitt, Owsley, Lee, Jackson, Clay, Leslie, Harlan, Bell, Knox, Whitley, Laurel, Rockcastle, Pulaski, McCreary, Wayne, Clinton, Russell, Casey, Lawrence, Elliott, Morgan, Rowan, Carter, Boyd, Greenup, Lewis

  • Western Kentucky (Bowling Green, Owensboro, Paducah) 38 counties

    Adair, Allen, Ballard, Barren, Butler, Caldwell, Calloway, Carlisle, Christian, Crittenden, Cumberland, Daviess, Edmonson, Fulton, Graves, Green, Hancock, Hart, Henderson, Hickman, Hopkins, Livingston, Logan, Lyon, McCracken, McLean, Marshall, Metcalfe, Monroe, Muhlenberg, Ohio, Simpson, Taylor, Todd, Trigg, Union, Warren, Webster

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