Kansas 2025-2026 Regular Session

Kansas House Bill HB2310

Introduced
2/6/25  

Caption

Enacting the career advancement, resources, employment and supports for the disability workforce act, providing for career education programs for students and career enhancement programs for professionals, requiring performance-based contracting for disability services providers, facilitating choice in services by individuals with disabilities, mandating rate parity across all state waiver programs, providing for an online data portal system for waitlist management and services-related communications, requiring the secretary of labor to publish information regarding the disability service provider workforce and providing that direct support workers may be covered by the state health plan.

Summary

HB 2310 creates the “Career Advancement, Resources, Employment and Supports for the Disability Workforce Act,” also called the Kansas CARES Act, to strengthen Kansas’s direct support workforce and improve services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The bill directs the secretary for aging and disability services to develop career education pathways for high school and community college students, adopt or support a professional certification and career development program for direct support workers, and encourage workforce growth through training and advancement opportunities. It also requires the department to work with education partners and review successful programs in Kansas and other states. The bill further restructures how disability waiver services are managed. It requires performance-based contracting for managed care organizations and other providers, with quality measures tied to payment, and calls for total-cost-of-care models and shared savings where feasible. It also requires greater participant choice in waiver services, rate parity across waiver programs, a statewide registry of direct support workers, labor-market tracking for the disability workforce, and a new online portal to manage waitlists and communicate with individuals and families. Finally, it amends state law to allow certain disability services providers and related workers to participate in the state health plan under existing eligibility rules.

Impact

HB 2310 would significantly expand statutory duties for the secretary for aging and disability services and the secretary of labor, while amending K.S.A. 75-6506 to expressly include disability services providers in provisions governing participation in the state health care benefits program. It would create new requirements for workforce development, provider contracting, waiver administration, waitlist transparency, labor data collection, and public reporting, and would affect managed care organizations, disability services providers, direct support professionals, waiver participants, and families receiving home- and community-based services.

Sentiment

The bill’s overall tone is supportive of disability services and workforce development, with an emphasis on improving access, transparency, and staffing stability. The caption and structure suggest a policy goal of addressing workforce shortages and improving service quality for Kansans with disabilities. No committee transcript or recorded vote information was provided, so there is no documented opposition or support beyond the bill’s text and framing.

Contention

The most likely points of contention are the bill’s administrative and fiscal mandates, including performance-based contracting, rate parity across waiver programs, and the development of a new online portal and workforce registry, all of which are subject to appropriations or implementation deadlines. Providers and agencies could also differ over the feasibility of shared-savings models, required quality benchmarks, and the requirement that rate increases in one waiver program be matched in others. Another possible issue is the expansion of state health plan eligibility to certain disability services providers, which could raise cost and eligibility concerns.

Companion Bills

No companion bills found.

Previously Filed As

KS HB2003

Establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, modifying the definition of household income and increasing the appraised value threshold for eligibility of seniors and disabled veterans related to increased property tax claims and citing the section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, providing property tax exemptions for certain personal property including watercraft, marine equipment, off-road vehicles, motorized bicycles and certain trailers, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value, providing for certain exclusions from the prohibition of paying taxes under protest after a valuation notice appeal and providing four prior years' values on the annual valuation notice.

KS SB2

Eliminating the income limit to qualify for the subtraction modification exempting social security benefits, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, establishing the veterans' valor property tax relief act providing for an income tax credit or refund for eligible individuals, citing the increased property tax homestead refund claim section as the homeowners' property tax freeze program, decreasing the normal privilege tax rate, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, decreasing the rate of ad valorem tax imposed by a school district; providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund, reducing the state rate of tax on sales of food and food ingredients and modifying the percent credited to the state highway fund from revenue collected.

KS HB2001

Authorizing the secretary of commerce to enter into agreements with major professional sports franchises to establish STAR bond projects for a major professional sports complex, providing for additional revenue sources, expanding the powers and discretion of the secretary and making other changes to the STAR bonds financing act to facilitate such projects, limiting the secretary’s authority to approve such projects to one year unless extended by the legislative coordinating council, authorizing the Kansas development finance authority to issue STAR bonds for such projects, transferring funds under certain circumstances from the state gaming revenues fund to the attracting professional sports to Kansas fund for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, and, if approved by the legislative coordinating council, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026.

KS SB7

Authorizing federally licensed firearm dealers, in addition to county sheriffs, to receive applications for concealed carry licenses and forward such applications to the attorney general, prohibiting sheriffs from assessing any fee related to application services and allowing dealers to assess a fee related to application services not to exceed $20.

KS HB2002

Expanding medical assistance eligibility and enacting the cutting healthcare costs for all Kansans act.

KS SB1

Modifying income tax rates for individuals, exempting all social security benefits from Kansas income tax, increasing the Kansas standard deduction and the Kansas personal exemption, increasing the income tax credit amount for household and dependent care expenses, decreasing the privilege tax normal tax, excluding internal revenue code section 1031 exchange transactions as indicators of fair market value for property tax valuation purposes, increasing the extent of property tax exemption for residential property from the statewide school levy, providing for certain transfers to the state school district finance fund and abolishing the local ad valorem tax reduction fund and the county and city revenue sharing fund.

KS SB6

Providing a sales tax exemption for sales of electricity to residential premises by municipally owned or operated utilities.

KS SR1701

Providing for the organization of the Senate for the 2024 special session of the Legislature.

KS SB8

Exempting the sale of firearms, firearms accessories, ammunition, firearm safes and firearm safety devices from the retatilers' sales tax.

KS HCR5002

Providing for the adjournment sine die of the 2024 special session of the Legislature.

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