Kansas Legislature – 2026

The 2026 Kansas Legislature convened on Monday, January 12, 2026. With the 2026 elections to occur in November, it is expected that the 2026 legislative session will be short — especially since multiple members of the GOP supermajority leadership have put their red hats into the ring to run for governor. Bills introduced in the 2025 Legislative Session survive for consideration in the 2026 legislative session, unless they were struck — although a new version of the holdover bill is often introduced.

For the 2026 Session of the Kansas Legislature, individual requests for bill introductions must be submitted before February 4, 2026, and committee introductions must be submitted before February 6, 2026. All bills must pass their house of origin on or before February 19, 2026–turnaround day (with some exceptions), resuming a week later for the second half of the session.

Bills, other than for funding bills and those assigned to an “exempt committee,” must pass the opposite house of origin on or before March 20, 2026 (second-house turnaround). No bills are considered after March 27, 2024, except for bills vetoed by the Governor, Omnibus Appropriations Act and Omnibus Reconciliations Spending Limits Bills.

The Kansas legislative session generally lasts 90 days, from early January to approximately mid-April. 

Senate:

SB264: Child care subsidies; removing noncooperation with state authorities seeking child support enforcement from the list of disqualifications for child care subsidies.

This bill was introduced on February 11, 2025, through the Senate Committee on Ways and Means by Sen. Pat Pettey (D-Wyandotte). The bill would remove as a requirement to obtain child care subsidies under federally funded programs that the recipient of the subsidy must cooperate with the state’s actions to obtain and enforce child support against the other parent.

The bill was assigned on February 13, 2025, to the Senate Committee on Ways and Means for hearings.

House:

HB2026: Marriage; requiring persons to be 18 years of age or older to be eligible to give consent for marriage; excluding certain days from being counted toward the current three-day waiting period

This bill was introduced on January 16, 2025, by Rep. Stephanie Clayton (D-Johnson County). It would change Kansas law to mandate that a person must be at least 18 years of age to get married, and it would also eliminate exceptions currently recognized by Kansas law (parental consent). Rep. Clayton filed the same bill in 2021 (2021HB2422) and 2024 (2024HB2046). The bill introduced in 2021 was heard by the House Federal & State Affairs Committee without opposition and with tens of presenters speaking in favor. Because the bill was introduced close to the end of the 2021 Session, however, the Committee did not advance it. The 2024 bill did not receive a hearing. Similar proposals have been pushed for decades throughout the world by various organizations (including the International Academy of Family Lawyers) and other advocates to stop children from being abused and enslaved by their families. In an article about the previous bill from 2021, the Kansas City Star noted that Clayton’s 2021 bill was the first attempt to change the minimum age for marriage in Kansas in recent years. Until 2006, the state allowed children of any age to marry with parental permission. That year, the Kansas Legislature finally limited the state’s practice of allowing common-law marriages only to those persons who were aged 18 or older. 

The bill was assigned to the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee for hearings.

HB2076: CINC; reducing the authorized number of days a child may be placed in a secure facility and eliminating the court’s option to extend such authorization.

This bill was introduced on January 23, 2025, by the House Committee on Child Welfare and Foster Care at the request of Laura Howard, Secretary for Children and Families. The bill would reduce the number of days a child may be placed in a secure facility from 60 days to 45 days.

The bill was assigned to the House Committee on Child Welfare and Foster Care for hearings.

HB2181: Kansas Uniform Arbitration Act.

This bill was introduced on January 30, 2025, by the House Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice. The bill was previously introduced into the Kansas Legislature in 2020 and in 2022. This bill would enact the Uniform Family Law Arbitration Act (UFLAA). If enacted, Kansas would be the fifth state to adopt the UFLAA (North Dakota, Arizona, Hawaii, and Montana being the other states that have adopted the Act) since it was proposed in 2016. The UFLAA was previously introduced in the 2020 legislative session as 2020HB2533, and again in the 2022 legislative session as 2022HB2496. In 2023, the bill was introduced as 2023HB2017. In 2020, the bill died when it was stricken from the House Calendar after being passed out of the House Judiciary Committee favorably, because of adjournment of the Covid-19 shortened 2020 session. The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on the bill in the 2022 session, with the full House passing the bill 121-0. In 2022, the bill died when it was not taken up by the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 2023, the bill pass the House Yea: 122 Nay: 0, sending it to the Senate for Consideration. The bill was received and introduced into the Kansas Senate on February 1, 2023, and assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration on February 2, 2023. The Senate Committee scheduled a hearing on the bill, but it was passed over by the Senate Committee on the day of the hearing without comment. 

The uniform act sets out arbitration procedures chronologically, from defining an arbitration agreement to providing standards for vacating a confirmed award. Many of the provisions of the UFLAA are familiar to arbitrators and practitioners in the dispute resolution field because the UFLAA is based in part on the Uniform Arbitration Act (1955) and Revised Uniform Arbitration Act (2000) (which was adopted by the Kansas Legislature in 2017). The UFLAA’s provisions for arbitrator disclosure, award, appeals, and arbitrator immunity, among others, are drawn substantially from these earlier uniform acts. Since family law disputes are different from traditional commercial disputes, however, the UFLAA contains some key provisions that do not appear in the Uniform Arbitration Act or Revised Uniform Arbitration Act. The Reporter for the UFLAA was Washburn Law School Professor Linda Elrod.

The bill was assigned to the House Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice for hearings. On February 5, 2025, the bill was withdrawn from the House Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice and referred instead to the House Committee on Judiciary.

HB2192: Crimes; Domestic battery; prohibiting work release to a person convicted of a second or third offense of domestic battery (HOUSE PASSED 123-0)(AMENDED PASSED SENATE 39-1)(CONFERENCE)

This bill was introduced through the House Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice on January 31, 2025. It would require that a person convicted of domestic battery serve at least 90 days in jail and would prohibit a work release for a person convicted of a second or third offense of domestic battery during that time.

The bill was assigned to the House Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice. The Committee scheduled a hearing on the bill for Monday, February 10, 2025, at 1:30 PM in Room 546-S. In the House Committee hearing, proponent testimony was presented by Rep. Mike Thompson (R-Bonner Springs); the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office and the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence. The proponents generally stated this bill would give victims of domestic battery more time to make adjustments to their lives before their batterer is potentially put in a position to commit further offenses and that this legislation could save lives. The House Committee amended the bill to: (1) require the domestic violence offender assessment be conducted on first-time offenders, and (2) remove the word “consecutive” from provisions of the bill specifying the time an offender must serve. The bill was considered by the House Committee of the Whole on February 20, 2025. The House Committee of the Whole adopted a proposed amendment by Rep. Mike Thompson to lower the mandatory imprisonment length before work release or other release may be granted for second-time offenders to 20 days from 45 days. On Emergency Final Action the House adopted the amended bill Yea: 123 Nay: 0, sending the bill to the Senate for consideration.

The bill was introduced into the Senate on February 25, 2025, and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee for hearings. The Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled a hearing on the bill for Thursday, March 13, 2025, at 10:30 AM in Room 346-S. The Senate Committee agreed to amend the bill to make the effective date upon publication in the Kansas Register (instead of publication in the statute book). The Senate Committee of the Whole recommended the bill, as amended, be approved. On that same day, on Emergency Final Action, the Senate passed the Senate Committee amended bill Yea: 39 Nay: 1.

On March 24, 2025, the House nonconcurred with the Senate amendment, sending it to Conference Commitee.

HB2198: Enacting the Gun Violence Restraining Order Act

This bill was introduced on January 31, 2025, by Rep. Barbara Ballard (D-Lawrence). It is a re-introduction of previous sessions’ filings of ‘red flag acts’ proposed in the 2018 and 2019 legislative sessions (2018HB2769 and 2019HB2129). It would provide a way for police and family members to petition the district court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person who may present a danger to others or themselves.

The bill was assigned to the House Committee on Federal and State Affairs for consideration.

HB2207: CINC; authorizing parents of a child subject to investigation to access those investigative records

This bill was introduced on February 3, 2025, through the House Committee on Child Welfare and Foster Care. It would allow the parents of a child who is the subject of an investigation of abuse or neglect or a child in need of care proceeding and victims of childhood abuse or neglect to access the court records and social file for that such investigation or proceeding. The bill would also require that the court or agency must provide the information from the court file and social file to the requesting parent within three days of the request–excluding the identities of any person who reported the abuse or neglect. The bill is amazingly over broad, and incredibly dangerous for any child who may be in protective custody.

The bill was assigned to the House Committee on Child Welfare and Foster Care for hearings. The bill was scheduled for a hearing to be held on Monday, February 10, 2025, at 1:30 PM in Room 152-S. The hearing was canceled.

HB 2302: CINC; requiring a law enforcement officer to contact and consult with the secretary for children and families before taking a child into custody

This bill was introduced on February 5, 2025, by Rep. Jerrod Ousley (D-Merriam). It would amend KSA 38-2231, which provides for law enforcement to remove a child from a place or residence if the officer reasonably believes the child will be harmed if not immediately removed. The proposed amendment would require the officer first contact and receive a response from the Department of Children and Families before the removal — and require that DCF provide a rapid response to such inquiries whenever made.

The bill was assigned to the House Committee on Child Welfare and Foster Care for hearings.

HB2356: Uniform Nonparent Visitation Act; reducing the evidentiary standard required.

This bill was introduced through the House Judiciary Committee on February 7, 2025, by Rep. Alcala (D-Topeka) on behalf of a constituent, Diana Swafford. The bill would make a few drastic changes to the uniform nonparent visitation act, which was adopted by Kansas effective July 1, 2024: first, it would lower the standard a third party must show from “harm to the child” for a third party to show in order to obtain visitation over the objection of a parent to the “denial of visitation would be unreasonable.” It would also expand the time in which the third party must have had a significant relationship with the child before the filing of the action from one year to two years. Finally, the bill would reduce the standard of proof to overcome a parent’s constitutional right to refuse contact with their child from “clear and convincing” evidence (a standard meant to protect a parent’s constitutional right to parent from arbitrary action) to“substantial evidence of the facts” — essentially that a third party could overcome constitutionally protect rights merely by a judge arbitrarily deciding that judge could make a better decision about a parent’s child than the parent themself.

The bill was assigned to the House Judiciary Committee for consideration.

HB2403: Dead Bodies; Establishing order of priority of a decedent’s surviving parents who cannot agree on the disposition of such decedent’s remains.

This bill was introduced through the House Committee on State and Federal Affairs on March 6, 2025, by Rep. Cindi Howerton (R-Wichita). It would specify that if a decedent’s surviving parents cannot agree on the disposition of the decedent’s remains within 60 days of death, then the mother alone would have first priority for a period of 30 days. If the mother does not order the final disposition of the remains within the 30-day period, then the father would be given first priority. The bill would allow any such parent who is incarcerated to sign a notarized statement to authorize final disposition.

The bill was assigned to the House Federal and State Affairs Committee for hearings.