Kentucky school board elections, 2026

Elections

State profile

Additional elections

School board elections in the largest cities and school districts

Ballotpedia covers tens of thousands of school board elections across the United States each year. This page contains links to this state's school districts where Ballotpedia is covering elections in 2026. The following table lists districts that overlap with the nation's 100 largest cities or that are among the nation's 200 largest school districts and for which Ballotpedia provides comprehensive coverage.

Editor's note: Some school districts choose to cancel the primary election, or both the primary and general election, if the number of candidates who filed does not meet a certain threshold. The table below does not reflect which primary or general elections were canceled. Please click through to each school district's page for more information.

2026 Kentucky School Board Elections

District	Primary	Primary Runoff	General Election	General Runoff Election	Seats up for election	Total board seats	2023-2024 enrollment
Fayette County Public Schools	-	-	11/3/2026	-	2	5	41,697
Jefferson County Public Schools	-	-	11/3/2026	-	3	7	94,793

Election rules

View election rules

Election dates and frequency

See also: Rules governing school board election dates and timing

School board general elections in Kentucky are held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November every two years in even-numbered years. State law on school boards authorizes independent school districts to hold school board elections on the first Saturday in May. No districts, however, were using that date in May as of 2023. State election calendars and the state association of school boards only listed and referenced the November election date.

See law: Kentucky Statutes Section 160.200 and Section 118.025

Recent or upcoming election dates for all public school districts in the state

Below are the recent/upcoming dates for all public school districts in the state. There may be exceptions to these dates for specific districts because of local charters and district-specific exceptions and carve-outs.

• Filing deadline date: June 2, 2026
• General election date: November 3, 2026

Election system

School board members in Kentucky are elected through nonpartisan general elections without primaries.

See law: Kentucky Statutes Section 160.240

Party labels on the ballot

See also: Rules governing party labels in school board elections

School board elections in Kentucky are nonpartisan, which means party labels do not appear on the ballot for school board candidates. The section of Kentucky Statute on school board elections states, "The candidate names shall be presented to the voters in the form prescribed by the general election law, except that no party emblem or distinguishing mark shall be used, save the words 'School Candidates.'" The same chapter of statute also states, "No election officer or other person within an election booth shall tell or indicate to a voter the political affiliation of any candidate."

See law: Kentucky Statutes Section 160.250 and Section 160.230

Winning an election

The candidate or candidates that receive the most votes in the nonpartisan general election are elected to office.

See law: Kentucky Statutes Section 160.260

Term length and staggering

School board members in Kentucky have four-year terms.

See law: Kentucky Statutes Section 160.210 and Section 160.200

As close to half of the members of each school board as possible are elected every two years. For five-member boards, this means that either three or two members are up for regular election every two years.

See law: Kentucky Statutes Section 160.210 and Section 160.260

Representation: at large vs. by sub-district

County school districts in Kentucky elect school board members from divisions (by sub-district). Only voters residing in each division cast votes for the board member residing in and representing that division.

Independent school districts in Kentucky elect school board members at large from the entire district.

See law: Kentucky Statutes Section 160.210 and Section 160.260 and Kentucky Statutes Section 160.210

Filing deadlines and swearing-in dates

School board candidates must file nomination petitions by the first Tuesday after the first Monday in June before the November election.

See law: Kentucky Statutes Section 118.365 and Section 118.315

School board candidates can submit a nominating petition beginning on the first Wednesday after the first Monday in November in the year preceding the election. School board candidates cannot begin collecting nominating petition signatures until that date.

See law: Kentucky Statutes Section 118.365 and Section 118.315

Kentucky Statute does not specify when school board members are to be officially sworn into office except that it must be after election results certificates are issued.

See law: Kentucky Statutes Section 160.170

Recalls

See also: Recall campaigns in Kentucky and School board recalls

Kentucky does not allow for the recall of school board members. Click here for a list of states that do.

State profile

Demographic data for Kentucky
	Kentucky	U.S.
Total population:	4,424,611	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	39,486	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	87.6%	73.6%
Black/African American:	7.9%	12.6%
Asian:	1.3%	5.1%
Native American:	0.2%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.1%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	3.3%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	84.2%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	22.3%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$43,740	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	22.7%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Kentucky. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Kentucky

Kentucky voted Republican in all seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, one is located in Kentucky, accounting for 0.5 percent of the total pivot counties.

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Kentucky had one Retained Pivot County, 0.55 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.

More Kentucky coverage on Ballotpedia

• Elections in Kentucky
• United States congressional delegations from Kentucky
• Public policy in Kentucky
• Endorsers in Kentucky
• Kentucky fact checks
• More...

See also: Kentucky elections, 2026

What's on your ballot?

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See also

Kentucky	School Boards	News and Analysis
Public education in Kentucky List of school districts in Kentucky School board elections in Kentucky School board authority in Kentucky	School board elections, 2026 School board elections, 2025 Kentucky school board elections, 2025	Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey School board election data analysis, 2025

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