Editor’s note: Due to the length of the new law article, the Council Grove Republican is running this article in segments.
Part 1
The Kansas Legislature approved a total of 157 new laws during the 2026 session, according to records with the Kansas Secretary of State’s Office. While some of these laws have specific effective dates, some of which have already occurred, 124 of them took effect on July 1.
Of the 124 laws that took effect last Wednesday, 18 of them were successfully passed through veto overrides that required a two-thirds consensus in the House and the Senate. You can find a full list of the bills below.
New laws that took effect on July 1, 2026 1. House Bill 2183 – modifies el-ements in the crimes of sexual ex-ploitation of a child, unlawful transmission of a visual depiction of a child and breach of privacy to for-bid certain acts related to visual de-pictions in which the person depict-ed is indistinguishable from a real child, morphed from a real child’s image or generated without any ac-tual child involvement. The bill also provides an exception for cable ser-vices in the crime of breach of priva-cy and prohibits dissemination of certain items that appear to depict or purport to depict an identifiable per-son.
2. House Bill 2347 – changes the culpability required for certain types of theft and increases the criminal penalty for theft to a felony when the property is a motor vehicle of at least $500. The bill also creates the crime of unlawful use of a laser pointer and provides criminal penal-ties for this action, modifies crimi-nal use of a financial card to include certain conduct involving gift cards and increases the criminal penalties for buying sexual relations, among other provisions.
3. House Bill 2274 – designates Kansas as a purple heart state and permits homeless veterans to use alternative forms of proof of identity and residency when applying for nondriver identification cards.
4. House Bill 2223 – modifies certain provisions of the optometry law relating scope of practice, definitions and credentialing requirements.
5. Senate Bill 335 – requires public construction contracts to include a mutual waiver of consequential damages.
6. Senate Substitute for Substitute for House Bill 2299 – provides that certain statutory references to accred-ited nonpublic schools mean non-public schools accredited by the Kansas State Board of Education and requires that schools accredited by a national or regional accrediting agency shall have the same rights as schools accredited by the state board. The bill also requires school districts and accredited nonpublic schools to prohibit the use of per-sonal electronic communication de-vices during the school day and pro-hibits employees of a school district from using to social media to com-municate with students for official school purposes.
7. House Bill 2477 – requires the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) to publish a map on the de-partment’s official website that shows the location of all applied for diversions of water, including re-quested changes in the point of di-version by more than 300 feet. The bill also expands the current indi-vidual notice requirement to apply to all landowners that are within half-a-mile of such applied for diver-sions or changes. 8. House Bill 2624 – authorizes the disorganization of a county fire district by the Board of County Commissioners when such district contains no territory.
9. Senate Bill 146 – requires the secretary for Kansas Aging and Dis-ability Services (KDADS) and the City of Osawatomie to execute and record an amendment to the original deed for conveyance of certain real property in Miami County that amends the reversionary interest of the State of Kansas to July 1, 2046.
10. House Bill 2733 – requires any person who is candidate or who has been elected to certain offices shall be and must remain a resident of the state or the appropriate dis-trict.
11. House Bill 2557 – enacts and joins with other states in the inter- state compact for the placement of children and authorizes the admin-istration and implementation of the compact.
12. House Bill 2711 – modifies and updates procedures for dissolu-tion of cities of the third class.
13. Senate Bill 445 – provides that the law enforcement officers memorial advisory committee may receive requests for the Kansas Highway Patrol and the Kansas Bu-reau of Investigation to provide temporary personal and other assis-tance in support of funeral services honoring law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty in the service of the state.
14. House Bill 2332 – establishes a seal for the Kansas House of Rep-resentatives and a seal for the Kansas Senate and provides for the custody and use of each.
15. House Bill 2478 – requires that advanced practice registered nurses and registered nurse anesthe-tists submit to a criminal history check when they are applying for a nursing license.
16. House Bill 2540 – exempts contingent deferred annuities from certain requirements of the Standard Nonforfeiture Law for Individual Deferred Annuities Act and authoriz- es the Kansas commissioner of In-surance to establish nonforfeiture benefits for such contingent deferred annuities through rules and regula- tions. 17. Senate Bill 358 – requires in-dividuals convicted of certain felo- nies to be held without bond in the county jail until sentencing.
18. Senate Bill 427 – clarifies the chairperson and vice chairperson of the Senate Committee on Confirma-tion Oversight shall have access to review tax information from the Kansas Department of Revenue (KDOR) and KBI background checks on people appointed to state offices who are subject to Senate confirmation.
19. House Bill 2511 – permits cash received from agricultural pro-duction on a state-owned property to be used for the management of all stateowned properties.
20. House Bill 2519 – continuing in existence certain exceptions to the disclosure of public records under the Kansas Open Records Act.
21. House Bill 2761 – enacts the Speech-Language Pathology Assis- tant Act to provide for the licensure of speech-language pathology assis-tants.
22. Senate Bill 55 – prohibits the assignment of benefits under certain property and casualty insurance con-tracts. The bill also defines such assignment of benefits as an unfair method of competition and unfair or deceptive act or practice.
23. Senate Bill 334 – facilitates nursing workforce development by providing education levels for in-structors at nursing schools as a requirement for state approval.
24. Senate Bill 425 – increases the maximum annual registration fee limit for seed retailers and wholesal- ers. The bill also authorizes a late fee for registrations renewed after the registration deadline.
25. House Bill 2393 – authorizes the Kansas Supreme Court to impose a charge to fund the costs of non-judicial personnel through June 30, 2030.
26. House Bill 2702 – provides that applicants for a physician assis-tant license submit to a criminal record check, provides for the col-laboration between physicians and physician assistants and requires the revocation of a physician assistant license under certain circumstances.
27. Substitute Bill for Senate Bill 366 – prohibits the use of a mobile telephone while operating a motor vehicle in school or construction zones. The bill also provides penal-ties thereof and permits the display of certain lighting in road construc-tion zones by vehicles and trailers engaged in highway construction and maintenance operations.
28. House Bill 2622 – modifies the municipal lease-purchase protest petition requirements.
29. House Bill 2467 – prohibits past convictions or sanctions for failure to comply with a traffic cita- tion that are more than five years old from being considered by courts and the Kansas Division of Vehicles in determining suspended or restricted driving privileges. The bill also eliminates certain notice require-ments for the Kansas Division of Vehicles.
30. House Bill 2487 – defines teacher and paraprofessional for pur-poses of eligibility for a scholarship under the Kansas Education Opportunity Scholarship program.
Part 2 will be published in tomorrow’s edition.