Proposed Wynter’s Law to expand AMBER Alert criteria stalls in the Kentucky House
Senate Bill 289, also known as Wynter’s Law, faces an uncertain future as the legislative session ticks down. The bill would expand the criteria for issuing an AMBER Alert, helping missing child cases that do not meet current requirements.
The legislation is named after a Rockcastle County teen who went missing in October 2025, with no alert issued for her disappearance.
“The Amber Alert, it has a very strict criteria where there has to be proof of abduction, a suspect, a description of a suspect or a description of a vehicle. So, with Wynter’s Law, what that does is expand that criteria,” advocate Dovie Kirkland said. “If there’s a kid out there somewhere and somebody may have seen them at a gas station or walking alongside the road, if the Amber Alert’s not issued and people aren’t aware, not everybody has Facebook.”
Despite unanimous support in the Senate, the bill has yet to be assigned to a House committee.
“It passed the Senate unanimously, and it’s been received in the House. It was received in the House on the 17th. It’s sitting in the Committee on Committees, so it hasn’t been assigned yet to a committee,” Kirkland said.
Kirkland said time is the biggest challenge right now.
“The session is getting ready to close. So that’s where we’re at now. There’s only probably a couple weeks left in the session in order for it to get passed this session,” Kirkland said.
Kirkland is calling on the community to step in and contact their representatives to keep the bill alive.
“I would just ask that they take a few minutes to reach out to their state representative and ask them to support the Senate Bill 289,” Kirkland said. “It’s gonna take everybody reaching out, speak up and let, you know, let their representatives know how important it is to them.”
