How to Run for School Board in Kansas (2027)

Kansas elects school board members in odd-numbered years, so 2027 is a school board year. A unified school district's board of education has seven members, each serving a four-year term (K.S.A. 72-1072). To run, you must be an elector who lives in the member district for the seat, or anywhere in the school district for an at-large seat. You file with the county election officer by noon on Tuesday, June 1, 2027, either with a declaration of intention and a $20 filing fee, or with a petition signed by 50 electors (or 10 percent of the member district's electors, if that is fewer) instead of the fee.

School board elections are nonpartisan. A primary is held on Tuesday, August 3, 2027 only if more than three candidates file for a member position, or more than three times as many candidates as seats file in an at-large race. Otherwise, every candidate goes straight to the general election on Tuesday, November 2, 2027. Board members elected in 2027 take office on Monday, January 10, 2028 (based on state law).

The rules here come from the Kansas Statutes (K.S.A.), the 2026 Session Laws of Kansas and the Secretary of State's election standards and forms. The 2027 voter dates are computed from state law, because the Secretary of State has not yet posted its 2027 calendar. For the full picture of a 2027 Kansas race, see our guide to running for local office in Kansas.

Step 1: Learn how your board is elected

Every unified school district board has seven seats, but districts elect them in different ways. The Secretary of State's election standards describe three voting plans:

• Plan A: board members are voted on at large, by the whole district, in both the primary and the general election.
• Plan B: board members are voted on by member district in the primary and elected at large in the general election.
• Plan C: board members are voted on by member district in both the primary and the general election.

Ask your county election officer or your school district office:

• Which positions are on the 2027 ballot, and is any of them an unexpired term?
• Which voting plan does the district use?
• Which member district do you live in?

If your district lies in more than one county, the county with the greatest share of its population is the home county, whose county election officer coordinates the election. Ask which office receives filings.

Step 2: Check that you qualify

Live in the district for the seat. A candidate for a member district seat must be an elector living in that member district. A candidate for an at-large seat must be an elector living in the school district (K.S.A. 25-2020).

Stay there. A 2026 change to state law added a rule that a school board candidate must be, and must remain, a qualified elector living in the member or at-large district at the time of the election and for the whole term. If a candidate or board member stops meeting that rule, the candidacy or the office becomes vacant immediately (K.S.A. 25-2020(f)). If you expect to move, ask your county election officer how the move affects your seat.

Be registered at your current address. The county election officer decides within three days after you file whether your filing is valid, so update your registration first if you have moved.

Step 3: Choose the fee or the petition

The $20 fee. File a declaration of intention to become a candidate with the county election officer, with a $20 filing fee (K.S.A. 25-2020). The form is prescribed by the Secretary of State and available from the county election officer. It must name the member position, and a filing for an unexpired term must say so.

The petition. A petition replaces the fee. The number of signatures depends on the seat:

If you choose the petition:

• Use Form CP, the Kansas Non-Partisan City/School Nomination Petition. Fill in your name and address, the office, the school district number, and whether it is a regular or unexpired term before anyone signs.
• Signers must be registered voters living in the district for the seat. Each gives a signature, printed name, street address, city and the date. All signers on one page must live in the same county.
• Circulators, the people who collect the signatures, must be U.S. citizens, at least 18, and not convicted of a felony unless pardoned or with civil rights restored (K.S.A. 25-3608). You may carry your own petition. Each circulator must personally witness every signature and sign a notarized affidavit on the back of the form.
• The 180-day rule. A petition is void unless it is filed within 180 days of its first signature (K.S.A. 25-3602(d)). For a June 1, 2027 filing, collect no signatures before Thursday, December 3, 2026 (based on state law).
• Collect extra and file once. The Secretary of State recommends collecting more signatures than required, because some will not be found valid. All pages are filed together at one time, and a petition that falls short cannot be topped up later. A signer may also withdraw their name up to the third day after you file (K.S.A. 25-3602(c)).

Step 4: File by noon on Tuesday, June 1, 2027

School board candidates file with the county election officer before the filing deadline, which is noon on June 1 of the election year. The county election officer is the county clerk, except in counties with more than 125,000 people, which have an election commissioner appointed by the Secretary of State (K.S.A. 19-3419; K.S.A. 25-2504). Ask when the office begins accepting filings, and file early.

After you file. If your petition or declaration is found invalid, you will be told why and may object (K.S.A. 25-2020(e)). Objection deadlines are short, so ask for them and keep copies of what you file.

Withdrawals. After the filing deadline, a candidate may withdraw only under a 2026 change to state law: for a severe medical hardship on the candidate or their immediate family, certified by a physician, or for no longer living in the district. A certification received by Wednesday, September 1, 2027 keeps the name off the ballot (K.S.A. 25-2020(c)).

Step 5: Learn whether your race has a primary

After June 1, you will know whether your race has a primary (K.S.A. 25-2021):

• Member district positions: a primary is held only if more than three qualified candidates file for the position. The top two advance to November.
• At-large elections: a primary is held only if more than three times as many candidates file as there are seats to fill. Twice as many candidates as there are seats advance.
• Unexpired terms are listed separately on the ballot, with a primary only if more than three candidates file.

School primary ballots have no write-in lines. General election ballots carry write-in lines for each office, equal to the number of seats, and those lines are for qualified electors living in the district.

Step 6: Plan the campaign

A school board campaign is built on conversations with the people who know the district's schools, and it helps to start them early. Plan those conversations around the voter dates for your election (all based on state law):

• Registration deadline: Tuesday, July 13 for the primary and Tuesday, October 12 for the general election.
• Advance voting begins: Wednesday, July 14 and Wednesday, October 13, when mail ballots go out and counties may open in-person voting.
• In-person advance voting in every county: from Tuesday, July 27 and Tuesday, October 26, until noon on the day before the election.
• Mail ballots must reach the county election office by 7 p.m. on election day (K.S.A. 25-1132).

Attend board meetings before you file, learn the district's budget and biggest decisions, and meet parents, teachers and longtime residents. As an example only, a candidate who holds two small coffees a month from February to October would host 18 conversations with neighbors before the general election. Our Kansas 2027 local election calendar lists every date.

Step 7: Text the supporters who asked to hear from you

Texting helps a school board campaign remind supporters about advance voting and election day. Set it up in CampaignCNX+ in the spring.

1. Committee and Campaign Verify. Campaign Verify confirms to the carriers (the mobile phone companies) that a political sender is a real campaign. It needs a 527 committee (the federal tax status of a political committee), an EIN (the committee's federal tax ID number) and a filing with an election authority that is published online. Ask your county election officer whether your committee's filing is posted online, and contact Campaign Verify Support if it is not. It costs $95. A request made on or after Sunday, November 15, 2026 lasts until January 31, 2029. Campaign Verify decides eligibility.
2. Registration. CampaignCNX+ files your carrier registration, as 10DLC (the registration for texting from a standard local-style number) or toll-free, and files your Campaign Verify token with it.
3. Consent. Text only people who agreed in writing to receive your campaign texts, with the date recorded. A school directory, a parent group's contact list or your petition is not permission. Bring a sign-up sheet that says plainly that the person agrees to receive campaign texts.
4. Scheduled reminders. Put supporters in a group, record the consent date and source in a custom field, and schedule short reminders. Texts send only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient's time zone, and STOP replies are handled automatically. For example:

Hi [First name], it's [Name], running for the USD [Number] school board. Advance voting opens Wed, Oct 13. Reply STOP to opt out.

100 free SMS included. Your number is $5 a month. For more wording, see our campaign text templates for local races, and for texting rules across the region, see campaign texting in the Midwest.

After the election

Members elected on November 2, 2027 take office on the second Monday in January, Monday, January 10, 2028 (based on state law), after filing an oath of office with the county election office (K.S.A. 25-2023).

Start with your district's map

Find out this winter which positions are up, which voting plan your district uses and which member district you live in. Then choose between the fee and the petition, and file well before noon on June 1. When you are ready to keep supporters informed by text, start a CampaignCNX+ trial.