The 2026 Nebraska Legislative Session officially ended on Friday, April 17.
The Legislature introduced more than 500 new bills and proposed constitutional amendments this session, and we saw the following Appleseed priority bills signed into law:
Supporting young people navigating the child welfare system
✅ LB1032 recognizes tribal customary adoptions in Nebraska state law, ensuring Native children can maintain their connections to their families, tribes, communities, and culture, while still finding permanency out of care.
Expanding food and nutrition access
✅ LB966, aka the Hunger-Free Schools Act, makes more students eligible for free school meals by making all reduced-price eligible student meals free through a five year pilot program.
Strengthening worker safety, wages, and protections
❌ LB258 creates a subminimum wage for workers under the age of 20 and adds restrictions on the cost of living increases that Nebraskans voted for via Initiative 433. This means that Nebraska wages will once again fail to keep pace with the cost of living. It also means that thousands of young workers, who are already being paid Nebraska’s current minimum wage of $15/hour, will now see their pay decreased to $13.50/hour and will not see a raise in their minimum wage until 2030.
Supporting families navigating the rising cost of living
✅ LB304 helps parents afford the child care they need by maintaining the child care subsidy’s income eligibility level, which is otherwise set to decrease this year. If this bill didn’t pass in 2026, over 2,000 families would have lost access to funding for child care.
Ensuring equitable access to healthcare
✅ LB958 makes sure that Nebraskans with low incomes aren’t drowning in medical debt by protecting our state’s current levels of retroactive Medicaid coverage for new enrollees.
Thank you for making your voice heard this session!