Governor activity
Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law Senate Bill 310. The bill provides capital appropriations, including $385 million for local school construction through the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission; requires unspent Student Wellness and Success Funds to be distributed to schools by the Ohio Department of Education in consultation with the Office of Budget and Management; provides $3 million in lottery funds to pay for school-funding studies; creates the Holocaust and Genocide Memorial and Education Commission that, among other responsibilities, would find opportunities to provide resources for schools to effectively teach about the Holocaust and genocide; suspends current law that limits a school district's expenditures for the operation of student activity programs in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years; and temporarily moves the start date for Educational Choice Scholarship Program voucher application window to March 2, 2021. The bill includes an emergency clause.

DeWine announced updated guidance regarding quarantines following an in-classroom exposure to COVID-19 in K-12 schools. Teachers and students are no longer required to quarantine if the exposure happened in a classroom setting where masks and other appropriate protocols were conducted.

Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Director Stephanie McCloud signed an amended executive order to extend the 21-day order that requires all persons to stay at home during specified hours. Click here for a link to the signed order.

Congress
President Donald Trump signed House Resolution 133. The resolution contains several education-related items, including:

  • $54 billion for elementary and secondary education, received through formula grants to states, at least 90% of which must support local educational agencies’ coronavirus response activities. Funds will be distributed to states using the Every Student Succeeds Act Title I-A formula.
  • $4.05 billion to governors in each state to allocate at their discretion for emergency support grants to local educational agencies. Of those funds, $2.75 billion are to be used for private K-12 schools.
  • Extends the spending deadline of the Coronavirus Relief Fund to Dec. 31, 2021. The original deadline was Dec. 30, 2020.

Posted by Nicole Piscitani on 01/04/2021