It was a very active week at the Statehouse! The legislature amended and passed many bills this week ahead of their summer recess. The General Assembly is not expected to return to session until after the November election.

House Activity
The House agreed to the Senate changes to House Bill (HB) 2, sponsored by Reps. Al Cutrona (R-Canfield) and Terrence Upchurch (D-Cleveland). Earlier in the day the Senate Finance Committee amended the bill to replace the original language with the appropriations for the capital bill and the One Time Strategic Community Projects funding. The bill includes $600 million for the construction and renovation of K-12 school buildings. It is now headed to the governor for his signature.

The House agreed with the Senate changes to HB 47, sponsored by Reps. Richard Brown (D-Canal Winchester) and Adam Bird (R-New Richmond). The bill would require the placement of automated defibrillators (AEDs) in each public and chartered nonpublic school and each public recreational facility. The bill would also require the Ohio Department of Health to develop a model emergency action plan for the use of AEDs. The bill is now headed to the governor for his signature.

The House agreed with the Senate changes to HB 147, sponsored by Reps. Sarah Fowler Arthur (R-Ashtabula) and Adam Miller (D-Columbus). The bill now heads to the governor for his signature. This bill would make changes regarding teacher licensure revocation, teacher hiring practices and conduct unbecoming the teaching profession. Earlier in the week, the Senate Education Committee added changes to the bill that:

  • Modify the calculation of the base cost of state funding for districts to correct an error and ensure that districts are held harmless and will not see a reduction in funding because of the error;
  • Allow the use of virtual services for Autism Scholarship and Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship students when both the qualified provider and the parent of the student determines it is appropriate to provide that student with selected services virtually;
  • Clarify the requirement for providers and staff of a private before and after school childcare program operating within a school building to receive a background check;
  • Permit a student who has been the victim of abuse, certain criminal acts or conduct unbecoming the profession of teaching to transfer their athletic eligibility to another school if the receiving school is willing to permit that transfer and further clarifies that in this particular instance the transferring student shall not be required to sit out a portion of their athletic season;
  • Prohibit a school from establishing different prices for attending a school event based on whether the person uses cash or another payment to attend and require schools to charge students attending a school event less than they charge adults to attend the events, and adds the Ohio High School Athletic Association to the stipulations requiring acceptance of cash to attend school events; and
  • Directs the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW) and the Ohio Office of Budget and Management to transfer $1.5 million to the High School Financial Literacy Fund to support the cost of teachers receiving required credentials to provide financial literacy instruction. 

The House agreed with the Senate’s changes to HB 214, sponsored by Rep. Adam Holmes (R-Nashport). The bill now heads to the governor for his signature. This bill would require each public school to adopt a policy regarding certain expectations related to the performance of staff members' professional duties. Earlier in the week, the Senate Education Committee added provisions to the bill that:

  • Give school districts, community schools and STEM schools authority to offer an established character education program; and
  • Require districts to adopt a religious expression day policy allowing students up to three excused absences per academic year to express their religion during observed religious holidays or religious activities. 

The House passed HB 496, sponsored by Rep. Jim Hoops (R-Napoleon). This bill would revise the law governing property taxes and county auditors. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.

The House also passed Senate Bill (SB) 104, sponsored by Sens. Jerry C. Cirino (R-Kirtland) and Andrew O. Brenner (R-Delaware). This bill would make changes regarding the College Credit Plus Program. Prior to passing the bill, the House added an amendment that would make changes regarding single-sex bathroom access in primary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration of the House changes to the bill.

The House passed SB 112 sponsored by Sen. Michael Rulli (R-Salem). This bill would require school buildings to comply with safety standards. The bill now heads to the governor for his signature.

The House passed SB 117, sponsored by Sens. Cirino and Rob McColley (R-Napoleon). The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration of the changes made by the House. Earlier in the week, the House Finance Committee removed the original language of the bill and included changes that:

  • Establish the Prenatal-to-Five Early Childhood to Post-Secondary Regional Partnerships Program to support early childhood to post-secondary regional partnerships throughout Ohio;
  • Appropriate $2 million in FY 2025 to fund the program; and
  • Provide $4,660,500 for the State Board of Education Licensure Fund. 

The House passed HB 349, sponsored by Reps. Tim Barhorst (R-Fort Loramie) and Don Jones (R-Freeport). The bill would authorize the creation of areas within which incentives are available to encourage the development of natural gas pipelines and other infrastructure and make an appropriation.

Senate Activity 
The Senate agreed with the House changes to SB 29, sponsored by Sen. Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City). The bill now heads to the governor for his signature. This legislation would make changes regarding education records and student data privacy. Earlier in the week, the House committee made changes that:

  • Allow a district or technology provider to monitor or access a school-issued device to prevent or respond to a threat to life or safety, instead of permitting such access to respond to imminent threats to life or safety;
  • Require a district to notify only a student’s parent of any monitoring of a school-issued device;
  • Clarify that the school district is responsible for providing notice of monitoring of a school-issued device;
  • Require that when a district or technology provider elects to generally monitor a school-issued device for any of these circumstances, the triggering of which would exempt the school district or technology provider from the prohibition against electronically assessing or monitoring devices, the school district must provide annual notice of that fact to its students’ parents and clarifies that the bill’s 72 hour notice provision is only required when one of the circumstances is triggered. 

The Senate also agreed with the House changes to SB 94, sponsored by Sens. Brenner and Al Landis (R-Dover). The bill now heads to the governor for his signature. Prior to passing the bill, the committee accepted changes that:

  • Clarify a provision allowing political subdivisions that enter a community reinvestment area (CRA) tax exemption agreement with a commercial or industrial project to claw back exempted taxes if the property does not comply with the agreement;
  • Provide $2 million for the Ohio Department of Higher Education’s responsibilities related to educator preparation programs and the science of reading, including developing an auditing process that clearly documents the degree to which every program is effectively teaching the science of reading to preservice teachers and begin conducting those audits in 2025; and
  • Require the Chancellor to survey educator prep programs and issue a report of findings and provide $150,000 to support the work of the survey and report. 

The Senate agreed with the House changes to SB 98, sponsored by Sen. Rulli. The bill now heads to the governor for his signature. Earlier in the week, the House State and Local Government Committee added changes to the bill that:

  • Expand a property tax exemption that currently applies if a political subdivision, charitable organization or educational institution leases property to another institution for use for a charitable, educational or public purpose. The exemption also applies if the owner or lessee is a religious institution or if the owner or lessee uses the property for public worship.
  • Allow a county, metro park district, municipality or community improvement corporation to apply, within 12 months of the bill’s effective date, for an abatement of delinquent property taxes on property owned by the entity without regard to the regular payment limitations in current law.

The Senate agreed with the House changes to SB 168, sponsored by Sen. Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester). The bill now heads to the governor for his signature. Earlier in the week, the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee made changes that:

  • Require a school district that conducts an open enrollment lottery to conduct it by the second Monday of June prior to the school year for which a student is seeking enrollment;
  • Remove the provision in the bill that would have eliminated the preference for retaining employees based on seniority when a district must reduce its nonteaching employees;
  • Exempt districts from entering into supplemental contracts with teachers to teach high school courses outside of the normal school day so long as the teacher voluntarily agrees to a regularly occurring schedule outside of the normal school day and the teacher’s total daily hours do not exceed a normal school day and the teacher is otherwise in compliance with any applicable requirements of the district’s collective bargaining agreement;
  • Remove the provision that would have allowed a school district to determine the number of hours that a teacher it employs must complete in professional development in instruction of students with dyslexia;
  • Require the state board of education to issue an alternative resident educator license to an individual who holds a master’s degree in and passes an exam in the subject area to be taught and requires the individual to complete a pedagogical training institute to renew that license;
  • Allow the ODEW to establish alternative pathways for bachelor’s degree holders to obtain an educator license to work as an administrator or superintendent;
  • Require the state board of education to issue an educator license to work as an administrator or superintendent to an individual who completes one of those pathways;
  • Require ODEW, within 120 days of the bill’s effective date, to develop and recommend to the General Assembly a proposal for an apprenticeship program for school principals;
  • Extend eligibility for the exemptions from certain requirements to any district that, on its most recent state report card, received a five-star performance rating on the Progress component, has a four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate of at least 93%, and has a five-year adjusted cohort graduation rate of at least 95% and eliminates the exemption from teacher qualification requirements under the Third Grade Reading Guarantee;
  • Require ODEW to establish a pilot program for the 2024-2025 school year to test the feasibility of remotely administered and proctored state assessments;
  • Qualify a teacher or school counselor as a “consistently high-performing teacher or school counselor” if the teacher or counselor receives the highest level of performance rating in the teacher or counselor’s evaluation for at least four of the past five years and, for at least three of the five years of the current licensure cycle, the teacher or counselor meets at least one or any combination of the following:
    • Holds a valid senior or lead professional educator license;
    • Holds a locally recognized educational leadership role that enhances educational practices by providing professional learning experience at district, regional, state or higher educational level;
    • Serves in a leadership role for a national or state professional academic education organization;
    • Serves on a state-level committee supporting education; or
    • Receives a state or national educational recognition or award;
  • Exempt consistently high-performing school counselors from additional coursework or professional development requirements for licensure renewal in the same manner as consistently high-performing teachers;
  • Require teacher evaluation procedures established by a municipal school district to have “at least one” formal observation and classroom walk-through, instead of requiring “at least” formal observations and classroom walk-through;
  • Require each municipal school district board to endeavor to include in the district’s evaluation procedures the development of a professional growth plan or improvement plan and a final summative conference to discuss the results of the evaluation;
  • Change the grade band specification for an educator license from grades 6-12 to grades 7-12;
  • Permit a person who holds a license on or before the bill’s effective date to renew that license with either the grade bands of the prior license or with the new bands established under the bill;
  • Prohibit ODEW from determining a school district noncompliant with transportation requirements and the requirement to pick up students for transportation not more than 30 minutes after the end of the school day if the school provides school supervised academic services to the affected students promptly after school for no more than 60 minutes after the end of the school day;
  • Require that any student pickup that occurs more than 60 minutes after the end of the school day be considered noncompliant with school transportation requirements;
  • Increase statutory competitive bidding thresholds to $75,000 for school districts and subsequently increase the amount annually by 3%;
  • From the bill’s effective date until December 31, 2027, increase the cap on net indebtedness a school district may exceed for nonrequired locally funded initiatives from 50% of the local share of the basic project cost to 75% of that cost;
  • Require ODEW to establish and administer the five-year School Turnaround Pilot Program to address chronic low performance in school districts and community schools and establish a school building selection process;
  • Make changes to the Grow Your Own Teacher Program created in HB 33, the biennial budget;
  • Require an institution with an early childhood teacher preparation program to permit a student of that program to complete required student training as a paid employee of an early learning and development program that participates in the state’s tiered quality rating and improvement system;
  • Require the Chancellor of the Department of Higher Education and Department of Children and Youth to collaborate with industry stakeholders to develop strategies to assist employees of early learning and development programs in completing student training;
  • Modify the calculation of the base cost of state funding for districts to correct an error and ensure that districts are held harmless and will not see a reduction in funding because of the error;
  • Require ODEW to develop a comprehensive framework for determining community school sponsor performance, set certain requirements to be included in the framework and require engagement of a facilitator to work with community school stakeholders in developing the framework;
  • Prohibit ODEW from evaluating community school sponsors for the 2024-2025 school year unless a sponsor elects to be evaluated;
  • Change references from “venereal disease” education to “sexually transmitted infection” education in the law regarding school district health curriculum and instruction in that topic;
  • Replace the requirement, in sexually transmitted infection instruction, to teach that “conceiving children out of wedlock is likely to have harmful consequences for the child, the child’s parents, and society” with a requirement to teach that “conceiving children at an early age or outside of marriage increases the likelihood of hardship in life”;
  • Require the transfer of $1.5 million to the High School Financial Literacy Fund; and
  • Permit the ODEW Director to reallocate excess funds for other purposes in the state foundation aid to fully pay supplemental funding for dropout prevention and recovery e-schools, instead of requiring prorated payments.

Senate Education Committee
The committee accepted a substitute version of HB 8, sponsored by Reps. D.J. Swearingen (R-Huron) and Sara Carruthers (R-Hamilton). The bill would enact the “Parents’ Bill of Rights” to require public schools to adopt a policy on parental notification on student health and well-being and instructional materials with sexually explicit content. The substitute version of the bill:

  • Changes the implementation date to the first day in July after the bill’s effective date;
  • Requires that parents be afforded an opportunity to review any instructional materials that include sexuality content in addition to being notified ahead of time that such material will be included in the child’s instruction;
  • Clarifies that parents must be notified of a substantial change, rather than any change, in any services for their child’s mental, emotional or physical health or well-being;
  • Clarifies that emergency situations, first aid or minor unanticipated health care services are not included in the bill’s requirement that districts have parental pre-consent before providing a healthcare service to a child;
  • Clarifies that third parties are subject to the bill’s prohibition on providing instruction related to sexuality content for students in grades K-3 as well as the notification requirements for such instruction provided to students in grades 4-12; and
  • Adds a section clarifying that incidental references to sexual concepts or gender ideology that happen outside of formal instruction are not considered instruction in sexuality content. 

The committee heard proponent testimony on SB 259, sponsored by Sen. Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green). The bill would make changes regarding participation in interscholastic athletics for students subjected to harassment, intimidation, bullying or other offenses. 

Rep. Jones (R- Freeport) provided sponsor testimony on HB 432. This legislation would make changes regarding the teaching of career-technical education. 

House Higher Education Committee 
The committee heard HB 572, sponsored by Rep. Andrea White (R-Kettering). This bill would require the Chancellor of Higher Education to conduct an audit of educator preparation programs to determine what instruction they are providing to students on mental and behavioral health, behavior management and classroom management and to make recommendations. The committee passed the bill after adopting changes that:

  • Require the survey of undergraduate teaching programs to focus on the current instruction provided by the programs to include:
    • Processes for establishing a positive school and classroom climate;
    • Knowledge of the reasons for disruptive behaviors and how teacher and administrator actions impact the classroom and school districts;
    • Evidence-based techniques for preventing, managing and responding to mild, moderate and more disruptive student behaviors;
    • Processes for fostering and maintaining positive teacher and student relationships;
    • Procedures for designing and using trauma-informed instructional approaches;
    • Processes for using restorative practices in response to disruptive behaviors; and
    • Techniques provided to teachers and administrators to manage their own stress and foster their own wellbeing. 

Senate Ways and Means Committee
The committee heard proponent testimony on SB 271, sponsored by Sens. Bill Blessing (R-Cincinnati) and Hearcel Craig (D-Columbus). The bill would authorize a refundable income tax credit or rebate for homeowners and renters whose property taxes or a portion of their rent exceed five percent of their income. OSBA, the Buckeye Asssociation of School Administrators (BASA), and the Ohio Association of School Business Officials (OASBO) provided proponent testimony. 

The committee also heard proponent testimony on SB 244, sponsored by Sens. Reynolds and Craig. The legislation would authorize local governments to create residential stability zones where homeowners may qualify for a partial property tax exemption.

Senate Government and Oversight Committee
The committee heard proponent testimony on HB 257, sponsored by Reps. James M. Hoops (R-Napoleon) and Thaddeus J. Claggett (R-Newark), which would authorize certain public bodies to meet virtually, including the School Employees Retirement Board. School boards, among other boards, are not included in the authorization. OSBA, OASBO and BASA provided proponent testimony.

House Finance Committee 
The committee held sponsor testimony on HB 580, sponsored by Reps. White and Sharon Ray (R-Wadsworth). The legislation would make foster caregivers and kinship caregivers eligible for publicly funded child care.

House Transportation Committee
The committee heard sponsor testimony on HB 518 from Rep. Jon Cross (R-Kenton). This bill would authorize a civil penalty related to drivers who illegally pass a school bus but cannot be identified. The bill would also designate the month of October as “School Bus Safety Awareness Month,” and designate this as the School Bus Safety Act.

House Behavioral Health Committee
The committee heard sponsor testimony on HB 571 from Rep. White. This bill would require schools and higher education institutions to include the national suicide and crisis lifeline telephone number on student identification cards, student planners and electronic portals.

Sunset Review Committee
The committee heard presentations from the Broadcast Media Commission, Educator Standards Board and Credential Review Board.

House State and Local Government Committee
The committee passed HB 211, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Gross (R-West Chester). This bill would require a public body to permit members of the public to comment or testify about a matter of public concern before the public body at its public meeting.

Senate Select Committee on Housing
The committee heard testimony on SB 245, sponsored by Sens. Reynolds and Craig. This bill would revise the law governing eviction, real estate representation agreements, residential building code enforcement and real property transfers.

House Criminal Justice Committee
The committee heard sponsor testimony on HB 525 from Reps. Sean Brennan (D-Parma) and Justin Pizzulli (R-Franklin Furnace). This legislation would make changes regarding the penalty for assault when the victim is a school employee or volunteer.

House Public Health Policy Committee
The committee heard sponsor testimony on HB 617 from Rep. Scott Wiggam (R-Wooster). This bill would prohibit individuals from being required to wear a mask or other facial covering in a place of public accommodation, a facility owned or operated by a political subdivision or state agency or a court. The bill would also allow an individual who believes a violation of the bill’s provisions has occurred to petition a court for injunctive relief or a declaratory judgment or bring a private civil action for money damages.

House Technology and Innovation Committee
The committee heard proponent testimony on HB 507, sponsored by Rep. Brett Hillyer (R-Uhrichsville). The bill would extend legal safe harbor to political subdivisions that implement a specified cybersecurity program.

House Armed Services and Veterans Affairs Committee
The committee passed SB 154, sponsored by Sen. Kristina D. Roegner (R-Hudson). The bill would include Space Force in the definition of the armed forces, armed services and uniformed services of the United States.

New Bills Introduced

  • SB 295, sponsored by Sen. Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware), would declare the General Assembly’s intent to revise the closure requirements for poor-performing community schools and public school buildings.
  • HB 633, sponsored by Rep. Joe Miller (D-Amherst) and Thomas Hall (R-Madison Township), would require the Department of Health to develop type 1 diabetes informational materials for parents and guardians of elementary school students. 

Rules Activity
The Department of Education and Workforce has the following proposed rules open for public comment:

  • OAC 3301-101-14     Standards for Jon Peterson special needs scholarship program direct services provided by virtual means
  • OAC 3301-103-08     Standards for Autism Scholarship program direct services provided by virtual means 

Click here to view the rules open for public comment. 

Federal Update
Please click here to read the weekly Federal Advocacy Education Report which includes education related information.

Posted by Nicole Piscitani on 6/28/2024