From the Governor’s Desk 

The 135th General Assembly ended when both chambers officially adjourned on Dec. 30, 2024. The following bills were passed by both the House and Senate and were signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine: 

  • Senate Bill (SB) 208 – This bill:
    • Requires school districts to include an exception for military children in open enrollment policies, 
    • Eliminates laws requiring instruction on proper interactions with peace officers to high school students and in driver’s education based on a model curriculum developed by the Department of Education and Workforce, 
    • Permits, rather than requires, public schools and educational service centers to have law enforcement officers or prosecutors with relevant experience provide employee in service training on child sexual abuse, 
    • Permits a pre-service teacher permit to be one year in duration, 
    • Permits educational aides or assistants and instructional assistants to provide services under the Autism and Jon Peterson Special Needs scholarships virtually, 
    • Requires each school district and educational service center to seek to meet the varying and unique needs of students and teachers and consider certain factors when purchasing technological office equipment,
    • Establishes the Prenatal-to-Five Early Childhood to Post-Secondary Regional Partnerships Program to support early childhood to post-secondary regional partnerships throughout Ohio. 
  • SB 234 – This bill requires schools and higher education institutions to include the national suicide and crisis lifeline telephone number on student identification cards, student planners and electronic portals (language formally a part of HB 571).
  • House Bill (HB) 8 – This bill enacts the "Parents' Bill of Rights". Public schools are now required to adopt a policy on parental notification regarding student health and well-being and instructional materials with sexually explicit content. Public schools are also now required to adopt a policy on release time for religious instruction (RTRI). Formerly language from HB 445 and SB 293, the RTRI amendment was added to HB 8 by the Senate. It clarified boards of education may include in their policy a requirement for background checks of employees and volunteers of RTRI sponsor as well as their own definition of core curriculum. Boards of education and the sponsoring RTRI entity are required to collaborate on when programing is offered during the school day. 
  • HB 206 - This bill permits a school district to establish a policy that authorizes the district superintendent, or equivalent administrator, to expel a student for not more than 180 school days for actions that pose “imminent and severe endangerment” to the health and safety of other students or school employees. The bill also permits a public or chartered nonpublic school to store a drug prescribed to a student for a seizure disorder in an easily accessible location. The Senate amended the bill to include 2024-25 school year exemptions for community school closures and increased the funding for school choice program administration by $4,140,000 in FY 2025. 

These new laws will take effect 90 days from their signing date, April 8, 2025. 

136th General Assembly Begins

The 136th General Assembly held its opening session the first week of January, at which members of both chambers were sworn into office and formally voted on House and Senate leadership. Matt Huffman (R-Lima) was elected Speaker of the House and Rob McColley (R- Napoleon) elected Senate President. Rep. Sarah Fowler Further (R-Ashtabula) was appointed to chair the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee and Sen. Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware) will chair the Senate Education Committee. A new General Assembly with new leadership means new priorities for education policy. Education advocates anticipate both chambers introduce legislation addressing high property taxes, which may have an impact on local school funding.

The House and Senate have mapped out their scheduled session dates through June, setting a regular meeting cadence through state operating budget deliberations. Budget bills will be introduced in the legislature after the governor releases his executive recommendations in early February. School board members can expect to see debates on the Fair School Funding Formula, vouchers, transportation and school bus safety grant funding in upcoming operating budget discussions. OSBA, BASA, and OASBO released joint guidance on how to talk with your legislators about public education in the state operating budget, which can be found here.

New Bills Introduced

  • HB 3 – The “School Bus Safety Act” would appropriate $25 million to create a School Bus Safety Grant Fund at the ODEW to assist districts with the cost of installing safety features on new and existing school buses. The bill would also increase the penalties for illegally passing a stopped school bus and designate August as “School Bus Safety Month”. 
  • HB 10 – Would require public school boards of education and ODEW to adopt policies prohibiting the purchase of “cultivated-protein food” products or food “misbranded as a meat or egg product”.
  • HB 28 – This bill would eliminate the authority to levy replacement property tax levies.
  • SB 3 – Would phase-down the state income tax to a flat rate of 2.75% over two years. 
  • SB 7 – Would require all types of school districts to provide annual instruction to students in grades K-12 on short-term or chronic substance use. ODEW and OMHAS would be required to compile a list of best practice curricula and materials, local boards of education would determine how instruction is delivered and ensure that delivery is age-appropriate and within the departments’ best practice framework. 
  • SB 19 – Beginning with the 2025-2026 school year, this bill would require districts and schools to develop a mathematics improvement and monitoring plan for each student who qualifies for math intervention services. Each district or school with 51% or less of their students attaining at least a proficient score on the third-grade math achievement assessment would have to develop a mathematics achievement improvement plan. Additionally, the bill would require ODEW to randomly select 5% of districts and schools annually for a review of their academic intervention services.
  • SB 22 – This 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 per cent of their income. 
  • SB 34 – This bill would require public school boards to select at least one of the bill's listed historical educational documents to display in every classroom in each school building the district operates by July 1, 2026. It would also permit the school board to accept donated funds and/or donated displays to meet the requirements of the bill. 
  • SB 44 – This bill would allow students to concurrently receive an Educational Choice scholarship or Pilot Project scholarship and either an Autism or Jon Peterson Special Needs scholarship and make a $42 million appropriation to offset costs. 
  • SB 47 – This bill would require disclosure of the for-profit status of community school operators and post-secondary educational institutions on various promotional materials and contracts for employment. 
  • SB 48 – This bill would require the Auditor of State to annually audit each chartered nonpublic school that receives public money.  
  • SB 49 – This bill would eliminate the right of first refusal for certain schools in the acquisition of school district real property. 
  • SB 62 – This bill is the Senate’s version of the “School Bus Safety Act” and would authorize a civil penalty system related to drivers who illegally pass a school bus but cannot be identified, direct fees and fines related to illegally passing a school bus to a bus safety grant fund at ODEW, and designate the month of August as "School Bus Safety Awareness Month". 

Legislative Liaison Network Meeting

Click here to register for the Legislative Liaison Network’s (LLN) monthly meetings. This optional, drop-in meeting serves as a regular touch base for LLN members on the last Monday of each month at noon. We encourage you to pop in with your lunch to ask questions about recent legislative happenings and network with fellow liaison board members from across the state! 

We are working to upload a recording of January’s meeting discussion, which will be sent to you soon. We look forward to seeing you at our next meeting on Feb. 24 at noon.  

OSBA OFCC Workgroup 

OSBA is collecting member feedback on your district’s experiences with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission’s (OFCC) K-12 building programs. We want to hear about your experiences, understand what has worked for your districts and collect your ideas on improvements to the OFCC process that could be taken to the Ohio General Assembly. If you are interested in participating in this workgroup, please sign up using the form linked here. 

Kids PAC

Kids PAC is your political action committee (PAC) that focuses attention on OSBA’s legislative agenda and supports lawmakers who share our goals. Kids PAC “pools” smaller, individual donations into a more sizable contribution that often garners more attention from the political candidate.

Contributions can be made by personal check, payable to Kids PAC, or cash up to $100. By law, school district and corporate checks cannot be accepted. You can also go to www.kidspac.org and donate online with your credit card.

Note: Contributions or gifts to Kids PAC are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

Posted by Malania Birney on 1/31/2025

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