Back-to-school enrollment resources

In just a few weeks, schools across the state will open their doors and officially kick off the 2022-23 school year. As they prepare for the arrival of their students, we see a significant uptick in the calls we receive about Ohio’s attendance, tuition and custody laws. While the OSBA Legal Hotline (855-OSBA-LAW) is available to assist with answering these questions, we also wanted to provide a list of other resources that might be helpful to districts:

1. Attendance, Tuition and Custody Law Workshop – This annual workshop reviews Ohio’s laws addressing attendance and tuition issues. This year’s workshop will take place on Aug. 5 and provides information about how to enroll and support some of Ohio’s most vulnerable students, including students experiencing homelessness, undocumented and immigrant students, and military children. We’ll also review the hottest topics and recent legal developments you need to know heading into the 2022-23 school year. Register to attend either in-person or online on OSBA’s Upcoming Training page.
    
2. Ohio Public Student Attendance and Tuition Guide – This guide is written by OSBA’s attorneys and includes chapters on Ohio’s attendance laws; the payment of tuition; enrollment, custody and other related issues; grandparent power of attorneys and caretaker authorization affidavits; open enrollment; truancy; and the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children.

3. OSBA Fact Sheets and Resources – Check out the OSBA Legal Division’s Resources by Topic page for more information on specific questions that may come up for districts during student enrollment, including fact sheets and resources on:
   
   • Educating adult students, emancipated minors and unaccompanied youth
   • Ohio’s Grandparent Caretaker Law
   • Enrolling students of military families
      
4. OSBA Legal Blog –OSBA’s attorneys frequently answer questions we’ve received from members on our legal blog, The Legal Ledger. We encourage you to subscribe to our blog and check out these posts that answer back-to-school enrollment questions:

• Can a school district require a social security number to enroll a new student?
• Enrolling students with unmarried parents
• More attendance, tuition and custody law resources
• Adult students who “support themselves by their own labor”
• Changes to Ohio’s grandparent caretaker laws

We hope you’ll bookmark these links and add them to your library of available resources. As always, please reach out to OSBA for assistance with any other questions you may have. We look forward to working with you this school year!