Governor activity
Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Interim Director Lance D. Himes signed an executive order that requires K-12 schools to notify parents, guardians and the public of a positive COVID-19 case within a school building. Click here for a link to the signed order.

General Assembly activity
The General Assembly sent House Bill (HB) 606 to Gov. Mike DeWine for his approval. The bill prohibits bringing a civil action for damages for injury, death or loss to person or property against businesses, the state, local governments and schools, among others, if the cause is due to exposure to COVID-19. The bill was amended in a conference committee and changes include extending the duration of the immunity from Dec. 31, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021, and removing the bill’s emergency clause.

House activity
The House voted to concur with Senate amendments to HB 272 by a vote of 58-33. The bill, which previously dealt with expanding court jurisdiction, was amended in the Senate to prohibit a public official from changing the time, place or manner of conducting an election. The bill will now be sent to the governor.

Senate activity
The Senate rejected the House’s amendments to Senate Bill (SB) 10 by a vote of 30-0. The bill increases the penalty for theft in office when the value of stolen property or services is $150,000 or more. The House previously amended the bill to include corrective language for HB 197 that deals with statutes of limitation and other time limitations and added language from HB 272 that prohibits any public official from causing an election to be conducted other than in the time, place and manner prescribed by law and expands court jurisdiction.

Senate Education Committee
The committee held a first hearing on SB 358, sponsored by Sens. Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo) and Nathan H. Manning (R-North Ridgeville), which changes education law for the 2020-21 school year to provide school districts continued flexibility and relief during the COVID-19 pandemic. OSBA; the Ohio Association of School Business Officials (OASBO); the Buckeye Association of School Administrators (BASA); the Ohio Association of Elementary School Administrators; and the Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators provided proponent testimony. Click here to read the testimony.

Other proponent testimony was offered by Elizabeth Kirby, superintendent, Cleveland Heights-University Heights City.

The committee also heard sponsor testimony on SB 350, sponsored by Sen. Andrew O. Brenner (R-Powell), which prohibits school districts from providing transit passes for public transportation to students enrolled in grades K-8 for the 2020-21 school year and requires the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) to deduct district payments for noncompliance.

Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee
The committee held a second hearing on SB 333, sponsored by Sen. Tim Schaffer (R-Lancaster), which requires the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to make payments in lieu of taxes to school districts, among others, for land acquisitions that total more than 5,000 acres by the department after 2018. OSBA, OASBO and BASA provided proponent testimony. Click here to read the testimony.

Others offering testimony included:

Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee
The committee passed SB 317, which expressly exempts the requirement that peace officer basic training be obtained by certain employees whom a board of education authorizes to be armed in a school safety zone.

The committee held sponsor testimony on SB 347, sponsored by Sen. Nathan Manning (R-North Ridgeville), which modifies Ohio’s campaign finance laws regarding independent expenditures from corporations and labor organizations and modifies political action committees.

Senate Health, Human Services and Medicaid Committee
The committee accepted a substitute version of and passed SB 311, which prohibits the governor or any executive agency from prohibiting or limiting in-person high school graduations for the 2019-20 school year; rescinds the April 30 stay-at-home order; and limits all orders issued by the state director of health to 14 days, including the school-closure order, unless approved by the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review. The revised version now prohibits ODH from issuing a general, mandatory statewide or regional quarantine or isolation order that applies to and is enforced against individuals who have not been either directly exposed to or medically diagnosed with the disease that is the subject of the order. It also allows the General Assembly to adopt a concurrent resolution to rescind certain ODH orders or rules for preventing the spread of contagious or infectious diseases. The language regarding in-person high school graduations was removed from the bill.

The committee held sponsor testimony on SB 348, sponsored by Sens. Tim Schaffer (R-Lancaster) and Kristina D. Roegner (R-Hudson), which prohibits local boards of health from using “will be” or “shall be” when referencing potential prosecution; allows local boards of health to reject ODH orders during an emergency; and changes the makeup of local boards of health.

Senate Judiciary Committee
The committee held a fifth hearing on SB 16, which requires public high schools to instruct students in proper interactions with peace officers during traffic stops and other encounters.

State Board of Education
The State Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution at a special meeting to allow ODE programs to receive state-funded child care dollars for the time when they are caring for students who are doing school work online. The resolution also allows nonlicensed programs to apply for temporary pandemic school-age child care licenses. Click here for the resolution.

United States Department of Education
United States Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos informed the education community that it should not anticipate that federal waivers from standardized test administration will be granted by her office for the 2020-21 school year. In a Sept. 3 letter to chief state school officers throughout the country, she responded to several inquiries about the possibility of waivers to relieve states of the requirement to administer standardized tests during the pandemic. DeVos directs states to administer summative assessments consistent with the requirement of the law while following guidance from local health officials. Click here to read the letter.

United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) extended the Summer Meal Program to allow operators to continue serving free meals to all children through Dec. 31, 2020. Click here to read the press release from the USDA.

Posted by Nicole Piscitani 9/04/2020