Governor activity
Gov. Mike DeWine announced guidance for reopening K-12 schools for the 2020-21 school year. Click here to read the guidance.
Additionally, DeWine announced that the Ohio Department of Education has issued its "Reset and Restart" planning guide to assist school leaders with their planning and implementation efforts for the upcoming school year. Click here to read the "Reset and Restart" planning guide.
Senate activity
The Senate passed House Bill (HB) 606 by a vote of 23-6. The bill, which was amended in the Senate Judiciary Committee before the Senate vote, 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 returns to the House for a concurrence vote.
Senate Education Committee
The committee amended and passed HB 123, which requires public schools to implement certain programs on and provide instruction in suicide awareness and prevention and violence prevention. The committee’s amendment provides $2.5 million in payments to dropout prevention and recovery e-schools that are not operated by a for-profit entity and that received an “exceeds standards” rating on their most recent graduation component of the report card.
U.S. Department of Education activity
The U.S. Department of Education issued an interim final rule regarding the use of CARES Act K-12 emergency relief funds to provide services to private school students under that law’s equitable services provision.
The interim final rule takes effect on July 1 and has a comment period that expires on July 31. Comments on the rule may be submitted by clicking here.
Posted by Will Schwartz on July 3, 2020.