The Legal Ledger

It’s an odd-numbered year, which means that school board positions will be on ballots across the state this November. As we head toward fall, OSBA is fielding questions from both first-time and experienced candidates. From organizing a campaign to record keeping and filing required reports, the legal division works to connect board candidates with available resources to help them run successfully. In this week’s Legal Ledger Sidebar, Scott Gerfen sits down with John Price and Jennie Hardin to talk about some basics for board candidates.  

School board candidates are…

While Ohio’s education community (and therefore we at the Legal Ledger) have been focused on dissecting the many school-related provisions of the budget bill, there have been some other significant updates in the past few weeks our readers should be aware of. Both federal and state actors have taken action that will affect schools and school leaders and may require some changes to ongoing practices.

Federal funds released…

As noted in previous Legal Ledger posts, House Bill (HB) 96, Ohio’s budget bill, includes several important changes for Ohio school districts. This week’s post focuses on the new cybersecurity requirements, which will appear as …

For the past couple weeks here on the Legal Ledger, we’ve spent some time exploring House Bill (HB) 96, Ohio’s budget bill, which was passed earlier this month. As we’ve discussed in previous posts, the bill contains many substantive changes for school districts. In this week’s Legal Ledger, we’re going to discuss some provisions that affect schools related to scholarships for students with disabilities.

HB 96 made adjustments…

After several weeks of discussing new decisions from the Supreme Court of the United States, the focus of the Legal Ledger blog has turned to Ohio’s budget bill – HB 96 (see Legal Ledger Sidebar — July 7/16/2025). The bill was signed into law, with vetoes, by Gov. Mike DeWine on June 30. There has been a lot of discussion of…

The ink is barely dry on Ohio’s newest budget bill and it brings a number of changes that school board members should have on their radar. While we’ll be sharing more detailed guidance in the weeks ahead, this week’s episode of the Legal Ledger Sidebar focuses on a few key updates related to student attendance and enrollment. OSBA’s Scott Gerfen…

On June 30, the United States Supreme Court concluded a highly consequential term, issuing several decisions that will have a major impact on public education. We have covered several of these key decisions on the Legal Ledger in recent weeks, including blog posts covering Mahmoud v. Taylor, …

As reported in previous posts on the Legal Ledger blog (here and here), 2025 has been a big year for decisions issued by the Supreme Court of the United States that affect school districts. Another major decision—Mahmoud v. Taylor—was issued last…

On Tuesday, Judge Jaiza Page of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas ruled that Ohio’s EdChoice voucher program violates the state constitution. However, Judge Page acknowledged that the decision would likely be appealed and has allowed the program to continue operating until a…

In this week's Legal Ledger Sidebar, OSBA attorneys Jennifer Hardin and John Price talk to Scott Gerfen about the new school disciplinary provisions enacted in House Bill 206.

Our attorneys talk about the basics of Ohio's school discipline statutes, the…