Legislative Report

by Nicole Piscitani • Oct. 27, 2028

Although the fall legislative session has been mostly dominated by property tax discussions, other bills have seen movement. The Senate Education Committee has advanced several bills and more are expected to move forward before its winter break.

House Bill (HB) 57
Gov. Mike DeWine signed HB 57, which requires any public or nonpublic school that elects to keep a supply of an overdose reversal drug for emergency use to adopt and implement a policy regarding the supply’s maintenance…

by Nicole Piscitani • Oct. 12, 2025

The Ohio Legislature returned to Columbus and has continued working on several property tax bills. Both chambers have six session days planned in October and November and one potential session day in December. Property tax bills are due in early 2026, and the legislature is pushing to move legislation before the end of October to potentially impact the 2026 tax collection.

Below is a summary of what’s taken place since legislators returned to the Statehouse.

Senate votes to override item 66 — School district property…

by Nicole Piscitani • Sept. 21, 2029

The Ohio Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 96, the biennial budget, and sent it to Gov. Mike DeWine on June 27. He signed it on June 30 and issued 67 line-item vetoes. Legislators in both the Ohio House and Senate left Columbus for their traditional summer legislative break that follows the finalization of a budget every two years. Traditionally, they return to the Statehouse mid-September.

While legislators are back in their legislative districts, they still work with legislative staff and the Legislative…

by Nicole Piscitani • Sept. 7, 2025

The summer recess is almost over, with the Ohio legislature returning for committees the week of Sept. 15. The fall legislative calendar looks similar in both the Ohio House and Ohio Senate, with eight session days scheduled during October and November. Both the House and Senate have also scheduled some if-needed sessions in September and December. While it isn’t clear what the legislative priorities are, there are a few issues to watch.

Property taxes
The Ohio legislature included several property tax items in…

by Nicole Piscitani • Aug. 8, 2025

The biennial budget is legislation that allocates state dollars over a two-year fiscal period. However, the biennial budget always includes policy changes, and House Bill (HB) 96 is not an exception. Several policy changes require that school boards adopt policies on a variety of issues.

Cellphone policy
School boards may need to update their cellphone policies based on changes passed in HB 96. School boards previously adopted policies that fit their local communities’ views on using cellphones during the school…

by Nicole Piscitani • July 21, 2025

Gov. Mike DeWine signed the biennial budget, House Bill (HB) 96, on June 30. As he did in the three previous budgets, he used his power of the line-item veto to remove 67 provisions from this budget. Several of the provisions vetoed would have impacted public education funding at the local level. In response to DeWine’s line-item vetoes, the Ohio House considered overriding three of them in a House Session on July 21.

Item 55 — Property tax: County budget commission authority and procedure
This…

by Nicole Piscitani • July 6, 2025

The six-month budget process has come to an end with Gov. Mike DeWine signing House Bill (HB) 96. This is DeWine’s last budget, as he is term-limited at the end of 2026. DeWine used his power to line-item veto 67 items, and several of them impact education.

One of DeWine’s line-item vetoes removed provisions that would have impacted school board races. However, HB 96 makes changes to several other education boards, including the State Teachers Retirement System Retirement Board and the State Board of Education.…

by Nicole Piscitani, deputy director of legislative services • June 23, 2025

OSBA remains committed to ensuring that every student in Ohio has access to a high-quality education. That’s why I recently testified before the House Ways and Means Committee in opposition to House Bill (HB) 335 — legislation that, if passed, would have a devastating impact on public school students across the state. A summary of that testimony is below.

This bill threatens to take nearly $2 billion in funding away from school districts by eliminating inside millage, a key piece of Ohio’s…

by Nicole Piscitani • June 9, 2025

The fiscal year 2026-27 budget will soon be one step closer to being finalized. On June 3, the Ohio Senate unveiled its amended version of House Bill (HB) 96, the biennial budget bill. The changes accepted by the Senate Finance Committee drastically changed many provisions of the House-passed version of the budget.

School-funding formula
The Senate’s proposal continues years five and six of the Fair School Funding Plan phase-in with guarantees, ensuring that no district receives less state aid than it received…

by Nicole Piscitani • May 11, 2025

The Ohio Senate is working on the biennial budget, House Bill (HB) 96, and will be releasing its changes in June. The biennial budget not only provides funding but also contains education-related policy changes affecting attendance, report cards, assessments and more. Changes by the Ohio House also impacted the State Board of Education.

In the most recent biennial budget, enacted July 1, 2023, HB 33 made sweeping changes to the State Board. HB 33 transferred most of the responsibilities of the State Board and the superintendent of…