by Nicole Piscitani • Nov. 10, 2025
The fall legislative calendar is quickly moving towards a close, and the House Education Committee has indicated that several bills could move out of committee before Thanksgiving. One bill in particular — House Bill (HB) 455, an education deregulation bill — is expected to move not only out of committee but potentially could receive consideration on the House floor.
The Senate Education Committee is also working on an omnibus education bill, Senate Bill (SB) 311, but HB 455 is further in the legislative process. If HB 455 passes out of the House, the Senate could combine the two bills.
Reps. Gayle Manning (R-Avon) and Adam Bird (R-New Richmond) sponsored the education deregulation bill with the intent to improve the cost and efficiency within public education. There are various provisions within the bill.
Report card changes
- Revises how the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW) must calculate the performance ratings for the state report card’s College, Career, Workforce, and Military Readiness (CCWMR) component. The bill creates an additional performance measure, which is based on students who complete a year of college after graduating high school. The report card measure would reflect a student who did not demonstrate readiness on the postsecondary readiness measure the previous year but who, within one year of graduating high school, completed one academic year of college credits at an institution of higher education without taking remedial courses.
- The bill also fixes an issue with students who receive a combination of advanced standing and College Credit Plus (CCP) credits. HB 455 would allow a student to demonstrate readiness by earning designated scores on three or more Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or College-Level Examination Program exams and who also receive CCP credit.
- The bill also revises the state report card’s Graduation component by creating the four-year and five-year adjusted cohort graduation rates to include any students with an individualized education program (IEP) who have satisfied the conditions for a high school diploma but opted not to receive a diploma and are still receiving services. Additionally, the bill makes this part of the component of the Graduation measure report-only data. Please note, due to federal requirements, the bill maintains the existing Graduation performance measures that are included in the rating.
Early Childhood Education Grant Program
HB 33 made several changes to the Early Childhood Education Grant program that impacted public schools’ ability to offer this program. HB 455 provides a correction that would allow an early learning and development program, in consultation with the county department of job and family services, to determine if a preschool-aged child is eligible. Additionally, the bill expressly permits the family of an eligible child to elect to use the Early Childhood Education Grant Program instead of another source of state funding for child care.
Disadvantaged Pupil Impact Aid (DPIA)
The bill eliminates the requirement that public schools annually report a description of their initiatives funded by DPIA and the requirement that ODEW issues a report containing that information. The bill then creates the requirement that ODEW, in consultation with the Ohio auditor of state, develop a uniform mechanism for each public school to annually report its total DPIA funding and the expenditure of that funding. Lastly, ODEW would annually publish the expenditure data.
Required postings
The bill allows a district to post the following notices on its website instead of physically doing so in its schools:
- the student code of conduct;
- a policy requiring parents of a student suspended, expelled, truant or habitually truant to attend an education or training program;
- if the district adopts one, its policy authorizing the district superintendent, other district administrative personnel or personnel employed by the district to direct, supervise or coach a pupil-activity program to prohibit a student from participating in any or all extracurricular activities;
- a policy prohibiting students from carrying an electronic communications device in any school building or on any school grounds or premises of the district;
- if the district adopts one, its policy regarding the suspension of a student’s school bus riding privileges.
Other provisions in the bill
- Permit a city school district and a city to enter a written agreement that exempts the district, in whole or in part, from the jurisdiction of the city’s civil service commission.
- Allow the members of a school district’s or ESC’s education records commission to appoint designees.
- Revise the period within which a school district board of education must vote on whether to declare a board member’s reason for a 90-day absence as insufficient by changing the law to indicate not more than 30 days after such absence.
- Require a board to fill a vacancy at any regular or special meeting held within 30 days of the vacancy.
- Entitle a child whose parents have never been married to attend the school district in which the child’s residential parent and legal custodian resides.
- Prohibit a school district or chartered nonpublic school from providing pay or benefits to an employee who, in accordance with continuing law, is suspended due to a pending criminal case against that employee for certain offenses.
- Remove additional programs, requirements and obsolete provisions.
The bill could see changes before leaving the House Education Committee. As previously mentioned, due to the subject of the bill, HB 455 could drastically change to include other bills or education-related provisions.