Legislative Report

by Nicole Piscitani • Nov. 3, 2024

The Ohio General Assembly is set to return to the Statehouse the week of Nov. 10. Legislators have been campaigning in their districts since the end of June. With the Nov. 5 general election, all efforts have focused on a handful of tight elections in the Ohio House and Senate. Please note that this report was written before the election. 

As noted in other Legislative Reports, this General Assembly has been historic, never knowing what might or might not happen. The election’s outcome could play a part in the legislature's…

by Nicole Piscitani • Oct. 16, 2024

Senate Bill (SB) 168’s main objective was to provide school districts flexibility and improve local control on various areas within education law. From its inception, the bill was known as the Education Deregulation Bill. One area that received multiple modifications was teacher licensure and evaluations.

Teacher licensure has been tweaked and changed several times over the past few years. In June 2023, the biennial budget changed grade bands. During the pandemic, substitute teacher laws were changed to provide school districts…

by Nicole Piscitani • Sept. 23, 2024

In June, the Ohio legislature passed 29 bills in a single day, nine of which impacted the education community. Senate Bill (SB) 168, one of the nine bills passed and later signed by Gov. Mike DeWine, is one of the largest education bills to pass the legislature in the past few years. Due to the multitude of issues addressed in SB 168, this update will focus on a few areas. Future legislative reports will continue additional SB 168 provisions.

District exemptions from certain requirements
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by Nicole Piscitani • Sept. 8, 2024

In June, the Ohio legislative made several changes to House Bill (HB) 147 before sending the bill to Gov. Mike DeWine for his signature. The bill originally was introduced to fix a loophole in the Ohio Revised Code (RC) that pertained to teacher misconduct. The law did not require a school employee’s misconduct to be reported to the state’s superintendent of public instruction (state superintendent) if the school employee retired during a disciplinary investigation for misconduct. The bill was introduced in April 2023 and moved smoothly…

by Nicole Piscitani • Aug. 23, 2024

In June, the Senate Education Committee incorporated Senate Bill (SB) 49, which proposed the Religious Expression Days (RED) Act, requiring that each K-12 public school adopt a policy providing students with religious accommodations, into House Bill (HB) 214. HB 214 originally addressed public school staff members’ professional duties.

SB 49 was introduced in February 2023 and received numerous hearings before unanimously passing out of the Senate in April 2023. The House Primary and Secondary Education Committee held three…

by Nicole Piscitani • Aug. 13, 2024

Senate Bill (SB) 112, the Ohio Childhood Safety Act, was signed by Gov. Mike DeWine on July 24, 2024. The bill was sponsored by former state Sen. Michael Rulli (R-Salem), who recently was elected to Ohio Congressional District 6. The bill requires annual inspections of doors in public schools by qualified inspectors. Rulli made the following statement during his sponsor testimony: “Overall, code-compliant doors play a crucial role in ensuring the safety and security of school occupants. By adhering to…

by Nicole Piscitani, deputy director of legislative services • July 19, 2024

House Bill (HB) 47, which requires the placement of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) in public schools and chartered nonpublic schools, moved through the legislative process after being stalled in the Senate Health Committee for several months. The Ohio House passed HB 47 in June 2023, and the Senate quickly referred the bill to the Senate Health Committee. However, due to the legislature’s 2023 summer recess, committee hearings were delayed until the fall. The bill received two hearings…

by Nicole Piscitani, deputy director of legislative services • July 12, 2024

The Ohio General Assembly sent 29 bills to the Gov. Mike DeWine for his consideration and action, including the capital appropriations bill. House Bill (HB) 2 provides $600 million in school construction and renovation funding administered through the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC). DeWine signed the bill on June 28.

The capital appropriations budget is passed every two years in even-numbered years. Traditionally, capital budgets are constructed with little…

by Nicole Piscitani • June 24, 2024

This is the last week that the Ohio General Assembly is scheduled to have sessions and committees before what could be an extended break. It is still unknown when the Ohio House and Ohio Senate will return to the Statehouse in the fall. Both chambers have numerous committees scheduled, and those committees are focused on moving important bills out of the committee to go to the floor for a vote.

An important bill, not only for education but for many organizations from around the state, is the capital budget. The capital budget is…

by Nicole Piscitani • June 5, 2024

The prior Legislative Report focused on bills that were moving in the Ohio House. This issue will look at bills that either recently passed in the Senate or could potentially pass in the Senate.

Senate Bill (SB) 208
This bill passed out of the Senate in late May and still needs to work its way through the Ohio House. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Kristina D. Roegner…