Here in OSBA's legal division, we've been getting lots of questions about filling school board vacancies. In particular, we have been hearing from members who anticipate having vacancies in January because not enough candidates are running to fill the available seats. In this week’s Legal Ledger Sidebar, we talk about what boards need to know about filling those vacancies.
September is attendance awareness month in Ohio. In honor of the month, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW) has issued new resources to support boards of education in their work to encourage regular school attendance.
Each year, on Sept.
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.
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.
As noted in previous Legal Ledger posts, House Bill (HB) 96, Ohio’s budget bill, includes several important changes for Ohio school districts.
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.
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.
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.
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.
