The 135th General Assembly Adjourns
The Ohio Legislature held its final session day of the 135th General Assembly on Wednesday, December 18, 2024. Going early into Thursday, the Ohio House and Ohio Senate moved a flurry of bills and adjourned until the 136th General Assembly.
Before reporting on some of the bills that OEA was tracking throughout lame duck session, we want to share two major wins due to OEA member advocacy:
- Senate Bill (SB) 83, known as the Higher Education Destruction Act, sponsored by Senator Jerry Cirino (R-Kirkland), stalled this General Assembly due to overwhelming activism by OEA members, partners, and the work of a bi-partisan set of legislators. SB 83 represented the largest attack on public employee collective bargaining rights since Senate Bill 5 and would have hurt academic freedom on Ohio’s public university and college campuses. Even though the bill’s sponsor and supporters have said that they will reintroduce the bill in the next General Assembly, OEA members should be proud of the activism that went into preventing the bill’s passage this General Assembly.
- Despite an effort to force passage of Senate Bill (SB) 295, sponsored by Senator Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware), in lame-duck session, the Ohio Senate Education Committee did not pass the bill. SB 295 would have expanded reliance on standardized test scores for labeling schools as underperforming, arbitrarily forcing districts to take extreme measures such as squandering prior investments in school buildings by closing them, transferring control to external operators that have no link to the community, or indiscriminately replacing at least half a building’s staff, regardless of the ability to replace that staff. On December 18, 2024, during the final hearing of the Ohio Senate Education Committee, Chair Andrew Brenner stated that he plans to re-introduce a version of SB 295 in the next Ohio General Assembly. Senator Brenner noted the next version would continue to seek closure of public-school buildings linked to testing data on state report cards, similar to the way Ohio law requires closure of charter school buildings. Current Ohio law does not require the closure of traditional public-school buildings, although it does allow state takeovers through Academic Distress Commissions.
OEA would like to express appreciation for all the activism and engagement from members throughout the 135th General Assembly. Additionally, OEA thanks the members of the Ohio House and Ohio Senate who stood with educators across the state to defend public education and the rights of public educators during the 135th General assembly.
GPO and WEP Repeal Clears Key Hurdle Towards Final Passage
H.R. 82 (the Social Security Fairness Act) cleared a key legislative hurdle on Wednesday. The bill would fully repeal the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP). These provisions of federal law unfairly punish public service by reducing the earned Social Security benefits and spousal/survivor benefits of those who have a public pension in states like Ohio where public employees do not pay into Social Security. The U.S. Senate voted 73-27 on a cloture motion to close debate on H.R. 82. Both of Ohio’s U.S. Senators voted for passage of the cloture motion. While the vote to close debate on H.R. 82 passed, the bill still faces several final procedural steps, including defeating several filed amendments, before a vote on final passage of the bill is taken by the U.S. Senate.
Three amendments, filed by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID), if amended into H.R. 82 by the U.S. Senate would require that the bill be reconsidered by the U.S. House. Due to time constraints, this would effectively kill H.R. 82 during this Congress.
After decades of working towards repeal, we are now extremely close to achieving this goal. This would not have been possible without the hard work and advocacy of many OEA members and other public employees across the country.
OEA thanks each member of Ohio’s delegation in the U.S. House, all of whom voted for H.R. 82 and Ohio’s U.S. Senators who supported the cloture motion. U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown worked exceptionally hard on this issue. He is a lead sponsor of the Social Security Fairness Act and was pivotal in bringing the issue to this point. He has always been a tireless advocate for Ohio’s working families and his presence in the U.S. Senate will be sorely missed. You can view U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown’s farewell speech here.
OEA will continue to keep members updated as the U.S. Senate considers the bill and its progress towards becoming law.
“Forced Outing” Bill which Includes Release Time for Religious Instruction Policy Requirement Passes
House Bill (HB) 8, sponsored by State Representative Sara Carruthers (R-Hamilton) and State Representative D.J. Swearingen (R-Upper Sandusky), passed the Ohio Senate 24-7 earlier on Wednesday after the upper chamber added final amendments to the bill. The Ohio House concurred to the Senate’s changes by a vote of 57 to 31 late Wednesday evening. Voting ‘No’ on final passage of the bill in the Senate were all Senate Democrats and State Senator Lou Blessing, III (R-Colerain Twp.). In the House, State Representative Jamie Callender (R-Concord), State Representative Gayle Manning (R-North Ridgeville), and State Representative Andrea White (R-Kettering) joined House Democrats to vote against concurrence with Senate changes to HB 8. Governor DeWine previously said that he plans to sign the bill. OEA opposes HB 8, which requires the forced ‘outing’ of students based on communication with school employees.
Earlier this month, the Ohio Senate amended HB 8 to include SB 293, sponsored by State Senator Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester), the Release Time for Religious Instruction (RTRI) bill which mandates school boards adopt religious release time policies. The Ohio Senate Education Committee added the following amendments to HB 8 before the Senate passed the bill.
Amendments to HB 8 from the Senate Education Committee include:
- Creates exceptions from HB 8 disclosure or activity requirements where the disclosure or activity would conflict with or violate specified federal laws, state laws, requests for nondisclosure, or any judicial orders.
- Clarifies that no HB 8 requirements may prohibit or prevent mandatory reporting under state law.
- Clarifies that no HB 8 requirements may prohibit or limit career and academic mentoring and counseling between teachers and students in the regular course of the school day.
- Clarifies that a student who is excused from instruction that includes sexuality content is allowed to take part in an alternative assignment.
Amendments to RTRI language from the Senate Education Committee included:
- Require districts to collaborate with sponsoring entities to identify time for a released time course.
- Removes the requirement that each district ensure RTRI policies grant students reasonable access and opportunity to attend a released time course in religious institutions during a time when non-core curriculum courses are offered.
- Removes the provision that would have prohibited a district from unduly limiting access to RTRI during the school day.
- Permits a school board to include in its released time for religious instruction policy a requirement for criminal records checks of any instructor and volunteer providing the religious education and permits the school district to determine the manner in which the criminal records checks are conducted.
“Proper” Interactions with Peace Officer Curriculum Repealed
The Ohio Senate concurred with Ohio House amendments to Senate Bill (SB) 208, sponsored by State Senator Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson), a bill that requires school districts to include an exception for military children in open enrollment policies. Of note, SB 208 contains an amendment requested by OEA that repeals a provision of law (SB 68-133rd General Assembly) that required the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to adopt model curriculum for high school students to be used in at least one course required for high school graduation on “proper” interactions with peace officers during traffic stops and other in-person encounters with peace officers.
OEA supports the repeal of this requirement which was set to go into effect for the class of 2026. Senate Bill 208 now heads to Governor DeWine for his consideration.
Bill Dealing with Student Discipline Clears the Ohio General Assembly
House Bill (HB) 206, sponsored by State Representative Gary Click (R-Vickery) and State Representative Monica Robb Blasdel (R-Columbiana), would allow a local school board to adopt a resolution that authorizes the superintendent to expel a pupil from school for a period not to exceed 180 days for actions that the superintendent determines pose imminent and severe endangerment to the health and safety of other pupils or school employees.
Additionally, the bill would require the local school district superintendent to develop conditions for a student expelled for imminent and severe endangerment to satisfy before that student may be reinstated, one of which must be an assessment by a psychiatrist, psychologist, or school psychologist to determine whether the student poses a danger. In making this decision, the local school district superintendent is required to consult with a multidisciplinary team of their selection when making reinstatement determinations for maximum-term expulsions. The bill permits the superintendent to extend the expulsion for another period not to exceed 90 school days, subject to further reassessment. The bill requires a plan for the continued education of the expelled student and would not eliminate any protections a student has under federal law (i.e., for students protected by IDEA).
Prior to passage the Senate Education Committee adopted a series of amendments to HB 206:
- Requires public schools to include specific demographic data on expelled students to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
- Allows a student in a public or chartered nonpublic school to possess a prescribed seizure drug if the school principal and school nurse, if there is one, have received written approval from the student’s physician and, a parent or guardian. Further, allows an authorized school employee, contractor, or volunteer to administer a prescribed seizure drug if they receive either a copy of the written approval issued by the student’s physician or training regarding the circumstances under which the drug is to be administered to the student.
- Appropriates and additional $4 million in FY 2025 for school choice administration out of the state foundation funding line item.
Additionally, the Ohio Senate Education Committee added an amendment to HB 206 that created exemptions for charter school automatic closure policies.
The amendment changed the rules as follows:
- Exempts from closure requirements for the 2024-2025 school year any charter school that meets established closure criteria but, for any of the 2022-2023, 2023-2024, or 2024-2025 school years, receives a performance index score on its report card within five points below the score required to receive two stars on its achievement rating.
- Requires a charter school exempted under the amendment that continues to qualify for closure in the 2025-2026 school year to close.
- If an exempted charter school does not qualify for closure in the 2025-2026 school year but meets specified poor performance criteria for the 2026-2027 school year, requires that school to close.
- If an exempted charter school does not qualify for closure in the 2025-2026 school year and does not meet specified poor performance criteria in the 2026-2027 school year, resets the starting point for closure determination based on performance over a number of school years.
OEA was an interested party on the legislation. The bill was passed by both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly on December 18, 2024, and now heads to Governor DeWine for his action.
For an archive of past Legislative Watch releases, visit the Legislative Watch archive.