OEA/NEA Member Back-to-School Guide
Educator-tested tips, advice, and resources for a successful start to the school year
Students may still be enjoying their summer vacations, but for educators, the beginning of the next school year is just around the corner.
NEA Experts have compiled a list of tools, tips, and resources to connect with every student.
Sections Include: Professional Excellence from Members, for Members | School Me Podcasts | Classroom Management
Additional Reading & Related Resources
- 2024-2025 OEA Member Resource Guide
- ONE — Ohio’s New Educators’ Resource Guides: New ESP & New Teacher Guide
- Protecting Our Schools and Communities with Mental Health Supports — You can’t always avoid stress, so learn how to counteract it.
- Suggestions to make schools a welcoming environment – Mad River Local Schools works to address chronic absenteeism (WDTN)
- U.S. Department of Education Back-to-School checklist for parents
- Read Across America — Create and celebrate a nation of diverse readers with 12 months of recommended books, authors, and teaching resources that promote diversity and inclusion
- Save Those Receipts — Educators can claim up to a $300 deduction to get money back for classroom expenses!
- Know Your Rights: A Back-to-School Guide – An NEA resource on your rights as a patchwork of state and local censorship and anti-LGBTQ+ rules have created doubt among educators
- Teachers: take care of your voice – A resource from the NIDCD, which supports research into the nature, causes, diagnosis, and prevention of voice disorders
- Resources from the The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on providing essential health care coverage:
August 12, 2024
Ohio Education Association Applauds Plans to Prioritize Educators for COVID-19 Vaccines
“We are grateful to Governor DeWine for listening to the concerns of the state’s educators, who have been nothing short of heroic in their efforts to reach and teach Ohio’s students through extremely difficult circumstances, often being forced to put their own safety and that of their families and communities on the line,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “The decision to prioritize teachers and educational support staff in vaccine distribution plans demonstrates Gov. DeWine’s commitment to prioritizing education in Ohio’s COVID-19 response plans.”
Earlier this month, OEA’s Board of Directors, a governing body composed of dozens of educators around the state, approved a policy urging the state and school districts to put education first through a four-point plan that reflects the best practices for ensuring Ohio’s children receive a high-quality education in a safe environment. The full policy statement can be found here (Adobe pdf).
“We will encourage all OEA members who are medically eligible to receive a vaccine when they can. However, the COVID-19 vaccine is not a panacea,” DiMauro said. “Because the vaccines have not been approved for children, pregnant women, or some other adults, including those who are prone to severe allergic reactions, many people in our schools will remain unprotected from the virus. Moreover, it has not yet been proven whether a person who has been vaccinated could still spread the virus to others. Therefore, even when educators are able to be vaccinated, it will remain critically important to continue following all CDC guidance to keep our schools safe and open for in-person instruction when possible.”
OEA believes the highest priority for vaccine distribution among the education community is to make it available in communities that have been particularly hard-hit by the pandemic, including high-poverty communities and communities of color. “The vaccine is a critical resource for saving lives and reopening economies,” DiMauro said. “We need to ensure that resource is available where it is needed most as quickly as possible.”
Ohio Education Association Urges Schools, State to Put Education First: Reset, Restart, Re-Prioritize, Resource
In light of the alarming explosion in community spread of the Coronavirus in recent weeks and the likely spike that will follow large family gatherings over the upcoming holiday break, OEA is urging all of Ohio’s public schools to immediately suspend all in-person instruction until January 11, to include a 14 day quarantine period after Christmas. “This reset period, whether schools delay instruction or educate students in a fully remote model, is critical not only to ensure student and staff safety, but also to give schools time to refine their delivery model and make other necessary adjustments to execute their instructional plan so students can receive the best education possible in the face of all of the challenges the pandemic presents,” OEA President Scott DiMauro explained.
To restart after the reset period, schools should be required to obtain sign-off on the safety of their instructional model from their local Board of Health, which should evaluate each district’s plans based on its ability to adhere to CDC guidelines for any in-person instruction while considering local conditions such as transmission rates and healthcare capacity. Schools that are unable to obtain sign-off must remain fully remote and shall not hold extracurricular activities. “Public health experts, not the elected politicians that serve on local school boards, should make the determination about whether schools are safe for students and staff to gather in person,” DiMauro said. “The state has thus far failed to provide true leadership or firm statewide policies. We therefore must depend on local boards of health to make difficult decisions and accept accountability when they approve any educational plans.”
An important element of OEA’s updated plans calls for local leaders to reprioritize education in their policies outside school settings to ensure our schools can remain safely open and communities can continue to recover. “The education of our children should be the top priority in every community. State and local governments should do whatever is necessary to slow the spread of this disease and diminish its impact on the delivery of instruction. These efforts should include mask wearing, limits on crowds, and expansion of testing and contact tracing programs,” the OEA Board of Directors, a body made up of dozens of educators from around the state, said in the policy adopted at its most recent meeting.
Finally, putting students first requires a commitment to fully providing resources needed to meet the needs of our students, educators, and the wider community until a vaccine is widely available and our nation can begin moving beyond these difficult times. This support should include delivering additional funding for schools to operate safely, subsidizing local boards of health, and providing unemployment and health insurance benefits for every worker and small business owner impacted by COVID-related shutdowns and restrictions. “We cannot wait any longer for federal lawmakers to finally pass the HEROES act or for the state to finally draw on the rainy day fund,” DiMauro said. “Our communities need these resources now.”
Ohio Education Association Urges Senate to Quickly Pass SB 376 After Companion Legislation was Approved in House
“OEA believes that Ohio should enact a student-centered formula that is equitable, adequate, predictable, and that ensures that all students have the resources to succeed regardless of where they live or their family’s income,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said in testimony before the House Finance Committee on Tuesday. “The FSFP formula represents the best hope for necessary structural change in the way Ohio funds the education of 1.7 million students.” DiMauro’s full testimony is attached to this message.
Ohio’s current school funding system was deemed unconstitutional in 1997 by the Ohio Supreme Court’s DeRolph v. State of Ohio ruling. OEA extends its deepest gratitude to Speaker Cupp, Representative Patterson, Senators Lehner and Sykes, other legislators, and education leaders for their hard work to deliver the fair school funding system our children and communities deserve more than 20 years later. “Ohio’s students have waited decades to get what they need. The Ohio Senate must act now to pass SB 376 and finally make our children their priority,” DiMauro said.
The funding plan would provide an additional $1.99 billion in state aid when fully phased in and provides about 70% of the increased funds to the poorest urban, small town, and rural districts in the
State, substantially reducing the need for property tax levies especially in our poorest communities. It recognizes the increased per-pupil costs of educating economically disadvantaged students and transporting students with disabilities, while calling for studies to determine the real costs of serving gifted children, students with special education needs, English learners, e-schools, and Educational Service Centers. FSFP also ends the practice of tying each district’s local share to fluctuations in the property value of other districts, determining the local share by using local property values (60%) and income of district residents (40%).
The plan would also end the use of gain caps and would reduce the number of districts from the state’s funding guarantee to fewer than ten of Ohio’s 613 districts. Caps and guarantees are artificial constraints a legislature has to put on school funding because districts receive either too much or too little funding under the formula. The more districts on caps and guarantees, the worse the state’s formula is at calculating educational need. Ohio’s current system is so bad at accurately calculating student need that every district in the state is either capped or guaranteed. “Accurately calculating what students need this is quite a welcome shift,” DiMauro said.
OEA applauds the FSFP provisions that directly fund charters and vouchers, replacing the current pass-through funding system and creating a system that is fair to public school districts and charters, as well as local taxpayers. As Ohio braces for the voucher expansion that is coming with Senate Bill 89, these changes will prevent public school districts from having to raise property taxes to continue to subsidize tuition to private, mostly religious schools that perform worse than their public counterparts, according to a recent analysis by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“No school funding model is perfect, but the FSFP formula focuses on what students need to receive a high-quality education,” DiMauro said. “The Senate must do its part and pass its version of the bill now. After nearly 30 years waiting for the state to fix school funding, Ohio’s children can’t wait any longer.”
* The vote was held open past the actual floor vote to accommodate any members who were not present during it, so the vote tally may change
Ohio Education Association Urges Governor to Reject Senate Bill 89’s Harmful Voucher Expansion
“Vouchers drain needed resources from the 90 percent of students who attend Ohio’s public schools. This drain forces too many communities into raising their property taxes, which then subsidize tuition for many students who never stepped foot in the public schools that are now financing their private school education. Diverting resources from public schools has real consequences for students who don’t take vouchers, including larger class sizes and reduced opportunities that would have set them up for future success,” said OEA President Scott DiMauro. “By grandfathering in previously voucher-eligible students, whether they had used the vouchers or not, SB 89 fails to curb the destructive explosion of the voucher program, contrary to proponents’ claims. There was no compromise and no consultation with the education community to strike the deal that was passed out by the conference committee. It’s a voucher expansion, plain and simple.”
Previously, the House-passed version of SB 89 contained many positive provisions, including moving away from pass-through funding of vouchers and dissolution of existing academic distress commissions in Youngstown, Lorain and East Cleveland. These provisions were removed in conference committee. Instead, new voucher eligibility criteria was put in place that expands EdChoice beyond its current levels.
“The ill-conceived plan to extend EdChoice voucher eligibility to families making more than the median income undermines the stated aims of that program and punishes lower-income families, particularly in communities of color, that are losing critical funding to send wealthier children to private, mostly religious schools, which often perform worse than their public school counterparts, on the taxpayer’s dime.”
A recent analysis by the Cincinnati Enquirer shows that in nearly 9 of 10 cases, students in public school districts outperform private school voucher students in the same zip codes on comparable state tests that both groups of students take. Further, SB 89 does nothing to address the problem of pass-through funding that deducts voucher amounts from state aid to school districts.
“Absent a veto from the governor on SB 89, it is more critical than ever that the General Assembly pass House Bill 305 to directly fund charters and vouchers, reducing the damage to local district caused by the voucher expansion of SB 89,” DiMauro said. “HB 305’s funding mechanism would go a long way toward protecting public school districts’ budgets and preventing them from having to raise property taxes to subsidize private school tuition.”
OEA Optimistic About SB 376’s School Funding Proposals
“Ohio’s current school funding system falls far short of meeting the needs of students and the school districts that educate them, and OEA has long advocated for state lawmakers to address the failures of Ohio’s school funding system,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “Ohio must end the band-aid approach to the school funding formula and enact a student-centered formula that is equitable, adequate, predictable, and that ensures that all students have the resources to succeed regardless of where they live or their family’s income.”
The Senate plan builds upon earlier proposals to reform the state’s unconstitutional funding formula. OEA urged revisions to the 2019 version of HB 305 to improve the overall equity of the formula through changes to the local capacity percentage range, among other suggested modifications.
“OEA appreciates the work of Senate Sponsors Lehner and Sykes, as well as HB 305 co-sponsors Reps. Patterson and Cupp to improve upon prior drafts of this bill,” DiMauro said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical need for Ohio to adopt a new school funding formula to meet the needs of all 1.7 million kids served by Ohio’s public schools. Now is the time to act.”
“For more than 20 years, Ohio lawmakers have failed to remedy the state’s harmful school funding system, which was deemed unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court in 1997’s landmark DeRolph v. State of Ohio ruling,” DiMauro added. “Senate Bill 376 and House Bill 305 represent an important pathway to finally address some of the greatest issues raised by that decision.”
OEA Calls for State, Federal Leadership as COVID-19 Numbers Rise
“Ohio’s educators want nothing more than to be in their classrooms with their students, but only when it is safe, and our members are doing everything in their power to meet the educational and health and safety needs of all of their students, both in-person and remotely,” said OEA President Scott DiMauro. “Unfortunately, the scope of what local district leaders and educators can do is quite limited, especially given the budget crisis currently facing our state’s school districts. Only the state and federal governments can provide the direction and funding needed to implement the measures necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19 right now.”
OEA is urging Governor Mike DeWine to begin releasing money from the state’s $2.7 billion rainy day fund immediately to aid all schools in their efforts to follow all CDC guidelines. “Because of Ohio’s unconstitutional, inequitable school funding system that has created huge state and local funding disparities, some districts are able to keep their communities safer than others,” DiMauro pointed out. “Where Ohio’s students and educators live and work should not determine their relative health and safety.”
OEA continues to call on the state to require schools to follow best safety practices prescribed by public health experts for any in-person instruction in counties in the lower tiers of Ohio’s public health advisory system. Schools in counties where COVID-19 infection rates are highest should remain open only for remote instruction as long as that is necessary. The OEA Board of Directors’ Position Statement can be viewed here: OEA Board Position Statment on Safe and Equitable School Reopening (.pdf file).
“Statewide guidance is critical to ensuring the safety of all of Ohio’s students,” DiMauro said. “While OEA appreciates the importance of local control in many educational decisions, the current piecemeal district-by-district approach fails to protect some students and educators from unacceptably dangerous conditions in their classrooms, truly putting lives at risk. Ohio must do better.”
While a coordinated response from Ohio’s governor, lawmakers, public health experts, and the Ohio Department of Education would represent a critical measure in addressing the new COVID-19 spike for our schools, OEA recognizes how important federal assistance is in implementing any plans to keep the state’s children and educators safe.
“We need the U.S. Senate to pass a COVID-19 stimulus package for our communities. Ohioans need to call Senator Portman to demand action,” DiMauro said. “Ohioans have waited too long already for relief from the federal government, and playing politics by delaying stimulus until after the election only further hurts Ohioans and Ohio schools that need help now.”
Ohio Education Association Calls for Full Remote Learning in Counties in Highest Tiers of State’s Public Health Advisory Alert System
A poll of OEA members in mid-July found that 69 percent of education professionals statewide do not believe that schools and campuses will be able to reopen safely in the fall.
“OEA stands with its members, parents, and community partners in recognizing the critical role schools play in academic and non-academic success of our students,” the OEA Board of Directors, which consists of more than 50 educators, education support professionals and higher education faculty statewide, said in a unanimously adopted Position Statement on Safe and Equitable Reopening Plans for Schools and Campus Buildings. “Given the dangers posed by the spread of COVID-19, however, OEA believes that reopening for in-person instruction prematurely poses unacceptable risks to the lives and health of students, adults who work in schools, and the people they care for.”
In early July, Governor Mike DeWine issued a set of guidelines to shape school reopening plans. Most of that guidance was in the form of recommendations, rather than requirements, for things like masks, sanitization, and social distancing protocols. OEA has been calling for greater accountability and enforcement of those measures. Ample testing must also be available to ensure individuals afflicted with COVID-19 are negative prior to returning to school, and evidence-based protocols for contact tracing must also be in place.
Under Ohio’s Public Health Advisory Alert System, OEA believes that any school or campus building located in a county designated as Level 4 (purple) or Level 3 (red) must remain closed to in-person instruction. Until a vaccine or cure for COVID-19 is widely available, schools in all counties, including Level 2 (orange) and Level 1 (yellow) should be permitted to open for in-person instruction only if all CDC requirements can be fully met.
Any safe reopening plan will require adequate resources, including funding for a sufficient number of educators, support staff, nurses, and custodial workers to meet the needs of students in the classrooms. Adequate funding will also be needed for technology devices and high-speed internet access to ensure all students have reliable, quality access to remote learning platforms, regardless of where they live.
“No education employee in any setting should be forced to choose between their livelihood and their health or safety,” the OEA Board of Directors said. “OEA will continue to organize and engage members to effectively advocate for healthy and safe learning and working conditions, essential legal protections for members, and equitable learning opportunities for all students.”
The OEA Board of Directors’ Position Statement can be viewed here: OEA Board Position Statment on Safe and Equitable School Reopening (.pdf file)
OEA and Policy Matters Ohio leaders joining to discuss critical need for federal COVID-19 relief funding for schools
OEA and Policy Matters Ohio are hosting a joint press event via Zoom on Tuesday, August 11, at 11 a.m.
The event will also be streamed via the OEA and Policy Matters Ohio Facebook pages. OEA Members and the wider community are invited to take part by submitting their questions and comments through that forum.
“Ohio’s children are heading back to school – either in person or virtually – parents and teachers are under enormous pressure to navigate educating children in the middle of a pandemic,” said Policy Matters Executive Director Hannah Halbert. “To do this safely, in a way that protects kids, their families, our communities, and the people who work in our schools, there will be increased costs. Elected leaders must ensure schools can meet these new and incredible challenges, and shouldn’t be permitted to pass the buck to educators, or kids and their parents.”
OEA is pleased to present Policy Matters Ohio with this year’s Friend of Education Award, which recognizes a person or organization whose leadership, actions, and support have contributed to the improvement of public education on a statewide and/or national level.
“Policy Matters is a true Friend of Education,” OEA President Scott DiMauro said. “The research institute’s work to provide data-driven analysis shapes the debates around important public education issues in the state, helping decision-makers fully understand and appreciate what is best for Ohio’s students and educators.”
“Like Policy Matters, OEA believes education can be society’s great equalizer if all students can attend safe, high-quality schools, no matter where they live,” DiMauro said. “OEA is grateful to have such a strong ally in its ongoing battles against the damaging EdChoice vouchers program and Ohio’s unconstitutional school funding system, which disproportionately hurts students in poor school districts. Now, more than ever, securing fair funding for all of Ohio’s public schools is crucial for all students’ success and safety.”