OhioHB 455136th General Assembly (2025-2026)HouseWALLET

Regards the operation of public schools and the DEW

Sponsored By: Adam C. Bird (Republican), Gayle Manning (Republican)

Signed by Governor

EducationEarly Childhood EducationPrimary and Secondary Education

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

119 provisions identified: 57 benefits, 33 costs, 29 mixed.

Adults gain a funded diploma pathway

Eligible providers can offer diploma programs for adults age 18 or older who have officially left school. Participants must lack both a high school diploma and an equivalence certificate. Programs can last three consecutive school years, with providers able to request extra time for hardship. Adults must complete an approved pathway’s competency activities and any required course credits; Ohio then awards the diploma. Participants cannot share classes or settings with people under 18. Ohio pays providers up to $7,500 per reported participant per school year, based on successful completion—not directly to students. The state annually verifies enrollment and attendance; providers report career and education outcomes after six, twelve, and eighteen months.

Residents get faster high-lead water notices

Water systems must notify sampled-property owners and residents within 30 business days for results below the applicable lead threshold. Results above that threshold require notice within two business days. High tap results or system-wide lead exceedances trigger applicable public notices, health information, testing guidance, education, and corrosion planning. Noncommunity systems serving regular users must immediately stop using fixtures identified as contributing to elevated lead. Systems must certify specified notice compliance within five business days. If systems fail to give required notices, the director begins certain notices ten business days after receiving results. Specified notice violations can bring administrative penalties.

Families can choose early childhood funding

Families with children eligible for early childhood education grants can choose that program instead of another state child-care funding source. This choice does not change who qualifies for the grant program. The provision states no family payment amount or out-of-pocket savings.

More children qualify for preschool grants

Preschool grant eligibility now includes children leaving Ohio's Part C early intervention program, documented by an individual family service plan. Children also qualify through Medicaid, or a household receiving SNAP or participating in Ohio Works First. These are alternatives to the existing income limit of 200% of the federal poverty line. A program slot must be available. Children must be U.S. citizens or qualified aliens and meet additional eligibility conditions set by department rules.

More scholarship paths for Ohio families

Students entering kindergarten through grade 12 no longer need district-school or community-school enrollment to qualify for an Educational Choice Scholarship. Other scholarship requirements still apply. The building-based path requires a bottom-20% ranking in at least two of three recent rankings issued before July 1. It also requires at least 20% of district students to qualify for Title I in each of three prior school years. That path excludes districts operating the pilot project scholarship program. In districts under an academic distress commission without that pilot program, qualifying students can apply during the next application period. This includes district-school and community-school students, plus first-time Ohio K–12 enrollees turning five by January 1 of the following school year.

Online students gain remote testing options

Online community schools can offer remote state tests with continuous video and audio monitoring and no more than 11 students per proctor. Proctors must be certified and actively available; schools must check equipment, train staff, and provide technical and security guidance. Schools must discuss testing choices with parents within two weeks of enrollment and accommodate alternatives when practical. After reasonable unanswered consultation attempts during those two weeks, schools can use their preferred method. Later changes need parental approval, and testing cannot conflict with the student’s individualized education program. Required in-person testing must be within 50 miles of the student’s home.

Retirement coverage expands for school workers

Substitute teachers with a pre-service teacher permit are included in State Teachers Retirement System coverage. The School Employees Retirement System includes public employees whose jobs do not require the listed teaching credentials. Jobs requiring those credentials or a pre-service teacher permit remain excluded from that system. These provisions give no contribution rates or benefit amounts.

School access during family housing crises

Children staying with a parent under a domestic violence shelter's care can attend the local district without charge. Another district does not have to pay tuition for that attendance. When children become homeless or change temporary housing, parents can choose the school of origin or the school serving their shelter. Districts must follow McKinney-Vento requirements for free, appropriate public education and public preschool.

Students can stay after family moves

Students under 22 can stay after a parent moves out once senior-year classes begin, with the former district board's approval. Attendance can continue through that school year and one additional semester or equivalent term. A district policy can allow longer for extenuating circumstances to finish graduation requirements or an individualized education program. A separate same-county move rule lets students under 22 stay at their school for the remaining school year. They must have been entitled to attend and enrolled at the end of the first full week of October. Both districts must adopt the enrollment policy, and parents must notify both superintendents in writing. The existing tuition payer pays until attendance ends or the school year ends, whichever comes first; transportation follows district agreements or open-enrollment rules.

Low-performing community schools face phased closure

A community school offering grade three and no higher must close after three consecutive years in the lowest 5% for performance index. For schools offering grades four through twelve, the rule phases in. In 2026-2027, closure requires meeting an old criterion in 2023-2024, 2024-2025, and 2025-2026, plus both new rankings in 2025-2026. In 2027-2028, it requires an old criterion in 2024-2025, plus both new rankings in 2025-2026 and 2026-2027. Beginning in 2028-2029, both rankings must apply in each of the three most recent consecutive school years. The new rankings are the lowest 5% for performance index and lowest 60% for value-added growth. Closure occurs at the end of the school year when the school first becomes subject to the rule. Dropout recovery schools and schools where most students have disabilities receiving special education and related services are excluded. Specified schools, including those receiving alternative measures instead of performance-index scores, are excluded from the rankings.

More offenses require educator license removal

The law adds offenses under sections 2903.18, 2907.071, and 2919.25 to mandatory educator license revocation or renewal denial. It covers current or expired license holders and renewal applicants with guilty pleas, guilty findings, convictions, or substantially comparable out-of-state conduct. The board or superintendent must issue a written order that takes effect immediately. A Chapter 119 appeal is unavailable while a criminal appeal is pending.

Registered tutors lose teacher retirement coverage

Registered tutors employed by coordinating service centers are removed from the teacher definition used for State Teachers Retirement System coverage. This applies to tutors registered under Ohio Revised Code section 3301.28. The provision gives no contribution or benefit amounts.

Schools must use approved reading materials

Beginning no later than 2024-2025, districts, community schools, and STEM schools must use state-approved, science-of-reading materials. Core English language arts materials must be approved for prekindergarten through grade five. Reading intervention programs must be approved for prekindergarten through grade twelve. Three-cueing instruction in prekindergarten through grade five requires a student-specific waiver, unless an individualized education program explicitly allows it. Students with reading improvement and monitoring plans cannot receive that waiver.

Struggling district schools face restructuring actions

After its first report card under academic-distress rules, a district failing the transition qualification faces school reorganization by its chief executive. Options include changing programs, replacing staff, contracting out management, reopening as a community or STEM school, or permanent closure. Reopening or closure requires commission approval, and the authority can also apply in later years as the section allows. A board must take a listed restructuring action when a building ranks in the lowest 5% for performance index for three consecutive years. For three consecutive years, it must also have any combination of one-star progress or an overall rating below two stars.

Distressed districts can change labor contracts

After the first school-year report card, a district chief executive can reopen labor contracts if the district fails the transition test. This covers contracts made, changed, renewed, or extended on or after October 15, 2015. Selected terms still require bargaining; changes start the next July 1 unless both sides agree otherwise. After the second school-year report card, failing the test allows changes without bargaining over the decision. Bargaining over the effects is optional, but this power cannot reduce base hourly pay or insurance benefits. These powers can support school restructuring, and the second-year authority can continue in later years under the same limits.

Distressed districts gain protected contract powers

In districts under an academic distress commission, certain labor contract terms surrendering management rights cannot be enforced. This covers contracts made, changed, renewed, or extended on or after October 15, 2015. Those rights return to the chief executive and board; the chief executive can also change administrator contracts from that period. Administrator salary or base hourly pay cuts must follow a uniform plan affecting all district employees. Insurance cuts must generally apply to other district employees. For older contracts with previously reclaimed rights, the board keeps those rights until the commission ends after transition and the board gives them up in a new contract.

Dropout schools get transition, tighter closure rules

Schools mainly serving dropout recovery students receive temporary classification flexibility during 2025-2026 and 2026-2027. Before July 1, 2027, they must transfer noncompliant grades to a separate community school or stop offering them, with sponsor approval. They must help affected students transfer or enroll elsewhere; dropout recovery classification applies beginning July 1, 2027. Separately, dropout recovery schools face closure after a 'does not meet standards' designation in the three most recent school years. The law removes the exception based on meeting or exceeding overall standards in 2017-2018 or 2018-2019.

Military children gain school attendance options

Children of parents on qualifying military duty can attend in an authorized caregiver's district through the school year when the document expires. The military power of attorney or comparable document must authorize care, custody, control, and school enrollment. Another path allows caregiver-district attendance for up to 12 months while a parent serves outside Ohio. The parent must plan to return to that district and file an affidavit naming the caregiver and address. Children can also keep attending their original district during a Guard or reserve call-up or qualifying armed-forces temporary duty elsewhere. The parent must remain a district resident. That district does not have to transport children living outside it because of the duty.

More convictions bar applicants from school jobs

The law expands criminal-record bars for specified jobs at districts, educational service centers, and chartered nonpublic schools. Convictions or guilty pleas under sections 2903.18 and 2907.071 now disqualify applicants. Section 2907.231 also disqualifies an applicant unless the person was coerced into committing the offense.

Older tests end; diploma rules change

The law ends requirements for five statewide high school tests and their practice versions, while removing older diploma assessment pathways. People who began ninth grade on or after July 1, 2014, must meet section 3313.618 or 3313.619. STEM schools now follow section 3313.618 instead of section 3313.615. Students at the state schools for the blind and deaf must meet section 3313.618, subject to statutory assessment exceptions. They must finish their curriculum or individualized education program; honors diplomas still require extra criteria, and regular diplomas retain a stated exception. District residents over 21 without a diploma under section 3313.61 must meet assessment rules or exemptions and have board-approved required or equivalent credits. Chartered nonpublic schools generally require section 3313.618 or 3313.619, with exemptions for certain accredited schools and qualifying foreign students. The foreign-student exemption requires no U.S. citizenship or permanent residency and no intent to stay after high school. English learners in the adult and nonpublic pathways cannot receive diplomas without meeting the applicable assessment requirement.

School transfers for children's health needs

Children can attend another district when both superintendents agree in writing before attendance begins. The home superintendent must contact the receiving superintendent, and the agreement must cite well-being or accepted extenuating circumstances. Students not receiving special education can join activities equally, but neither district must provide transportation. A child who may need emergency medical attention is entitled to attend where either parent works. A physician, certified nurse-midwife, clinical nurse specialist, or certified nurse practitioner must certify the condition; the board can request more evidence.

Bank courses can satisfy financial literacy

Districts and chartered nonpublic schools can adopt policies excusing students from separate high-school financial literacy instruction. Students must complete at least one-half unit through a student branch or bank program. The program must meet or exceed state financial literacy and entrepreneurship standards and the model curriculum. The education department must post a model policy and guidelines by July 1, 2026.

Bereaved students can stay through school year

A student under 22 who moves to another district after a parent's death can remain in the former district. The former district's board must approve continued attendance. Permission lasts only for the rest of the school year.

Children can attend near their grandparents

Students under 22 living with a grandparent can attend that district while remaining in a parent's custody. This route applies only to students who do not require special education. Both district boards must agree in writing before attendance for the school year, stating good cause and consent. When requested, the grandparent can complete district consent forms instead of the parent.

Educators face one fewer discipline ground

The State Board of Education can no longer cite failure to follow section 3328.19 as a specific license-discipline ground. This removes that listed reason to refuse, limit, suspend, or revoke an educator license.

Elementary families receive required enrollment information

Covered schools and educational service centers must give parents or guardians the materials described in section 3707.61 at elementary enrollment. This includes school districts, other public schools, and chartered private schools serving elementary students. Materials can be provided on paper or electronically.

Eligible teachers can teach more grades

The State Board of Education must expand eligible alternative resident educator licenses to cover needed grade levels, potentially pre-kindergarten through grade 12. The district must report a staffing need outside the teacher's current license. The subject must match the teacher's degree, professional experience, or competency shown by a passing exam. Teachers must have the skills to teach the assigned grades and complete pedagogical training on the required schedule. Assignments must also satisfy remaining grade-band license requirements.

Enrollment safeguards for children and caregivers

For admission rules, the residential parent and legal custodian counts as the parent after separation, divorce, dissolution, or annulment. This also applies when the parents never married each other. A board can allow up to 60 days of tuition-free enrollment after an adult district resident files a sworn statement confirming custody proceedings. For children attending under the law's division (F), missing records alone cannot block enrollment. Later districts must accept attendance days and credits earned under that division.

Exchange students can receive tuition waivers

After approving admission, a school board can waive tuition for an exchange student temporarily living in the district. Eligible students include foreign residents requesting foreign-exchange admission. They also include non-Ohio U.S. residents in programs operated by student exchange organizations. The board decides whether to grant the waiver; it is not automatic.

Fewer required tests for private-school students

Chartered nonpublic schools registered as private providers need not give achievement tests under this provision to students without scholarships. The college and work ready assessment system remains an exception. The change does not remove testing duties for scholarship students.

Qualifying diplomas count for job applications

A diploma granted under section 3313.6110 counts as proof of high school completion when applying for a job. Recognition does not depend on whether the holder took the specified state assessments.

School employees’ children gain enrollment options

District boards can adopt policies admitting children of their full-time employees by majority vote. Educational service center employees’ children can attend the district serving the employee’s main work location under an adopted policy. Policies must apply uniformly and grant admission when the parent requests it. Admission through this policy is unavailable after the school year’s first day of classes.

School-earned driver licenses join credential list

Ohio's industry credential list must include a driver's license earned through a school district's driver education course. This can count toward credential-based diploma pathways. The committee must review the list at least every two years. Credentials must meet its criteria, including alignment with in-demand jobs and demand data.

Schools can choose third-grade paper tests

Districts, other public schools, and chartered nonpublic schools can give third-grade English language arts, math, or both tests on paper. Their board or governing body must approve a resolution and submit it to the state education department by May 1 beforehand. Students can still test online when an individualized education program or Section 504 plan specifies that accommodation.

Some noncitizen students can skip exams

The education department can set rules excusing qualifying students from American history and American government end-of-course exams. Students must be neither U.S. citizens nor permanent residents and state that they do not plan to live here after high school. The exemption also covers qualifying students at chartered nonpublic schools. It is available only when the department prescribes it by rule.

Students gain diploma seals and recognition

Ohio creates diploma seals that students can use to meet graduation requirements. Areas include job credentials, college readiness, military service, citizenship, science, honors, technology, community service, arts, and student engagement. Schools must add earned seals to diplomas and transcripts. The OhioMeansJobs-readiness seal recognizes work skills and ethics; three eligible people must validate the student’s form before graduation. Ohio also creates a biliteracy seal for high-level skill in languages besides English; schools may add it to transcripts. Each school or district must set guidelines for at least one service, arts, or engagement seal. Schools must accept qualifying seals earned elsewhere and, when feasible, give transfer students proportional credit for progress.

Students get testing relief and support

Districts must administer high school assessments on the state's schedule. Students presenting evidence that they satisfy the specified diploma-qualification condition before testing are excused from that assessment. Students meeting proficiency or competency standards in Algebra I or English language arts II before ninth grade need not retake those exams in grades 9–12. Ohio public high school students can meet diploma testing requirements through reciprocal agreements with states having similar requirements. Students must satisfy the assessment requirement named in the agreement. Districts must provide next-school-year help for skills below proficient on the specified achievement tests, matched to each student's performance.

Students pay no seal assignment fees

Students cannot be charged to add the biliteracy seal to their transcripts. They also cannot be charged to add the OhioMeansJobs-readiness seal to their diplomas and transcripts. The state no longer must include English and foreign-language tests in its biliteracy seal criteria. Language-proficiency test fees remain allowed; the readiness rule does not address other costs of meeting its criteria.

Teachers get credit for reading training

Ohio teacher renewal committees must count qualifying reading coursework from vendors identified by the Department of Education and Workforce. The coursework must cover listed reading curricula, teaching materials, or intervention programs. Extra qualifying hours carry forward to the next license renewal period.

Tuition-free school for independent young adults

Residents ages 18 through 21 can attend their local district without tuition if they live apart from their parents. They must support themselves through their own work and have not finished high school or their applicable individualized education program. Another district is not required to pay tuition. Married children under 18 also have a right to attend under this rule.

Tuition-free school while buying a home

Children can attend tuition-free where a parent is building or buying a home, for a superintendent-set period of up to 90 days. Building a home requires a sworn statement and builder confirmation. Buying requires a purchase contract, pending mortgage closing, a sworn statement, and confirmation from a broker or bank officer. School sports require formal release from the parent's resident district and any required outside authorization.

Lead maps guide school water testing

Covered water systems must map known or likely lead service lines and building features suggesting lead plumbing. They must submit maps to Ohio’s environmental director and share applicable maps with health and job and family services agencies. Reports must list highest-priority sampling locations and owner and occupant contact details. Updates follow the director’s schedule, at least as often as federal law requires. School and child-care systems serving regular users must collect extra tap samples in mapped buildings when the director requires them.

Water systems face stronger testing deadlines

Ohio must require lead and copper testing with certified labs for community water systems and noncommunity systems serving regular users. Systems with identified risks must test at least annually until those risks are addressed. Corrosion-control studies and plans are generally due within 18 months after specified source, treatment, or water-quality changes. Interim reports are due at six and twelve months; later low lead results do not cancel required studies or plans. The environmental director can waive a study in appropriate cases. Labs must finish analysis within 30 business days of receiving samples. Results and collection-location details must reach the water system and environmental director by the end of the next business day.

Boarding schools gain another epinephrine route

College-preparatory boarding schools are no longer excluded from qualifying under Ohio’s separate epinephrine entity rules. A school can qualify through that route when it meets the entity definition. This includes connection to a location where allergens capable of causing a severe allergic reaction may be present.

Doctors can supply emergency epinephrine more easily

Authorized Ohio physicians can furnish or prescribe epinephrine for listed school and other statutory uses without examining the intended recipient. This includes autoinjectors and other delivery systems. Autoinjectors must be supplied for use only in manufactured dosage form. Physicians acting in good faith receive specified civil, criminal, and professional-discipline protections.

More prescribers can supply school medicines

Authorized physician assistants can supply or prescribe epinephrine and injectable or nasal glucagon for covered school and entity uses. They need a valid prescriber number and physician-delegated prescribing authority; the epinephrine rule also specifies a state license. Authorized physicians can supply or prescribe injectable or nasal glucagon for covered uses. These providers do not need to examine the intended recipient first. Glucagon and epinephrine autoinjectors must be supplied in manufactured dosage form. Providers acting in good faith receive specified protections from lawsuits, criminal liability, and professional discipline.

Boarding schools face fewer financial oversight rules

College-preparatory boarding schools no longer must use the specified public financial report format or send the specified annual information to the state. Their operators' fiscal officers are removed from the public-servant definition used by this dereliction-of-duty law. Their treasurers are also removed from its four-year public-position ban following a dereliction-of-duty conviction or guilty plea.

Distressed districts must expand school choices

Academic distress commissions must work to expand high-quality school choices in districts under their control. They must consult the state education director and district chief executive. A commission can create an independent group to recruit schools and sponsors and lead improvements outside district-run schools. The law does not guarantee any student a placement or scholarship.

Districts can post bus policies online

A district with a policy allowing suspension only of bus-riding privileges can post that policy on its website. Website posting can replace posting in a central location at each school. The district must still provide the policy to students who request it.

Easier boundary transfers from low-rated districts

The State Board must approve proposed territory transfers to an adjacent district after at least two consecutive overall ratings below two stars. An opponent can remove the mandatory approval requirement with clear and convincing evidence that information used for the transfer is wrong. This is a district boundary rule, not an individual student transfer guarantee.

Education aid follows children in placements

For children in covered placements, the education department must certify daily education costs using a formula reflecting actual costs. It pays the home or facility by deducting that amount from the responsible district's state basic aid. The district still reports the child in its enrollment. This rule excludes children receiving chartered nonpublic school services while living in a home when the stated qualifying scholarship exception applies.

Families get public access to device policies

Districts with a covered student device policy must make it public and post it prominently on any public district website. They may also post it centrally in school buildings. Qualifying policies adopted before September 30, 2025, satisfy the adoption requirement. Policies adopted after that date must be adopted at a public meeting.

Family input in struggling school plans

Chief executives in districts under academic distress commissions must gather district stakeholders within 30 days of appointment. They must gather school stakeholders within 90 days and consult both groups on measurable improvement goals. Plans must reach the commission within 90 days and take effect after approval. Chief executives can offer mentoring, job help, college information, well-being services, and recreation through a separate fund. They alone control that fund while these rules apply; spending must support the approved plan. Legislative appropriations go into the fund, but the law sets no amount or guaranteed services.

Five-star districts keep school rule relief

Districts with an overall five-star rating receive exemptions from specified state education mandates. Eligibility is no longer limited to the listed school years beginning in 2021-2022. Districts must still follow required operating standards.

Graduation counts include students delaying diplomas

Schools must count qualifying students with individualized education programs as graduates in both four-year and five-year graduation measures. Students must have met diploma requirements, delayed receiving the diploma, and still receive education services. They must receive the diploma before turning 22. This counting rule does not itself award a diploma.

Local boards get vacancy deadlines and protections

School-board vacancy rules also cover educational service center boards; joint vocational and cooperative education districts remain excluded from this section. Elected boards must fill vacancies within 45 days. If they miss that deadline, the county probate court must fill the vacancy as promptly as possible. Boards cannot treat deployment outside their territory as an insufficient absence reason for armed forces or Ohio National Guard members.

Regional partnerships link learning and work

Ohio’s education, higher education, and children and youth departments must run a statewide regional partnership program. It supports new and existing partnerships linking prenatal and early childhood services through college and workforce preparation. The goal is stronger educational attainment and economic mobility. Regions choose whether to participate, and the law sets no funding amount.

Regional partnerships must reach across Ohio

The administering departments must work toward having at least one regional partnership in every Ohio region. JobsOhio determines the regions. The law does not set a funding amount or completion date.

Regional partnerships receive education-to-work grants

Ohio's education and workforce, higher education, and children and youth departments must distribute grants to qualifying regional partnerships. Partnerships must plan for the path from education to work and measure and report achievement outcomes. They must explain coordination with relevant regional education, business, industry, and attainment efforts. They must also describe collaboration with health systems, service providers, and others on workforce readiness, mental health, and well-being skills. No grant amount is stated.

School-related companies gain applicant screening option

Private companies covered by sections 3314.41, 3319.392, or 3326.25 can request criminal-record information from Ohio's criminal identification bureau. The person must have applied for employment after October 2, 1989. Companies can make this request alongside, or in addition to, a background check required by section 3326.25. This provision states no fee.

Schools gain state support for innovative teaching

Ohio's Department of Education and Workforce must promote innovative programs supporting student learning, engagement, wellness, and preparation for college and work. It must provide technical help and share model projects, including projects using artificial intelligence in teaching. It must also promote available waivers from education laws and rules. This provision states no funding amount.

Startup schools lose a location barrier

The state education department cannot restrict a new startup community school's establishment or sponsorship based on challenged-district location status. The location test uses the challenged-district definition from before the amendment took effect. The law removes that barrier without guaranteeing a new school will open.

State scoring and student privacy safeguards

The state education department must provide, grade, and score the specified required assessments each year, ending the district-scoring exception. Field-test and anchor questions remain allowed on specified achievement and end-of-course tests, but authorization for older graduation tests ends. The department can use diagnostic assessment data to calculate the specified school measure. Under the assessment-information section, access to personally identifiable data is limited to reporting possible harm or checking scores after school or district appeals. That section no longer authorizes access to check alternative diploma conditions.

Struggling schools must submit reading plans

Districts and community schools must submit a reading improvement plan by December 31 each year after two consecutive low-literacy report cards. Both cards must show fewer than three early-literacy stars and 51% or less proficiency among third-grade English test-takers. The duty ends when the latest card shows at least three early-literacy stars or at least 51% proficiency. The law requires planning, not a guaranteed reading improvement.

Districts avoid some scholarship tuition bills

A district does not owe tuition under this provision for a child residing in a home and receiving chartered nonpublic school services. The child must also have a state scholarship. The law removes the district's responsibility; it does not say the family must pay.

Districts keep funding previously deducted

Beginning on the amendment’s effective date, Ohio stops deducting specified commercial-loan payments from school districts’ state funding. This applies to districts with loans covered by the former commercial-loan payment provision. Those districts keep more state funding, but the law states no amount or direct household payment.

Early learning grants prioritize service spending

Each fiscal year, no more than 2% of early childhood grant appropriations can fund program support and technical assistance. Other funds support grant recipients' early learning and development services. Remaining money can support more participation, expansion, improvements, innovation, or pilot programs. Those additional uses must target high-need areas; no total appropriation is stated.

School bonuses for serving distressed districts

Schools meeting academic standards can receive bonuses for enrolling students who live in districts covered by academic-distress rules. Eligible providers include school districts, community schools, STEM schools, and chartered nonpublic schools. Bonuses are available only in fiscal years when lawmakers provide funding. The law sets no bonus amount.

State covers certain district tuition gaps

For covered tuition transfers under divisions (C)(2), (C)(3), or section 3313.65, each district's own tuition rate applies. The receiving district gets its rate, while the paying district's rate determines the deduction. If the receiving rate is higher, the state pays the gap from uncredited district deductions and appropriations for this purpose. The rule excludes children receiving special education as specified in division (J).

Boarding students lose specific religious-expression protections

College-preparatory boarding schools are removed from rules requiring equal facility access for religious-expression meetings. They are also removed from rules banning assignment penalties or rewards based on religious content. STEM schools remain covered by these protections.

Truancy brings longer oversight and legal exposure

Juvenile courts can monitor attendance during the next school year after a child is adjudicated unruly for habitual truancy. Conduct contributing to habitual truancy counts as contributing to a child's unruliness or delinquency. A conviction for that conduct does not require a separate finding that the child is unruly or delinquent. This can affect parents, guardians, custodians, and others whose conduct contributes to truancy.

Boarding school staff lose false-report protection

The specific ban on knowingly false misconduct reports no longer expressly covers employees of college-preparatory boarding school operators. It still covers employees of public schools, chartered private schools, and community schools.

Boarding schools lose listed program coverage

Chapter 3328 college-preparatory boarding schools are removed from the schools listed to assign biliteracy, readiness, and state diploma seals. College Credit Plus no longer lists them as governing entities or public secondary schools. Their school-specific expulsion and funding-deduction provisions also end. The state removes these schools from an enrollment list used for school funding. It also removes the reporting exception for students enrolled in both college and one of these boarding schools.

Municipal districts face teacher evaluation limits

Municipal districts using student growth in teacher evaluations must include the state's value-added progress measure. The alternative student achievement measure is no longer listed as an alternative. For grades or subjects without the specified measures, the board must administer assessments from the applicable state list.

Older ninth-grade intervention mandate ends

Districts with a three-year average graduation rate of 75% or less no longer must identify high schools for intervention. The removed requirement followed the former ninth-grade graduation assessments. Selected high schools no longer must provide that specific intervention.

Parents must sign minors’ work forms

Minors seeking an age and schooling certificate must submit a work-hour form signed by a parent or legal guardian. The form explains the hours minors can work. Ohio’s commerce director must create the form and make it publicly available before certificates are issued using this requirement.

School educators must refresh reading training

The state education department must maintain introductory science-of-reading training, develop competency-based training, and approve more rigorous alternatives. Public-school teachers and administrators hired before July 1, 2025, must complete competency-based or approved alternative training by June 30, 2030. They must repeat it every five years. Those hired on or after July 1, 2025, must complete introductory training within one year, then updated training every five years. School psychologists and speech-language pathologists must finish introductory training by June 30, 2027, then updated training every five years. Newly hired teachers and administrators can skip introductory training when a school leader verifies qualifying coursework or training from the prior five years.

Students lose older exam alternatives

Biology is the science end-of-course test, ending the physical-science option for students entering ninth grade before July 1, 2015. Students earning course credit before July 1, 2015, lose the specific exemption for exams unavailable before that date. They also lose the related proficient-score or final-course-grade substitution options. The state education department can replace Algebra I with Algebra II without the former ninth-grade entry-date limit.

Unpaid school tuition can trigger lawsuits

A school board can sue a home that fails to pay tuition required under the covered provision. The board can seek unpaid tuition, expenses of bringing the case, court costs, and reasonable lawyer fees. This rule does not set a new tuition amount.

Boarding schools leave emergency plan requirements

College-preparatory boarding schools established under Chapter 3328 are removed from this section's emergency management plan requirements. Their administrators are no longer covered by those requirements under this section.

Officers lose boarding-school training credit setting

College-preparatory boarding schools no longer qualify as settings for officers' drug-prevention teaching credit. Peace officers and troopers can still earn up to four hours at districts, community schools, and STEM schools. Lessons must be given on duty and use evidence-based curricula.

Boarding schools leave school-specific water rules

College-preparatory boarding schools established under Ohio’s special boarding-school law leave this water section’s definition of school. They are excluded from school-specific requirements that depend on that definition. This change does not state an exemption from every general water-system rule.

Boarding schools lose medication supply exemptions

The law removes several emergency-medicine permissions for college-preparatory boarding schools established under Ohio’s special boarding-school law. These schools lose the listed nurse-prescribing route for epinephrine and glucagon without examining the intended recipient. Related recognition of prescriptions in the school’s name is also removed. Drug makers can no longer donate inhalers, epinephrine, or injectable or nasal glucagon to these schools under this provision. The schools also lose specified exemptions for possessing emergency medicines without a drug-distributor license; other listed entities keep theirs.

Boarding schools lose specified state coverage

Community schools and STEM schools remain within the law's definition of other public schools; college-preparatory boarding schools are excluded. This changes coverage under rules using that definition, including applicable assessment rules. These boarding schools also leave the public-high-school definition used for annual online education and career-planning information. Their students in grades 9–12 are no longer included in that information distribution or the related annual survey.

Dropout recovery programs face updated tests

Dropout prevention and recovery programs seeking a competency-based graduation waiver must require applicable scores on the updated listed assessments. Department rules determine how far this requirement applies. The law substitutes assessments under section 3301.0712(B)(2) for the previous reference to section 3301.0710(B)(1).

Dropout schools face narrower performance measures

Dropout prevention and recovery community schools use cumulative end-of-course exam scores for the specified twelfth-grade and near-age-22 performance indicators. The alternative based on passing all state high school achievement assessments is removed. The age-based measure covers students within three months of turning 22, who must reach the required score by that birthday.

Fewer financial options for boarding schools

College-preparatory boarding schools lose access to special district-property offers, leases, sales, and transfers available to community and STEM schools. They are also removed from the related five-year resale and transfer rules. Boarding schools established under Chapter 3328 are no longer eligible for the specified exception allowing school raffles.

Low-rated community schools face sponsor limits

Community schools generally cannot change sponsors when their latest report card shows fewer than three stars in both achievement and progress. Dropout recovery schools face the limit when annual growth and combined graduation rates are rated 'does not meet standards.' A school can request an exception only if it has not already had one granted. The department must approve it, and the new sponsor must be rated effective or higher or be the state sponsorship office.

Preschool grant reviews require county consultation

Early learning and development programs determine preschool children's eligibility for early childhood education grants. They must consult the county department of job and family services. This provision changes the review process, not grant eligibility standards or amounts.

School rankings drop growth and spending

Ohio's annual school rankings no longer include year-to-year student growth or operating spending per equivalent pupil. Rankings still use performance-index scores, the share of operating spending used for classroom instruction, and gifted-student performance and opportunities.

Some startup schools lose continuation rule

The law removes a continuation rule for startup community schools formed in districts meeting former challenged-district or lowest-five-percent criteria. That rule allowed continued operation with a valid sponsor contract after the district no longer met those criteria. The statutory definition of a challenged school district is also removed. This repeal alone does not establish that every affected school must close.

State drops required physical education coordinator

The state education department no longer must employ a full-time physical education coordinator. Districts, community schools, and STEM schools lose the statutory guarantee of guidance and technical help through that required position.

State education board loses listed duties

The law removes two sets of duties from the State Board of Education's statutory list. These are the duties referenced in Ohio Revised Code sections 3301.28 and 3328.19. This provision does not identify who takes them over or change a stated household payment or service.

Teacher training uses one growth measure

The chancellor's report on students taught by teacher-preparation graduates must use the state's value-added student growth measure. Educator-preparation metrics must also ensure staff are prepared to use that measure. The alternative student progress measure is no longer listed as an option.

School loans now count toward debt

Districts must include securities tied to loans under Ohio’s two specified school-loan provisions when calculating net debt. Those loans are no longer excluded from statutory debt limits. Counting them can leave districts less room to borrow; this provision sets no household tax or payment.

District loan accounting and borrowing rules change

District payments to commercial lenders on loans approved under section 3313.483 count as operating costs; other debt-retirement spending remains excluded. The law removes a special anticipation-note sale procedure available after the state auditor certified a deficit. Sales of notes authorized under sections 5705.212 or 5705.213 instead follow Chapter 133.

Districts lose boarding-student funding count adjustment

Ohio no longer adds college-preparatory boarding students to a district’s funding enrollment count when they were not already included. The adjustment still applies to community-school and STEM-school students. The law states no district funding amount.

Vaccine-rule protections shift among school types

STEM schools enter this vaccine-rule coverage, while college-preparatory boarding schools leave it. Covered public schools and state colleges cannot require a vaccine lacking full FDA approval. They also cannot discriminate against someone for not receiving it. The prohibition excludes hospitals and other health care facilities owned, operated, or affiliated with a state college.

Evening work limits for young workers

Workers under 16 generally cannot work after 7 p.m. They can work between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. before a day when school is not in session. A parent or legal guardian must approve that later work.

Rating rules shape community school preschool

Community schools offering any grade from four through twelve need at least three stars in both achievement and progress. Schools offering no grade above three need at least three stars in early literacy. These ratings determine qualification for the related preschool provisions. A school can also qualify through an exemplary-rated sponsor.

School continuity during children's facility stays

During a qualifying OhioRISE-recommended placement, the parent's district must keep enrollment active and excuse attendance. The placement district need not admit the child when the provider supplies qualifying education. Education must meet Ohio standards or substantially similar out-of-state standards, with an instructional-hours exception for treatment programs. Providers must give required notices and work with the district on a supportive return plan. After discharge from a covered home or facility, the parent's district must accept coursework and award credit under district policy. Returning high school students face diploma requirements no stricter than those for students entering after home education. The provider must notify the district and state education department and supply a certified transcript.

School hiring and labor coverage change

Section 3328.19 reports are removed from specified educator-license investigations and reports hiring officers may request about candidates. Related confidentiality and recordkeeping rules no longer cover those reports through the amended sections. College-preparatory boarding schools and their operators also leave the public-sector labor law's definition of public employer. The law does not specify changes to wages, benefits, or bargaining rights.

School door safeguards expand and narrow

STEM schools enter protective-door inspection, compliance, recordkeeping, and door-locking-device rules; college-preparatory boarding schools leave those rules. Beginning April 24, 2026, the responsible authority checks covered schools' retained protective-door inspection records each year. Citations may apply after reported problems remain for 18 months, or 180 days for a serious fire or life-safety risk. Citations under this rule require that the school is not actively taking steps toward compliance.

Boarding schools lose authority, gain relief

College-preparatory boarding schools established under Chapter 3328 lose this section's authority to use blended learning. Those operating high schools also leave the FAFSA data-system participation requirement. They no longer must sign the covered data-sharing agreement or provide principals and counselors access. The data change does not itself alter student aid eligibility or award amounts.

Districts can leave city civil-service oversight

An Ohio city and its city school district can agree in writing to remove district civil-service commission oversight. The agreement can cover the entire district or only part of it. This changes which civil-service rules apply, without stating changes to employee pay or benefits.

Districts get performance-based exits from oversight

A district begins leaving academic distress oversight after earning an overall rating of at least three stars. It completes the transition after earning at least two stars for two consecutive school years during transition. The chief executive then gives up control and the commission ends. A rating below two stars during transition restores full oversight at the district's previous stage. Oversight also ends when restructuring or closures under the distress law leave the district operating no schools.

Families see revised school performance ratings

School report cards use performance ratings instead of A-to-F grades for overall results and each separate measure. They are due September 15 each year, or the preceding Friday when that date falls on a weekend. Achievement and progress have equal weight; gap-closing, graduation, early literacy, and readiness each receive half the achievement weight. Gifted-student and chronic-absence indicators are excluded from the performance-indicator category. The law also removes authority for a separate high-school progress measure based only on English and math tests. Rating benchmarks must be reviewed at least every three years, a requirement dating to 2015-2016, and can be changed.

Ohio shifts toward appointed education board

Beginning September 30, 2025, the law sets seven governor-appointed State Board of Education seats, with Senate approval. The eleven elected offices end as current terms expire; current elected members serve out their terms without elected successors. Initial appointments for vacancies existing January 1, 2027, are due that day, and those terms begin then. Every member must be a qualified Ohio voter. The board must include experience representing rural, suburban, and urban districts, community schools, and chartered private schools.

Older graduation testing duties are removed

Districts no longer must administer the specified older graduation tests and retests, including tests for some people completing coursework without diplomas. The law also removes September testing for students entering ninth grade before July 1, 2014, in low-graduation-rate districts. That rule covered districts with a three-year average graduation rate of 75% or less. Cooperative-district assessment agreements still cover attending students otherwise entitled to attend a participating city, local, or exempted village district. Those agreements no longer must cover people who completed high school coursework without a diploma.

Public gets input on school data

The education department must post proposed school data guidelines for 30 consecutive days of public comment. It must respond within 30 days after comments close and post final guidelines 30 days before they take effect. For program or policy guidelines, the process must begin by May 15 before the affected school year. The process covers new or updated federal and department rules, plus new laws taking effect more than 90 days after enactment. It is not required for faster-taking-effect laws or removal of data items to reduce school reporting.

School pilots gain flexibility with limits

Community and STEM schools can apply for innovative teaching pilots that need exemptions from eligible education laws or rules. The education department must approve the application before exemptions apply. Approved exemptions last through the program and a reasonable evaluation period. Pilot applications cannot seek exemptions from Ohio Revised Code sections 3313.6028 or 3319.2310. The department also cannot use pilot approval to exempt a district from academic-distress oversight.

School ratings use revised test calculations

Performance-index averages use the listed English, math, science, American history, and American government assessments. Approved substitute exams in science, history, and government also count. Indicators cannot require a fixed proficiency percentage, though they can still show percentages, trends, and comparisons. Progress calculations use three years when available: 50% for the newest year and 25% for each earlier year. With only two years, the weights are 67% and 33%; otherwise available prior-year data are used. For performance-index scores, achievement rates, and annual objectives, students must be counted in the first full October school week and stay enrolled through spring testing. Assessments under section 3301.0710(B)(1) no longer count in those calculations.

School readiness ratings recognize several paths

The readiness measure counts students in the four-year graduation group who meet approved college or career readiness paths. Paths include English and math scores, honors-diploma criteria, approved credentials or licenses, and qualifying apprenticeships. Students also count with qualifying scores on at least three Advanced Placement, CLEP, or International Baccalaureate exams, or 12 degree-applicable college credits. Remedial credits do not count; an Advanced Placement score of at least 3 or International Baccalaureate score of at least 4 counts as three credits. Rating rules cannot use tiers or per-student bonuses. Schools meeting the department's improvement level get at least three stars, and rules can allow more than half of schools to earn three stars.

School restructuring includes pauses and parents

Schools restructured under sections 3302.10, 3302.12, or federal law get three consecutive years without another required state-law restructuring. The pause starts when the earlier restructuring is implemented. Restructuring under section 3302.042 alone no longer qualifies. When a community learning center process begins, the school review team must consider restructuring needs with parent input. That review also removes section 3302.042 from its listed restructuring authorities.

State control for struggling school districts

Ohio must create a five-member academic distress commission for districts rated below two stars for three straight years. This also replaces former commissions still operating on October 15, 2015, that had existed for at least four years. State and local officials appoint commission members. Within 60 days after its chair is named, the commission must appoint a state-paid chief executive. That officer controls district operations, management, and teaching, and can delegate duties only in writing. The law ends the former improvement coordinator position. After the fourth school-year report card, districts failing the transition test must get a newly appointed board. The chief executive keeps control until the transition rules allow its return.

Violence-prevention club eligibility shifts among schools

Community schools can designate student-led violence prevention clubs in buildings serving grades six through twelve. STEM schools and college-preparatory boarding schools are removed from eligible entities. Designating a club remains optional.

Districts gain short-term financing with fees

The state treasurer can now enter qualifying purchase agreements with districts holding the formerly disqualifying school-loan obligation. Agreements cover qualifying public obligations that mature within one year of original issuance. They set purchase terms and can charge a reasonable fee. Fees can recover only direct costs and a reasonable estimate of related indirect costs.

District debt options expand with levy conditions

Districts in fiscal emergency can propose restructuring or refinancing any outstanding board debt, not just the previously specified loans. Issuing new securities requires commission approval and a voter-approved qualifying levy: a nonrenewal levy providing new operating revenue, or a levy under section 5705.199. Repayment can extend by up to 10 years, with equal payments at equal intervals; these securities cannot be refinanced again under this rule. The law removes specified automatic fiscal-emergency triggers after covered refinancing: a certified deficit before repayment, poor plan compliance, or an unacceptable updated plan. Districts with outstanding section 3313.483 loans no longer receive the exclusions from sections 3315.40 and 3315.41. State reviews of education-fund withholding for debt payments drop those loan obligations as a listed factor, but retain Chapter 133 and similar obligations.

Science-focused schools gain funding reporting coverage

STEM schools join casino-revenue school distributions, except those operated under section 3326.51; college-preparatory boarding schools leave the definition. STEM students count in the counties where they live, and payments use certified county and district student counts. The chancellor can also publish and share STEM schools' aggregate FAFSA completion counts and rates. College-preparatory boarding schools are no longer listed for that reporting. These reporting changes do not change student aid eligibility or awards.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Cosponsors

Adam Holmes
Republican • House
Adam Mathews
Republican • House
Andrea White
Republican • House
Bob Peterson
Republican • House
Brian Lampton
Republican • House
Daniel P. Troy
Democratic • House
David Thomas
Republican • House
Derrick Hall
Democratic • House
Gary Click
Republican • House
James M. Hoops
Republican • House
Johnathan Newman
Republican • House
Josh Williams
Republican • House
Kellie Deeter
Republican • House
Kevin Ritter
Republican • House
Marilyn John
Republican • House
Mark Hiner
Republican • House
Mark Sigrist
Democratic • House
Melanie Miller
Republican • House
Michael D. Dovilla
Republican • House
Mike Odioso
Republican • House
Nick Santucci
Republican • House
Phil Plummer
Republican • House
Riordan T. McClain
Republican • House
Sarah Fowler Arthur
Republican • House
Sean P. Brennan
Democratic • House
Tex Fischer
Republican • House
Tom Young
Republican • House
Tracy M. Richardson
Republican • House
Ty D. Mathews
Republican • House

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 190 • No: 42

Senate vote • 6/10/2026

Passed

Yes: 24 • No: 9

House vote • 6/10/2026

Concurred in Senate amendments

Yes: 63 • No: 31