September 2017 Legislative Committee Report
Getting Involved: If you’ve returned to school with a renewed desire to get involved in education issues, but aren’t sure where to begin, check out the OEA’s Educator-Activist To-Do List here. Most of the suggestions are informational, and/or fairly simple in nature.
Ohio Graduation Requirement: As a part of the Budget Bill, the Ohio Legislature provided additional pathways to graduation for the class of 2018. It is important to understand that the addition is only for this graduating class and does not provide for a long term solution.
The additional paths to graduate involve students retaking each of their 7 assessments (at least once) on which they’ve scored a 1 or 2. In addition, they must satisfy two other components from a list created by the Superintendent’s Graduation Workgroup. The easiest two options are maintaining a 93% attendance rate in their senior year, and maintaining a 2.5 GPA during their senior year.
The problem, as admitted by some legislators, is that the two aforementioned options are difficult to satisfy for Ohio’s most vulnerable students, impoverished kids in urban areas. In a bit of cruel irony, these are the students most in need of additional paths to graduation as standardized assessment scores have historically, most accurately, reflected a student’s economic background.
The state has undertaken no statistical analysis to determine how many students will be helped by the new paths to graduation, and no permanent solution has, as yet, been introduced. Consider writing a letter to the editor advocating for a long-term solution to the graduation problem, and contact your legislator frequently to that end.
Issues with the 3rd Grade Guarantee: In July, the Ohio School Board had the opportunity to act, and did nothing, having been informed of some serious issues by the school districts of Akron, Canton, and Columbus. Apparently, mistakes in setting the cut scores on some alternative assessments were likely to cause hundreds, if not thousands of students to be held back in 3rd grade for little justifiable reason. No recent information has been published regarding the outcome of the issue.
If you disagree with the 3rd grade reading guarantee, make your thoughts known through a letter to the editor, and contact your legislator often.
The Difference Between Public, Charter and Private Schools is Marketing: Here is an excerpt from the new book “Beyond Test Scores: A Better Way to Measure School Quality” by Jack Schneider (Harvard University Press, August 2017) on how the public’s views of educational institutions have more to do with perception than tangible evidence.
ECOT: While still on the hook to pay back funds earned from the state through fraudulent enrollment practices, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow is seeking to change its status to become a dropout recovery school. This change would immediately boost their failing report card, and help to keep them in business. A dropout recovery school only needs an 8% four year graduation rate to earn a C.
RESA: Due to changes in the Resident Educator Program for 2017-2018, there will be a new RESA website and guidebook established September 15. For questions or concerns contact REProgram@education.ohio.gov.
Overview of Existing Legislation
HB 14 Sponsor: Rep. Clyde
Would require that eligible persons in certain government and school databases be automatically registered to vote or have their registrations updated automatically unless those persons decline and to expand how a voter may register or update their registration through the online voter registration system.
Referred to the Government Accountability and Oversight Committee 2/8/17
HB 87 Sponsor: Rep. Roegner
Allow for public moneys to be returned to the state as a result of a finding for recovery issued pursuant to an audit of a community school.
Referred to the Government Accountability and Oversight Committee 2/28/17
HB 102 Sponsor: Rep. Brenner
To replace locally levied school district property taxes with a statewide property tax and require recipients of certain tax exemptions to reimburse the state for such levy revenue lost due to those exemptions; to increase the state sales and use tax rates and allocate additional revenue to state education purposes; to repeal school district income taxes; to require the Treasurer of State to issue general obligation bonds to refund certain school district debt obligations; to create a new system of funding schools where the state pays a specified amount per student that each student may use to attend the public or chartered nonpublic school of the student’s choice, without the requirement of a local contribution; to eliminate the School Facilities Commission; to eliminate the Educational Choice Scholarship Pilot Program, Pilot Project Scholarship Program, Autism Scholarship Program, and Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship Program; to eliminate interdistrict open enrollment; to require educational service centers to transport students on a countywide basis; and to permit school districts to enter into a memoranda of understanding for one district to manage another.
Referred to the Finance Committee 3/7/17
HB 176 Sponsor: Rep. Thompson
Will eliminate Common Core and replace it with pre-2010 Massachusetts standards; prohibits use of any assessments created by PARCC, Smarter Balanced, or any other assessments based on CCSS (pre-2010 Iowa tests will be administered instead); reduces testing to federal minimums; establishes subcommittees for adoption and review of content standards; extends safe harbor from overall letter grade on state report card for districts and for students who opt out of state testing through the 2019-2020 school year; eliminates OTES and OPES but retains requirement for Cleveland; eliminates the Resident Educator Summative Assessment by prohibiting the Ohio Teacher Residency Program from requiring an entry-level classroom teacher to pass or take such an assessment during the residency program; eliminates the retention provision for students who fail to attain a passing score on the third-grade English arts assessment; eliminates the requirement to administer any diagnostic assessment to students in grades kindergarten through three, and instead authorizes districts and schools to administer such assessments; eliminates the requirement for students to complete a graduation pathway as a condition of receiving a high school diploma (maintains the requirement for the students to complete the school’s curriculum);establishes certain restrictions on use of personally identifiable data with regards to reports to DoE and grant recipients; removes the words “and such other factors as the Board finds necessary” from the provision that enumerates categories for which the State Board must adopt minimum standards for schools; makes permissive, instead of mandatory as under current law, the requirement to adopt a policy on career advising, which includes a plan to provide students with grade-level examples that link schoolwork to career fields, provide interventions and career advising for at risk students, and identify courses that can award students both traditional academic and career-technical credit, among other items.
Referred to the Education and Career Readiness Committee 5/1/17
HB 181 Sponsor: Rep Hood, Rep Brinkman
Eliminates Common Core; eliminates the separate academic standards review committees for core content areas; prohibits the State Board from adopting any model curricula; requires new state elementary and high school achievement assessments to be administered beginning in the 2018-2019 school year, and specifies the entities that are involved in identifying, reviewing, recommending, and approving the new state assessments; changes criteria for student retention in third grade (from those scoring “basic” to those scoring “limited”); permits parents to request in writing that student not be retained (school must provide remediation services); eliminates Fall administration of 3rd grade ELA test; eliminates a provision authorizing a school district to retain a student who does not take a state assessment; repeals a provision requiring the Department of Education to assign a weight of zero to the assessment score of a student who does not take a state achievement assessment; requires the State Board to establish a “percentile range” in which a student must perform in order to satisfy completion of the high school assessment graduation pathway; extends through the 2018-2019 school year, the safe harbor provisions for students, school districts, and other public schools related to the state achievement assessment score results and report card ratings, currently in effect for the 2016-2017 school year; Requires, for teacher evaluations, each district, school, or educational service center to adopt a teacher evaluation policy with the teachers and the teachers’ labor organization; requires, for principal evaluations, requires each board to adopt procedures for the evaluation of its principals and to evaluate those employees in accordance with those procedures (except for Cleveland; current evaluation systems will be maintained); several other miscellaneous changes to testing, data, and state report cards.
Referred to the Education and Career Readiness Committee 5/1/17
HB 200 Sponsor: Rep. Koehler (companion bill to SB 85)
Would eliminate the Educational Choice Scholarship Pilot Program and Pilot Project (Cleveland) Scholarship Program and to create the Opportunity Scholarship Program; would increase the amount per student given to families; further increases in amounts awarded when state school funding formula amounts increase; would be funded directly through the state, not through districts; establishes a student savings account for any student whose scholarship exceeds tuition and fees (can only be used for specific things including college tuition and textbooks for colleges in Ohio.)
Referred to the Education and Career Readiness Committee 5/9/17
HB 220 Sponsor: Rep. Leland
States that funds that the Department of Education pays to a community school or nonpublic school are public funds and are subject to the same requirements related to permissible expenditures and audit by the Auditor of State as public funds allocated to school districts; specifies that, if a community school uses public funds to pay for the services of an entity to manage the daily operations of that school or to provide programmatic oversight and support to that school, those funds maintain their status as public funds upon transfer.
Referred to the Education and Career Readiness Committee 5/23/17
HB 242 Sponsor: Rep. Carfagna
Permits, rather than requires, the School Employees Retirement Board to grant annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to retirement allowance, disability benefit, and survivor benefit recipients under the School Employees Retirement System (SERS). If the SERS Board grants a COLA, changes the annual COLA amount to any percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index, not exceeding 2.5% (from an automatic 3%). Authorizes the SERS Board, before granting an increase, to adjust the COLA percentage if the Board’s actuary determines, in its annual actuarial valuation or in other evaluations, that an adjustment does not materially impair the retirement system’s fiscal integrity or is necessary to preserve its fiscal integrity.
Referred to the Aging and Long Term Care Committee 6/6/17
SB 39 Sponsor: Senator Schiavoni
Requires e-schools to keep an accurate record of the number of hours each individual student actively participates in coursework each day ( information must be reported to the ODE on a monthly basis and be made available on the Department’s website); if a student fails to log in for 10 consecutive days, the e-school must notify ODE, the student’s parent/guardian, and the district of residence; requires student participation logs to be checked for accuracy on a monthly basis by a qualified teacher (a qualified teacher will be licensed by ODE and therefore subject to the Licensure Code of Professional Conduct for Ohio Educators); increases transparency and accountability by requiring that e-school governing board meetings be live-streamed over the internet so parents and the public can watch the meetings (must be proper advance notice of each meeting in every community newspaper from which the e-schools enroll students); specifies that if a student is enrolled in an e-school for more than 90 days and then transfers back to a traditional public school before spring assessment tests, the test results must be reflected on the report card for the e-school and not the public school; requires that, for every advertisement used by an e-school (paid for by public funds), the e-school must include a disclaimer showing their most recent state report card grades; specifies that when the Auditor issues a Finding for Recovery from an audit of a community school, that money is returned to the school district.
Referred to the Education Committee 2/15/17
SB 82 Sponsor: Senator Williams, Senator Lehner
Requires each public school to place a telephone call within 60 minutes of the start of the school day to a parent whose child is absent without legitimate excuse.
Referred to the Education Committee 3/7/17
SB 85 Sponsor: Senator Huffman (companion bill to HB 200)
Would eliminate the Educational Choice Scholarship Pilot Program and Pilot Project (Cleveland) Scholarship Program and to create the Opportunity Scholarship Program; would increase the amount per student given to families; further increases in amounts awarded when state school funding formula amounts increase; would be funded directly through the state, not through districts; establishes a student savings account for any student whose scholarship exceeds tuition and fees (can only be used for specific things including college tuition and textbooks for colleges in Ohio.)
Referred to the Education Committee 3/7/17
SB 104 Sponsor: Senator Tavares
Would prohibit the use of seclusion on students in public schools.
Referred to the Education Committee 4/5/17
SB 133 Sponsor: Senator LaRose
Would require the Education Management Information System to include information regarding persons at whom a student’s violent behavior that resulted in discipline was directed and to require the Department of Education to submit a one-time report to the General Assembly regarding that information. The person or persons shall be identified by the respective classification at the district or school, such as student, teacher, or nonteaching employee, but shall not be identified by name.
Referred to the Education Committee 4/26/17
SB 140 Sponsor: Senator Schiavoni
To create the Public-Private Partnership Grant Program for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 to develop, enhance, and promote educational programs to address regional workforce needs; to create the Sector Partnership Grant Program for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 to identify and provide grants to industry partnerships; to support programs that improve access to workforce training opportunities for students; to support economic development and revitalization programs; and to make an appropriation.
Referred to the Finance Committee 5/13/17
SB 149 Sponsor: Senator LaRose
Requires that when a public school building is used as a polling place, the school district board of education must close the building to students for the day. Requires a board of elections to notify the appropriate district board of its plans to use schools as polling places during a given school year not later than January 1 before that school year begins.
Referred to the Government Oversight and Reform Committee 5/17/17
SB 151 Sponsor: Senator Hite
Permits, rather than requires, the School Employees Retirement Board to grant annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to recipients of retirement allowances, disability benefits, or survivor benefits from the School Employees Retirement System (SERS); if the SERS Board grants a COLA, changes the annual COLA amount to any percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index, not exceeding 2.5% (from the current automatic 3%.)
Referred to the Insurance and Financial Institutions Committee 5/24/17
SB 175 Sponsor: Senator Schiavoni
Public moneys returned to the state as a result of a finding for recovery issued pursuant to an audit of a community school would be returned to the district that they were deducted from.
Referred to the Government Oversight and Reform Committee 9/7/17
CHEERS for Lorain County’s Matt and Mandy Jablonski for compiling this comprehensive review of education legislation!
