Legislature on Summer Recess Passes Bills Before Leaving

Legislature on Summer Recess Passes Bills Before Leaving

by | Jun 20, 2026 | Legislation

Bills with last-minute impacts on education were passed as the Legislature ended its session and left for summer break.  No data center legislation was passed, but this topic will likely resurface in the lame-duck session in the fall.

The bills passed included many last-minute amendments, and some proposals did not make it to the next round, such as math intervention plans.

HB 455 and SB 19 were the vehicles for many additions and became a repository of miscellaneous education provisions.

Following is a summary of highlights of HB 455.  This bill has not yet been signed by the Governor, and therefore, it is possible there could be some vetoes.

It is not a comprehensive review of the contents or potential impacts of the bill’s provisions due to the newsletter format. If you have questions about any provisions, please contact an Ennis Britton attorney for further information.

Finance

Investment of interim funds:  School district treasurers will no longer need to submit a report to the ODEW or the state auditor the August 31 investment report listing the investments made in the preceding fiscal year, income from those investments and fees and commissions paid. It must still be submitted to the board of education.

School district opening for financial reasons: The entirety of existing sections of law regarding schools being unable to open for financial emergency has been removed, including applying for a loan from the state or commercial bank, issuing notes in anticipation of collection of voted levies.  Other references throughout the Code have been removed.

Levies: Under 5705.212, incremental/renewal levy, a section of the law allowing anticipation notes to be sold remains, but the section requiring a reasonable competitive bidding opportunity before the notes may be sold if the auditor has certified a deficit pursuant to the now-rescinded debt section of the law discussed above has been removed from the law. For R.C. 5705.213 current expense renewal levies, that same section has been removed.

Students

Habitual truants: Students adjudicated unruly due to habitual truancy may see court supervision of their cases for an additional school year to monitor their attendance.  On that subject, parents may now be convicted of the offense of contributing to the unruliness or delinquency of a student for habitual truancy (a misdemeanor of the first degree) without an adjudication of the student as unruly or delinquent.

Graduation tests: Ohio’s graduation tests in the form of the five high school achievement assessments have been eliminated from the law along with all references throughout the Code. There will still be achievement assessments as outlined below.  Related language on practice tests has been removed. College and work ready assessments are still in place.

Graduation intervention: Districts with 3-year average graduation rates of 75% or less will no longer have to provide intervention services to 9th graders who do not pass the graduation tests (removed from the law, see above).

Waiver of end of course exams: Students who previously were able to avoid end of course exams if they met certain criteria will no longer be able to do that, as the exemption language has been removed from the law.

Scholarship: For purposes of obtaining the scholarship, any student entering K-12 is eligible without being enrolled in the resident district or a community school.

Attendance and tuition:  Ohio law has finally recognized that for purposes of attendance and tuition, many parents are unmarried.  The new law adds to the definition of “parent” for attendance and tuition purposes that for parents never married to each other, parent means the parent who is the residential parent and legal custodian of the child.  This change will reduce flexibility regarding enrollment for fathers who are unmarried but are caring for their children in a different district.

Internet or computer based community schools: Students enrolled in these schools may take state assessments remotely with a remote proctor upon meeting certain conditions. These schools will now be required to meet with parents in the first two weeks to discuss available testing options and describe the preferred method.  If parents do not attend the meeting the school may administer its preferred testing option. If an IEP provides for in person testing, it shall be provided.    ODEW will produce a public report by Sept. 15 of the results to review discrepancies.

Age and schooling certificates:  Added to the list of things the superintendent must have and review prior to issuing an age and schooling certificate now includes a minor work hours notification form signed by the student’s parent or guardian.  This form will be created by the Department of Commerce and provided.

Student work hours: Adds a provision that a student may be employed between 7-9pm on a day before school is not in session and the parents approve. The will need to sign the minor work hours form mentioned above. (Note, this provision may conflict with of 29 C.F.R. § 570.35).

Preschool: Students will be eligible to participate in the early childhood education grant program if a slot is available, if the child has exited Part C early childhood intervention services as documented by an Individual Support Plan, the child is a Medicaid recipient or  part of a family group that participated in Ohio Works First or receives Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. Families may choose to use this grant program rather than other sources for state funding for child care.  If the early learning program used EMIS to track attendance prior to the amendment it will continue to do so.  Funds distributed for the program will be used to provide early learning and development services and any remaining funds may be awarded in high need areas to allow more children to participate in the program or support expansion, innovation, or other enumerated initiatives.

State-level changes

Composition of State Board of Education: The State Board of Education will have seven members appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. The additional members will have their term begin January 1, 2027 for four years. Changes to the language on appointing the members requires that at least one appointed member have experience as a representative of rural, urban, suburban, community and nonpublic schools.  The additional members on the State Board opens the possibility that two members will be from nonpublic or community school or any of the other categories, or none of those categories.

ODEW annual school report: The  Director of ODEW will no longer be required to submit an annual report to the Governor and General Assembly on the status, needs and problems of Ohio schools with a ten-year enrollment projection for public and nonpublic schools by grade level.

ODEW employees: ODEW will no longer need to employ a full time physical education coordinator to assist districts in implementing the physical education standards.

Report cards:

ODEW will no longer be required to provide preliminary report card data by July 31 of each year.

Letter grades were removed.

Students with IEP’s who have satisfied the requirements for a diploma but have deferred graduation will be included as graduates on the 4 and five year adjusted graduation cohort.

Changes to the report card’s calculation of post-secondary readiness measures will now include attaining remediation free scores in ELA and math by either achieving accomplished or advanced on the end of course exams in ELA and Algebra II and geometry or on a nationally standardized test.

Calculation of this measure also includes changes to earning twelve (12) college credits through advanced standing CCP programs and a score of 3 or more AP and 4 or more IB course equals 3 college credits.

The requirement that JCARR approve the college, career, workforce and military readiness rules each year was removed.

Waiver of requirements based on ratings: ODEW now may remove districts from specified state mandates only for districts that receive five star ratings.

District ranking and report cards: The ranking of public schools calculation has removed the value added performance growth and other student growth measure from the calculation.

Innovative pilot programs: Community schools and STEM schools were added to the list of school types that may submit innovative pilot program plans to ODEW  requiring exemptions from state statutes or rules. On a similar note, ODEW now is required to promote innovative educational programs and provide support for developing them, publicize other projects, and promote the availability of waivers of state statutes and rules for those programs.

The law removed a section on schools being required to restructure under an academic distress commission.

Board member vacancy:  The board member vacancy statute has been amended to ensure that a board of education may not declare a seat vacant for nonattendance if the reason for that nonattendance at meetings is that the board member is deployed outside the district or ESC territory as a member of the U.S. Armed Forces or National Guard.  It adds educational service centers as entities that may declare a vacancy on the board for nonattendance pursuant to the statute.

Teachers

Licensure: Expansion of alternative resident educator licensure to any grade level if conditions are met. The employing board must inform the State Board it plans to hire the employee in a grade level outside their licensure, the educator is teaching an area aligned to their bachelor or graduate degrees or their  professional experience, or if they passed a subject matter competency exam, and they complete any required pedagogical training, and certain other requirements.

Licensure revocation or denial of license renewal:  Strangulation, grooming, domestic violence added to the list of revocation offenses.

STRS teacher defined: The definition of “teacher” was revised to remove an employee of an ESC acting as a tutor with registration under R.C. 3301.28 for STRS purposes.

Conduct unbecoming reports to State Board: Previously, districts could request misconduct referral information from the State Board’s Office of Professional Conduct, including reports submitted under R.C. 3319.313, when evaluating a candidate for employment. House Bill 455 amends both R.C. 3319.313 and R.C. 3319.393, which together governed the reporting and disclosure of that information. As a result of those changes, the prior framework allowing districts to obtain referral information from the State Board appears to be narrowed or altered, and districts may no longer have the same ability to access that information prior to hiring.

Miscellaneous

The definition of “challenged school district” has been removed from the law.

All references to college preparatory boarding schools have been removed from the law.

Community school ratings and closure standards were extensively revised.

Certain school district fiscal emergency designations were removed from the law.

DPIA funding and expenditures reports: ODEW will develop a way for districts to report DPIA funding and expenditures and will by Oct. 31 of each year produce a report detailing the same.  The current reports due from each district at the end of the fiscal year will no longer be due; however, the information still will be required to be reported in the manner selected by ODEW.

Science of reading training options: ODEW will select training courses more rigorous than the science of reading basic courses that may be taken in place of that course.

City school districts: Section 124.011 added language that a city and a city school district may by agreement determine that the civil service commission does not apply in whole or in part to the city school district, regardless of any other language in the Ohio Revised Code.

Suspension and expulsion policy, truancy policy, cell phone policy, suspension from school bus riding privileges:  Districts may now post their suspension and expulsion policy, truancy policy, cell phone policy, and school bus suspension policy on their website in lieu of posting it in a central location.

Diabetes data collection and reporting:  Districts will no longer need to collect information and report to ODE about the number of students with diabetes and incidents of administration of medication.

Nutrition annual report:  This annual report will no longer need to be sent to the ODEW regarding the district’s compliance with nutrition standards; it still must be produced, however.

Criminal background checks for all school employees: School districts may not employ a person who has been convicted of or pled guilty to with a long list of offenses, but the offenses of strangulation, grooming, and engaging in prostitution (unless the offender was coerced into that offense) have been added to the list.

 

Stay Out of the Sand: Court Examines Physical Defects and Tort Liability for Districts

Stay Out of the Sand: Court Examines Physical Defects and Tort Liability for Districts

by | Jun 19, 2026 | Board Policy & Representation, School Management

Bossart v. Brecksville-Broadview Hts. City School Dist.

On May 21, 2026, Ohio’s Eighth Appellate District reversed a lower court ruling, allowing a lawsuit to proceed against a public school district after a student was injured during a track event while jumping into a sand pit. The case, centered on the district’s general immunity from tort damages, focused on whether the alleged defect with the sand pit was “perceivable.”

While participating in the long jump during a track meet held at the district’s facility, the student suffered a ruptured ligament in his leg. The student attributed this injury to the unusually cold weather at the time, which had caused the sand in the pit to harden. He further argued that the district did not rake or inspect the sand pit before holding the long jump event. In response, the district argued that it was immune from tort liability pursuant to Ohio’s laws granting broad immunity to political subdivisions.

Ohio courts apply a three-tiered analysis when examining whether a district is protected against tort liability.

  1. First, there is a general rule that political subdivisions have broad immunity from liability.
  2. This immunity may be lost if one of the five exceptions set forth in the law applies.
  3. Immunity may be reinstated if the political subdivision raises one of several affirmative defenses set forth in the law.

This case is focused on the second tier of analysis. Districts can lose their immunity protections for damages “caused by the negligence of their employees and that occur within or on the grounds of, and…due to physical defects within or on the grounds of” buildings connected to the performance of governmental functions. The district argued that a physical defect must be immediately perceivable to the naked eye, without further inspection by the district, before the defect eliminates liability protections. According to the district, it would not have been possible to perceive the “hardness” of the sand based only on the air temperature and an observation that the pit may not have been raked.

The court pushed back on this argument, citing a recent Ohio Supreme Court decision that did not consider perceivability as a factor. In that case, the Supreme Court held that a “physical defect” could be “reasonably understood as a tangible imperfection that impairs the function of an object.” And at least one other decision from Ohio’s Eighth  District considered the existence of a physical defect that would have been perceivable only upon physical inspection.

The court was also skeptical of the district’s argument that the sand pit was not defective because only one long jumper was injured. No evidence was introduced regarding the number of long jumpers who competed that day, only that the student in question was injured, and the student was not required to conclusively prove the long-jump pit was defective at this stage. His allegations about the condition of the pit (which were not disputed by the district), combined with his subsequent injury, were enough to allow the case to proceed.

What does this mean for your district? The existence of a physical defect on school grounds is one of several ways that a district, which is normally immune from liability, may be sued for damages under tort law. A physical defect is a tangible imperfection that impairs the function of an object, but it should not be assumed that districts are protected if the imperfection is not immediately perceivable to the naked eye. It is worth noting that the district in this case has not yet been found liable for damages. Rather, the ruling allows the case to proceed. Liability may be found if the student subsequently shows that the condition of the sand pit constituted a physical defect and no affirmative defenses are applicable.

 

 

 

Special Education Update: Section 504 is No Longer a Quiet Corner of Student Services

Special Education Update: Section 504 is No Longer a Quiet Corner of Student Services

by | Jun 19, 2026 | Special Education

Recent Civil Rights Data Collection information shows that the percentage of students identified as “Section 504-only” continues to rise nationally and in Ohio. For the 2021–22 school year, the national rate was 3.93%, up from the prior collection year. Ohio followed the same trend, increasing from 3.42% in 2020–21 to approximately 3.8% in 2021–22. Nationally, Ohio ranks 16th of 50 states for its percentage of Section 504-only students.

For school districts, the question is whether the district’s Section 504 practices are keeping pace with student needs. An increase in Section 504 eligible students may reveal inconsistent referral practices, confusion about the difference between Section 504 and IDEA, staffing issues, or plans that exist on paper but are not consistently implemented.

Section 504 requires districts to provide a free appropriate public education to qualified students with disabilities, and the regulations require appropriate evaluation and placement procedures. Staff and administrators should be able to quickly explain when and how to refer a student and how to best draft and review Section 504 plans.  

What does this mean for your school district? Section 504 is an operational and compliance issue, not just a paperwork issue. District leaders should ensure that building teams are trained, Section 504 coordinators have the authority and time needed to manage the process, Section 504 plans are reviewed periodically, and district Section 504 procedures intersect with discipline, attendance, safety plans, testing, extracurricular activities, and transportation. Because Section 504 does not come with the same dedicated funding structure as IDEA, districts can easily misjudge the amount of staffing and oversight required for compliance. A stronger approach is to build consistent procedures now before a complaint or dispute arises. Please reach out to your Ennis Britton attorney if you need resources, forms, or training for your teams.

ADA Reminder: Reasonable Accommodation Doesn’t Have to be the Preferred Accommodation

ADA Reminder: Reasonable Accommodation Doesn’t Have to be the Preferred Accommodation

by | Jun 19, 2026 | Labor and Employment

Andrea Tumbleson v. Lakota Local School Dist. Bd. of Educ., Case No. 25-3548 (6th Cir. 2026).

On May 13, 2026, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an Ohio school district did not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) by requiring a teacher to use unpaid leave to attend a training course with her guide dog.

Tumbleson, an art teacher, had been diagnosed with a rare disease that caused gradual vision and hearing loss. Tumbleson applied for a guide dog in 2022. She was required to attend a five-day orientation and mobility training program, which required her to miss five days of school. The district approved her use of sick leave for this initial training session, as the human-resources director explained that employees were typically only required to complete FMLA paperwork for “extended absences” of ten or more days.

Tumbleson was eventually matched with a guide dog but was required to attend a three-week training course in May 2023, which meant she missed the end of the school year. Tumbleson requested the use of thirteen paid sick days to attend the training course. The request was granted in part by the district. Tumbleson was permitted to attend the training course using a mix of personal days and unpaid leave as an accommodation under the ADA. FMLA leave may be used only in limited circumstances, and district policy stated that sick leave could be used for “personal illness, injury or exposure to contagious disease.” The District did not believe that the training fit within either category even after Tumbleson received a letter from her doctor arguing the training was for “medical reasons” because the guide dog was part of her “treatment plan.”

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the district on both the ADA and FMLA claims, upholding a lower court ruling that granted summary judgment to the district. The Court held that Tumbleson’s discrimination case failed because she did not demonstrate that the district treated “similarly situated” employees more favorably in their requests for paid leave. Tumbleson relied on the fact that the district “routinely” granted sick leave without going through the formalities and pointed to the fact that she previously had been granted sick leave for the earlier 5-day training. However, the Court argued Tumbleson’s own experience demonstrated that the district’s leave policy was neutrally applied. She benefited from the rule when she was permitted to take sick leave for her earlier, shorter training, and it was only when she requested an extended absence that the human resource department reviewed whether the training qualified.

The Court also argued that the use of unpaid leave was a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. Employers “need not provide” the specific accommodation that an employee wants. Rather, the employer has “discretion” to choose among alternative accommodations so long as they will permit the employee to perform the job. Because the unpaid leave allowed Tumbleson to obtain her guide dog, the Court concluded that the district met its obligation to provide a reasonable accommodation and the district had the “ultimate discretion” to choose a less expensive option, even if paid leave would have caused less hardship for Tumbleson.

Finally, the Court determined that Tumbleson also was not entitled to paid leave under the FMLA. To obtain paid leave, Tumbleson needed to show that the district “normally provided” paid leave for those in her situation. Citing 29 U.S.C. 2612(c) and 29 U.S.C. 2612(d)(2)(B). Here, the district testified that Tumbleson’s request did not fall within the definition of sick leave under Ohio law, the district’s collective bargaining agreement, or the school board’s sick leave policy and Tumbleson’s attorney failed to sufficiently challenge the district’s position.

What does this mean for your district? While districts must ensure that they are not discriminating against an employee on the basis of their disability, the ADA requires reasonable accommodation and nothing more. So long as the district’s policy is being consistently applied for all employees, unpaid leave is generally considered a reasonable accommodation and districts have discretion to choose the less expensive option even if it conflicts with the individual’s financial or other preferences.