General Assembly returns this month to finalize legislation
The General Assembly worked quickly to pass several pieces of legislation over the past two weeks. However, both chambers could not come to an agreement on several hot-button issues. Lawmakers will return on June 10 to finalize a couple of bills, including House Bill (HB) 562, the capital appropriations/budget corrections bill. The following is a summary of the bills passed and issues still to be resolved.
House and Senate disagree on capital appropriations/budget corrections bill
HB 562, the capital appropriations/budget corrections bill, sponsored by Rep. Jay Hottinger (R-Newark), is headed to a conference committee after the House refused to concur with Senate amendments. For background purposes, a conference committee is a panel of legislators appointed to resolve points of difference between two different versions of one bill passed by the two houses. After resolving differences in the two versions of the bill, the committee adopts a conference committee report. The report then must be approved by a
majority of the House and Senate in order for the bill to be enacted into law.
A number of issues are in dispute, including the Senate’s removal of the local government reform provisions from the bill. The provision models HB 521, legislation that would create the Ohio Commission on Local Government Reform and Collaboration to develop recommendations on reforming and restructuring local governments in Ohio.
OSBA supports the Senate’s removal of the local government reform study and will advocate that the provision should not be added back into HB 562 during the conference committee.
Other provisions of interest in the current version of HB 562 include:
- Creates a new “substitute levy,” allowing voters in fast-growing school districts to renew a continuous emergency levy.
- Allows school districts under the Classroom Facilities Assistance Program to segment Ohio School Facilities Commission projects. Currently, all school districts (except six under the Accelerated Urban School Building Assistance Program) must complete all of the district’s facilities needs at once.
- Allows an ESC to sponsor a conversion community school.
- Directs the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to submit a plan to the federal government creating a school-based Medicaid program.
- Permits a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) school to contract with an ESC.
Contacts still needed on special education voucher legislation
The House Education Committee approved special education voucher legislation on a party-line vote of 12-11 after adopting four amendments to the bill. Senate Bill (SB) 57, sponsored by Sen. Kevin Coughlin (R-Cuyahoga Falls), would create the Special Education Scholarship Program to provide vouchers for disabled children in grades K-12 to attend alternative public or private special education programs. The amendments do the following:
- Extend the deadline to Dec. 31 for the Partnership for Continued Learning to complete a study on charter schools and vouchers in Ohio.
- Require private providers to inform voucher applicants in writing why they were declined enrollment.
- Require private providers to offer information about their services to voucher applicants.
- Require private providers to supply the voucher student’s resident school district a record of the implementation of the child’s Individualized Education Program, including evaluation of the child’s progress.
Even though some changes have been made to the bill, OSBA is still adamantly opposed to SB 57! The full House may act on this bill when members return this month. We need you to continue to contact your legislators and voice your opposition to the special education voucher proposal. Please share the following talking points with your legislator:
- We believe public school funds should not be diverted to support voucher-type programs at the expense of the other students remaining in public schools. While the vast majority of students continue to be educated in public schools, vouchers and similar scholarship programs serve to siphon public dollars from public schools, undermining programs and efficiencies already in place.
- It requires parents and voucher students to opt out of their due process rights under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act and Ohio’s Operating Standards for Students with Disabilities.
- The current system allows school districts to use outside providers if the district cannot meet the needs of a particular student.
- This voucher program will only serve to drain resources from public schools without providing increased educational opportunities for special education students.
- State resources should be used to improve public schools’ ability to serve and educate students, not encourage them to leave.
- It is impossible to hold private schools accountable for the expenditure of public dollars.
Educator misconduct bill
The legislature chose HB 428, sponsored by Rep. Arlene Setzer (R-Vandalia), to be the vehicle for the latest round of educator misconduct legislation. The bill was passed by both chambers and now goes to the governor for his signature. It will become effective 90 days after he signs it. HB 428 does the following:
- Automatically revokes the license of any educator who commits one of more than 80 offenses. The offenses are the same crimes that are bars to licensure.
- Requires school districts to remove an employee from the classroom if he or she is arrested for any of the disqualifying offenses.
- Permanently bars school bus drivers from employment for the same disqualifying offenses that are bars to educator licensure.
- Designates who is liable for reporting misconduct to the Ohio Department of Education.
- Establishes penalties for failing to report misconduct.
- Provides civil immunity for individuals who make good-faith reports about licensed educators.
- Establishes civil and criminal penalties for individuals who knowingly make false reports of alleged misconduct.
- Sets an annual deadline of Sept. 5 for employers to initiate criminal records checks for their employees who are due for their regular five-year check. This provision only applies to nonlicensed employees who are not bus drivers.
- Narrows the requirements for employees of private contractors working in schools to undergo criminal records checks.
A more detailed analysis of HB 428 will be provided this summer in OSBA’s Legislative LowDown.
BWC implementation correction
In order to address a technical error regarding the implementation date of a new Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) claims reserving system, an amendment was added to SB 323 that would help Ohio’s school districts obtain accurate BWC premium rates.
The new reserving system, known as MIRA II, is not the issue, but instead the effective date of June 30, 2008, is problematic for school districts.
For all public employers, cities, counties, townships, school districts and others, June 30 of each year is a very important and significant date. On that date, BWC takes a snapshot of every public employer’s claims experience to determine and set the premium rates for the following year.
All public employer group sponsors, in conjunction with their third-party administrators, soon will be extending invitations to join their respective 2009 workers’ compensation group programs. They are currently relying on BWC data for the first quarter of 2008. This data is using the old reserving system. However, on June 30, 2008, the data upon which invitations were based and enrollment decisions made becomes worthless due to a new rating system now being used.
OSBA requested an amendment to address this issue and it was added to SB 323, sponsored by Sen. Tom Niehaus (R-New Richmond). The amendment changes the required implementation date to July 1, 2008, thus avoiding problems, confusion and frustrations that would have occurred under the old June 30 date. SB 323 also includes an emergency clause, which means it will become effective immediately upon the governor’s signature. The bill has been passed by both chambers and now awaits the governor’s approval.
Concealed-carry legislation in school safety zones
SB 184, sponsored by Sen. Stephen Buehrer (R-Delta), makes changes to Ohio’s concealed-carry gun laws. A late amendment was
added to the bill that would enable an individual with a concealedcarry license who is dropping off or picking up a child in a school safety zone to carry a handgun. The handgun must be unloaded and the ammunition must be stored separately. SB 184 has been passed by the House and the Senate and will become effective 90 days after the governor signs it.
To view a complete copy of the letter, visit www.osba-ohio.org/advocacy.htm.
For the latest legislative updates, please contact the OSBA legislative division at (614) 540-4000; or (800) 589-OSBA.
Editor's Note: All information in this article was current as of May 30, 2008.
