OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION Office of Research Legislative Budget www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office S.B. 168 Final Analysis 135th General Assembly Click here for S.B. 168’s Fiscal Note Primary Sponsor: Sen. Reynolds Effective date: October 24, 2024; conforming amendments effective January 1, 2025 Effective date: Mariah M. Maldovan, Attorney UPDATED VERSION* SUMMARY District exemption from certain statutory requirements ▪ Permits a school district to renew its exemption from certain statutory requirements related to teacher licensure and other topics every three years, rather than one three- year term only. ▪ Permits a school district to qualify for an exemption if, on its most recent state report card, it received a performance rating of five stars on the Progress component, a four- year adjusted cohort graduation rate of at least 93%, and a five-year adjusted cohort graduation rate of at least 95%. ▪ Eliminates an exemption from statutory requirements regarding teacher qualifications under the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. ▪ Requires the Department of Education and Workforce annually to notify eligible districts about this exemption and their eligibility for it. Teachers and other school employees ▪ Permits school districts to develop and use their own frameworks for teacher evaluation, instead of using the framework developed by the State Board of Education. ▪ Qualifies a teacher or school counselor as “consistently high-performing” if the teacher or counselor receives the highest level of performance rating in their evaluation for at least four of the past five years and meets at least one other requirement. ▪ Exempts consistently high-performing school counselors from additional coursework or professional development requirements for licensure renewal. * This version updates the effective date. August 6, 2024 Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office ▪ Requires each municipal school district and its teachers’ labor organization to endeavor to include in the district’s evaluation procedures the development of a professional growth plan or improvement plan and a final summative conference to discuss the results of the evaluation. ▪ Requires the State Board to issue an alternative resident educator license to an individual who holds a master’s degree, and passes an exam, in the subject area to be taught. ▪ Permits the Department to establish alternative pathways for bachelor’s degree holders to obtain an educator license to work as an administrator or superintendent and requires the State Board to issue a license to an individual who completes one of those pathways. ▪ Requires the Department to develop and recommend to the General Assembly a proposal for an apprenticeship program for school principals. ▪ Codifies an administrative rule that permits the State Board to issue an educator license to certain qualified out-of-state educators. ▪ Changes the grade band specification for an educator license from grades 6 through 12 to grades 7 through 12. Unlicensed employee RAPBACK requirement ▪ Limits which unlicensed employees of a district, service center, or school must be enrolled in RAPBACK to those whose employer reasonably determines their position may involve routine interaction with a child or regular responsibility for the care, custody, or control of a child. Teaching contracts for classes outside typical school day ▪ Exempts districts from entering into supplemental contracts with teachers assigned to teach classes outside the normal school day if certain conditions related to the teacher’s daily hours of instruction and collective bargaining are satisfied. Board of education meetings ▪ Clarifies that a school district board of education is not required to hold a separate, individual public hearing on a proposed school calendar, but that the calendar may be addressed as part of another public hearing or meeting. ▪ Requires that the record of proceedings of a board of education meeting be read at the board’s next regular meeting, instead of at the next succeeding meeting. Remote testing for state assessments ▪ Requires the Department to establish a pilot program for the 2024-2025 school year based on state assessments to test the feasibility of remotely administered and proctored assessments. P a g e |2 S.B. 168 Final Analysis Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office Sexually transmitted infection education ▪ Changes references from “venereal disease” education to “sexually transmitted infection” education in school district health education curriculum. ▪ Changes the requirements regarding conception and marriage in the sexually transmitted infection education in schools to teach that conceiving children at an early age or outside of marriage increases the likelihood of hardship in life. Payment for tutoring and remedial education program ▪ Modifies payment and tutor registration procedures for the Tutoring and Remedial Education Program. Intradistrict open enrollment ▪ Requires a school district that conducts an intradistrict enrollment lottery to engage in certain deadline and notice procedures. Student transportation − afterschool time ▪ Prohibits the Department from determining a school district noncompliant with transportation requirements if the school provides school-supervised academic services to the affected students promptly after school for no more than 60 minutes after the end of the school day. School Turnaround Pilot Program ▪ Requires the Department to establish and administer the five-year School Turnaround Pilot Program to address chronic low performance in school districts and community schools and establishes a school building selection process. ▪ Requires the Department to approve one or more eligible external service providers to partner with districts, schools, community school sponsors, and school support teams. ▪ Requires districts, community schools, and service providers to report data regularly to the Department and requires the Department to conduct an annual evaluation of the program. Community schools ▪ Permits a community school sponsor that was rated “exemplary” on its most recent evaluation to sponsor up to 200 community schools. ▪ Eliminates the requirement that community schools conduct monthly student residency reviews. ▪ Eliminates e-school enrollment limits. ▪ Eliminates from a sponsorship contract the requirement that a sponsor annually report the results of a community school’s academic and fiscal performance evaluation. P a g e |3 S.B. 168 Final Analysis Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office ▪ Prohibits the Department from evaluating community school sponsors for the 2024-2025 school year, unless a sponsor elects to be evaluated. ▪ By March 31, 2025, requires the Department to develop and provide legislative recommendations for a comprehensive community school sponsor performance evaluation framework. ▪ Permits the Director of Education and Workforce to reallocate excess funds in FY 2024 and FY 2025 for other purposes in state foundation aid to fully pay supplemental funding for dropout prevention and recovery e-schools. Notice requirements – reemployed STRS and SERS retirants ▪ Modifies the public notice and meeting requirements that apply when a board or commission seeks to employ STRS and SERS retired members in certain positions. School district competitive bidding threshold ▪ Increases statutory competitive bidding thresholds to $75,000 for school districts for 2024, and subsequently increases the amount annually by 3%, to match that of other public entities. Debt limit for nonrequired local initiatives ▪ Temporarily increases the cap, to until December 31, 2027, on the amount of debt a school district may exceed for nonrequired locally funded initiatives, from 50% of the local share of the basic project cost to 75% of that cost. Base cost calculation for FYs 2024 and 2025 ▪ Requires the Department to calculate several cost components included in a school district’s base cost calculation using the sum of the enrolled ADM of each school district that reported that data, rather than the enrolled ADM of every school district. High School Financial Literacy Fund ▪ Requires the Director of Education and Workforce to request, and the Director of Budget and Management to transfer, up to $1.5 million from the General Revenue Fund to the High School Financial Literacy Fund during the biennium ending June 30, 2025. Student training at early learning and development programs ▪ Requires an eligible institution with an early childhood teacher preparation program to permit a student who is employed by an early learning and development program to complete required student training as a paid employee of that program. ▪ Requires the Chancellor of Higher Education and Department of Children and Youth to collaborate with industry stakeholders to develop strategies to assist employees of early learning and development programs to complete student training. P a g e |4 S.B. 168 Final Analysis Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office Removal of obsolete provisions ▪ Eliminates several policies and programs from the laws governing the Department of Education and Workforce, the State Board of Education, and schools more generally. Grow Your Own Teacher Program ▪ Expands the types of schools that may participate in, expands scholarship eligibility for, and makes other changes to, the Grow Your Own Teacher Program. TABLE OF CONTENTS District exemption from certain statutory requirements ............................................................... 6 Renewal ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Eligibility criteria .......................................................................................................................... 6 Removal of Third Grade Reading Guarantee exemption ............................................................ 7 Teachers and other school employees ........................................................................................... 7 Teacher evaluation – alternative framework.............................................................................. 7 Consistently high-performing teachers and school counselors .................................................. 7 Senior or lead professional educator .......................................................................................... 8 Administrator and superintendent licenses................................................................................ 8 School principal apprenticeship .................................................................................................. 8 Alternative resident educator licenses for master’s degree holders.......................................... 8 Temporary out-of-state teaching licenses .................................................................................. 9 Educator license grade bands ..................................................................................................... 9 Unlicensed employee RAPBACK requirements ........................................................................... 9 Professional development for educator license renewal ........................................................... 9 Teaching contracts for classes outside typical school day ........................................................ 10 Board of education meetings........................................................................................................ 10 Public hearing regarding school calendars................................................................................ 10 Records of proceedings ............................................................................................................. 10 Remote testing for state assessments .......................................................................................... 10 Sexually transmitted infection education ..................................................................................... 11 Payment for tutoring and remedial education program .............................................................. 11 Intradistrict open enrollment ....................................................................................................... 11 Student transportation − afterschool time ................................................................................... 11 School Turnaround Pilot Program ................................................................................................ 12 School building selection ........................................................................................................... 12 Service providers ....................................................................................................................... 12 Needs assessment ..................................................................................................................... 12 P a g e |5 S.B. 168 Final Analysis Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office Reporting and evaluation .......................................................................................................... 13 Community schools....................................................................................................................... 13 Number of schools an entity may sponsor ............................................................................... 13 Monthly student residency review ........................................................................................... 13 E-school enrollment limits......................................................................................................... 13 Academic and fiscal performance evaluation ........................................................................... 13 Sponsor evaluation framework ................................................................................................. 14 Dropout prevention and recovery e-school supplemental funding ......................................... 14 Notice requirements – reemployed STRS and SERS retirants ...................................................... 14 School district competitive bidding threshold .............................................................................. 15 Debt limit for nonrequired local initiatives .................................................................................. 15 Base cost calculation for FYs 2024 and 2025 ................................................................................ 15 High School Financial Literacy Fund.............................................................................................. 16 Student training at early learning and development programs ................................................... 16 Removal of obsolete provisions .................................................................................................... 16 Grow Your Own Teacher Program ................................................................................................ 18 Participants................................................................................................................................ 18 Other changes ........................................................................................................................... 19 DETAILED ANALYSIS District exemption from certain statutory requirements Renewal The act permits a school district to renew an exemption from certain statutory requirements related to teacher licensure and other matters every three years, as long as the district continues to qualify for the exemption. Former law did not address renewal of the exemption past an initial three-year term.