OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
H.B. 322 Bill Analysis
135th General Assembly
Click here for H.B. 322’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Passed by the House
Primary Sponsors: Reps. Seitz and Abrams
Effective Date:
Ashley F. Dean, Attorney
SUMMARY
Childhood Sexual Abuse Registration and Community
Notification
 Provides that if a registrant for the Child Sexual Abuse Registry fails to comply with
registration, notice, and verification requirements, the penalty for a violation of the
offense is a civil penalty of up to $2,500, instead of a fifth degree felony.
 Requires the sheriff, if a registrant for the Child Sexual Abuse Registry fails to comply
with verification requirements, to promptly refer the failure to the prosecuting attorney
of the county in which the registrant is required to verify their current address or the
county in which the registrant resides or is employed.
 Allows the prosecuting attorney in the preceding dot point to file a civil action against
the registrant, but if the prosecuting attorney does not file the civil action within 45 days
after the referral, the aggrieved person may file the civil action.
 Repeals the prohibition on a registrant for the Child Sexual Abuse Registry establishing a
residence or occupying a residential premises within 1,000 feet of any school premises.
 Provides that a prosecution for a violation of failure to report child abuse or neglect is
barred unless it is brought within four years after a violation of the offense is
committed.
Offense of grooming
 Creates the offense of grooming, a first or second degree misdemeanor, except under
specified circumstances in which the offense is a felony.
May 13, 2024
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
DETAILED ANALYSIS
Childhood Sexual Abuse Registration and Community
Notification
Background
Under current law, when an individual is precluded from bringing a civil action for
assault or battery based on childhood sexual abuse against a person solely because the
limitation period for the action expired, the Attorney General or the prosecuting attorney may
bring an action for a declaratory judgment finding that the person would have been liable for
assault or battery based on childhood sexual abuse but for the expiration of the limitation
period.1 If a court enters a declaratory judgment and issues an order that the person be listed
on the Child Sexual Abuse Registry, the registrant must do all of the following: (1) register
personally with the sheriff of the county in which the registrant resides and with the sheriff of
any county in which the registrant is employed, (2) send the sheriff written notice of the
address of the new residence or place of employment or of an intent to reside in another
county, and (3) verify the registrant’s current resident address or employment address on each
anniversary of the registrant’s initial registration date.2
Failure to comply with registration, notice, and verification
Current law prohibits a registrant from failing to comply with the registration, notice,
and verification requirements described above.3
The bill provides that “a registrant does not violate the prohibition” by failing to send
written notice of a change of residence or employment address or notice of intent to reside in a
county in specified circumstances. Current law provides that failing to send written notice of a
change of residence or employment address or notice of intent to reside in a county is “an
affirmative defense to a charge of the violation of the prohibition” in specified circumstances.4
The bill provides that the penalty for a violation of the prohibition is a civil penalty of up
to $2,500 (instead of a fifth degree felony under current law).5
Verification of registrant’s current resident and employment
addresses
Under current law, if a registrant fails to verify a current residence address or
employment address by the date required for verification, the sheriff with whom the registrant
1 R.C. 2721.21(B), not in the bill.
2 R.C. 3797.01 and 3797.04; R.C. 3797.02 and 3797.03, not in the bill.
3 R.C. 3797.10(A).
4 R.C. 3797.10(B).
5 R.C. 3797.10(C).
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is required to verify the current address must send on the day following the date required for
the verification and at the registrant’s last known residence or place of employment, a written
warning to the registrant regarding the registrant’s duty to verify the registrant’s current
address. The written warning must do all of the following as modified by the bill:6
 Identify the sheriff who sends it and the date on which it is sent;
 Conspicuously state that the registrant has failed to verify the registrant’s current
residence address or employment address by the date required for the verification;
 Conspicuously state that the registrant has seven days from the date on which the
warning is sent to verify the current residence address or employment address with the
sheriff who sent the warning, by the date required for verification;
 Conspicuously state that a failure to timely verify the specified current address or
addresses is subject to a civil penalty of up to $2,500 (instead of a fifth degree felony
under current law);
 Conspicuously state that the registrant will not be liable for that civil penalty (instead of
prosecuted under current law), for a failure to timely verify a current address if the
registrant does not verify the current address with that sheriff within the 7-day period;
 Conspicuously state that the registrant will be liable for that civil penalty (instead of
arrested or taken into custody and prosecuted under current law) for failure to timely
verify a current address if the registrant does not verify the current address with that
sheriff within the 7-day period.
Under the bill, if a registrant fails to verify a current address by the date required for the
verification, the registrant is not liable for the civil penalty for failure to comply with
registration, notice, and verification requirements, unless the 7-day period subsequent to the
date that the registrant is provided to verify the current address has expired and the registrant
has not verified the current address prior to the expiration of the 7-day period. Current law
provides that the registrant must not be prosecuted for failure to comply with registration,
notice, and verification requirements.7
Under current law, upon the expiration of the 7-day period, if the registrant has not
verified the current address, all of the following apply as modified by the bill: 8
 The sheriff with whom the registrant is required to verify the current address promptly
must notify the Attorney General of the failure;
 The sheriff with whom the registrant is required to verify the current address promptly
must refer the registrant’s failure to verify the current address to either of the following
6 R.C. 3797.04(C)(1).
7 R.C. 3793.04(C)(2).
8 R.C. 3797.04(C)(2).
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(instead of sheriff with whom the registrant is required to verify the current address, the
sheriff of the county in which the registrant resides or is employed, or a deputy of the
appropriate sheriff must locate the registrant, promptly must seek a warrant for the
arrest or taking into custody of the registrant, and must arrest the registrant):
 The prosecuting attorney of the county in which the registrant is required to verify
the current address to that county’s sheriff;
 The prosecuting attorney of the county in which the registrant resides or is
employed.
 The prosecuting attorney to whom the referral is made may file a civil action against the
registrant for a violation of the registration, notice, and verification requirements. If the
prosecuting attorney fails to file the civil action within 45 days after the referral, the
aggrieved person may file that civil action.
The bill defines “aggrieved person” as an individual to whom the registrant would have
been liable for assault or battery based on childhood sexual abuse, but for the expiration of the
limitation period.9
Residency within 1,000 feet of a school premises
The bill repeals a provision that prohibits a person against whom a court has issued a
declaratory judgment and who has not been removed from the Child Sexual Abuse Registry
from establishing a residence or occupying a residential premises within 1,000 feet of any
school premises. If a person violates the prohibition, an owner or lessee of real property that is
located within 1,000 feet of those school premises, or the prosecuting attorney, village solicitor,
city or township director of law, similar chief legal officer of a municipal corporation or a
township, or official designated as a prosecutor in a municipal corporation that has jurisdiction
over the place at which the person establishes the residence or occupies the residential
premises in question, has a cause of action for injunctive relief against the person. The plaintiff
must not be required to prove irreparable harm in order to obtain relief.10
Limitation period for reporting child abuse or neglect
Current law prohibits a specified person who is acting in an official or professional
capacity and knows, or has reasonable cause to suspect based on facts that would cause a
reasonable person in a similar position to suspect, that a child under 18 years of age, or a
person under 21 years of age with a developmental disability or physical impairment, has
suffered or faces a threat of suffering any physical or mental wound, injury, disability, or
condition of a nature that reasonably indicates abuse or neglect of the child from failing to
9 R.C. 3797.01(A).
10 R.C. 3797.11 and 3797.12.
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immediately report that knowledge or reasonable cause to suspect to a specified entity or
person.11
Under current law, a violation of the prohibition is a first or fourth degree misdemeanor,
depending on the circumstances of the offense.12
The bill provides that a prosecution for a violation of the offense is barred unless it is
brought within four years after a violation of the offense is committed. Under current law, a
prosecution for a violation of a misdemeanor offense is barred unless it is brought within two
years after the violation of the misdemeanor offense is committed.13
Offense of grooming
The bill creates the offense of grooming by prohibiting either of the following:
1. A person who is 18 years of age or older from engaging in a “pattern of conduct” with a
minor who is less than 16 years of age and who is four or more years younger than the
person, when the pattern of conduct would cause a reasonable adult person to believe
that the person is communicating with the minor with purpose to do either of the
following:
 Entice, coerce, or solicit the minor to engage in “sexual activity,” and when the person’s
purpose in engaging in the pattern of conduct is to entice, coerce, or solicit the minor to
engage in sexual activity with the person or a third person.14
 Prepare the minor to engage in sexual activity, and when the person’s purpose in
engaging in the pattern of conduct is to prepare the minor to engage in sexual activity
with the person or a third person that would be a violation of the R.C. section
prohibiting any of the following: rape, sexual battery, unlawful sexual conduct with a
minor, gross sexual imposition, sexual imposition, or importuning.15
2. A person who is 18 years of age or older from engaging in a pattern of conduct with a
minor if the person and the minor are in any of the relationships described in the
R.C. section prohibiting sexual battery (see (a) to (i) below), when the pattern of conduct
would cause a reasonable adult person to believe that the person is communicating
with the minor with purpose to do either of the following:
11 R.C. 2151.421(A)(1) and (4), not in the bill.
12 R.C. 2151.99(A) and (C), not in the bill.
13 R.C. 2901.13(A).
14 R.C. 2907.071(B)(1).
15R.C. 2907.071(B)(2) and by reference to R.C. 2907.02, 2907.03, 2907.04, 2907.05, 2907.06, and
2907.07, not in the bill.
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 Entice, coerce, or solicit the minor to engage in sexual activity, and when the person’s
purpose in engaging in the pattern of conduct is to entice, coerce, or solicit the minor to
engage in sexual activity with the person or a third person.16
 Prepare the minor to engage in sexual activity, and when the person’s purpose in
engaging in the pattern of conduct is to prepare the minor to engage in sexual activity
with the person or a third person that would be a violation of the R.C. section
prohibiting any of the following: rape, sexual battery, unlawful sexual conduct with a
minor, gross sexual imposition, sexual imposition, or importuning.17
The relationships described in the R.C. section prohibiting sexual battery and referred to in
(2) above are the following:18
a. The person is the minor’s natural or adoptive parent, or a stepparent, or guardian,
custodian, or person in loco parentis of the minor.
b. The minor is in custody of law or a patient in a hospital or other institution, and the
person has supervisory or disciplinary authority over the minor.
c. The person is a teacher, administrator, coach, or other person in authority employed
by or serving in a school for which the director of education and workforce
prescribes minimum standards, the minor is enrolled in or attends that school, and
the person is not enrolled in and does not attend that school.
d. The person is a teacher, administrator, coach, or other person in authority employed
by or serving in an institution of higher education, and the minor is enrolled in or
attends that institution.
e. The person is the minor’s athletic or other type of coach, is the minor’s instructor, is
the leader of a scouting troop of which the minor is a member, or is a person with
temporary or occasional disciplinary control over the minor.
f. The person is a mental health professional, the minor is a mental health client or
patient of the person, and the person induces the minor to submit by falsely
representing to the minor that the sexual conduct is necessary for mental health
treatment purposes.
g. The minor is confined in a detention facility, and the person is an employee of that
detention facility.
h. The person is a cleric, and the minor is a member of, or attends, the church or
congregation served by the cleric.
16 R.C. 2907.071(C)(1).
17R.C. 2907.071(C)(2) and by reference to R.C. 2907.02, 2907.03, 2907.04, 2907.05, 2907.06, and
2907.07, not in the bill.
18 R.C. 2907.071(C) and by reference to R.C. 2907.03(A)(5) to (13), not in the bill.
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i. The person is a peace officer and is more than two years older than the minor.
Definitions
The bill defines “pattern of conduct” as two or more actions or incidents closely related
in time, whether or not there has been a prior conviction based on any of those actions or
incidents, or two or more actions or incidents closely related in time, whether or not there has
been a prior conviction based on any of t