Technology
Scott DiMauro, president of the Ohio Education Association, told this news outlet that if there’s one thing that’s going to look and feel different in Ohio schools this school year compared to last, it will be the stronger cell phone policies spurred by House Bill 250.
The bill, passed with bipartisan support, requires that each public school adopt a policy governing cell phone use during school hours. The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce created a model policy, which school districts are free to adopt.
Each school’s policy must be in place before July 1, 2025.
“One of the big challenges for a long time was that in many places, the whole question of cell phone use in the classroom was left to individual teachers,” said DiMauro, “which just created a no-win situation for teachers.”
The state’s new mandate still gives local school districts the flexibility to decide what ultimate approach is best for itself, but DiMauro said he hopes districts use it to crack down on use during school hours.
“Our members know that unrestricted use of cell phones in the classroom leads to distraction, bullying and in a lot of ways can really undermine our mission as educators,” DiMauro said.
DiMauro said he’s excited to see how the new policies improve teaching conditions and learning outcomes in the coming school year.
Another technology-related change comes from Senate Bill 29, which requires schools that contract with technology providers to retain sole rights to the educational records of their students.
“There’s going to be a higher bar for protecting student privacy and the use of student data,” said Chad Aldis, vice president for Ohio policy with the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. “It will be really important for school districts to work with their general counsel to make sure that they are properly protecting student information.”
District staff also only get a small amount of access to school-issued devices under the bill, which limits any monitoring that the school could do on the device.
Teacher licensure changes
Senate Bill 168 and House Bill 147 are wide-ranging education bills. Some provisions from each allow some out-of-state teachers to get their licenses more easily and, in the case of S.B. 168, it expands the amount of schools that are eligible to participate in the state’s Grow Your Own Teacher scholarship program.
The program identifies qualified students in high need schools and provides them with funds to obtain an education degree, along with assurances that the student could come back to their hometown to teach.
“This is a way to incentivize people to go into teaching and then come back and make a difference in their community,” said DiMauro, who described the program’s expansion as “really positive” for his union.
These changes all come as fewer college students have been graduating from education programs, and some top school administrators say there are fewer people applying for teaching jobs than before.
S.B 168 also makes it easier for schools to evaluate and renew licenses for school counselors if they are considered “high performing” for at least four out of the last five years.
This coming school year, school districts may also adopt their own way to evaluate teachers and school counselors rather than being forced to use the State Board of Education’s rules.
“We welcome the flexibility as long as any evaluation system is bargained at the local level or developed collaboratively between the local union and a local board of education,” said DiMauro. He said the OEA wants to see local systems that don’t focus so much on student test scores and are used more so as tools for growth, not punishment.
Revoking licenses
Some new laws make it easier to revoke school employees’ licenses when the employee is charged with a crime or is being investigated for misconduct.
School districts will now have to file a report with the state if a licensed employee retires during a disciplinary investigation for misconduct or when a licensed employee is removed from the list of substitute teachers because the employee committed an act unbecoming to the teaching profession.
The State Board of Education will revoke the license of a school employee convicted of prostitution unless the individual was coerced into committing the offense.
Religious accommodations
Starting Oct. 20, all Ohio public schools will be required to grant students with at least three excused absences for “religious expression days,” each year.
The religious accommodation mandate originally had bipartisan support when it was in the Senate, but it made its way into law by being attached to House Bill 214, which originally was meant to prohibit Ohio schools from requiring or asking students, faculty or prospective employees to commit to specific principles concerning political movements.
The House’s primary sponsor Rep. Adam Holmes, R-Nashport, said it was necessary because “Ohio’s recent political climate has raised concerns that Ohio’s K-12 public school teachers, staff and students may face negative consequences for expressing certain political perspectives or failing to conform to specific ideological viewpoints.”
The original House mandate caused the OEA to oppose H.B. 214, said DiMauro, who noted that it was the only education bill that went into effect this summer that he had concerns about.
In a letter sent to all Ohio senators the day the bill passed, DiMauro said it “threatens to needlessly entangle public school educators and students in the posturing censorship.” He later framed the bill as redundant, due to the fact that the Licensure Code of Professional Conduct for Ohio Educators already barred students or teachers for being targeted for political beliefs.
School funding
After a technical error was discovered in the school funding formula, some schools were overpaid by several thousand dollars. While the total overpayment was about $25 million, that’s less than a quarter of a percent of what the state pays local schools.
A code in House Bill 147 modifies the calculation of the base cost for school funding to correct the error and makes sure districts will be held harmless and won’t see a reduction in funding due to the error.
