On the eve of the last scheduled lame duck session, the Ohio Senate Education Committee Tuesday has yet to pass House Bill 8, known as the “Parents’ Bill of Rights” to supporters and the “Don’t Say Gay” bill to opponents. The bill would also mandate school districts create a policy to release students for religious instruction time.
After convening, the chair of the Senate Education Committee State Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, immediately called the committee to recess Tuesday afternoon, saying he plans on calling the committee back to order Wednesday morning.
Two bills were up for a vote during Tuesday’s meeting — H.B. 8 and House Bill 206, which would allow school districts to make a policy to expel a student that poses an “imminent and severe endangerment” to the safety of students or school staff for 180 days, and possibly longer.
“We’re still working with various colleagues in both chambers, as well as leadership in both chambers and the governor’s office on these bills and are still working on them,” Brenner told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “We are still working on basically H.B. 206, we’re looking at amendments that we’re discussing between both chambers, and I think we’ve come to an agreement on House Bill 8 as well.”
Brenner wouldn’t say what the hang-ups are with either of the bills.
“I can’t really say as to what we’re discussing,” he said.
Brenner did say say chances are “very high” both bills will be voted out of committee and make it onto the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon for the final scheduled Senate Session of the General Assembly.
House Bill 8
State Reps. D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron, and Sara Carruthers, R-Hamilton, introduced H.B. 8 last year.
The bill would force educators to out a students’ sexuality to their parents and would require public schools to let parents know about sexuality content materials ahead of time and give them the option to request alternative instructions.
State Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Concord, was the only Republican to vote against the bill when it passed the Ohio House last summer.
The Senate Education Committee added the religious release time amendment to the bill last week.
“Candidly, I think it would be better if we had a uniform state policy,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told reporters last week when asked about the religious release time policy.
Ohio law currently allows school district boards of education to make a policy to let students go to a course in religious instruction, but this would change the wording in the Ohio Revised Code from “may” to “shall” — meaning this would be a mandate for Ohio school districts.
If the bill is voted out of the Senate Education Committee and the Senate passes the bill, the Ohio House would have to concur with changes to the bill before it would go to DeWine’s desk. The Ohio House is also in session on Wednesday with an if-needed session scheduled for Thursday morning.
Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, was noncommittal when asked if H.B. 8 would have enough votes to concur in the House with the addition of the religious release time policy.
“We’ll have to see,” he said. “Especially during lame duck, it’s hard to say what and if, because things can change so rapidly. So we’ll see what the Senate does. … It’s a very fluid situation as part of what actually comes out, and that’ll give us time if we break (Wednesday) for whatever the Senate may vote out for us to caucus and talk about.”
Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, also expressed uncertainty when asked about a possible concurrence of H.B. 8 based on conversations she’s had with Republican leadership in the House.
“I don’t know,” she said. “There’s been some discussion about the LifeWise bill, what version of it emerges from the Senate Committee. I maintain that we are a no on the legislation. We believe firmly that those decisions should remain with the local school districts and communities to have input and what best fits the needs of their communities and their student population.”
School expulsions
State Reps. Gary Click, R-Vickery, and Monica Robb Blasdel, R-Columbiana, introduced H.B. 206, which passed the House earlier this month. Fifteen Democrats voted against the bill, including Russo.
“My main concern is how do we address the disproportionate impact of expulsions, especially on children of color and students of color and the bill doesn’t seem to have enough safeguards to address that issue and concern,” she said.
A 15-year-old high school student brought a gun to her Wisconsin school and fatally shot a student and a teacher on Monday. Several others were injured.
School closures
Brenner told reporters his bill that would change Ohio’s automatic school closure language and automatically close low-performing Ohio schools is dead.
“That bill is now off the table,” Brenner said, but didn’t elaborate why. The bill wasn’t scheduled for a vote.
S.B. 295 defines a poor performing school as a school, serving grades four and older, that has performed in the bottom 5% among public schools based on their Performance Index Score for three consecutive years. A school would also be considered a poor performing school if they are in the bottom 10% based on their Value-Added Progress for three consecutive years.
This is the last week of the two-year General Assembly cycle, meaning any bill that doesn’t pass and get signed into law dies and would have to be reintroduced next General Assembly.
Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.This article appears in Dec 4-17, 2024.