SB 358 Introduced ~ Education Bill to address Coronavirus Issues for 2020-21 School Year ~ Contacts Needed!

By Katie Johnson posted 10-29-2020 08:10 PM

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Sens. Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo) and Nathan Manning (R-North Ridgeville) last week introduced Senate Bill (SB) 358, a bill to address several COVID-related education issues for the 2020-21 school year. Click here for a summary of the current version of SB 358.

Sen. Peggy Lehner (R-Kettering), chair of the Senate Education Committee, stated she expects the bill will be expedited to provide certainty to the education community. Despite its recent introduction, the legislation could be incorporated into another bill further along in the legislative process like House Bill (HB) 9 or SB 89, both of which could adopt the provisions in a conference committee.

Key provisions of SB 358, which extend several items from HB 197 and HB 164, include:

Allows for teacher and principal evaluations to be completed without the use of student growth measures;
Provides flexibility for students should they be unable to take an end-of-course exam by allowing them to meet graduation requirements through the use of the final course grade in the associated class;
Eliminates state-required assessments (with the exception of diagnostic assessments) and requires the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) to seek a waiver from administration of all federally required assessments;
Prohibits ODE from issuing state report cards for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, and establishes a safe harbor from report card-related penalties for those school years;
Gives districts local control in making decisions regarding promotion to fourth grade, free of third-grade reading guarantee mandates; and
Provides local control in determining if a student is on track to graduate.

Our organizations provided joint proponent testimony yesterday in the Senate Education Committee. Click here for a copy of the joint testimony. We made several legislative requests in addition to what is currently provided in the bill, including:

Additional provisions related to EdChoice;
Extension of waiver authority for ODE;
Extension of the flexibility to hold virtual board meetings under the Ohio Open Meetings Act;
Elimination of the new territory transfer law; and
Elimination of the academic distress commissions.

We urge members to contact both your House and Senate members in support of the provisions in SB 358, push for the additional items included in our testimony to be added, and urge for expedited passage of the bill.

Please feel free to contact us with questions.

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