Children who fail to meet expectations on the third grade reading test no longer have to repeat third grade.
After disagreement between the Ohio House and Senate, the budget bill walked away with language to eliminate required retention under the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. It also makes changes to the nature of the state education department.
Although the House - which has been strongly in favor of eliminating the requirement - put the bill in their budget, this provision was removed in the upper chamber where senators in high positions remain committed to retention. The compromise language allows a parent, in consultation with the teacher and principal, to permit their child to advance to fourth grade. It also calls for intervention services that align with the science of reading with high dosage tutoring for students who continue to test below grade level until the child achieves a proficient score on the reading test. It also includes safe harbor language for those students who were in third grade for the school year that just ended.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education is officially no more. Enactment of the biennial state budget has replaced it with the Department of Education and Workforce, effectively negating most powers of the State Board of Education and the Superintendent of Public Instruction it appoints. We will all be waiting to hear who will become the newly minted agency's director, a role now named by the governor.
The change is a result of the Senate's decision to add SB 1 to the budget bill. Although the House had been slow to give its support to that bill, it ultimately acquiesced when it became part of the larger spending package in exchange for maintaining its more generous version of the school funding formula.
What the change in name, leadership and focus will actually mean for the state's education agency has yet to be seen. OSPA remains well connected to leaders in the Office for Exceptional Children and Office of Licensure and expects relationships to continue.
The last couple months have been marked by a flurry of legislative activity. If the heavy schedule of the state budget process were not enough, the House and Senate also devoted much time to long hearings on bills impacting the LGBTQ+ community and higher education.
OSPA Executive Director Rachel Chilton was able to testify multiple times in the House and Senate on the state budget, specifically asking lawmakers to increase funding to our school psychology intern program. This money in the Department of Education budget provides the salary interns receive and is a long standing line item for which OSPA has advocated over the decades. The salary is meant to be based on the state teacher minimum salary schedule, but because of a legislative mistake six years ago, the teacher salary went up but the funding in our line stayed the same. This underfunding is what we sought to correct all along the way — ODE, governor's office, House and Senate — of the budget, but unfortunately did not prevail. The legislature even found compromise in a raise to the teacher minimum salary to $35,000, meaning our line item is now farther away from its intended level.
Controversial copycat legislation inspired by a Florida bill also saw addition to the state budget while in the Senate but was ultimately scrapped. SB 83, which bans employee strikes and restricts mandated diversity training at public colleges and universities, was added to the budget on the Senate floor, but during conference committee negotiations with the House, it was removed. OSPA and school psychologists testified against the measure months earlier because of a provision that would have forbidden university programs from requiring diversity training. Such a measure would have cost Ohio programs their NASP accreditation as such training is a requirement. Thankfully, an amendment early in the process modified that provision to make exceptions for programs that require diversity training as part of accreditation, licensure or federal law. It does, however, require programs to fill out paperwork seeking such an exception. The bill continued to be fought against by a variety of higher education stakeholders, including students. Nevertheless, the legislative majority has supported it as a means to ensure "intellectual diversity" on college campuses, where they say conservative views are being stymied. SB 83 will now continue hearings in the House, where it has seen support from majority members.
House updates to the biennial spending measure filtered more money into the school funding formula. The governor’s original proposal continued a gradual phase in of the formula but had based the formula on data from fiscal year 2018. The House opted to change the formula assumptions to more recent FY 2022 data. The Senate made additional tweaks to the formula that it argued improved the original Cupp-Patterson Funding plan, but during conference committee relinquished its stance in favor of the House version, which advocates have said puts more money in schools.
Additionally, both chambers increased voucher eligibility. The governor had proposed an increase to 400% of the federal poverty level, the House increased it to 450%, and the Senate made vouchers universally available but with means testing for families earning above 450% FPL.
The conference committee agreed to include a House bill to require school athletic coaches to undergo student mental health training.
For additional legislative updates on other bills, see the latest Legislative Lowdown in TOSP.
Yesterday the Ohio House passed the budget bill 17-19 with all but two democrats in support. The debate was a considerably short one compared to business as usual because of continued tensions between Speaker Jason Stephens and leadership rival Rep. Derrick Merrin. As a refresher, the start of the year marked one of infighting among republicans, most of whom backed farther right member Merrin for the speakership over Rep. Stephens. Rep. Stephens prevailed in the vote for House speaker only because he secured the support of all Democrats. That continued tension played out yesterday when Speaker Stephens refused to call on republican members in the Merrin camp who wanted to offer amendments to add to the budget things such as the transgender participation in sports ban (Save Women's Sports Act) and expanding school choice. Those bills remain out of the budget. Speaker Merrin allowed a motion to end debate that curtailed conversations and forced the vote.
We continue to struggle to gain support in the legislature for increasing funding to the School Psychology Intern line item. Despite submission of such an amendment by Republican Rep. Andrea White, no changes were made in the House and it remains flat funded at $3 million per year. Because this money is meant to provide a salary for interns at the minimum teacher salary schedule, the line is underfunded and has been for the last six years. The House included an amendment in this budget that would again increase the teacher minimum salary, which means our line will be even more underfunded if it continues to be ignored. I have a meeting with Sen. Andrew Brenner next week and will discuss this with him. I had previously also discussed this with Sen. Teresa Gavarrone.
I encourage you to flex your advocacy skills and reach out to your representative in the Senate. Be sure to contact the one who represents where you live as well as where you work, in case it's more than one senator. Give their office a call and ask for a conversation so you can explain what it is you do and why we need appropriate financial support for interns to ensure we can graduate more practitioners. Find your senator(s) here: https://ohiosenate.gov/members/district-map
The State Board of Education is in the process of adopting the latest version of the Praxis exam for school psychologists as a requirement for licensure in Ohio. Education Testing Service will retire the current Praxis version 5402 Aug. 31, and institute the new 5403. Because Ohio’s administrative code specifies the version that is accepted, the board must vote to adopt the last iteration.
One member of the board, Diana Fessler, the District 1 elected member from Bellefontaine, told the board that several years ago she had raised questions about certain examinations the board was asked to approve and had been allowed to take the exams to gauge their content. She described the questions as being at an 8th grade level. She therefore declared she would vote against this school psychology licensure exam because she is unable to review the test questions.
District 6 elected board member Antoinette Miranda, a school psychologist, responded to Ms. Fessler’s concerns, saying the test is “directly related to training and it’s directly related to coming out of a school psych program with no experience and what you should know.”
“The people that make up the test with ETS are school psychologists, they’re trainers…. The cut score generally, it’s not too low,” Dr. Miranda said. “This test is directly related to the training that students get.”
Member Fessler said she would still vote against the adoption of the new Praxis based on her own negative experience.
Meryl Johnson, the District 11 member from Cleveland, asked if the 5403 version is more challenging, to which Yenetta Harper, director of ODE’s Office of Educator Effectiveness, said the latest version is aligned to the current standards set by NASP, which is what programs are aligned to.
The board is expected to hold a committee vote in May and then will take up full board consideration in June.
A separate committee of the board voted out the rules associated with the new law to expand the developmental delay identification from ages 3-6 to 3-9, which was passed by the legislature late last year. The rules received no public comments, nor did any board members engage in discussion of the changes. As a result the rules were voted unanimously out of committee. They will head to the full board in May for approval.
During day two of the meeting, the board voted on a resolution offered jointly by bipartisan pair Brendan Shea (District 5-London) and Dr. Christina Collins (District 7-Medina) to discourage the legislature from passing a bill (SB 1) to strip the state board of the majority of its duties and convert ODE into the Department of Workforce and Education led by a governor’s appointee. The bill also demotes the superintendent of public instruction role down to one of board secretary.
The so-titled “Resolution to Preserve Transparency and Public Participation in Ohio K-12 Education” can be found HERE.
And as for the superintendent search, the board again voted to postpone awarding a contract to a search firm to start that process. Meanwhile Interim Superintendent of Public Instruction Stephanie Siddens earlier in the week announced she would be accepting the role of assistant superintendent at Upper Arlington City Schools in central Ohio effective in July.
The State Board of Education on Tuesday elected Paul LaRue as its president by a vote of 11-7. The DeWine appointee from Washington Court House bested elected Democratic member Christina Collins. His election also brought to a close the presidency of Charlotte McGuire, who was not nominated for the post.
The board also voted to reappoint Martha Manchester as board vice president. Also put up for role were Dr. Collins, who came in second, and member Brendan Shea. Mr. Shea in his bid for the role notably highlighted the attempted legislation to strip the board of most of its duties that failed to see completion in the statehouse last month. He also lamented the operation of the board and department and the lack of a regular budget committee of the panel.
Board member Shea in nominating Mr. LaRue for president highlighted the various teacher of the year awards Mr. LaRue has received for his time as a history teacher. He was also a finalist for Ohio Teacher of the Year. He said Mr. LaRue is well versed in literacy, which the board last fall identified as its top priority area in its budget proposal. He serves at the State School for the Blind and State School for the Deaf and on various workgroups of the board.
“I believe Paul’s background, expertise…and track record make him the right person to lead this board,” Mr. Shea said.
Mr. LaRue briefly pointed to his 29 years in the classroom in a rural community. He emphasized that what matters are children and collaboration. “Good things happen when positive people work together.” He said he would bring positive energy.
Board Member Michelle Newman when nominating Dr. Collins said the board would be best poised for success with Dr. Collins leading it. Dr. Collins has been in education for 15 years either in the classroom or as an administrator. She has also served as a literacy specialist and has focused on “relevant and impactful outcomes” to make education better in Ohio, Ms. Newman said.
Dr. Collins, a 10-year curriculum director from Medina, said she originally joined the board to ensure the board does meaningful work that moves Ohio forward in a way that is based in research and data. She highlighted the resolutions she offered and were adopted by the board. Among them were resolutions to waive consequences from report card data during the pandemic and to urge the legislature to repeal the retention element of the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. She also said workforce development is another subject that she works on outside of the board.
For those of you who closely follow state government, it’s time to take a breath. The Ohio Legislature has completed its work for the year and for the biennium and will be away from Columbus until January when we will see new members seated, policy new and old introduced and the biennial budget process begin.
As your OSPA inboxes surely informed you, the legislature was busy during the “lame duck” session that spans the weeks between the election and the end of the year, a time when legislation has its last chance to be completed before being erased from the docket. Bills that impact negatively and positively on school psychologists and children made it to the finish line while others were left incomplete and are forced to start the process over next year.
The most important legislation to pass was HB 509, which was a massive bill making changes to a variety of state licensing boards. In the final steps of the process, Republican senators added language to remove the school psychology license for practice in schools from under the purview of the Department of Education and instead make the State Board of Psychology the licensing board. The bill requires this change to happen by Dec. 31, 2024. This means the license will share a home with the private practice license for school psychology but will retain its own five-year license cycle and will actually reduce CEUs from 180 clock hours down to 50. Lawmakers’ motivation for the change is a desire to streamline and reduce regulations for working in Ohio.
OSPA does not support this change and will now go to the governor’s office to try to get support to return to current law by adding this to the governor’s budget bill. We are at least pleased that an even worse outcome was avoided. HB 509 in November had picked up an amendment that would have wiped the private practice license off the books altogether. In addition to the behind-the-scenes phone calls and meetings I had, we rallied our members to fight back, and I am heartened by the almost 90 people who emailed senators in our initial push, more than 50 who emailed when the bill went to the House for concurrence and all those who called lawmakers. A special recognition is due for Robyn Coleman, Craig Hanthorn, Erin Hull, Rob Kubick, and Jamilah Mogharbel, who stood up and testified before a Senate Committee Nov. 30. We were also supported in the committee room by Doug Cole, Bradley Havelka, Juliana Ramirez, Ann Brennan and Jen Glenn. It really made a difference in reversing the effort to eliminate the license.
On the positive side we are pleased that OSPA’s efforts to change the developmental delay age range were a success. This effort was spearheaded by OSPA Consultant Ann Brennan in her final year of service to OSPA. She worked directly with Sen. Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware) and his staff to write the bill and garner support from other education associations. Sen. Brenner dropped his own bill (SB 356) to increase the age range from ages 3-6 to 3-9 and then amended it into an omnibus education bill just before the close of the session (HB 554). The legislation is now in front of the governor.
One headline-grabbing bill that failed to see enactment would have stripped both ODE’s superintendent of public instruction and the State Board of Education of most of its duties (SB 178). It instead would have created a cabinet-level leader for the agency to be appointed by the governor. ODE would also be renamed the Department of Education and Workforce or “DEW.” The Ohio Constitution establishes the State Board of Education and gives it the role of hiring and firing the superintendent, so that function, along with licensure duties would have remained with the board under the measure.
This lame duck effort by the Ohio Senate found support – although not unanimous support – on both sides of the legislative aisle and was pushed for by Gov. Mike DeWine. The majority in the House, however, failed to coalesce around the measure. Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) promises its return in early 2023.
Republicans argued a number of reasons why the leadership structure at the education department is in need of change. The largest looming issue is the more than year-long absence of a permanent Superintendent of Public Instruction as well as the debacle in the hiring of Steve Dackin to that role last spring - his tenure lasted less than a month before resigning over ethical concerns. Supporters also lamented the state of reading and math achievement scores among Ohio’s children at a time when the state board has become consumed with “culture war” posturing on things such as the anti-Title IX resolution (keep reading below).
Also failing to come to completion was a bill (HB 497) to eliminate the retention requirement under the Third Grade Reading Guarantee. Despite efforts from many education groups and support from the State Board of Education, the Senate was resistant to the measure. OSPA provided testimony in support of this bill in both the House and Senate. This will likely be reintroduced next year. A big thank you to Jen Glenn who joined me in testifying in the Senate.
Another hot-button measure (HB 151) that did not garner support from both chambers before years’ end was the so-called “Save Women’s Sports Act,” which would have banned participation of transgender students on the sports team for the gender with which they identify. OSPA provided testimony in opposition to this bill. Although it had passed the House, differing opinions among Republicans in the Senate prevented it from coming to completion.
Among the other bills OSPA’s Legislative Committee tracks are:
- HB 105: Erin’s law, which would require sexual abuse prevention education in schools but now includes a parental opt-out provision and prevents abortion-related organizations from providing educational materials. It was amended into a criminal justice omnibus (SB 288) and passed.
- HB 322 and HB 327 Critical Race Theory, which would ban teaching of divisive concepts in schools. This bills saw no action in the last six or more months.
- HB 616 CRT and Don’t Say Gay, this combination legislation was introduced in spring 2022 and had only one hearing.
- HB 454 Gender-Affirming Care, which would have outlawed gender-affirming care for minors. This bill had an opposition testimony hearing in the lower chamber in November before being left to languish. OSPA provided testimony against the bill. Expect it to reappear next session.
- HB 722 Parental notification on student health/well being, which implies notification of gender identity/social transitioning. This bill was introduced in September. Expect it to return next session.
- HB 619 Student Mental Health days, which would allow school districts to permit students to take up to three mental health days away from school each school year. It was introduced in the spring but received only one courtesy hearing in November.
State Board of Education
Meanwhile down the street, the Department of Education is no closer to identifying a new superintendent of public instruction. As a refresher, the State Board of Education conducted a search last year to replace Paolo DeMaria, who stepped down in fall 2021, and hired its own board member Steve Dackin in spring 2022. Dackin had vacated his board seat as the search began to allow himself to be in the running. After less than a month on the job, Dackin resigned amid concerns of a “revolving door” ethics violation. That brings us to December 2022 when the state board was expected to vote to choose a search firm to find candidates for job. Board members voiced hesitation about committing money to a firm given pending legislation that would strip the superintendent job of much of its responsibilities (see above). Instead the panel voted 11-4 to postpone the search firm decision until February.
One thing the State Board of Education did accomplish at its December meeting was a final vote on the “Shea Resolution” that would voice the board’s opposition to federal Title IX language offering protections to transgender students. After four months of testimony on the bill, mostly in opposition, the board voted 10-7, with two abstentions, to approve the resolution. Earlier in the proceedings, members did manage to soften the language by voting 11-7 to remove the first three paragraphs, which contained some divisive language about sex being a “biological fact.” A similar effort to remove a paragraph calling on the superintendent of public instruction to send a letter to all districts about the resolution failed 9-9 to gain necessary majority approval. Some members argued the letter would confuse districts into thinking the resolution has the weight of law while others said the letter is necessary to clear up confusion around Title IX.
Looking into 2023, I will continue to work to garner an increase in the state funding for the internship program. This has been flat funded for several biennia at a level that provides salaries to the interns that fall below the state teacher minimum salary schedule. This funding was always meant to mirror the teacher minimum salary, so I will be working with the governor’s office in early January to try to increase the line item to accommodate that.
Be sure to join the OSPA Legislative Committee to get timely updates on legislation, OSPA advocacy and to see copies of OSPA testimony. Thank you for your membership. It supports all this work!
