The Ohio House and Career Readiness Committee met both yesterday and today. Two pieces of legislation that OAGC is following, HB591 and SB216, had some amendments proposed. But neither bill was voted out of committee. HB591, the report card reform bill will likely be amended to include some elements more favorable to gifted students. However, until the bill can be fully reviewed, it is unclear what the amendments will really do. OAGC will continue to work with the bill sponsor and others to try to ensure that gifted students are not left unaccounted for in this legislation. The future of this bill is very uncertain as it is late in the year to pass legislation of this magnitude.
SB216, the education de-regulation bill, also was heard yesterday and today in the House Education and Career Readiness Commitee. While some amendments were taken, the commitee was adjourned before all amendments were discussed. One amendment that is very important is a fix to the N-size which would determine the sub-group size for reporting. The Senate increased the N-size to 30 which would have elminated the information about gifted sub-groups in many schools. It appears the bill will be amended so that the N-size will go down to 15 over a period of three years. It was thought SB216 would be voted out of committee today and voted on by the full House tomorrow. However, all sessions for the House were canceled this week due to the continued drama around the House Speaker vote. It is unclear at this point when the House will convene to elect a new speaker. And until that happens, no bills can be passed in the House. Stay tuned, as the Statehouse Chaos continues to churn.