Ohio Senate
HB33 (Budget) officially passed the Senate along party lines. With a deadline of June 30th, the bill is now headed to the Ohio House for conference and will likely be sent to a conference committee. No further changes were made to gifted funding, accountability, or transparency. As mentioned in the previous Advocacy Update, this version of HB33 has reinstated that gifted funds allocated for gifted students could also be spent by “other ODE-approved service providers.”
For those interested in all budget changes, the Ohio Legislative Services Commission has prepared a comparison document [link here].
House Primary and Secondary Education
The House Primary and Secondary Education Committee heard opponent testimony on HB8 aka the Parents’ Bill of Rights on Tuesday. During the Ohio House session on Wednesday, June 14, HB8 (Parents’ Bill of Rights) informally passed the House. It is expected to officially pass the House this coming week.
State Board of Education
Most notably, the SBoE’s Literacy and Learning Acceleration Committee met Monday to discuss the introduction to dyslexia course and the reinstatement of the third grade reading guarantee. Many members voiced their concern over the reinstatement. SBoE’s legislative update included information regarding SB1/HB12 being folded into the Senate budget. The board also approved the promotion score for the Third Grade English Language Arts Assessment at 690 for the 23/24 school year.