• budget

The House Finance Committee on Tuesday, April 1, adopted its first bundle of changes to the state operating budget, HB 96. This substitute bill did not include an increase to the school psychology intern line item, which OSPA has been advocating for. Below is a summary of pertinent education changes in the bill. The committee will meet on Tuesday, April 8 and adopt additional amendments. It will again meet April 9 with the intention of the bill going to the floor later that day.

OSPA Executive Director Rachel Chilton testified April 2 along with University of Dayton students Lauren Davis and Courtney Bockbrader, asking for the increase to intern funding.

• Modifies the state foundation funding formula so no district receives less in state aid than its FY25 amount; provides additional aid to districts based on a calculation of their proposed FY26 and FY27 aid amounts, plus a per-pupil supplement for all schools and an additional per pupil supplement for districts with growing enrollment. Additional school funding formula amounts are FY26: +$81 million; FY27: +$145 million. Republicans say Cupp-Patterson is still the base formula but are dealing with property tax increases, while critics see it as an abandonment of that formula.
• Establishes the Non-Chartered Educational Savings Account Program to provide eligible students with an educational savings account beginning in the 2026-2027 school year with a maximum award of 75% of the EdChoice Scholarship.
• Requires a school district to permit students to attend a released time course in religious instruction for at least one hour a week, but no more than two hours per week. Previous legislation required schools to create a policy allowing for religious release time, so this takes it a step further.
• Requires DEW to maintain a universal list of approved evidence-based training programs for instruction on mental health promotion, suicide prevention, and health and wellness outcomes and qualifies a program using the Success Sequence curriculum provided by Ohio Adolescent Health Centers as an approved evidence-based training program for instruction on mental health promotion, suicide prevention, and health and wellness outcomes. The Ohio Adolescent Health Center is a consortium of nonprofits and focuses on abstinence-based sexual education, dubbed “Sexual Risk Avoidance”. Additionally, new language allows districts to use funds from the Student Support and Academic Enrichment program for numeracy, literacy, a safe and drug-free learning environment, and healthy students through the use of the "Success Sequence".
• Removes a requirement that districts utilize state-developed assessments in reading and math for grades K-3; removes the requirement that districts implement the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment.
• Removes governor’s provision that would require schools participating in the federal school breakfast or lunch program to provide free lunch or breakfast for all CEP-eligible students.
• Eliminate all elected roles on the State Board of Education, from eight members appointed by the Governor and 11 elected members to a total of only five members appointed by the Governor.
• Requires a public library to place material related to sexual orientation or gender identity or expression in a portion of the library that is not primarily open to the view of minors. The House also says it has changed the way it’s funding public libraries by eliminating the Public Library Fund (which historically has received budget funds) and instead creates a line-item appropriation. Republicans say they are increasing funding to libraries and even the nonpartisan comparison document makes it look like a 22% increase each year, but libraries say this is a $100 million cut to their funding.

The House Education Committee heard public testimony this week on the education portions of the state budget, House Bill 96.

DEW Director Steve Dackin testified before the House Education Committee Feb. 25 on the governor’s budget proposal. Confirmed for Democrats that the continued phase in of the funding formula does indeed result in cuts of $103 million to traditional districts while charters and private schools see increases. DEW director Aaron Raush said the governor's budget assumes static enrollment in 2026-2027. Growth in the cost of the EdChoice scholarship is the result of DEW projections of a 2% to 7.5% increase in expenses in FY 2026 and a 2% to 6% increase in FY 2027. There is more money going to Community Schools, Ed choice scholarships, and career centers because of that where students are moving to. That combined with “modest adjustment” to the guarantee measure is why traditional districts are generally held at flat funding in the proposal The cost of the guarantee will only grow. $349 million this year then $450 million in FY26 and then $607 million in FY27, Mr. Rausch said.

About 340 districts would get less money in FY27 than FY25. In 80% of those districts, enrollment has declined, said Mr. Raush. About 45 of the 340 districts have seen enrollment increases since 2020 yet are poised to get less funding. Thirty four of those 45 districts are on the guarantee. If a district would receive less despite increasing enrollment, it could be because of being on the guarantee in the past, he said.

Rep. Gayle Manning asked about the state funding per pupil. Mr. Rausch said the partnership of state funding is between the state and local districts, which considers local sources of revenue. In January, the average per pupil funding was $5900 in traditional schools. Charter schools received $11,000 because they don't have access to local taxes so they are fully funded by the state.

Lawmakers on the committee repeatedly asked witnesses if there were requirements of teachers that could be eliminated in order to reduce burdens and expenses on them. They asked that recommendations be submitted by the end of the week for incorporation into the budget.

The committee then heard from several witnesses representing school districts, teachers unions, and other statewide organizations seeking a continuation of the existing funding formula but with updates to 2024 cost inputs. Districts have seen expenses drastically increase in recent years and the formula does not reflect that. Witnesses also asked for additional support for student transportation given the ongoing demands of transporting students to charter and non-public schools and challenges with maintaining their transportation workforce. Director Dackin said in his testimony that the budget recommendation from the governor would increase the state share for transportation each year.

Gov. Mike DeWine in February issued his final two-year budget proposal for the state. Although it will see many changes between now and June 30 as lawmakers put their stamp on it, below are some details specific to school psychology.

Flat funding for the school psychology intern program at $3 million per year. This is OSPA's priority for this budget. We will seek an increase to around $4.3 million per year to bring the salary for interns up to $35,000 from the roughly $30,000 now provided. This salary would match the teacher minimum schedule. If you would like to engage with lawmakers on this topic, please reach out to Rachel Chilton at rachel@ospaonline.org.

DEW would be required to maintain an introductory course on the science of reading for licensed educators, as well as develop a competency-based training course to update and reinforce educators’ knowledge and skills in the science of reading... School psychologists and speech-language pathologists must also complete the introductory course by the end of FY 2027, and the competency-based course every five years thereafter. Certain exceptions apply if teachers or administrators have completed other similar trainings or coursework.

• TOSP Winter 2025

December in year two of the legislative session went as many before it have: lawmakers finalized a flurry of bills, some with little time for debate, and advocates flooded hearing rooms and inboxes in support of or against these measures. Gov. DeWine signed the bills into law in the final days of 2024 or first two weeks of 2025.

Among those pieces of legislation OSPA lent its voice to were HB 206 and HB 8.