On November 24, 2020, Governor DeWine signed House Bill 404 to extend many of the provisions included in House Bill 197 that went into effect last spring to provide relief to Ohio school districts during the pandemic. House Bill 404 is considered emergency legislation and takes effect immediately.
The following is a summary of the HB 404 provisions that apply to school districts.
Virtual Board Meetings until July 1, 2021
In accordance with HB 404, a public school district board of education may hold and attend meetings and may conduct and attend hearings by means of teleconference, video conference, or any other similar electronic technology until July 1, 2021. More information regarding the requirements for virtual board meeting is included in our March 26, 2020 client alert and can be found here.
Educator Evaluations
HB 404 allows (but does not require) a board of education to elect not to conduct evaluations of district employees, including teachers, school counselors, administrators, or a superintendent for the 2020-2021 school year, if an evaluation has not been completed before November 24, 2020, should the district board determine it would be impossible or impracticable to do so. If a district board elects not to evaluate an employee for the 2020-2021 school year, the employee will be considered not to have had evaluation procedures complied with and shall not be penalized for the purpose of reemployment. As such, districts should consider consulting with legal counsel before deciding to waive evaluations.
HB 404 also states that the district board may collaborate with any bargaining organization representing employees of the district in determining whether to complete evaluations for the 2020-2021 school year. The bill does not prevent a district board from using an evaluation completed prior to November 24, 2020 in employment decisions.
For the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years, districts are prohibited from using value-added progress dimension, any other high-quality student data, any other metric used to evaluate positive student outcomes, or any other student academic growth data to measure student learning attributable to a teacher, principal or school counselor while conducting performance evaluations. Rather a district board may use only the other evaluation factors and components to conduct a teacher’s, principal’s, or school counselor’s performance evaluation. However, the district is not prohibited from considering as part of the evaluation how a teacher, principal, or school counselor collects, analyzes, and uses student data, including student academic growth data or positive student outcomes data to adapt instruction to meet student needs or improve performance.
HB 404 further specifies that any teacher who did not have a student academic growth measure as part of the teacher's evaluation for the 2019-2020 or 2020-2021 school years shall remain at the same point in the teacher's evaluation cycle, and shall retain the same evaluation rating, for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years as for the 2019-2020 school year. We expect further guidance from ODE on this and other points related to evaluations.
HB 404 further extends the authority for a school district that did not participate in the teacher evaluation pilot program established for the 2019-2020 school year to continue evaluating teachers on two-year or three-year evaluation cycles, even if the district completes an evaluation for those teachers in the 2020-2021 school year without using a student growth measure.
State Assessments and Health Screening
For the 2020-2021 school year only, a district or school shall not be penalized for failing to administer the third-grade English language arts assessment, diagnostic assessments, and/or the Kindergarten Readiness assessment in the fall of the 2002-2021 school year to an qualifying student. However, a district or school may elect to administer one of the above-referenced assessments.
In addition, no public school shall be penalized for failing to conduct health screenings of a kindergarten or first grade student prior to November 1, 2020 if that student was a qualifying student prior to that date, and schools may forego health screenings for the 2020-2021 school year until they can be conducted safely for a qualifying student. However, upon receiving a request of the parent, guardian, or custodian for a health screening for a qualifying student, the school shall conduct such screening.
To be considered a qualifying student, one or more of the following must apply:
1. The student is being quarantined.
2. The student, or a member of the student’s family, is medically compromised and the student cannot attend school, or another physical location outside of the home, for testing.
3. The student resides in a geographic area that is subject to an order issued by the Governor, the Department of Health, or the board of health of a city or general health district that requires all persons on that area to remain in their residences.
4. The student is receiving instruction primarily through a remote learning model up through the deadline for the prescribed assessments, and the assessments cannot be administered remotely.
State-Issued Licenses Set to Expire On or Before April 1, 2021 Extended Until July 1, 2021
HB 404 includes a general provision regarding licenses and certifications issued by state agencies, and how such licenses will be addressed during the extended period of emergency. That would include, for example, teaching licenses and other licenses/certifications issued by the Ohio Department of Education. HB 404 extends current law deadlines for licenses/certifications set to expire on or before April 1, 2021 to remain valid until July 1, 2021, unless it is revoked, suspended, or otherwise subject to discipline or limitation under the applicable law for reasons other than delaying taking action to maintain the validity of the license in accordance with the deadline extension.
College Credit Plus
For the 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 school years only, the Chancellor of Higher Education, in consultation with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, may waive, extend, suspend, or modify requirements of the College Credit Plus program if the Chancellor, in consultation with the Superintendent, determines the waiver, extension, suspension, or modification is necessary in response to COVID-19.
Seamless Summer Food Program Regulation Exemption Until July 1, 2021
HB 404 extends the Director of Agriculture’s temporary authority to exempt a school from regulation as a food processing establishing until July 1, 2021, if the school: (1) has been issued a food service operation license; or (2) is transporting food only for purposes of the Seamless Summer Option Program or the Summer Food Service Program administer by the U.S.D.A.