Today the Ohio Department of Education issued guidance on the completion of educator evaluations for this 2019-2020 school year, including the extension of timelines. The guidance is a follow-on to the passage of House Bill 197, which among numerous other issues, authorized the State Superintendent to extend timelines for OTES and other educator evaluations.

Specifically, the ODE guidance states as follows:

Completed Educator Evaluations: As stated in HB 197, ODE reiterated that Districts can rely on educator evaluations completed prior to the closing of school buildings for students.
Incomplete Educator Evaluations: ODE reiterated what is contained in HB 197, in that districts have flexibility with evaluations this school year. Districts that did not complete such evaluations for teachers, counselors, administrators and superintendents by March 14, 2020, can choose not to complete those evaluations, if the board determines it would be impossible or impracticable to do so. A school district may collaborate with unions to determine whether to complete evaluations.
(Legal Note: please consult legal counsel if you intend not to evaluate, as there are consequences for failure to evaluate, including for example, an inability to non-renew certain staff.)
Educator Evaluations for This School Year, Contract and Employment Decisions: ODE reiterated that, in accordance with HB 197, if an evaluation is not completed, the employee is considered not to have had an evaluation for the 2019-2020 school year (see legal note above). Importantly, ODE further stated that districts have until May 22 (typically May 1) to complete teacher evaluations, and must provide written evaluation results to teachers by May 29 (typically May 10).
(Legal note: Districts must check their collective bargaining agreements prior to relying on these extended dates, as many CBAs include bargained-for deadlines that will be inconsistent with ODE’s end-of-May extension.)
Updating Local Policies for OTES 2.0: Pursuant to the State Superintendent’s authority under HB 197, ODE stated it is providing flexibility for the development of OTES 2.0 policies. Instead of July 1, 2020, districts now have until September 1, 2020 to adopt an updated teacher evaluation policy to conform to the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES) 2.0 Framework.
Implementing OTES 2.0: According to ODE, Districts required to implement OTES 2.0 “have the discretion to determine their readiness to implement in the 2020-2021 school year or delay for one year until 2021-2022. It is recommended this decision is made in collaboration with teachers.”