Late last month, Governor DeWine signed Senate Bill 1 into law. While most of the law is effective January 27, 2022, a few provisions related to the employment of substitute teachers went into effect on October 28, 2021, since the law declared those to be emergency provisions.

Specifically, for the 2021-2022 school year only, a school district, community school, STEM school, chartered nonpublic school, ESC, or regional council of governments consisting of one or more ESC can employ an individual as a substitute teacher according to the district’s or school’s own education requirements, as long as the individual also is deemed to be of good moral character and successfully completes a criminal records check. The State Board will issue a nonrenewable temporary substitute teaching license to an individual who meets those requirements, even if the individual does not hold a post-secondary degree.

These temporary measures regarding the employment of substitutes are only valid for the 2021-2022 school year. Information from ODE is available here.