On December 19, 2025, Governor DeWine signed House Bill 114 (“HB 114”) into law, which revises the minimum age requirements for admission to kindergarten for public school districts. HB 114 revises the minimum age requirements for student admission to kindergarten and eliminates the option for school districts to choose between August 1 and September 30 for kindergarten entry cutoffs. Beginning with the 2026-2027 school year, districts must admit to kindergarten any child who will be 5 years old by the first day of instruction.
Compliance Update: How to Ensure Your District is Ready for New Health Services Requirements
Several Ohio laws recently went into effect last month, and are aimed at how schools provide certain health services to students and how schools notify parents of services offered. To prepare for complying with these laws next school year, districts should review the following information on HB 8 and healthcare services, SB 234 and suicide prevention, and HB 206 and seizure action plans.
Ohio Implements Changes to District Expulsion and Open Enrollment Options
On January 8, 2025, Governor DeWine signed House Bill 206 (“HB 206”) into law. It permits school districts to establish a policy that authorizes the superintendent to expel a student for up to 180 school days for actions that pose “imminent and severe endangerment” to the health and safety of other students or school employees. That same day, Governor DeWine also signed Senate Bill 208 (“SB 208”) into law which requires districts that entirely prohibit open enrollment, or otherwise only allow open enrollment for students in adjacent districts, to include an exception for military children in their open enrollment policies. The provisions of HB 206 and SB 208 are both set to go into effect on April 9, 2025.
Ohio Enacts Parents’ Bill of Rights
This week, Governor DeWine signed House Bill 8 (“HB 8”), also known as the Parents’ Bill of Rights, which, among other things, requires public school districts to adopt a policy that promotes parental involvement in the public school system by providing parental notification on student health and well-being and instructional materials that contain sexuality content as well as reaffirms a parent’s right to make decisions regarding their child’s education. HB 8 also includes provisions related to release time for religious instruction.
The bill will take effect within 90 days of the Governor’s signature – on or about April 8, 2025.