As Introduced

130th General Assembly
Regular Session
2013-2014
H. B. No. 441


Representatives Winburn, Fedor 

Cosponsors: Representatives Heard, Hagan, R., O'Brien 

A BILL
To amend sections 3302.031 and 3313.534 of the 1
Revised Code with respect to school district 2
policies and reports on violent, disruptive, or 3
inappropriate behavior.4


BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:

       Section 1. That sections 3302.031 and 3313.534 of the Revised 5
Code be amended to read as follows:6

       Sec. 3302.031. In addition to the report cards required under 7
section 3302.03 of the Revised Code, the department of education 8
shall annually prepare the following reports for each school 9
district and make a copy of each report available to the 10
superintendent of each district:11

       (A) A funding and expenditure accountability report which 12
shall consist of the amount of state aid payments the school 13
district will receive during the fiscal year under Chapter 3317. 14
of the Revised Code and any other fiscal data the department 15
determines is necessary to inform the public about the financial 16
status of the district;17

       (B) A school safety and discipline report which shall consist 18
of statistical information regarding student safety and discipline 19
in each school building, including the number of suspensions and 20
expulsionsfollowing information disaggregated according to race 21
and, gender;, and disability:22

       (1) The number of suspensions and expulsions;23

       (2) The reasons for the suspensions or expulsions;24

       (3) The duration of the suspensions or expulsions, including 25
the number of days of instruction last due to suspensions and 26
expulsions.27

       (C) A student equity report which shall consist of at least a 28
description of the status of teacher qualifications, library and 29
media resources, textbooks, classroom materials and supplies, and 30
technology resources for each district. To the extent possible, 31
the information included in the report required under this 32
division shall be disaggregated according to grade level, race, 33
gender, disability, and scores attained on assessments required 34
under section 3301.0710 of the Revised Code.35

       (D) A school enrollment report which shall consist of 36
information about the composition of classes within each district 37
by grade and subject disaggregated according to race, gender, and 38
scores attained on assessments required under section 3301.0710 of 39
the Revised Code;40

       (E) A student retention report which shall consist of the 41
number of students retained in their respective grade levels in 42
the district disaggregated by grade level, subject area, race, 43
gender, and disability;44

       (F) A school district performance report which shall describe 45
for the district and each building within the district the extent 46
to which the district or building meets each of the applicable 47
performance indicators established under section 3302.02 of the 48
Revised Code, the number of performance indicators that have been 49
achieved, and the performance index score. In calculating the 50
rates of achievement on the performance indicators and the 51
performance index scores for each report, the department shall 52
exclude all students with disabilities.53

       Sec. 3313.534. No later than July 1, 1998, the(A) The board 54
of education of each city, exempted village, and local school 55
district shall adopt aeliminate any policy of zero tolerance for 56
violent, disruptive, or inappropriate behavior, including 57
excessive truancy, andadopted under this section as it existed 58
prior to the effective date of this amendment. Thereafter, no 59
board shall adopt or re-adopt any policy of zero tolerance for 60
such behavior. Each board shall instead establish other strategies 61
to address such behavior that range from prevention to 62
intervention.63

       (B)(1) Each school district shall provide training to each 64
teacher employed by the district on the strategies adopted by the 65
board pursuant to division (A) of this section, including the 66
proper protocol for incidents involving violent, disruptive, or 67
inappropriate behavior from a student. Such training may be 68
offered in conjunction with the in-service training required under 69
section 3319.073 of the Revised Code.70

       (2) If a teacher employed by the school district is present 71
during any incident involving violent, disruptive, or 72
inappropriate behavior from a student, the school building 73
principal shall evaluate the teacher's actions during the incident 74
and compare these actions to the training protocol provided by the 75
district pursuant to division (B)(1) of this section. The 76
evaluation shall be kept in the teacher's personnel file and may 77
be considered during that teacher's evaluation under section 78
3319.112 of the Revised Code.79

       (C) Not later than a date prescribed by the department of 80
education, the superintendent of each school district shall 81
annually report to the department on the district's progress in 82
closing the achievement gap between subgroups of students and the 83
relationship between student achievement and school discipline 84
within the district. The superintendent may consult the school 85
safety and discipline report received pursuant to section 3302.031 86
of the Revised Code to complete this report. The report shall 87
include both of the following:88

       (1) The effectiveness of the strategies adopted by the board 89
pursuant to division (A) of this section and of the training 90
provided by the district under division (B)(1) of this section in 91
addressing disciplinary issues in schools;92

       (2) The relationship between the findings in division (C)(1) 93
of this section and the district's progress in closing the 94
achievement gap between subgroups of students. To the extent 95
possible, the superintendent shall include in the report each 96
subgroup of students listed under division (A) of section 3317.40 97
of the Revised Code, in addition to information disaggregated by 98
race and gender.99

       The department shall submit each district's report to the 100
general assembly, in accordance with section 101.68 of the Revised 101
Code, and to the president of the state board of education.102

       (D) No later than July 1, 1999, each of the big eight school 103
districts, as defined in section 3314.02 of the Revised Code, 104
shall establish under section 3313.533 of the Revised Code at 105
least one alternative school to meet the educational needs of 106
students with severe discipline problems, including, but not 107
limited to, excessive truancy, excessive disruption in the 108
classroom, and multiple suspensions or expulsions. Any other 109
school district that attains after that date a significantly 110
substandard graduation rate, as defined by the department of 111
education, shall also establish such an alternative school under 112
that section.113

       Section 2. That existing sections 3302.031 and 3313.534 of 114
the Revised Code are hereby repealed.115