H.B.
175
127th General Assembly
(As Introduced)
Reps. Fessler, Seitz, Stebelton, Collier
BILL SUMMARY
· Permanently authorizes school districts to make-up calamity days by increasing the length of one or more other school days.
· Declares an emergency.
CONTENT AND OPERATION
Continuing law requires a minimum school year of 182 days. Toward this minimum, a school may count up to four days when classes are dismissed a half-day early for individual parent-teacher conferences or reporting periods, two days for teacher professional meetings, and up to five days for a public calamity, which includes: (1) disease epidemic, (2) hazardous weather conditions, (3) inoperability of school buses or other necessary equipment, (4) damage to a school building, or (5) other temporary circumstances because of a utility failure that renders a building unfit for use.[1] Taking into account these permitted closings, a school must be open for instruction at least 173 days each year. Both school districts and nonpublic schools are subject to these requirements.[2]
The board of education of each school district must adopt a contingency plan for making up days in case it is necessary to close schools for more than five days because of a public calamity. (A school day that is reduced by two hours or less due to hazardous weather does not count as a missed calamity day.[3]) Chartered nonpublic schools are required, by rule of the State Board of Education, also to have contingency plans.[4] Moreover, if, as a result of a closing or evacuation due to a bomb threat or a report of a possible explosion, a school district is unable to meet the required number of school days, the school district may make up the missed time by increasing the length of one or more schools days for the school building in increments of one-half hour, rather than adding days to the school calendar.[5] Nonpublic schools are not covered under this latter provision.
(R.C. 3313.482)
As permitted by current law in the case of bomb threats, the bill allows school districts to make-up excess calamity days or partial days by increasing the length of one or more other school days in increments of one-half hour. The bill does not authorize nonpublic schools to make up missed time in this manner.
The minimum school day for school districts is five hours in grades 1 to 6 (including two 15-minute recesses) and five and one-half hours in grades 7 to 12.[6] Presumably, then, every five hours a school district aggregates by adding time to other school days makes up one day for grades 1 to 6, and every five and one-half hours it aggregates makes up one day for grades 7 to 12.
HISTORY
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ACTION |
DATE |
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Introduced |
04-24-07 |
h0175-i-127.doc/kl
[1] R.C. 3313.48 and
3317.01(B) (neither section in the bill).
A school might also, with the approval of the Department of Education,
be operated on an alternative schedule with a minimum of 910 hours of classroom
instruction in a school year (R.C. 3313.481, not in the bill).
[2] Nonpublic schools, both
chartered and nonchartered, are required to comply with these provisions by
rules of the State Board of Education.
See rules 3301-35-08 and 3301-35-12 of the Administrative Code. Community ("charter") schools are
not subject to the 182-day requirement, but instead must offer learning
opportunities to each student for at least 920 hours per year (see R.C. 3314.03
(A)(11)(a), not in the bill).
[3] R.C. 3317.01(B).
[4] O.A.C. 3301-35-06 and
3301-35-12.
[5] R.C. 3313.482(B).
[6] R.C. 3313.48 and O.A.C.
3301-35-06.