Ohio

Ohio law allows each authorizer to approve up to 100 schools, except for the state department of education which can approve no more than 20 schools each year during its initial five years of chartering, and of those 20, only five can be new start-ups. The 100-school limit does not apply to any authorizer receiving an “exemplary” rating for two consecutive years under the state authorizer evaluation system.

Ohio law allows new start-ups and public school conversions.

Ohio law provides numerous charter authorizers including: (1) the board of education of the district in which the school is proposed to be located; (2) the board of education of any joint vocational school district with territory in the county in which is located the majority of the territory of the district in which the school is proposed to be located; (3) the board of education of any other city, local, or exempted village school district having territory in the same county where the district in which the school is proposed to be located has the major portion of its territory; (4) the governing board of any educational service center, as long as the proposed school will be located in a county within the territory of the service center or in a county contiguous to such county; (5) a sponsoring authority designated by the board of trustees of any of the thirteen state universities or the board of trustees for the university itself if the proposed school will serve as the university’s teaching demonstration site as approved by the state board of education; (6) any qualified education non-profit that meets the standards as outlined in the charter law; and (7) the Ohio Department of Education.

Ohio law requires all eligible authorizers to apply to the state board of education for approval to serve as an authorizer for start-up charter schools except for those already serving as authorizers at the time this provision was enacted. However, every authorizer now has an agreement with the state department of education.
Ohio law requires the state department of education to adopt criteria and procedures to process authorizer applications. State regulations specify that an interested authorizer must obtain, complete, and submit a written application by the specified deadline. Regulations provide that the application must include evidence of a authorizer's ability and willingness to do the following: authorize a new charter in a challenged district; demonstrate, if it authorizes any schools, that they hold a comparable rating to or better than the performance of Ohio schools rated for continuous performance; possess resources necessary to monitor and provide technical assistance; comply with statute; indicate fees not to exceed 3% of the total amount of payments for operating expenses that a school receives from the state which will be collected; monitor and evaluate school compliance; monitor and evaluate academic and fiscal performance; report on the schools to the state department; provide technical assistance; intervene to correct any performance deficiencies; and have a plan in place for when a school experiences financial difficulties or closes prior to the end of the school year.

Ohio law requires authorizers to issue an annual report of assurances to the state department and an annual report on expenditures.

Ohio law requires the state department to monitor the effectiveness of authorizers in their oversight of the schools with which they have contracted. The law requires the state department of education to rate authorizers based upon their performance. State law allows a charter school authorizer that earns an overall rating of “effective” or “exemplary” for at least three consecutive years to be evaluated by the Ohio Department of Education once every three years going forward.

If at any time the state board finds that an authorizer is not in compliance or is no longer willing to comply with its contract with any school or with the department’s rules for authorizing, state law requires the state board or designee to conduct a hearing. If after the hearing, the state board or designee has confirmed the original finding, state law allows the state department to revoke the authorizer’s approval to authorize schools and assume the authorization of any schools with which the authorizer has contracted until the earlier of the expiration of two school years or until a new authorizer is secured by the school’s governing authority. State law allows the state department to extend the term of the contract in the case of a school for which it has assumed authorization as necessary to accommodate the term of the department’s authorization of the school.

In lieu of revoking an authorizer’s authority to authorize charter schools, if the state department finds that an authorizer is not in compliance with applicable laws and administrative rules, the law requires the department to declare in a written notice to the authorizer the specific laws or rules, or both, for which the authorizer is noncompliant. The law requires an authorizer notified to respond to the state department not later than fourteen days after the notification with a proposed plan to remedy the conditions for which the authorizer was found to be noncompliant. The law requires the state department to approve or disapprove the plan.
If a plan or a revised plan is approved, the law requires the authorizer to implement the plan. If an authorizer does not respond to the state department or implement an approved compliance plan, or if an authorizer does not receive approval of a compliance plan, the law requires the state department to declare in written notice to the authorizer that the authorizer is in probationary status, and may limit the authorizer's ability to authorize additional schools.
The law allows an authorizer that has been placed on probationary status to apply to the state department for its probationary status to be lifted.

While the law does not require the legislature and governor to regularly review the performance of the state department of education as an authorizer, they can do so at any time. In addition, the ability of the state department of education to continue authorizing can be removed by the legislature and governor (the entities that gave it that authority).
By December thirty-first of each year, state law requires the state department to issue a report to the governor, the speaker of the house of representatives, the president of the senate, and the chairpersons of the house and senate committees principally responsible for education matters regarding the effectiveness of academic programs, operations, and legal compliance and of the financial condition of all charter schools and on the performance of authorizers.

Not later than November 15, 2016, and not later than the fifteenth day of November for each year thereafter, Ohio law requires the state department of education to develop and publish an annual performance report for all operators of community schools in the state based on their performance for the previous school year. The report shall be made available on the department's web site.

Ohio law allows authorizers to take up to 3% of each charter school's per pupil funding and requires authorizers to publicly report detailed authorizer expenditures. Ohio law prohibits authorizers from selling any goods or services to any charter school it authorizes, except that it allows school districts and state universities to sell goods or services at no profit. Ohio rules prohibit authorizers from requiring schools to purchase services from them.

Ohio law provides application elements for all schools. It also provides additional application elements specific to educational service providers for virtual schools but not for brick-and-mortar schools.

While Ohio hasn’t explicitly required these measures in statute or regulation, Ohio’s authorizer evaluation system requires authorizers to incorporate NACSA’s standards for quality practice (which include these measures). Authorizers receive a rating based upon whether they include these standards. If they don’t receive a high enough rating, they could lose their power to authorize schools.

Ohio law requires a contract between the authorizer and the governing board of the charter school that articulates, among other things, the focus of the curriculum, the academic goals to be achieved, the method of measurement that will be used to determine progress toward the academic goals, performance standards by which the success of the school will be evaluated, and the duties and responsibilities of both the charter school governing board and the authorizer.
Under Ohio law, each contract entered into between an authorizer and governing board of a charter school shall not exceed five years.

Ohio law requires authorizers to evaluate charters on an annual basis and to issue a report of their evaluation.
Ohio law requires the state auditor to conduct financial audits of each school. It also requires authorizers to annually report the academic and fiscal performance of each of its schools to the state department of education and to parents.

Ohio law requires the state department of education to issue an annual report card to each school, which is to include both financial and academic data. Furthermore, state law requires each school to participate in the statewide management information system.

Under Ohio law, a prospective charter authorizer must include in its application its ability to monitor and conduct oversight authority.

Ohio law allows an authorizer to place a school on probation with the assurance of the governing body that it will correct any deficiencies.

The law requires the charter contract to specify the duties of the authorizer, which include its ability to intervene in the school's operation to correct problems and declare the school to be on probationary status if deemed necessary.

The law allows a contract to be terminated or not renewed for fiscal mismanagement, failure to meet performance goals of the charter, violation of the law, or a "good cause" prior to the end of the school year.
The following circumstances trigger automatic closure of a charter school (with an exemption for schools in which a majority of the students are receiving special education):

* Schools serving no higher than grade three: For the 2013-14 school year and beyond, will be automatically closed if for the past three years has been in Academic Emergency OR has received an “F” in the Kindergarten through 3rd grade literacy measure.
* Schools serving any grade four through eight, but no grade above nine: For the 2013-14 school year and beyond, will be automatically closed if for the past three years was rated Academic Emergency AND showed less than one year of growth in either reading or math OR has received an “F” for the performance index score AND an “F” for the value added score.
* Schools offering any grade ten through twelve: For the 2013-14 school year and beyond, will be automatically closed if for the past three years has been in Academic Emergency OR has received an “F” for the performance index score and has not met the annual measureable objectives.

Ohio law includes automatic closure requirements specific to dropout recovery public charter schools.

The law prohibits a school that is permanently closed under the state’s automatic closure laws from reopening under another name if any of the following apply: the new school has the same authorizer or chief administrator as the closed school; the governing authority of the new school consists of any of the same members that served on the board of the closed school during its last year of operation; 50% or more of the teaching staff or the administrative staff consist of the same individuals who were employed at the closed school during its last year of operation; and, the performance standards and accountability plan prescribed by the authorizer contract for the new school are the same as those for the closed school.

Ohio law does not address the number of years in the renewal term for the charter contract, but simply says that an authorizer may choose not to renew a contract at its expiration or may choose to terminate a contract prior to its expiration.

Under state law, at least 90 days prior to the termination or non renewal of a contract, the authorizer must notify the school of the proposed action in writing, which must include the reasons for the proposed action in detail, the effective date of the termination or non renewal, and a statement that the school may, within fourteen days of receiving the notice, request an informal hearing before the sponsor. The law requires the informal hearing to be held within seventy days of the receipt for a hearing request. Following the hearing, the law requires the authorizer to issue a written decision either affirming or rescinding the decision to terminate or not to renew the contract. The law requires authorizers that are public entities to make all charter renewal, non-renewal, and revocation decisions in a public meeting. It does not include a similar provision for authorizers that aren’t public entities.

Ohio law requires each school's charter to contain procedures and policies for the disposition of students and teachers in the event of closure. It also provides that a child attending a terminated or non-renewed charter shall be admitted to his or her district school. It does not contain provisions for property and asset disposition.

The law regulates the conditions under which lower performing schools may contract with a new authorizer, with such requests needing approval by the state department.

Ohio law allows charter schools to contract with all types of educational service providers.
It requires all virtual charter schools, including those contracting with an educational service provider, to be approved by an authorizer and the state superintendent of public instruction. In making a decision about whether to approve a virtual charter school application, it requires the state superintendent to consider rules prescribed by the state board of education. Among other things, it requires these rules to include the educational service provider’s previous record for student performance. However, there aren’t similar requirements for brick-and-mortar schools.

State law requires school governing boards to operate independently of any educational service provider and requires existing and potential conflicts of interest between the two entities to be reported. It also prohibits charter school governing board members from being employed by an authorizer or operator.

It also requires that starting in 2016, all contracts between charter boards and management companies are collected by the state department and posted on the department’s website.

The law requires that management companies that receive more than 20% of a charter school’s revenue must provide a very detailed accounting including the nature and costs of goods and services it provides to the school.

The law requires criminal records checks of all private contract employees providing essential school services in a school.

Ohio law includes all of the model law’s provisions for fiscally and legally autonomous schools with independent public charter school boards for non-district authorized schools, but not for district-authorized schools.

Ohio law allows charter schools to provide open enrollment to any student in the state.
It prohibits discrimination in the admission of students to the school on the basis of race, creed, color, disability, or sex (unless it has been approved as a single-gender school or a school specializing in students with certain disabilities).
Ohio law requires charter schools to give preference to students attending the school the previous year and to students who reside in the school district in which the school is located.

Ohio law allows a charter school to give preference to siblings of students attending the school the previous year.
It also allows a charter school to limit admissions to students defined in their contract as “at risk,” residents of a specific geographic area within the district as defined in their contract, or separate groups of autistic and non-disabled students.
Ohio law requires charter schools to admit students by lot if the number of applicants exceeds the capacity of the school's programs, classes, grade levels, or facilities.

Except as otherwise specified in the state's charter school law and in the contract between a charter school and an authorizer, Ohio law exempts a charter school from most laws, except those covering such matters as health, safety, civil rights, student accountability, employee criminal history checks, open meetings, freedom of information, and generally accepted accounting principles..
Ohio law requires all charter school teachers to be certified, except that a teacher may teach outside his or her area of certification and a charter school may engage non-certificated persons to teach up to twelve hours per week.

Ohio requires collective bargaining for public school teachers on nine topics: wages, pensions and retirement benefits, hours, length of prep periods, terms and conditions of employment, length of school year, leave, evaluations, and grievance procedures. In addition, five additional topics may be bargained: insurance and fringe benefits, management rights, transfers and reassignments, layoffs, and dismissal. There are no topics that are expressly excluded from bargaining.Ohio exempts start-up charter schools from mandatory participation in any outside collective bargaining agreements.
Conversion charters are, however, subject to a school district's collective bargaining agreement, unless a majority of the charter school’s teachers petition to work independently or form their own unit. Ohio law provides that employees of a conversion charter school sponsored by the board of education of a municipal school district are no longer subject to any future collective bargaining agreement if the mayor submits to the board of education sponsoring the school and to the state employment relations board a statement requesting that all employees of the conversion charter school be removed from a collective bargaining unit.
Prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Janus v. AFSCME, Ohio allowed mandatory agency fees. The Supreme Court decision renders that state law unconstitutional. No reactive laws have been enacted.
In Ohio, an organization may become certified as an exclusive representative via election conducted by the state employment relations board or by petitioning a public employer with evidence that the organization represents a majority of employees. An election will be conducted if at least 30 percent of employees wish to be represented by a particular group or if the employer alleges that two or more organizations have petitioned for representation with at least 10 percent support each. An active exclusive representative may not be challenged for the first three years of a collective bargaining agreement. Elections may not be held within one year of each other. Since Janus, three related challenges have been filed by the Buckeye Institute to challenge the constitutionality of Ohio’s exclusive representation statute, alleging that permitting exclusive representation violates individuals’ First Amendment rights.

Ohio law allows a single contract to cover multiple sites. But the law specifically requires that the contract be treated as a single school for report card and other purposes.
While the law is silent on whether a charter board can hold and oversee multiple charter contracts, it allows governing board members to serve on up to five governing boards simultaneously.

Ohio law provides that a student in a charter school shall be afforded the opportunity to participate in any extracurricular activities offered at the traditional public school that is operated by the school district and to which the student otherwise would be assigned.

Under state law, the charter school is the LEA responsible for providing special education services, with detailed funding provisions for such in the law. The law allows schools to receive payment from the state department for any costs that exceed the threshold catastrophic costs for serving certain disabled students.
The law requires a school district board of education or educational service center governing board to negotiate with a charter school governing authority that seeks to contract for the provision of services for a disabled student in the same manner as it would with the board of education of a school district that seeks to contract for such services.

Under Ohio law, charter school funding is the sum of opportunity grant funding, the per-pupil amount of targeted assistance funding for each student’s resident district times 0.25, special education funding, k-3 funding, economically disadvantaged funding times a student’s resident district’s economically disadvantaged index, Limited English Proficiency funding, and career tech funding.

In 2021, Ohio lawmakers allocated $54 million in supplemental state aid for high-performing charter schools. Schools will receive up to an additional $1,750 per pupil for economically disadvantaged students and up to an additional $1,000 per pupil for non-disadvantaged students.

Ohio law allows traditional districts to levy taxes for charter schools that are sponsored by “exemplary” authorizers.

Ohio law requires districts to provide transportation for all charter students, but also allows charter schools to accept responsibility for transportation and receive funding for this directly from the state under prescribed circumstances.

In a national study of charter school funding (University of Arkansas, Charter School Funding: Inequity Expands, 2014), Ohio charter schools were receiving on average $8,580 per pupil in public funds, while traditional public schools would have received $11,674 for those students. As a result, the state's charter schools were receiving $3,184 per pupil – or 27.1% - less than what the traditional public schools would have received for those students. This figure includes all sources of funding, and analysis reveals some continued inequities for both operational and capital funding (see component #19 for information on capital issues).

Ohio law provides brick-and-mortar schools with $500 per pupil for facilities funding. It provides e-schools with $25 per pupil for facilities funding in Fiscal year 2020.

Ohio law creates a $25 million “Community School Classroom Facilities” grant program for high-performing charter schools. This grant has $4 million remaining.

Statute requires districts to lease and sell unused buildings to charter schools located in the same district at a price not higher than the appraised market value and the appraisal must not be more than one year old, with preference given to high-performing schools and newly established schools from operators with a track record of high performance.

Ohio law allows charter schools to use loans guaranteed under the Community Schools Facilities Guaranteed Loan Program for the construction of new school buildings. The state is not funding this program.

Ohio law also creates a revolving loan fund that allows charter schools to apply to use funds for any services described in their charter. The law provides that the maximum cumulative loan amount is $250,000 and that it must be repaid within five years. The state is not funding this program.

For the most part, Ohio law requires that charter schools participate in relevant employee retirement systems. However, the law provides that certain operators that pay into social security are exempt from contributing to state retirement programs for some of their employees.

The law allows up to five new virtual charter schools could be approved per year, all subject to the approval of the superintendent of public instruction with such approval based on applicants demonstrating experience and quality.

The law also permits an exemplary rated authorizer to open up to two new virtual charter schools to serve primarily students enrolled in a dropout recovery program, not to exceed six new schools in five years.

Ohio law allows full-time virtual charter schools to require an orientation course for all new students.

Ohio law requires a charter school’s governing authority to adopt an attendance policy that includes a procedure for automatically withdrawing a student from the school if the student without a legitimate excuse fails to participate in seventy-two consecutive hours of the learning opportunities offered to the student.

Ohio’s law contains provisions requiring these schools to provide computers and other technology equipment and support, have a teacher of record for not more than 125 students each, have a location for testing, counseling, and instructional coaching within 50 miles of each student, document daily learning hours, have contacts with parents, have an orientation course for students, and have planes for providing special education services.

Starting in 2016, all such schools need to also comply with the standards developed by the international association for K-12 online learning.

The law provides that in the case there exists any business or familial relationship between a governing authority of a charter school or any of its officers or employees and a management company contracted by the school or any of that company's officers or employees, other than the operator agreement itself, the management company shall agree to indemnify the school for financial losses to the charter school up to the amount of the moneys received by the management company.

Ohio has created certain controls to align how much a school is paid with how much each student actually engages with the school.

First, when a student enrolls in a full-time virtual charter school, no funding flows to the school until the student receives a computer and online access is verified during the enrollment process. Typically, schools will use a UPS confirmation as proof they sent the computer. Therefore, the school has an upfront financial stake in making sure each student has the tools to engage and has actually logged into the school’s online program.

The state calculates the annual per-pupil amount for each school and makes a monthly payment equal to one-twelfth of that amount. Each month, the Ohio Department of Education pulls data regarding student participation at each school and the monthly payment is adjusted up or down accordingly based on each student’s particaption. After the school year, a reconciliation process is conducted by the Ohio Department of Education. If the end-of-school-year reconcilitation process finds that a student engaged in learning at a lower level than was reported over the course of the year, that student’s school will owe funding to the state. Some schools avoid large end-of-school-year overpayments by adjusting participation time down in each monthly report.

To demonstrate the time a student participates, the state audit gathers the following information for each student:

• The calendar reported by the school;
• The enrollment start date;
• The enrollment end date; and,
• The percent of time the student engaged in learning.

To demonstrate time the student is engaged in learning, the minimum information provided is:

• Student ID;
• Brief description of learning opportunities, such as class or course information;
• Dates and times of actual learning opportunities;
• Total of verified learning opportunities time; and,
• Teacher certification of the reported learning opportunities.