On January 8, 2025, Governor Mike DeWine signed Ohio House Bill 8 into law, which requires public schools to establish policies on parental notification on student health and well-being, instructional materials with sexuality content, and policies for released time courses in religious instruction. Coined the “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” the law will go into effect on April 9, 2025, and school districts will have until July 1, 2025, to adopt said policies. The policy must be made publicly available and posted in a prominent location on each school district’s website.
The mandatory policies must conform to the following provisions:
- State that parents have a fundamental right to make decisions concerning their child’s upbringing, education, and care.
- School district shall not prevent access to the child’s educational and health records.
- School district personnel shall be prohibited from directly or indirectly encouraging a student to withhold information from their parent(s) regarding the student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being.
- School district personnel shall be required to notify parents of any substantial change in the student’s healthcare services or monitoring related to the student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being, including notifying any parent of a student’s request to identify as a gender that does not align with the student’s “biological sex.”[1]
- Parents must be provided with the opportunity to review any materials that fall under the definition of “sexuality content” before class instruction, and parents shall be permitted to withdraw their child from the lesson with the expectation that the child will be given an alternative assignment.[2]
- Instructional materials are required to be both age- and developmentally appropriate. The use of any sexuality content in grades K-3 shall be expressly prohibited.
- Adopt a “religious release time policy” that allows students to leave school grounds and earn up to two high school credits for religious instruction.
To date, the legislature has been unclear about the penalties or remedies available if a school district fails to comply or a policy violation occurs. Members of PSE’s team are available for guidance on formulating policies and to answer any questions school district personnel, teachers or parents, may have about the above requirements. Please contact Kaylee Price at 937.223.1130 or our website at pselaw.com.
[1] House Bill 8 defines “biological sex” as “the biological indication of male and female, including sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, gonads, and unambiguous internal and external genitalia present at birth, without regard to an individual’s psychological, chosen, or subjective experience of gender.”
[2] House Bill 8 defines “sexuality content” as “any oral or written instruction, presentation, image, or description of sexual concepts or gender ideology provided in a classroom setting.”
