The Ohio House passed on Wednesday a bill to give schools two additional calamity days and two teacher professional development days, a response to winter weather causing Ohio school districts to exhaust the five calamity days allowed by law.
Schools don’t have to make up five school days canceled due to hazardous weather, disease epidemics and other emergencies each year. Most Northeast Ohio school districts have cancelled school at least five times because of heavy snow and below-freezing temperatures.
House Bill 416 originally would have allowed up to four additional calamity days, but some House Republicans were concerned about the cost of not making up missed days — the state paid for students and teachers to be in class.
“In my life, if you missed work because of snow, severely cold temperatures… you go back to work the very next day and you start making up for those days missed because in the private sector, you don’t get paid if you don’t serve your customers,” said Rep. Lynn Wachtmann, R-Napoleon. “I know that’s a novel idea in the public sector where they expect to get paid for nothing, for no services rendered, which is exactly what this bill is saying we’re going to do.”
Toledo Democratic Rep. Teresa Fedor said teachers, superintendents and school board members care about instruction time but also make student safety a priority.
The amended bill gives schools two additional calamity days and two additional teacher professional development days, which means students could be excused for four days while teachers would be required to report to work on two days.
The House passed House Bill 416 in a 80-16 bipartisan vote. The bill now goes to the Senate, which has other ideas for how to help schools facing a high number of cancellations.
Sen. Bill Coley, R-Liberty Twp., introduced a bill Wednesday that would require schools to first use five contingency days penciled into school calendars before using additional calamity days. Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina, told reporters the bill would also allow schools to make up time on Saturdays and give local school boards the option to forgive any days after the 10 covered by statute.
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