LEGISLATIVE NEWS

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House Bill 79 requires that holders of permanent or professional certificates undergo a background check at least once every five years.

President’s Budget Reflects Wrong Priorities for Ohio: Weakens Vital Services and Shifts Hundreds of Millions in Costs To The State of Ohio and Local Government

NASW Government Relations Update
January 23, 2007

110th Congress Busy in First Few Weeks

Thanks to an ambitious 100 hour agenda by the new House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA-8), the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a number of bills in the first two weeks of Congress.

A number of these bills are of interest to social workers.

1. The House passed H.R. 5, College Student Relief Act of 2007, on January 17 by a vote of 356-71. H.R. 5 would decrease interest on federal student loans in half over 5 years. The bill now heads to the Senate, where Sen. Kennedy (MA) chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is cosponsoring a significantly broader rate cut bill S. 282, College Student Relief Act of 2007, that is expected go through his panel first. The Senate bill, in addition to halving the interest rate, also would cap loan repayments at 15 percent of income and increase the maximum Pell grant from $4,050 to $5,100.
Kennedy aides said his committee will mark up college affordability legislation in February, though it won't necessarily be the bill he cosponsored.

2. The House passed H.R. 2, the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007, on January 10 by a vote of 315-116. H.R. 2 would increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15/hour to $7.25/hour over two years. The Senate is expected to take up the bill during the week of January 22. Senator Baucus (MT) wants to include small business tax breaks in the Senate version of the bill. Other members are working to include amendments to the bill. NASW is supporting the passage of a clean bill, with no amendments.

3. Sen. Inouye (HI) has introduced a number of bills related to social workers -National Center for Social Work Research Act of 2007, S. 106 to establish a center for social work research in the federal government -Strengthen Social Work Training Act of 2007, S. 64 to make sure social workers are eligible for federal grant programs related to health care training such as the National Health Service Corps.

4. Rep. Towns (NY-10) introduced HR 425, a bill to authorize the use of clinical social workers to conduct evaluations to determine work-related emotional and mental illnesses.

5. Additionally, we are expecting bills to be introduced on Medicare Part B payments affecting social workers, small business insurance reform and behavioral health coverage, mental health parity, medical records privacy, restoration of Medicaid funding cuts and SCHIP expansion.

Thank you for your continued interest in Advocacy. We look forward to working with you during the 110th Congress.

Legislative

General Assembly Recesses After Passing Major Legislation Related to the TEL Proposal, also passes regional service delivery bill. The following is excerpted from the latest League of Women Voters Update: 1) 126th General Assembly: The Ohio House and Senate tackled several controversial bills this past week, as lawmakers cleaned-up the backlog of legislation before recessing for the summer. The House also accepted the resignation of Representative Kathleen Walcher Reed of the 58th district (effective June 1. 2006), and welcomed two new members. The new members of the Ohio House are Michael Foley (D) representing the 14th House District, replacing Dale Miller, who moved to the Senate several months ago, and Dan White (R), replacing Kathleen Walcher Reed. The following is a status report of some of the key bills considered this past week by lawmakers:

*Am. SB 321 (Carey) - Tobacco Settlement Budget and TEL Amendment Replacement: SB 321 (Carey), the Tobacco Settlement Budget for FY 07-08, includes $763.7 million for several trust funds identified in SB192 of the 123rd General Assembly and based on the national Master Settlement Agreement with tobacco companies. Funds are included in the budget for tobacco prevention, education technology, biomedical research, public health, and agricultural and economic development. Approximately $648.5 million is allocated in SB 321 for the Education Facilities Trust Fund, which will be distributed through the Ohio School Facilities Commission for the construction and renovation of school facilities. SB 321 was also amended to include a $2.5 million earmark for the purchase of heart defibrillators for schools.

The bill also was amended to include a Tax Expenditure Limitations (TEL) provision, which limits the growth of the state's General Revenue Funds to 3.5 percent, or a combination of the rate of inflation and population growth, whichever is greater. This provision was added to replace the unpopular TEL constitutional amendment certified for the November 7, 2006 ballot.

Amendments were also added to clarify that unvoted debt issued by a school district to pay its portion of a state-assisted classroom facilities project does not count toward the district's overall debt limits; allows districts to allocate .5 mill from other tax resources for maintenance in lieu of a .5 mill levy for maintenance; allows districts to allocate funds reimbursed under the Expedited Local Partnership School Building Assistance Program to replace moneys used for classroom facilities; permits a big-eight district to transfer from its project construction fund to a "special construction fund" investment earnings attributed to the district; and modifies the business personal property tax reimbursements for school districts where territory is transferred.

*Am. HB312 (Evans) - Accessible Parking at Polling Places and a Process to Remove Certified Ballot Initiatives and Referenda from the Ballot: The bill was amended in the Senate State & Local Government & Veterans Affairs Committee, chaired by Senator Cates, to include a process by which a petition committee could withdraw from the ballot, an initiative that had been certified by the secretary of state. This amendment was needed to allow the petition committee sponsoring the Tax Expenditure Limitations (TEL) constitutional amendment a way to remove the TEL amendment from the November 7, 2006 ballot, since the Ohio constitution is silent on removing certified initiatives from the ballot. The amendment requires the petition committee to provide - in writing to the secretary of state - a notification of withdrawal of a certified ballot issue no later than 60 days before the election. Governor Taft immediately signed the bill into law. The law will go into effect 90 days after being filed with the secretary of state, which will give the petition committee for the TEL constitutional amendment time to take the issue off the November 7, 2006 ballot.

*Am. Sub. HB115 (Setzer) - Education Regional Service System (ERSS) and Appropriations for Teacher Preparation Programs: This bill was approved by the Ohio House on October 5, 2005, but had not moved forward in the Ohio Senate until recently, when an agreement was reached among stakeholders on several issues. It was then amended in the Senate Education Committee to include an appropriation to support the Ohio Core, a proposed plan included in two bills, SB 311 (Gardner) and HB 565 (Setzer), to increase the rigor of Ohio's high school graduation requirements and admission standards for some colleges and universities in Ohio.

The bill establishes the Educational Regional Service System and the EMIS Advisory Board, which will make recommendations to improve the Education Management Information System. Educational services will be provided through 16 regions based on existing Special Education Regional Resource Centers (SERRC), and a State Regional Alliance Advisory Board will be appointed to oversee the operations of the ERSS. Advisory councils will also be established in each ERSS region, and a fiscal agent will be chosen by the ODE for each ERSS region. These fiscal agents will contract with the ODE to implement state and regional education initiatives. The State Board of Education is required to adopt by July 1, 2007 rules establishing a process for school districts to switch to a different ERSS districts by June 30, 2009.

The bill was amended in the Senate Education committee, to include a total of $13.2 million to support teacher preparation programs in math, science, and foreign languages, in anticipation of the passage by the General Assembly of legislation that includes Governor Taft's increased graduation requirements called the Ohio Core --SB 311 (Gardner) or HB 565 (Setzer). The Board of Regents and the Ohio Department of Education are jointly directed to award and expend these funds, which are referred to in the bill as the Ohio Core Support. The Ohio Core Support includes the following: $2. 6 million in fiscal year 2007 to support a twelve-month intensive training program that leads to teacher licensure in a laboratory-based science, advanced mathematics, or foreign language field at the secondary education level and employment with an Ohio school district. -$1.5 million in fiscal year 2007 to support alternative teacher licensure programs developed by educational service centers, in partnership with institutions of higher education. -$3.6 million in fiscal year 2007 will be distributed to school districts to be used to obtain contracted instruction with institutions of higher education in mathematics, science, or foreign language for high school students that results in dual high school and college credit. -$2 million in fiscal year 2007 will be disbursed to the eTech Ohio Commission to implement and support the Ohio Students Choosing On-line Resources for Educational Success Initiative. -$3.5 million in fiscal year 2007 will be disbursed to the Board of Regents to support up to ten regional summer academies that focus on foreign language, science, mathematics, engineering, and technology, and prepare eleventh and twelfth grade students to pursue college-level foreign language, mathematics, science, technology, and engineering, with a focus on secondary teaching in these disciplines. Successful completion of these academics shall result in dual high school and college credits. The following amendments were also added to the bill: -Amends the amount of a scholarship provided through the Educational Choice Scholarship for students attending Kindergarten to $2,700 and $5,200 for students enrolled in grades one to 12. -Allows local boards of education to adopt residency restrictions for local superintendents. -Allows a community school to open above the statewide cap, if the governing authority of the school is rated as excellent or efficient; the school made adequate yearly progress; the school has been in operation for at least four years; and the school is not operated by a management company. The bill passed the Senate 29-4, and the House concurred with the Senate amendments. *Am. HB422 (Hughes) - Community/chartered schools develop safety plans. This bill requires community schools and chartered nonpublic schools to adopt school safety plans in the same manner as school districts; exempts school safety plans and school building blueprints from the Public Records Law; requires all public and nonpublic schools to conduct at least one school safety drill annually, and increases the fine for failure to conduct any required drill to one thousand dollars. There were two amendments added to the bill in the Senate: Requires a notice of the safety drill be issued 72 hours prior to the safety drill; and requires drills in schools with an ADM of 20 students or more. The bill passed the Senate and the House concurred with the Senate amendments. *Am. HB576 (McGregor) - Tuition waivers for spouses of armed forces members killed in line of duty. An amendment was approved to ensure that the spouses eligible for the tuition or fee waivers were residents of Ohio at the time that the member of the armed forces was killed. The cost of this program is estimated at $1 million. The bill was amended by the Senate and the House concurred with the amendments. *HB 343 (Raga) - Driver's License: The Ohio House approved this bill, which increases the age for a person to obtain a temporary instruction permit from 15 years 6 months to 16 years. The bill also prohibits the holder of a probationary driver's license from operating a motor vehicle between 1:00 AM and 5:00 PM, or with more than one person who is not a family member occupying the vehicle. This bill will now move to the Senate for consideration. *HJR 13 (DeWine) - Legislative Districts: This resolution was defeated in the Ohio House 58-37. It would have revised the apportionment process for General Assembly and Congressional districts. *HB 137 (Gilb) - Juvenile Records: This bill revises the procedure by which a juvenile court may seal records of alleged and adjudicated delinquent and unruly children and adjudicated juvenile traffic offenders. The bill was approved as emergency legislation, and the House concurred with the Senate amendments. *HB 184 (Faber) - Display School Mottoes: This bill requires school districts and community schools that receive donated copies of the mottoes of the United States of America or the State of Ohio to display the mottoes in school buildings. The House and Senate approved this bill. 2) House and Senate Schedule Set: Senate President Bill Harris and Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted announced last week the session schedule for the Ohio General Assembly for the remainder of the year. The Ohio House has sessions planned for August 1,2, & 8, 2006; September 12, 13, 2006 if needed; no sessions for October 2006; November 14, 15, 16, 28, 29, & 30, 2006; and December 5,6,7,12,13,14,19, 20, & 21, 2006. The Ohio Senate has sessions planned for August 1,2, & 8, 2006 if needed; September 12, 13, 2006 if needed; no sessions for October 2006; November 14, 15, 16, 28, 29, & 30, 2006; and December 5,6,7,12,13,14,19, 20, & 21, 2006. 3) 109th Congress: The U.S. House and Senate are taking a one week recess for the Memorial Day Holiday. The House and Senate did not take any further action on their FY07 budget resolutions before leaving Washington, D.C. The House approved on May 18, 2006 H.Con. Res. 376, while the Senate approved its version of the FY07 budget S. Con. Res. 83 in March 2006. There are significant differences between the budget resolutions, but a conference committee has not been scheduled to meet. Hearings on the appropriations measures are already underway, and so each chamber may decide to work out the spending differences during the debate on the appropriation legislation. Several appropriations bills are now moving ahead in the House, which has already approved the Interior and Environment appropriations bill; the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill: and the Agriculture and Energy appropriations bills. 4) NAEP Results in Science Released: The Ohio Department of Education announced on May 24, 2006 the results for Ohio students participating in the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in science. According to the press releases, Ohio students performed better than the national average in both fourth and eighth grades, and outperformed the national average in nearly every group of students. "The average scale score for Ohio fourth-graders of 157 is above the national rate of 149 and four points lower than the highest-scoring states. The average scale score for Ohio eighth-graders was 155, above the national rate of 147 and eight points lower than the highest-scoring state." "Ohio also scored higher than all neighboring states, with the exception of Kentucky, which scored one point higher than Ohio in fourth-grade, and Michigan, which tied with Ohio in eighth-grade results." However, NAEP scores for students from urban areas declined in both fourth and eighth grades, and the achievement gap between African American and white students increased by two points over 2000 levels. The achievement gap is 34 points in fourth grade and 38 points in eighth grade. Students from lower income families also scored lower on the NAEP science exam than students from higher income families. 6,870 Ohio students participated in the 2005 NAEP in science, including 3,387 eighth-grade students and 3,483 fourth-grade students. The NAEP is the only national assessment of student progress in core subject areas, including math, reading, science, history, and the arts. The assessment is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education.

To see the press release from the Ohio Department of Education, please visit http://webapp1.ode.state.oh.us/cncs/view.asp?id=674474416277649816.

For more information about NAEP and the full report please visit http://www.nationsreportcard.gov./science_2005/.

Submitted by:

Kathleen Usaj, LISW