Ohio 2025-2026 Regular Session

Ohio House Bill HB191 Latest Draft

Bill / Introduced Version

                            As Introduced
136th General Assembly
Regular Session	H. B. No. 191
2025-2026
Representatives Miller, J., Grim
Cosponsors: Representatives Synenberg, McNally, Denson, Rader, Upchurch, 
Russo, Mohamed, Abdullahi, Sigrist, Jarrells, Somani, Cockley, Brewer, Brownlee, 
Brent, White, E., Thomas, C., Hall, D.
To amend sections 3317.14, 4117.10, 5126.24, and 
5705.412; to enact new section 3317.13; and to 
repeal section 3317.13 of the Revised Code to 
require that all school district and educational 
service center teachers be paid a salary of at 
least $50,000.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section 1. That sections 3317.14, 4117.10, 5126.24, and 
5705.412 be amended and new section 3317.13 of the Revised Code 
be enacted to read as follows:
Sec. 3317.13.  	No city, local, exempted village, or joint  
vocational school district board of education or educational 
service center governing board shall pay a teacher a base salary 
of less than fifty thousand dollars.
Sec. 3317.14. Any school district board of education or 
educational service center governing board participating in 
funds distributed under Chapter 3317. of the Revised Code shall 
annually adopt a teachers' salary schedule with provision for 
increments based upon training and years of service. 
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Notwithstanding sections 3317.13 and 3319.088 of the Revised 
Code, the board may establish its own service requirements and 
may grant service credit for such activities as teaching in 
public or nonpublic schools in this state or in another state, 
for service as an educational assistant other than as a 
classroom aide employed in accordance with section 5107.541 of 
the Revised Code, and for service in the military or in an 
appropriate state or federal governmental agency, provided no 
teacher receives less than the amount required to be paid 
pursuant to section 3317.13 of the Revised Code and provided 
full credit for a minimum of five years of actual teaching and 
military experience as defined in division (A) of section 
3317.13 of the Revised Code is given to each teacher . 
Each teacher who has completed training which would 
qualify such teacher for a higher salary bracket pursuant to 
this section shall file by the fifteenth day of September with 
the treasurer of the board of education or educational service 
center satisfactory evidence of the completion of such 
additional training. The treasurer shall then immediately place 
the teacher, pursuant to this section and section 3317.13 of the 
Revised Code, in the proper salary bracket in accordance with 
training and years of service before certifying such salary, 
training, and years of service to the department of education 
and workforce. No teacher shall be paid less than the salary to 
which such teacher is entitled pursuant to section 3317.13 of 
the Revised Code.
Sec. 4117.10. (A) An agreement between a public employer 
and an exclusive representative entered into pursuant to this 
chapter governs the wages, hours, and terms and conditions of 
public employment covered by the agreement. If the agreement 
provides for a final and binding arbitration of grievances, 
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public employers, employees, and employee organizations are 
subject solely to that grievance procedure and the state 
personnel board of review or civil service commissions have no 
jurisdiction to receive and determine any appeals relating to 
matters that were the subject of a final and binding grievance 
procedure. Where no agreement exists or where an agreement makes 
no specification about a matter, the public employer and public 
employees are subject to all applicable state or local laws or 
ordinances pertaining to the wages, hours, and terms and 
conditions of employment for public employees. All of the 
following prevail over conflicting provisions of agreements 
between employee organizations and public employers: 
(1) Laws pertaining to any of the following subjects: 
(a) Civil rights; 
(b) Affirmative action; 
(c) Unemployment compensation; 
(d) Workers' compensation; 
(e) The retirement of public employees; 
(f) Residency requirements; 
(g) The minimum educational requirements contained in the 
Revised Code pertaining to public education including the 
requirement of a certificate by the fiscal officer of a school 
district pursuant to section 5705.41 of the Revised Code; 
(h) The provisions of division (A) of section 124.34 of 
the Revised Code governing the disciplining of officers and 
employees who have been convicted of a felony; 
(i) The minimum standards promulgated by the director of 
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education and workforce pursuant to division (D) of section 
3301.07 of the Revised Code. 
(2) The law pertaining to the leave of absence and 
compensation provided under section 5923.05 of the Revised Code, 
if the terms of the agreement contain benefits which are less 
than those contained in that section or the agreement contains 
no such terms and the public authority is the state or any 
agency, authority, commission, or board of the state or if the 
public authority is another entity listed in division (B) of 
section 4117.01 of the Revised Code that elects to provide leave 
of absence and compensation as provided in section 5923.05 of 
the Revised Code; 
(3) The law pertaining to the leave established under 
section 5906.02 of the Revised Code, if the terms of the 
agreement contain benefits that are less than those contained in 
section 5906.02 of the Revised Code; 
(4) The law pertaining to excess benefits prohibited under 
section 3345.311 of the Revised Code with respect to an 
agreement between an employee organization and a public employer 
entered into on or after September 29, 2015. 
(5) For any collective bargaining agreement entered into 
on or after the effective date of this amendment, the law 
pertaining to compensation required pursuant to section 3317.13 
of the Revised Code, if the terms of the agreement provide for 
wages or compensation that are less than the minimum required 
under that section.
Except for sections 306.08, 306.12, 306.35, and 4981.22 of 
the Revised Code and arrangements entered into thereunder, and 
section 4981.21 of the Revised Code as necessary to comply with 
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section 13(c) of the "Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964," 87 
Stat. 295, 49 U.S.C.A. 1609(c), as amended, and arrangements 
entered into thereunder, this chapter prevails over any and all 
other conflicting laws, resolutions, provisions, present or 
future, except as otherwise specified in this chapter or as 
otherwise specified by the general assembly. Nothing in this 
section prohibits or shall be construed to invalidate the 
provisions of an agreement establishing supplemental workers' 
compensation or unemployment compensation benefits or exceeding 
minimum requirements contained in the Revised Code pertaining to 
public education or the minimum standards promulgated by the 
director of education and workforce pursuant to division (D) of 
section 3301.07 of the Revised Code. 
(B) The public employer shall submit a request for funds 
necessary to implement an agreement and for approval of any 
other matter requiring the approval of the appropriate 
legislative body to the legislative body within fourteen days of 
the date on which the parties finalize the agreement, unless 
otherwise specified, but if the appropriate legislative body is 
not in session at the time, then within fourteen days after it 
convenes. The legislative body must approve or reject the 
submission as a whole, and the submission is deemed approved if 
the legislative body fails to act within thirty days after the 
public employer submits the agreement. The parties may specify 
that those provisions of the agreement not requiring action by a 
legislative body are effective and operative in accordance with 
the terms of the agreement, provided there has been compliance 
with division (C) of this section. If the legislative body 
rejects the submission of the public employer, either party may 
reopen all or part of the entire agreement. 
As used in this section, "legislative body" includes the 
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governing board of a municipal corporation, school district, 
college or university, village, township, or board of county 
commissioners or any other body that has authority to approve 
the budget of their public jurisdiction and, with regard to the 
state, "legislative body" means the controlling board. 
(C) The chief executive officer, or the chief executive 
officer's representative, of each municipal corporation, the 
designated representative of the board of education of each 
school district, college or university, or any other body that 
has authority to approve the budget of their public 
jurisdiction, the designated representative of the board of 
county commissioners and of each elected officeholder of the 
county whose employees are covered by the collective 
negotiations, and the designated representative of the village 
or the board of township trustees of each township is 
responsible for negotiations in the collective bargaining 
process; except that the legislative body may accept or reject a 
proposed collective bargaining agreement. When the matters about 
which there is agreement are reduced to writing and approved by 
the employee organization and the legislative body, the 
agreement is binding upon the legislative body, the employer, 
and the employee organization and employees covered by the 
agreement. 
(D) There is hereby established an office of collective 
bargaining in the department of administrative services for the 
purpose of negotiating with and entering into written agreements 
between state agencies, departments, boards, and commissions and 
the exclusive representative on matters of wages, hours, terms 
and other conditions of employment and the continuation, 
modification, or deletion of an existing provision of a 
collective bargaining agreement. Nothing in any provision of law 
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to the contrary shall be interpreted as excluding the bureau of 
workers' compensation and the industrial commission from the 
preceding sentence. This office shall not negotiate on behalf of 
other statewide elected officials or boards of trustees of state 
institutions of higher education who shall be considered as 
separate public employers for the purposes of this chapter; 
however, the office may negotiate on behalf of these officials 
or trustees where authorized by the officials or trustees. The 
staff of the office of collective bargaining are in the 
unclassified service. The director of administrative services 
shall fix the compensation of the staff. 
The office of collective bargaining shall: 
(1) Assist the director in formulating management's 
philosophy for public collective bargaining as well as planning 
bargaining strategies; 
(2) Conduct negotiations with the exclusive 
representatives of each employee organization; 
(3) Coordinate the state's resources in all mediation, 
fact-finding, and arbitration cases as well as in all labor 
disputes; 
(4) Conduct systematic reviews of collective bargaining 
agreements for the purpose of contract negotiations; 
(5) Coordinate the systematic compilation of data by all 
agencies that is required for negotiating purposes; 
(6) Prepare and submit an annual report and other reports 
as requested to the governor and the general assembly on the 
implementation of this chapter and its impact upon state 
government.
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Sec. 5126.24. (A) As used in this section: 
(1) "License" means an educator license issued by the 
state board of education under section 3319.22 of the Revised 
Code or a certificate issued by the department of developmental 
disabilities. 
(2) "Teacher" means a person employed by a county board of 
developmental disabilities in a position that requires a 
license. 
(3) "Nonteaching employee" means a person employed by a 
county board of developmental disabilities in a position that 
does not require a license. 
(4) "Years of service" includes all service described in 
division (A) of section 3317.13 of the Revised Code the 
following:
(a) All years of teaching service in the same school 
district or educational service center, regardless of training 
level, with each year consisting of at least one hundred twenty 
days under a teacher's contract;
(b) All years of teaching service in a chartered, 
nonpublic school located in Ohio as a teacher licensed pursuant 
to section 3319.22 of the Revised Code or in another public 
school, regardless of training level, with each year consisting 
of at least one hundred twenty days under a teacher's contract;
(c) All years of teaching service in a chartered school or 
institution or a school or institution that subsequently became 
chartered or a chartered special education program or a special 
education program that subsequently became chartered operated by 
the state or by a subdivision or other local governmental unit 
of this state as a teacher licensed pursuant to section 3319.22 
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of the Revised Code, regardless of training level, with each 
year consisting of at least one hundred twenty days;
(d) All years of active military service in the armed 
forces of the United States, as defined in section 3307.75 of 
the Revised Code, to a maximum of five years. For purposes of 
this calculation, a partial year of active military service of 
eight continuous months or more in the armed forces shall be 
counted as a full year . 
(B) Subject to rules established by the director of 
developmental disabilities pursuant to Chapter 119. of the 
Revised Code, each county board of developmental disabilities 
shall annually adopt separate salary schedules for teachers and 
nonteaching employees. 
(C) The teachers' salary schedule shall provide for 
increments based on training and years of service. The board may 
establish its own service requirements provided no teacher 
receives less than the salary the teacher would be paid under 
section 3317.13 of the Revised Code if the teacher were employed 
by a school district board of education and provided full credit 
for a minimum of five years of actual teaching and military 
experience as defined in division (A) of such section service is 
given to each teacher. 
Each teacher who has completed training that would qualify 
the teacher for a higher salary bracket pursuant to this section 
shall file by the fifteenth day of September with the fiscal 
officer of the board, satisfactory evidence of the completion of 
such additional training. The fiscal officer shall then 
immediately place the teacher, pursuant to this section, in the 
proper salary bracket in accordance with training and years of 
service. No teacher shall be paid less than the salary to which 
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the teacher would be entitled under section 3317.13 of the 
Revised Code if the teacher were employed by a school district 
board of education. 
The superintendent of each county board, on or before the 
fifteenth day of October of each year, shall certify to the 
state board of education and the department of education and 
workforce the name of each teacher employed, on an annual 
salary, in each special education program operated pursuant to 
section 3323.09 of the Revised Code during the first full school 
week of October. The superintendent further shall certify, for 
each teacher, the number of years of training completed at a 
recognized college, the degrees earned from a college recognized 
by the department of education and workforce, the type of 
license held, the number of months employed by the board, the 
annual salary, and other information that the department may 
request. 
(D) The nonteaching employees' salary schedule established 
by the board shall be based on training, experience, and 
qualifications with initial salaries no less than salaries in 
effect on July 1, 1985. Each board shall prepare and may amend 
from time to time, specifications descriptive of duties, 
responsibilities, requirements, and desirable qualifications of 
the classifications of employees required to perform the duties 
specified in the salary schedule. All nonteaching employees 
shall be notified of the position classification to which they 
are assigned and the salary for the classification. The 
compensation of all nonteaching employees working for a 
particular board shall be uniform for like positions except as 
compensation would be affected by salary increments based upon 
length of service. 
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On the fifteenth day of October of each year the 
nonteaching employees' salary schedule and list of job 
classifications and salaries in effect on that date shall be 
filed by each board with the superintendent of public 
instruction and the department. If such salary schedule and 
classification plan is not filed, the director of education and 
workforce shall order the board to file such schedule and list 
forthwith. If this condition is not corrected within ten days 
after receipt of the order from the director, no money shall be 
distributed to the board under Chapter 3317. of the Revised Code 
until the director has satisfactory evidence of the board's full 
compliance with such order.
Sec. 5705.412. (A) As used in this section, "qualifying 
contract" means any agreement for the expenditure of money under 
which aggregate payments from the funds included in the school 
district's five-year forecast under section 5705.391 of the 
Revised Code will exceed the lesser of the following amounts: 
(1) Five hundred thousand dollars; 
(2) One per cent of the total revenue to be credited in 
the current fiscal year to the district's general fund, as 
specified in the district's most recent certificate of estimated 
resources certified under section 5705.36 of the Revised Code. 
(B)(1) Notwithstanding section 5705.41 of the Revised 
Code, no school district shall adopt any appropriation measure, 
make any qualifying contract, or increase during any school year 
any wage or salary schedule unless there is attached thereto a 
certificate, signed as required by this section, that the school 
district has in effect the authorization to levy taxes including 
the renewal or replacement of existing levies which, when 
combined with the estimated revenue from all other sources 
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available to the district at the time of certification, are 
sufficient to provide the operating revenues necessary to enable 
the district to maintain all personnel and programs for all the 
days set forth in its adopted school calendars for the current 
fiscal year and for a number of days in succeeding fiscal years 
equal to the number of days instruction was held or is scheduled 
for the current fiscal year, as follows: 
(a) A certificate attached to an appropriation measure 
under this section shall cover only the fiscal year in which the 
appropriation measure is effective and shall not consider the 
renewal or replacement of an existing levy as the authority to 
levy taxes that are subject to appropriation in the current 
fiscal year unless the renewal or replacement levy has been 
approved by the electors and is subject to appropriation in the 
current fiscal year. 
(b) A certificate attached, in accordance with this 
section, to any qualifying contract shall cover the term of the 
contract. 
(c) A certificate attached under this section to a wage or 
salary schedule shall cover the term of the schedule. 
If the board of education has not adopted a school 
calendar for the school year beginning on the first day of the 
fiscal year in which a certificate is required, the certificate 
attached to an appropriation measure shall include the number of 
days on which instruction was held in the preceding fiscal year 
and other certificates required under this section shall include 
that number of days for the fiscal year in which the certificate 
is required and any succeeding fiscal years that the certificate 
must cover. 
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The certificate shall be signed by the treasurer and 
president of the board of education and the superintendent of 
the school district, unless the district is in a state of fiscal 
emergency declared under Chapter 3316. of the Revised Code. In 
that case, the certificate shall be signed by a member of the 
district's financial planning and supervision commission who is 
designated by the commission for this purpose. 
(2) In lieu of the certificate required under division (B) 
of this section, an alternative certificate stating the 
following may be attached: 
(a) The contract is a multi-year contract for materials, 
equipment, or nonpayroll services essential to the education 
program of the district; 
(b) The multi-year contract demonstrates savings over the 
duration of the contract as compared to costs that otherwise 
would have been demonstrated in a single year contract, and the 
terms will allow the district to reduce the deficit it is 
currently facing in future years as demonstrated in its five-
year forecast adopted in accordance with section 5705.391 of the 
Revised Code. 
The certificate shall be signed by the treasurer and 
president of the board of education and the superintendent of 
the school district, unless the district is in a state of fiscal 
emergency declared under Chapter 3316. of the Revised Code. In 
that case, the certificate shall be signed by a member of the 
district's financial planning and supervision commission who is 
designated by the commission for this purpose. 
(C) Every qualifying contract made or wage or salary 
schedule adopted or put into effect without such a certificate 
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shall be void, and no payment of any amount due thereon shall be 
made. 
(D) The department of education and workforce and the 
auditor of state jointly shall adopt rules governing the methods 
by which treasurers, presidents of boards of education, 
superintendents, and members of financial planning and 
supervision commissions shall estimate revenue and determine 
whether such revenue is sufficient to provide necessary 
operating revenue for the purpose of making certifications 
required by this section. 
(E) The auditor of state shall be responsible for 
determining whether school districts are in compliance with this 
section. At the time a school district is audited pursuant to 
section 117.11 of the Revised Code, the auditor of state shall 
review each certificate issued under this section since the 
district's last audit, and the appropriation measure, contract, 
or wage and salary schedule to which such certificate was 
attached. If the auditor of state determines that a school 
district has not complied with this section with respect to any 
qualifying contract or wage or salary schedule, the auditor of 
state shall notify the prosecuting attorney for the county, the 
city director of law, or other chief law officer of the school 
district. That officer may file a civil action in any court of 
appropriate jurisdiction to seek a declaration that the contract 
or wage or salary schedule is void, to recover for the school 
district from the payee the amount of payments already made 
under it, or both, except that the officer shall not seek to 
recover payments made under any collective bargaining agreement 
entered into under Chapter 4117. of the Revised Code. If the 
officer does not file such an action within one hundred twenty 
days after receiving notice of noncompliance from the auditor of 
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state, any taxpayer may institute the action in the taxpayer's 
own name on behalf of the school district. 
(F) This section does not apply to any contract or 
increase in any wage or salary schedule that is necessary in 
order to enable a board of education to comply with division (B) 
of section 3317.13 of the Revised Code, provided the contract or 
increase does not exceed the amount required to be paid to be in 
compliance with such divisionthat section. 
(G) Any officer, employee, or other person who expends or 
authorizes the expenditure of any public funds or authorizes or 
executes any contract or schedule contrary to this section, 
expends or authorizes the expenditure of any public funds on the 
void contract or schedule, or issues a certificate under this 
section which contains any false statements is liable to the 
school district for the full amount paid from the district's 
funds on the contract or schedule. The officer, employee, or 
other person is jointly and severally liable in person and upon 
any official bond that the officer, employee, or other person 
has given to the school district to the extent of any payments 
on the void claim, not to exceed ten thousand dollars. However, 
no officer, employee, or other person shall be liable for a 
mistaken estimate of available resources made in good faith and 
based upon reasonable grounds. If an officer, employee, or other 
person is found to have complied with rules jointly adopted by 
the department of education and workforce and the auditor of 
state under this section governing methods by which revenue 
shall be estimated and determined sufficient to provide 
necessary operating revenue for the purpose of making 
certifications required by this section, the officer, employee, 
or other person shall not be liable under this section if the 
estimates and determinations made according to those rules do 
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not, in fact, conform with actual revenue. The prosecuting 
attorney of the county, the city director of law, or other chief 
law officer of the district shall enforce this liability by 
civil action brought in any court of appropriate jurisdiction in 
the name of and on behalf of the school district. If the 
prosecuting attorney, city director of law, or other chief law 
officer of the district fails, upon the written request of any 
taxpayer, to institute action for the enforcement of the 
liability, the attorney general, or the taxpayer in the 
taxpayer's own name, may institute the action on behalf of the 
subdivision. 
(H) This section does not require the attachment of an 
additional certificate beyond that required by section 5705.41 
of the Revised Code for current payrolls of, or contracts of 
employment with, any employees or officers of the school 
district. 
This section does not require the attachment of a 
certificate to a temporary appropriation measure if all of the 
following apply: 
(1) The amount appropriated does not exceed twenty-five 
per cent of the total amount from all sources available for 
expenditure from any fund during the preceding fiscal year; 
(2) The measure will not be in effect on or after the 
thirtieth day following the earliest date on which the district 
may pass an annual appropriation measure; 
(3) An amended official certificate of estimated resources 
for the current year, if required, has not been certified to the 
board of education under division (B) of section 5705.36 of the 
Revised Code.
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Section 2. That existing sections 3317.14, 4117.10, 
5126.24, and 5705.412 of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.
Section 3. That section 3317.13 of the Revised Code is 
hereby repealed.
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