Editor’s note: This bill passed the Ohio House after midnight on Wednesday and is now headed to Gov. Mike DeWine for his approval. He has previously indicated he will sign the Parents’ Bill of Rights into law. An updated article can be found here.
The Parents’ Bill of Rights passed in the Ohio Senate on Wednesday.
HB 8 will force teachers and school staff to out LGBTQ+ youth to their parents and will limit the mention of LGBTQ+ identity in school curricula.
HB 8 was one of the first eight bills introduced by Republicans in 2023, establishing it as one of their top priorities for this two-year legislative term.
The bill requires that teachers and school staff – including school social workers, counselors and psychologists – notify a student’s parent of “any change in the student’s services, including counseling services, or monitoring related to the student’s mental, emotional or physical health or well-being.”
The legislation specifically calls out trans identity as necessitating parental notification, and previous testimony has affirmed that disclosures of sexual orientation would also trigger parental contact.
The bill further bans any mention of “sexuality content” in grades K-3 and mandates that such content be “age-appropriate” for all other grades. Sexuality content is defined in the bill as “written instruction, presentation, image or description of sexual concepts or gender ideology.” Nowhere in the bill is “gender ideology” defined.
Last week, the bill was amended to include a directive that all schools must develop a policy with regards to release time for religious instruction. On Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee amended that language to mandate that all schools find a time during the school day when students are able to leave school for religious instruction. The Committee then voted along party lines to send the bill to the full Senate.
Senate approval
The bill has been labeled by LGBTQ+ advocates as the “Unsafe Students Act,” a “Don’t Say Gay/Trans Bill” and an endangerment to all LGBTQ+ youth in Ohio public schools.
Opponents have included the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), who have repeatedly testified that HB 8 violates their professional guidelines and all tenets of a healthy therapeutic process by violating students’ “right and desires to privacy.”
Republican lawmakers have not been swayed by these arguments about professional ethics or standards, opting instead to repeatedly cast teachers and school staff as bad actors who are withholding information from parents, a theme they continued on the Senate floor.
“Schools should not have the broad authority to keep secret information about someone else’s child,” said Sen. Andrew Brenner (R-Delaware).
“Parents are the primary educators of children,” said Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland). “There should be no secrets from parents.”
Several Senate Democrats spoke out strongly against the bill.
“This bill has no redeeming qualities whatsoever,” said Sen. William DeMora (D-Columbus). “It puts students at risk.This might be the worst bill we have ever voted on in the entire General Assembly.”
DeMora also objected to the release time for religious instruction (RTRI) portion of the bill. Across the state, local school boards have struggled with how to navigate the advancements of Lifewise Academy, an organization that coordinates the removal of students during the school day to attend Bible classes. Lifewise’s curriculum specifically states that LGBTQ+ identity is a sin and “all sin angers [God] and makes Him sad.”
“This is insane,” Demora said. “Do we no longer care about the U.S. Constitution and the separation of church and state?”
Out LGBTQ+ Sen. Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood) hinted at lawsuits in response to the bill and expressed concern around the impact the bill could have on both students and educators.
“There are [young people] who are listening to us in this debate, because we’re talking about their lives and whether or not they feel safe,” Antonio said. “The question has been asked, ‘What do we fear?’ My fear is that more children will hear our debate, understand that we’ve changed the rule and understand that there are fewer adults that they can go to who are safe.”
Antonio called the bill ironic in light of HB 68, which prevents parents and guardians from seeking healthcare for transgender minors.
The bill passed almost along party lines, with Sen. Louis W. Blessing, III (R-Colerain Township) breaking ranks with his party to vote against the bill.
Sen. Blessing explained that he is a Catholic and stands in strong support of religious education. But he said that local school districts already have the power HB 8 grants to approve RTRI and that passing the bill would result in years of litigation.
“We will wind up with a stinging rebuke from the courts and the ballot or both,” Blessing said. “I cannot shake the feeling that the General Assembly is embarking on a journey that will result in more headaches than happiness.”
The Ohio House must now approve the changes made by the Senate, including regarding RTRI.
If the House does not approve the changes by the end of the 2024 legislative session on December 31, the entire bill would need to be reintroduced in January. If the House does pass the amended HB 8, it will head to Gov. Mike DeWine for his approval, which he has already indicated he would grant. 🔥
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