Two Republican lawmakers have proposed a catch-all education bill that would make dozens of changes to current Ohio education law, creating an exemption for reporting LGBTQ+ students to their parents while eliminating more than a dozen annual state reporting requirements.
Reps. Gayle Manning (R-Avon) and Adam Bird (R-New Richmond) introduced House Bill (HB) 455, which would eliminate more than 20 education law provisions. Two of the more significant changes would affect the Republican-backed Parents’ Bill of Rights, which passed in the Ohio Senate last year and took effect six months ago on April 9.
If passed, the bill would change two portions of current Ohio law: changing some restrictions around classroom instruction material on human sex and sexuality and adding an abuse exemption for reporting changes in a student’s gender identity or presentation to their parent or guardian.
Bird co-sponsored the original Parents’ Bill of Rights last year, while Manning was one of only two House Republicans to vote against the bill.
Exemptions for anti-LGBTQ+ abuse
The law will still require educators and school staff to report changes in a student’s gender identity or presentation – or “the initiation or termination of services related to the student’s mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being” – directly to the student’s parent or legal guardian. However, HB 455 includes a reporting exemption.
An earlier version of the Parents’ Bill of Rights originally included a similar reporting exception for students who may be experiencing anti-LGBTQ+ abuse at home, but the safeguard was removed by the time the Ohio Senate voted to approve the bill.
HB 455 would reinstate the abuse buffer, allowing teachers and school staff to refrain from reporting students if “school district personnel have a reasonable belief that parental notification or involvement will place the child in imminent harm.”
In such cases, personnel would instead be required to “report the situation to child protective services or law enforcement.”
Restricting instructional material
The Parents’ Bill of Rights currently requires every school district in the state to “develop and adopt a policy to promote parental involvement in the public school system.”
Each policy must meet certain requirements, including “ensur[ing] that any sexuality content is age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate for the age of the student receiving the instruction.”
Currently, “sexuality content” is defined by Ohio law as “any oral or written instruction, presentation, image, or description of sexual concepts or gender ideology provided in a classroom setting.”
HB 455 changes that legal definition, clarifying that the law applies specifically to “human sexuality content” during “planned academic instruction.”
Largely, debate around human sex and sexuality content in academic instruction materials has been rooted in growing anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-transgender rhetoric at the Ohio Statehouse – along with a renewed push from House Republicans for increased representation of “natural families” that feature two married, heterosexual, cisgender parents with children.
It is not clear whether overt representations or symbols of LGBTQ+ identity or culture, like LGBTQ+ Pride flags or posters featuring LGBTQ+ characters, would be considered elements of “planned academic instruction” under the law.
‘Reduce the reporting burden’
HB 455 would also eliminate and remove more than a dozen reporting requirements for schools across the state in what Bird and Manning called an effort to “reduce the reporting burden” on individual school districts.
Other changes under HB 455 would include:
- Eliminating the requirement for the state Department of Education and Workforce to employ a full-time physical education coordinator “to provide guidance and assistance […] in implementing physical education standards.”
- Eliminating the Tutor Ohio Kids Program, a remedial tutoring program designed “to provide high impact tutoring to Ohio’s children, focused on accelerating learning in Math, English, Science and Social Studies, to remediate interrupted learning that students experienced due to school closures related to COVID-19.”
- Removing requirements for online schools to report students if they fail to participate in state assessments two years in a row.
- Removing annual requirements for public school districts to report compliance with certain state mandates and for charter-school sponsors to report annual expenditures.
In a written statement provided via her official email, Rep. Manning told The Buckeye Flame the bill “works to modernize Ohio’s education code by eliminating outdated educator requirements, reducing unnecessary regulations and ensuring teachers can devote more time and energy to delivering high-quality instruction to students.”
The bill has not yet been referred to committee. 🔥
Ignite Action
- The Buckeye Flame’s Ohio LGBTQ+ legislation guide for 2025 can be found here.
- To register to vote or to check your voter eligibility status in the state of Ohio, click here.
- To find contact information for your Ohio state representative, click here.
- To find contact information for your Ohio state senator, click here.
- If you are a young LGBTQ+ person in crisis, please contact the Trevor Project: 866-4-U-Trevor.
- If you are an transgender adult in crisis, please contact the National Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
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