With only a few weeks left of lawmaking at the Ohio Statehouse this session, both GOP legislative leaders have said they want to pass the so-called “Parents Bill of Rights” before the end of lame duck, when lawmakers adjourn until 2025.
Under House Bill 8, parents would be notified of and could pull their children from “sexuality” content in classroom settings. School personnel would also have to disclose big changes in a student’s physical or mental health, such as seeking out counseling, among other provisions.
House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) said getting the bill to the end zone is one of the last priorities of his speakership, since he won’t have the gavel next year.
“I want to be solely focused on working to get these issues through the finish line,” Stephens said during a Nov. 18 press conference.
HB 8 cleared the House in June 2023 by 65-29. Rep. Jamie Callender (R-Concord) broke with the party and voted against its passage.
The proposal has undergone hours of committee hearings, most of that opponent testimony. LGBTQ advocates liken it to Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, with the potential to out students, while social work professionals say it would put undue burden on them.
Some of those hearings were in the Senate Education committee, where HB 8 has sat for more than a year. Most recently, in June, the committee amended it to more closely model Florida’s based on a legal settlement over that law.
Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said earlier in November getting the proposal done in some form was among his lame duck priorities, too.
“House Bill 8 is one of the things that we're going to try to move, the elements, the final elements of that have not been resolved,” Huffman said during a November press gaggle. “I know that the education committee and Sen. (Andrew) Brenner have done a lot of work on it and that's one of the things we'd like to pass before the end of the year.”
If the Senate passes it before they adjourn in December, HB 8 would head back to the House for a concurrence vote on those June changes, and then it would go to Gov. Mike DeWine’s desk. If the Senate doesn’t move the bill, it would die and have to be reintroduced next session.
A similar House bill stalled in committee in 2022, though this version is much further along.
