Bill Text: OH HB116 | 2011-2012 | 129th General Assembly | Enrolled
Bill Title: To enact the "Jessica Logan Act" regarding public schools' policies prohibiting harassment, intimidation, or bullying and to qualify certain homeschooled students for in-state tuition at state institutions of higher education.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 29-12)
Status: (Passed) 2012-05-04 - Effective Date [HB116 Detail]
Download: Ohio-2011-HB116-Enrolled.html
To amend sections 3313.666, 3313.667, 3319.073, and 3333.31 of the Revised Code to enact the "Jessica Logan Act" regarding public schools' policies prohibiting harassment, intimidation, or bullying and to qualify certain homeschooled students for in-state tuition at state institutions of higher education.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio:
SECTION 1. That sections 3313.666, 3313.667, 3319.073, and 3333.31 of the Revised Code be amended to read as follows:
Sec. 3313.666. (A) As used in this section, "harassment:
(1) "Electronic act" means an act committed through the use of a cellular telephone, computer, pager, personal communication device, or other electronic communication device.
(2) "Harassment, intimidation, or bullying" means either of the following:
(1)(a) Any intentional written, verbal, electronic, or
physical act that a student has exhibited toward another
particular student more than once and the behavior both:
(a)(i) Causes mental or physical harm to the other student;
(b)(ii) Is sufficiently severe, persistent, or pervasive that
it creates an intimidating, threatening, or abusive educational
environment for the other student.
(2)(b) Violence within a dating relationship.
(B) The board of education of each city, local, exempted village, and joint vocational school district shall establish a policy prohibiting harassment, intimidation, or bullying. The policy shall be developed in consultation with parents, school employees, school volunteers, students, and community members. The policy shall include the following:
(1) A statement prohibiting harassment, intimidation, or bullying of any student on school property, on a school bus, or at school-sponsored events and expressly providing for the possibility of suspension of a student found responsible for harassment, intimidation, or bullying by an electronic act;
(2) A definition of harassment, intimidation, or bullying
that shall include includes the definition in division (A) of this
section;
(3) A procedure for reporting prohibited incidents;
(4) A requirement that school personnel report prohibited incidents of which they are aware to the school principal or other administrator designated by the principal;
(5) A requirement that parents the custodial parent or
guardians guardian of any student involved in a prohibited
incident be notified and, to the extent permitted by section
3319.321 of the Revised Code and the "Family Educational Rights
and Privacy Act of 1974," 88 Stat. 571, 20 U.S.C. 1232q 1232g, as
amended, have access to any written reports pertaining to the
prohibited incident;
(6) A procedure for documenting any prohibited incident that is reported;
(7) A procedure for responding to and investigating any reported incident;
(8) A strategy for protecting a victim or other person from new or additional harassment, intimidation, or bullying, and from retaliation following a report, including a means by which a person may report an incident anonymously;
(9) A disciplinary procedure for any student guilty of harassment, intimidation, or bullying, which shall not infringe on any student's rights under the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States;
(10) A statement prohibiting students from deliberately making false reports of harassment, intimidation, or bullying and a disciplinary procedure for any student responsible for deliberately making a false report of that nature;
(11) A requirement that the district administration
semiannually provide the president of the district board a written
summary of all reported incidents and post the summary on its web
site, if the district has a web site, to the extent permitted by
section 3319.321 of the Revised Code and the "Family Educational
Rights and Privacy Act of 1974," 88 Stat. 571, 20 U.S.C. 1232q
1232g, as amended.
(C) Each board's policy shall appear in any student handbooks, and in any of the publications that set forth the comprehensive rules, procedures, and standards of conduct for schools and students in the district. The policy and an explanation of the seriousness of bullying by electronic means shall be made available to students in the district and to their custodial parents or guardians. Information regarding the policy shall be incorporated into employee training materials.
(D)(1) To the extent that state or federal funds are appropriated for this purpose, each board shall require that all students enrolled in the district annually be provided with age-appropriate instruction, as determined by the board, on the board's policy, including a written or verbal discussion of the consequences for violations of the policy.
(2) Each board shall require that once each school year a written statement describing the policy and the consequences for violations of the policy be sent to each student's custodial parent or guardian. The statement may be sent with regular student report cards or may be delivered electronically.
(E) A school district employee, student, or volunteer shall be individually immune from liability in a civil action for damages arising from reporting an incident in accordance with a policy adopted pursuant to this section if that person reports an incident of harassment, intimidation, or bullying promptly in good faith and in compliance with the procedures as specified in the policy.
(E)(F) Except as provided in division (D)(E) of this section,
nothing in this section prohibits a victim from seeking redress
under any other provision of the Revised Code or common law that
may apply.
(F)(G) This section does not create a new cause of action or
a substantive legal right for any person.
(G) Not later than six months after the effective date of
this amendment, each (H) Each board shall update the policy
adopted under this section to include violence within a dating
relationship and harassment, intimidation, or bullying by
electronic means.
Sec. 3313.667. (A) Any school district may form bullying prevention task forces, programs, and other initiatives involving volunteers, parents, law enforcement, and community members.
(B) To the extent that state or federal funds are
appropriated for these purposes, each school district shall:
(1) Provide provide training, workshops, or courses on the
district's harassment, intimidation, or bullying policy adopted
pursuant to section 3313.666 of the Revised Code to school
employees and volunteers who have direct contact with students and
are not subject to section 3319.073 of the Revised Code. Time
spent by school employees in the training, workshops, or courses
shall apply towards any state- or district-mandated continuing
education requirements.
(2) Develop a process for educating students about the
policy.
(C) This section does not create a new cause of action or a substantive legal right for any person.
Sec. 3319.073. (A) The board of education of each city and exempted village school district and the governing board of each educational service center shall adopt or adapt the curriculum developed by the department of education for, or shall develop in consultation with public or private agencies or persons involved in child abuse prevention or intervention programs, a program of in-service training in the prevention of child abuse, violence, and substance abuse and the promotion of positive youth development. Each person employed by any school district or service center to work in a school as a nurse, teacher, counselor, school psychologist, or administrator shall complete at least four hours of the in-service training within two years of commencing employment with the district or center, and every five years thereafter. A person who is employed by any school district or service center to work in an elementary school as a nurse, teacher, counselor, school psychologist, or administrator on March 30, 2007, shall complete at least four hours of the in-service training not later than March 30, 2009, and every five years thereafter. A person who is employed by any school district or service center to work in a middle or high school as a nurse, teacher, counselor, school psychologist, or administrator on October 16, 2009, shall complete at least four hours of the in-service training not later than October 16, 2011, and every five years thereafter.
(B) Each board shall incorporate training in school safety and violence prevention into the in-service training required by division (A) of this section. For this purpose, the board shall adopt or adapt the curriculum developed by the department or shall develop its own curriculum in consultation with public or private agencies or persons involved in school safety and violence prevention programs.
(C) Each board shall incorporate training on the board's
harassment, intimidation, or bullying policy adopted under section
3313.666 of the Revised Code into the in-service training required
by division (A) of this section. Each board also shall incorporate
training in the prevention of dating violence into the in-service
training required by
that division (A) of this section for middle
and high school employees. The board shall develop its own
curriculum curricula for this purpose these purposes.
Sec. 3333.31. (A) For state subsidy and tuition surcharge purposes, status as a resident of Ohio shall be defined by the chancellor of the Ohio board of regents by rule promulgated pursuant to Chapter 119. of the Revised Code. No adjudication as to the status of any person under such rule, however, shall be required to be made pursuant to Chapter 119. of the Revised Code. The term "resident" for these purposes shall not be equated with the definition of that term as it is employed elsewhere under the laws of this state and other states, and shall not carry with it any of the legal connotations appurtenant thereto. Rather, except as provided in divisions (B) and (D) of this section, for such purposes, the rule promulgated under this section shall have the objective of excluding from treatment as residents those who are present in the state primarily for the purpose of attending a state-supported or state-assisted institution of higher education, and may prescribe presumptive rules, rebuttable or conclusive, as to such purpose based upon the source or sources of support of the student, residence prior to first enrollment, evidence of intention to remain in the state after completion of studies, or such other factors as the chancellor deems relevant.
(B) The rules of the chancellor for determining student residency shall grant residency status to a veteran and to the veteran's spouse and any dependent of the veteran, if both of the following conditions are met:
(1) The veteran either:
(a) Served one or more years on active military duty and was honorably discharged or received a medical discharge that was related to the military service;
(b) Was killed while serving on active military duty or has been declared to be missing in action or a prisoner of war.
(2) If the veteran seeks residency status for tuition surcharge purposes, the veteran has established domicile in this state as of the first day of a term of enrollment in an institution of higher education. If the spouse or a dependent of the veteran seeks residency status for tuition surcharge purposes, the veteran and the spouse or dependent seeking residency status have established domicile in this state as of the first day of a term of enrollment in an institution of higher education, except that if the veteran was killed while serving on active military duty or has been declared to be missing in action or a prisoner of war, only the spouse or dependent seeking residency status shall be required to have established domicile in accordance with this division.
(C) The rules of the chancellor for determining student residency shall not deny residency status to a student who is either a dependent child of a parent, or the spouse of a person who, as of the first day of a term of enrollment in an institution of higher education, has accepted full-time employment and established domicile in this state for reasons other than gaining the benefit of favorable tuition rates.
Documentation of full-time employment and domicile shall include both of the following documents:
(1) A sworn statement from the employer or the employer's representative on the letterhead of the employer or the employer's representative certifying that the parent or spouse of the student is employed full-time in Ohio;
(2) A copy of the lease under which the parent or spouse is the lessee and occupant of rented residential property in the state, a copy of the closing statement on residential real property of which the parent or spouse is the owner and occupant in this state or, if the parent or spouse is not the lessee or owner of the residence in which the parent or spouse has established domicile, a letter from the owner of the residence certifying that the parent or spouse resides at that residence.
Residency officers may also evaluate, in accordance with the chancellor's rule, requests for immediate residency status from dependent students whose parents are not living and whose domicile follows that of a legal guardian who has accepted full-time employment and established domicile in the state for reasons other than gaining the benefit of favorable tuition rates.
(D)(1) The rules of the chancellor for determining student residency shall grant residency status to a person who, while a resident of this state for state subsidy and tuition surcharge purposes, graduated from a high school in this state or completed the final year of instruction at home as authorized under section 3321.04 of the Revised Code, if the person enrolls in an institution of higher education and establishes domicile in this state, regardless of the student's residence prior to that enrollment.
(2) The rules of the chancellor for determining student residency shall not grant residency status to an alien if the alien is not also an immigrant or a nonimmigrant.
(E) As used in this section:
(1) "Dependent," "domicile," "institution of higher education," and "residency officer" have the meanings ascribed in the chancellor's rules adopted under this section.
(2) "Alien" means a person who is not a United States citizen or a United States national.
(3) "Immigrant" means an alien who has been granted the right by the United States bureau of citizenship and immigration services to reside permanently in the United States and to work without restrictions in the United States.
(4) "Nonimmigrant" means an alien who has been granted the right by the United States bureau of citizenship and immigration services to reside temporarily in the United States.
SECTION 2. That existing sections 3313.666, 3313.667, 3319.073, and 3333.31 of the Revised Code are hereby repealed.
SECTION 3. The amendments to sections 3313.666, 3313.667, and 3319.073 of the Revised Code by of this act shall take effect six months after the effective date of this act.
SECTION 4. Not later than six months after the effective date of this section, the State Board of Education shall update its model policy to prohibit harassment, intimidation, or bullying adopted under section 3301.22 of the Revised Code to include harassment, intimidation, or bullying by electronic means.
SECTION 5. This act shall be known as the "Jessica Logan Act."
