Week in Review 02-04-2022

CORONAVIRUS

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) announced Friday that 175,000 tests will be available through home delivery, as part of a partnership with Project Access COVID Tests (Project ACT) of the Rockefeller Foundation. This is the initial allocation. Eligible communities were identified based on CDC recommendations and state data, with information available at https://accesscovidtests.org/.

While case numbers trended downward in the final days, January alone represented 21.87 percent of COVID cases reported during the pandemic, along with 10.18 percent of hospitalizations, 7.64 percent of ICU admissions and 10.96 percent of deaths. The month saw 564,310 cases, 10,927 hospitalizations, 972 ICU admissions and 3,624 deaths. There have been 2.58 million cases, 107,370 hospitalizations, 12,721 ICU admissions and 33,071 deaths reported by ODH since the pandemic began. January set the record for most cases reported by almost 240,000 cases, with December 2021 in second at 325,878. The third through fifth months were December 2020 (279,317); November 2020 (205,366); and January 2021 (195,501).

EDUCATION

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) announced that the public comment period has opened for the Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) rules on the state report card system. The rules are being overhauled due to reforms passed in HB82 (Cross-Jones). Earlier, the State Board of Education’s (SBOE) Performance and Impact Committee launched a two-day work session to review ODE’s proposal for establishing cut scores and draft rules for elements of the new system, which replaces the A-F grading system with a new 5-star rating scheme.

Gov. Mike DeWine Monday, “in consultation with the offices of the speaker of the House and Senate president,” designated the boundaries for the SBOE districts based on the maps adopted by the Ohio Redistricting Commission on Saturday, Jan. 22 — maps that are still before the Ohio Supreme Court for review.

Ohio leapt a dozen spots from the middle of the pack to 12th for how the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) rates the state’s laws affecting charter schools, according to its latest report.

NAPCS reports annually on how state laws measure up to its model law on charter schools. Ohio previously rated 24th but now is 12th. The report notes the removal of geographic restrictions on where new startup charter schools can open as one reason for Ohio’s improved rankings. That change was included in the budget bill, HB110 (Oelslager). Previously, schools could only open in districts defined as “challenged,” meaning the Big 8 urban districts, districts with low performance on certain academic measures, and districts within Lucas County, the original pilot project area for charter schools in Ohio.

The judge presiding over state attempts to recover money from former Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) leaders is delaying procedural deadlines in the case to give time for an expected Ohio Supreme Court ruling on when public officials are liable for misspending. The attorney general’s office sued ECOT founder William Lager and other officials of the defunct online charter school to recover public funding, alleging Lager had an illegal interest in contracts between the school and companies also connected to him.