Week in Review 7-29-2022

Week in Review > Week in Review 7-29-2022

Posted by Thomas Perkins on July 29th, 2022

CORONAVIRUS

The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Thursday reported 26,610 new COVID-19 cases over the week, up from 24,465 for the previous seven days. Hospitalization numbers rose from 550 to 690, while ICU admissions had a marginal increase from 39 to 40. ODH reported 22 deaths, down from 39. Since the pandemic began, ODH has reported 2,918,366 COVID-19 cases, 120,890 hospitalizations, 13,862 ICU admissions and 38,981 deaths. The Ohio Hospital Association (OHA) lists 1,166 current hospital patients who tested positive and 147 ICU patients. At the national level, President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 Thursday. In a video, Biden said he has received two vaccination doses and two booster shots. His symptoms are “mild” and he continues to work. The Biden administration also released a letter from the White House physician saying Biden has been recommended to use Paxlovid as a treatment.

EDUCATION

A House-passed bill would require athletics coaches at public schools and private schools with state charters to complete a student mental health training course approved by the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS). The House approved HB492 (Loychik-Pavliga) before leaving for summer break, sending the legislation to the Senate for consideration this fall.

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) recently announced a new page on its website dedicated to publicizing resources for families of students with disabilities. ODE says the page will be regularly updated with new information as it becomes available. The page is available at https://tinyurl.com/2p9bfx9e.

A coalition of two dozen organizations again Monday urged Gov. Mike DeWine to reconfigure State Board of Education (SBOE) districts, saying the maps put into effect last week violate the law and should be altered to provide better representation to major urban areas. At issue in part is the lack of alignment between the board districts as designated by DeWine and the Senate districts being used for the August primary and November general election. The letter includes a “non-comprehensive” list of violations in this regard, with Senate District 1 split between board Districts 1 and 2; and Senate District 16 split among board Districts 5, 6 and 7, among several others. As the letter says, state law holds that “the territory of no Senate districts shall be part of the territory of more than one State Board of Education district.”

The Ohio Department of Education (ODE) said it will start taking applications in August to ensure the statutory effective date on continued flexibility in hiring substitute teachers does not interrupt hiring for the start of the academic year. In education omnibus HB583 (Bird-Jones), lawmakers provided a two-year extension of language that allows substitutes to forego the usual requirement for a bachelor’s degree so long as they are of good moral character and can meet qualifications set by their hiring district. Because the bill was signed just a few weeks ago, the normal 90-day delay until a new law takes effect means ODE cannot officially issue the 1-Year Temporary Non-Bachelor’s Substitute Teaching License until Friday, Sept. 23. However, ODE said, the law allows schools to employ someone with an application pending on a conditional basis for up to 60 days.

TAXATION

Ohio’s back-to-school sales tax holiday will take place soon, according to the Ohio Department of Taxation (ODT). Established in law for the first weekend in August, this year’s holiday will start at 12 a.m. Friday, Aug. 5 and end at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 7.