Legislative Battles: 5 Harmful Education Bills in Ohio
Ohio Statehouse's vicious onslaught on us, our profession, our students, and our communities.
On the 2nd Thursday of every month, CORE joins our partners at Honesty for Ohio Education for legislative updates and action items. Below are the bills coming at us that were discussed during October’s meeting.
HB 485: “Baby Olivia Act”
What it does: Requires schools to show a misleading, anti-abortion “fetal development” video every year starting in 3rd grade
Status: 2nd hearing to be held on October 28, 2025
Details: Sponsored by Melanie Miller who admitted there is not a parental opt-out option written into the bill, but was willing to add an amendment “if people want it in writing.” The “Baby Olivia” video is AI animation.
Action: Tell the committee to reject HB485
HB 486: “Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act”
What it does: States that when providing instruction on the topic of American history, educators in public schools (including higher education) may provide instruction on the positive impacts of religion on American history. It also declares the following to be true:
“The teaching of the historical, positive impact of religion on American history is consistent with the First Amendment to the US Constitution.”
“An accurate and historical account of the influence of Christianity on the freedom and liberties ingrained in our culture is imperative to reducing ignorance of American history, hate, and violence within our society.”
“Accurate historical instruction regarding verifiable, historical impacts of religion on American history is factual and is not proselytization or a violation of the First Amendment.”
Status: 1st hearing was held on October 7, 2025
HB57: Saving Lives with NARCAN and … LifeWise?
What it does: Ensures that schools have a policy for maintaining life-saving overdose reversal drugs in emergency situations. Realizing this would be a rare W for education, the legislature added more release time for religious instruction (RTRI), and many Democrats still voted for it.
Status: Unfortunately this bill is on its way to DeWine’s desk where it will undoubtedly be signed.
SB 172: Immigration
What it does: Requires state and local public offices/officials to allow the arrest or detention of anyone who is, or is suspected of being, unlawfully present in the US and allows those to happen anywhere in Ohio under any circumstances. This applies to arrests or detentions conducted by a federal, state, or local law enforcement agency or officer, with or without a warrant, and regardless of whether the proceedings are administrative, civil, or criminal in nature.
Action: Find your rep and tell them to vote no, and print some red cards.
HB 455: 568 pages of updated Ohio’s “Parents’ Bill of Rights”
What it does:
Still requires an alert to parents if their student wishes to identify differently than their sex assigned at birth. However, it adds an exception to not report changes if there is reasonable belief that telling a students’ parents would harm the child.
In those cases, educators must report changes to law enforcement or child protective services, which is a severe concern, especially for Black and brown LGBTQ+ youth.
Removes “other mental health” changes from required reporting.
Only requires parents to be informed of mental health updates if their student exhibits suicidal ideation, or persisting symptoms of depression or “severe anxiety.”
Clarifies rules governing “sexuality content” and adds visual instruction to the definition.
Currently, parents have the opportunity to review any instructional materials that involve sexuality content and can refuse to allow their student to participate. House Bill 455 would have parents review the content of the lessons, not the specific instructional materials.
Public districts would no longer have to annually report their compliance with various state mandates.
Charter school sponsors would no longer have to report their annual expenditures to the state.
Eliminates the requirement for DEW to employ a full-time physical education coordinator.
Removes the Tutor Ohio Kids Program, a remedial program that offered tutoring to students in participating charter and public schools.
No longer requires online schools to unenroll and report students to the state if they miss state assessments two years in a row.
It’s hard to hold hope in times like these, and with advocacy clearly falling on deaf ears, we are planning the next moves. Across the state educators are getting ready to fight, because we know one thing to be true: when we fight, we win.