The Ohio Nursing Board can issue temporary registered nurse and licensed practical nurse licenses to applicants who have not passed a licensure exam.

Licenses:

Those with expired motor vehicle registrations, driver’s licenses, concealed handgun licenses, and professional license renewals will have until 90 days after the end of the state of emergency or until Dec. 1 (whichever comes first) to renew it.

Excluded from the deadline extension are registrations for violent offenders, arson offenders, and sex offenders.

Schools:

The bill suspends all state-mandated K-12 student assessment for the 2019-20 school year. The bill also directs the Ohio Department of Education to seek a waiver from federal testing requirements. Callender said he believes that waiver will be granted.

School report cards are also waived for the 2019-20 school year. A ‘safe harbor’ is created to ensure data from the 2019-20 school year will have no effect in determining sanctions or penalties.

The bill also allows for public and private schools to grant a diploma to any student on track to graduate who has successfully completed the curriculum or individualized education program at the time schools were ordered closed. Similarly, the bill prohibits school from retaining a student in the third grade under the third grade reading guarantee “unless the principal of the student’s school and the student’s reading teacher agree the student is reading below grade level and not prepared to be promoted to fourth grade,” according to the Ohio Legislative Service Commission.

The bill also allows schools to use distance learning to make up for missed days or hours of instruction missed due to statewide K-12 closures. It also allows licensed special education providers to serve students through tele-health and other electronic communication measures.

The Education Choice scholarship program, known as EdChoice, will remain at the current levels.