Centerville legislative report highlights bills on recess, fitness testing and cell-phone limits

A legislative liaison told the Centerville City School Board on an evening meeting that multiple state bills and a recent federal executive order could change school rules on recess, physical fitness testing and cell-phone use.

The liaison said State Representative Tom Young has cosponsored House Bill 304, which would broaden a high-school physical-education waiver so that club sports and other athletic activities could count for PE credit and would require 30 minutes of recess twice daily for kindergarten through eighth-grade students except on days with scheduled PE. The liaison also described House Bill 371, introduced in June, which would add elected officials to the list of adults designated as mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect.

"So recent legislative reports have focused on the impacts of House Bill 96, the state budget," the legislative liaison said, adding that the bills discussed were introduced this spring and summer and urging contact with members of the House Education Committee to advocate for the measures.

The liaison also described House Bill 322, the Ohio Fitness Test Act, which would require the Department of Education and Workforce to establish an annual statewide fitness test for grades 1 through 12 aligned with the most recent presidential physical fitness test. The liaison noted a July 31 presidential executive order creating a President's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition and said the order would push for reinstatement of a presidential fitness test that had been discontinued.

On cell phones, the liaison said new legislation would require districts to adopt a policy by Jan. 1, 2026, prohibiting student phone use during the instructional day, with two explicit exceptions: use required by a student's individualized education program (IEP) or Section 504 plan and use for documented health needs such as glucose monitoring with a physician's note. The liaison said the bill does not define "instructional day," and that the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) has posted model-policy guidance that treats any time on school property during a school dayincluding hallways, cafeterias and busesas part of the instructional day and recommends adult devices be subject to similar rules and that schools provide secure phone storage.

The liaison also outlined changes to religious-instruction "release time" laws that require districts to permit students to attend outside religious instruction for at least one period per week, limits on how many periods are allowed, and changes to the Ohio Administrative Code allowing districts to permit external educational materials on campus per the attorney general's guidance. The liaison said those provisions go into effect in September.

Other items discussed included new cybersecurity-policy requirements for public entities and a state working group on property-tax reform that is expected to issue a report by September; the liaison said none of the working-group members are current legislators, so any guidance it issues may or may not be taken up by the General Assembly.

The liaison closed by encouraging community members to contact their representatives and the House Education Committee to follow up on the bills.

Ending: The liaison said some of the measures will likely wait for movement on congressional and legislative redistricting after Labor Day, and the board will revisit these items as additional guidance and committee action occur.