Senate committee adopts amendment to split Ohio preK–8 teaching license into separate grade bands

During a hearing of the Senate Education Committee, members adopted an amendment to substitute Senate Bill 144 that would replace the existing preK–8 generalist license with separate license bands for preK–5 and grades 4–8 and add several related requirements.

The amendment, identified as Amendment 1360910 and accepted without objection, requires the State Board of Education to specify whether an educator’s license authorizes teaching in preK–5, grades 4–8 or grades 7–12. It also requires the State Board to issue at least one preK–5 license option that authorizes either general education instruction or both general and special education instruction, and to issue at least one grades 4–8 license that authorizes general education instruction. The amendment permits a district or community school to employ only individuals with at least one year of experience as a licensed classroom teacher to teach outside an educator’s designated band and removes a renewal provision that would have allowed licenses issued between Oct. 24, 2024, and the bill’s effective date to renew under the old or new bands interchangeably.

Bradford Findell, a mathematics teacher educator at The Ohio State University, testified in support of the amended bill and argued the change would allow teacher-preparation programs to offer more focused curricula. "Teachers need this kind of knowledge so that their students may learn with conceptual understanding because learning without understanding is fragile, inflexible, and often short lived," Findell said. He emphasized that combining preK–5 and 4–9 elements into a single preK–8 program would dilute preparation and make programs "overburdened" for candidates who enter with clear grade-level preferences.

Melissa Askren Etchhaus, president of the Ohio Association of Private Colleges of Teacher Education (OAPCTE), speaking also for the Ohio Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (OACTE) and the State University Education Deans (SUED), said the change would help address staffing and credentialing misalignment in middle grades. She told the committee the substitute bill returns a P–5 band and establishes a comprehensive grades 4–8 generalist credential so middle-grade candidates would earn credentials in language arts, math, social studies and science. "We are on board with the science of reading," Askren Etchhaus said, adding programs do not want to "give up anything" from current priorities such as math and civics instruction.

Findell cited state data showing middle grades math proficiency remains below pre-pandemic levels and urged targeted preparation for grades 6–8, noting Ohio’s K–12 mathematics plan released by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) earlier this year. Askren Etchhaus and representatives of educator-preparation programs argued a single preK–8 structure could deter candidates committed to early grades and make dual generalist/special-education preparation infeasible within standard program lengths.

Committee chair (identified in the hearing transcript as Chair Brenner) asked for any objections before the amendment was adopted; none were raised and the committee accepted the amendment into the bill by unanimous consent. The chair also authorized the Legislative Service Commission to harmonize the amendment with the substitute bill. The committee then concluded the third hearing on Senate Bill 144.

The hearing record contains additional written proponent testimony submitted to committee members.