On Wednesday, the Ohio General Assembly passed legislation aimed at improving systems from infant care to early childhood education across Ohio.
House Bill 7 went through a lame duck session with the transition the day after taking the measure was positively received in the Senate Finance Committee with amendments to remove financing provisions from the bill.
“We have been raising awareness and we are asking you to raise your game next year,” said co-sponsoring Republican Andrea White, R-Kettering, as the House agreed to the Senate amendments behind schedule in the evening.
Co-sponsor, state Rep. Latyna Humphrey, R-Columbus, called it a “good step in the right direction” and said supporters would push for budget funding.
“We want people to know this isn’t over,” Humphrey said.
Other amendments to the bill eliminated doula services for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, and while supporters were disappointed with the defunding, they expressed hope that next year’s budget will include items that will support continue the process of improving infant and maternal mortality and community commitment of resources to ensure better results for children in the state.
The bill continues to include guidance for the Ohio Department of Medicaid’s study on “reimbursement for evidence-based peer-to-peer programming that supports infant vitality” and a requirement that the Ohio Department of Children and Youth Services improve its processes, including central intake and referral to focus on home visiting programs and “encourage early prenatal and well child care” as well as parenting education.
ODCY will also be required to “rate” licensed child care centers and family care homes for Head Start or Early Head Start in the same rating system as Step Up to Quality.
The bill had bipartisan co-sponsors, unlike other child care bills that seem doomed to fail once the lame duck session ends, including a Democrat-led bill that would create a tax break similar to the federal tax break seen during the COVID pandemic and a Republican proposal to share child care costs in Ohio between employers, employees and the state.
Ohio’s child care system has been criticized as highly flawed, unaffordable and inaccessible to many Ohioans who need the opportunity to place their children in high-quality settings to contribute to the workforce.
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