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Updates to attendance guidance and law

10/22/2024

Addressing attendance related to religious expression and school-sponsored extracurricular events

The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce has new guidance for addressing attendance related to religious expression days, school-sponsored extracurricular events, and cocurricular activities.

Religious expression days

Over the summer, Governor DeWine signed House Bill 214 into Ohio law, effective Oct. 24, 2024. The House Bill created a new section in the Ohio Revised Code regarding guidelines for how schools will accommodate student absences due to sincerely held religious beliefs and practices. This language does not replace existing requirements for students to be excused for religious purposes. It does, however, allow parents to notify schools of up to three days for their child to be excused for religious expression.

In addition to being excused, all the following are true for these three days: 

  1. Parents must communicate the dates to the school within 14 days of the beginning of the school year.
  2. The school must work to accommodate any conflicts the missing days have with academic requirements.
  3. None of the days may count toward the “excessive absence” thresholds that schools communicate to families under Ohio law.
Schools and districts must adopt and communicate a policy with families and students. The recommendation is to notify school communities about the need to create this policy and that it will go fully into effect next school year. In the meantime, districts and schools are encouraged to work with families in good faith by setting a deadline for when parents can make these requests during this school year (for example, 14 or more days after they are notified this year). 

School-sponsored extracurricular events

Schools and districts may have a policy to consider in-state, school-sponsored extracurricular events as part of the instructional day. Sometimes students must miss instructional time to participate in a school-sponsored extracurricular event such as a sports tournament or arts competition. School or district policy may allow these types of events to count as the student being “present,” and would therefore not count toward the chronic absence calculation. The policy should only apply to events sponsored by the school.

Co-curricular activities

Co-curricular activities (for example, field trips and events connected to credited courses like music performances) are included in the school or district’s graded course of study and are school-sponsored instructional opportunities. Students participating in co-curricular activities should be marked “present” for purposes of attendance.

Visit the Department’s website for more information on religious expression days and school-sponsored extracurricular events.

Contact Ohio’s Attendance Advisor Patrick Hickman at attendance@education.ohio.gov with any questions.