A gulf exists between Ohio teachers and school administrators about the best way to address make-up work for high school students looking to improve final grades from the past academic year.

Teachers, through the lobbying efforts of their union — Ohio Education Association, have backed the bipartisan High School Education Recovery Act, which would establish a supplemental school year program that would allow students with the opportunity to retake or supplement the grades or courses they completed in the most recent school year during next academic year.

Groups representing school administrators and school boards, however, believe the bill gave no consideration to consequences such as building capacity or the effects on the students engaged in the coursework for the first time.

Barbara Shaner of the Ohio Association of School Business Officials offered testimony on the bill on behalf of her group and the Ohio Association of School Administrators, Ohio School Boards Association, Alliance for High Quality Education and Buckeye Association of School Administrators.

“Allowing students to repeat all or part of the previous school year will have implications for other students in their school,” she told lawmaker on the Ohio House of Representatives Primary and Secondary Education Committee. “For instance, under the bill, seniors who have already graduated could return to the school to repeat their senior year, despite what course grades they earned during the 2020-21 school year.

“While boards of education would have discretion on a case-by-case basis for each student, allowing those students to return could have a ripple effect on those rising seniors who have worked hard for their moment to earn scholarships or to have their time in the sun on their school’s athletic team.”

A student must be enrolled full-time while participating in the program, according to the bill, which is filed as House Bill 316.

The student may retake courses and supplemental courses under the program and may take any other courses the student selects, subject to the requirements of the student’s school district or school.

HB 316 also specifies that, although retaking a course under the program counts towards the full-time enrollment of a student participating in the program, that course must not count as an additional credit toward graduation unless the student failed the original course.

“Because of the stresses cause by the COVID-19 pandemic students saw their GPAs, extracurricular activity participation and in-person interactions suffer,” said joint sponsor of the bill, Dennison Rep. Brett Hillyer, a Republican. “Ohio’s students should not lose opportunities to attend colleges and universities of their choice because of the overbearing effects of the pandemic.”

He stressed that the barriers confronting some students the past school year do not translate easily to remote learning platforms.

“That is why we face the reality that while some students have thrived during the pandemic, others have fallen behind tremendously,” he concluded.

The bill would require an eligible student who wants to participate in the program to submit a request to the school district, community school, STEM school or chartered nonpublic school in which the student is enrolled for the 2021-2022 school year or from which the student graduated in the 2020-2021 school year.

The request must be submitted within 30 days of the bill’s effective date and must identify the courses that the student wants to retake or supplement, analysis provided.

Participating schools and districts must develop a plan for implementing the supplemental school year for students who submitted requests, including a temporary program for students who graduated the previous year.

Administrators and teachers would be required to determine which course or courses offered by the school best match the course or courses the student wants to supplement, notify the Department of Education within 15 days of accepting one or more requests and submit its plan for the supplemental school year to the Department along with any requests for waivers from state mandates that are necessary to implement its plan.

“We recognize that the 2020-21 school year brought with it many challenges that students have never before experienced,” Shaner said. “Yet we would be remiss if we did not point out the difficulty in making such decisions and the unintended consequences that may accompany them.”

HB 316, which is jointly sponsored by Democratic Rep. Dontavius Jarrells of Columbus, awaits further consideration by the committee.