Starting and running a small school in Ohio

What the statute requires

• Background re-checks are due by 5 September every five years — and do not cover volunteers

  ORC 3319.39 binds all chartered nonpublic schools by name, not just scholarship participants: a BCI check plus FBI unless a narrow exception applies, for every applicant for any position, and you may not employ someone before fingerprints are taken. ORC 3319.391 then requires a re-check every five years, due by 5 September, for non-licensed employees and contractors with routine child interaction. It expressly does not apply to volunteers, including parent classroom volunteers — a distinction schools get backwards in both directions.

  ORC § 3319.39(A); § 3319.391(A) · last read 20 July 2026

• Ohio home education now has no assessment, portfolio, or retention duty at all

  Send the district superintendent a notification within five calendar days of starting — parent's name and address, the child's name, and an assurance the child will receive education in the required subject areas — then by 30 August each year after. The exemption takes effect immediately on receipt, and the superintendent must acknowledge within 14 calendar days. There is no statutory requirement for standardized assessment, an academic assessment report, a portfolio, a curriculum outline, a materials list, or any teacher qualification for the parent.

  Where this is unsettled: Any guidance still describing an annual academic assessment report is describing superseded law. The one document worth keeping is the superintendent's acknowledgment for the student's final year, because state guidance advises pairing it with a home-education diploma used for employment or college admission — though no statute sets a retention period.

  ORC 3321.042 · last read 20 July 2026

What you file, and with whom

• The non-chartered certification is filed “on or before the thirtieth day of September of each year”

  OAC 3301-35-08(A) requires the school to certify to parents, in a report, that it meets the minimum education standards, and to file a copy with the Department of Education and Workforce on or before 30 September. The state's guidance describes a filing window running 1 July to 30 September. This one filing is substantially the whole of a non-chartered school's annual duty to the state.

  OAC 3301-35-08(A); ORC 3301.0732 · last read 28 July 2026

• Pupil names go to the district treasurer in the first two weeks of the year

  OAC 3301-35-08(C) requires an attendance report with the name, age, and place of residence of each pupil below eighteen, made within the first two weeks of the beginning of each school year, with mid-year entrances and withdrawals reported within the first week of the next school month. The legal duty sits on the parent; the school may file on the parent's behalf as a convenience — which most do, and then forget whose duty it was.

  OAC 3301-35-08(C)(1)–(2) · last read 28 July 2026

What you have to keep

How this part is kept in Pearspark: attendance is a register per school year, immunizations are tracked against the list your state sets, enrollment and withdrawal dates sit on the student record, and each student's permanent records stay retrievable by the family and by a receiving school even if the school closes. How records work.

• A visible “missing child” banner on an export would breach the statute while trying to comply with it

  Section 3313.672(D) expressly binds “a public or nonpublic school,” and the mark it requires must be covert: when records are forwarded, the receiving school must be “unable to discern” they were ever marked, and any request must be reported to law enforcement immediately. Note the trigger is permissive — § 2901.30(D) says police “may notify” — so you can be unaware of a report about your own pupil, and you have no duty to go looking.

  ORC § 3313.672(D); trigger § 2901.30(D) · last read 20 July 2026

• Every safety drill needs a written record of its date and time

  ORC 3737.73 applies to a public or private school with average daily attendance of 20 or more: at least six fire or rapid-dismissal drills a year (nine without smoke detection or sprinklers), tornado safety instruction, at least three school safety drills, and one theoretical drill for staff. Written certification goes annually to the local police chief or county sheriff. The threshold means a 19-student microschool is outside it and a 21-student one is not.

  ORC § 3737.73 · last read 20 July 2026

• Request a new student's official records within 24 hours, and call the police at 14 days

  ORC 3313.672 expressly says “public or nonpublic school”: collect prior school records and birth certification at initial entry, and request official records within 24 hours. If the records are not received within 14 days of the request, the principal notifies law enforcement of a possible missing child. This is a duty most schools discover only when a record fails to arrive.

  ORC 3313.672 · last read 20 July 2026

School-choice program conditions

• A non-chartered school cannot take EdChoice at any price

  ORC 3310.10 allows a scholarship to pay tuition only at a chartered nonpublic school, and OAC 3301-11-11(A)(1) requires you to represent that you hold a valid charter under ORC 3301.16. There is no waiver and no provisional route. If scholarship revenue is in your financial model, the charter is not optional — it is the first decision, and it changes your Operating Standards, credential files, and background-check obligations along with it.

  ORC § 3310.10; § 3310.01(A); OAC 3301-11-11(A)(1) · last read 20 July 2026

• Twenty unexcused-absence days ends a scholarship student's eligibility

  OAC 3301-11-11(A)(4) requires “sufficient student attendance recordkeeping procedures, including processes for documentation of excused absences,” and ORC § 3310.03(D)(3) ends eligibility after more than 20 unexcused-absence days in a year. So the excused/unexcused distinction is not administrative hygiene — it decides whether the money continues. You must also disenroll a scholarship student as soon as you determine they will not return, recording the last date they actually attended, because payment is prorated to that date.

  OAC 3301-11-11(A)(4), (A)(8); eligibility ORC § 3310.03(D)(3) · last read 20 July 2026

• Tuition rates file by 30 June — and you may not ask a family about poverty status at admission

  Next year's tuition rates go to the Department annually by 30 June, and if you charge families above the scholarship amount you must report how many and the average charged. You may not charge a family at or below 200% of the federal poverty level more than the scholarship — and you may not ask about that status at admission, which means the pricing rule has to be enforced after the fact rather than at the gate.

  ORC § 3310.13(A), (C), (E), (G) · last read 20 July 2026