Governor DeWine signs bills

COLUMBUS—Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed the following bills into law:

Senate Bill 58, sponsored by State Senators Terry Johnson (R-McDermott) and Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green), prohibits requiring fees or firearms liability insurance for the possession of firearms, or fees for the possession of knives, and to enact the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act.

Senate Bill 63, sponsored by State Senator George Lang (R-West Chester), requires a plaintiff in a tort action alleging an asbestos claim to file specified disclosures.

Senate Bill 95, sponsored by State Senator Michele Reynolds (R-Canal Winchester), amends the Revised Code related to remote dispensing pharmacies and other changes to the pharmacy law and to license certified mental health assistants.

Senate Bill 158, sponsored by State Senator Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland), adds a judge to the Adams County Court of Common Pleas, who shall be elected in 2026, and designated as the judge of the court’s Probate and Juvenile Division on Feb. 9, 2029.

Senate Bill 163, sponsored by State Senator Stephanie Kunze (R-Hilliard), creates and amends multiple specialty license plates.

Senate Bill 208, sponsored by State Senator Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson), regards open enrollment policy exceptions for military children, school district and educational service center purchases of technological equipment, virtual services provided under special needs scholarship programs, public school employee in-service training in child sexual abuse, pre-service teacher permits, and student and driver training instruction in peace officer interactions, to establish the Regional Partnerships Program, and to exempt home education groups from child care regulations and county and township zoning regulations.

Senate Bill 211, sponsored by State Senator Roegner (R-Hudson), enters into the Dietitian Licensure Compact and to establish a nine-eight-eight suicide prevention and mental health crisis telephone line.

Senate Bill 234, sponsored by State Senator Theresa Gavarone (R-Bowling Green), designates May as “Food Allergy Awareness Month” and as “Lupus Awareness Month”; to authorize certain peace officers to use epinephrine autoinjectors acquired by their law enforcement agencies; and to require schools and higher education institutions to advertise the national suicide and crisis lifeline telephone number to students, and to require higher education institutions to provide information about declarations for mental health treatment.

Senate Bill 237, sponsored by State Senators Gavarone (R-Bowling Green) and Nathan Manning (R-North Ridgeville), enacts the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act relating to legal actions concerning protected speech, to clarify small claims court jurisdiction, and to prohibit landlords from listing a minor as a defendant in a forcible entry and detainer action.

House Bill 7, sponsored by State Representatives Andrea White (R-Kettering) and Latyna Humphrey (D-Columbus), regards services for infants, children, and parents.

House Bill 8, sponsored by State Representatives D.J. Swearingen (R-Huron) and Sara Carruthers (R-Hamilton), enacts the Parents’ Bill of Rights to require public schools to adopt a policy on parental notification on student health and well-being and instructional materials with sexuality content and regarding school district policies for released time courses in religious instruction.

House Bill 29, sponsored by State Representatives Humphrey (D-Columbus) and Darnell Brewer (D-Cleveland), makes changes to the laws governing driver’s license suspensions and to the laws governing penalties for failure to provide proof of financial responsibility.

House Bill 37, sponsored by State Representatives Mark Johnson (R-Chillicothe) and Kevin Miller (R-Newark), modifies the law related to OVI-related offenses.

House Bill 74, sponsored by State Representatives Thomas Hall (R-Middletown) and Mary Lightbody (D-Plain Township), requires state approval of voter registration systems and ballots on demand voting systems for use in Ohio, to limit the circumstances in which a person may fill out an election-related form on behalf of another, to require a post-election audit of every election, to establish a temporary board to make recommendations regarding cybersecurity and fraud prevention efforts across state agencies, to modify the procedures for registering electors through the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, to require the Attorney General to certify the title of a statewide initiative or referendum petition along with its summary, and to modify the requirements for petitions filed by new political parties.

House Bill 77, sponsored by State Representative Bernard Willis (R-Springfield), establishes requirements and prohibitions governing the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles in Ohio and to establish a process by which an abandoned or derelict aircraft may be sold.

House Bill 106, sponsored by State Representatives Dontavius Jarrells (D-Columbus) and Scott Lipps (R-Franklin), enacts the Pay Stub Protection Act requiring employers to provide earnings and deductions statements to each of the employer’s employees.

House Bill 206, sponsored by State Representatives Gary Click (R-Vickery) and Monica Robb Blasdel (R-Columbiana), regards public school expulsion for actions dangerous to others, the automatic closures of community schools and the storage and use of drugs used to treat seizure, and to increase the earmarked funding for school choice program administration.

House Bill 238, sponsored by State Representatives Sarah Fowler Arthur (R-Rock Creek) and Roy Klopfenstein (R-Haviland), revises and streamlines the state’s occupational regulations, to revise the law governing the Board of Nursing’s Doula Advisory Group, to revise the membership of the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, to implement the recommendations of the Sunset Review Committee, and to eliminate certain Ohio insurance laws that have been suspended since the enactment by Congress of the Affordable Care Act.

House Bill 257, sponsored by State Representatives James Hoops (R-Napoleon) and Thaddeus Claggett (R-Newark), authorizes certain public bodies to meet virtually.

House Bill 265, sponsored by State Representatives Scott Wiggam (R-Wooster) and Thomas Hall (R-Middletown), revises the Public Records Law.

House Bill 322, sponsored by State Representatives Bill Seitz (R-Green Township) and Cindy Abrams (R-Harrison), imposes a civil penalty, rather than a criminal penalty, on a person who fails to register with the childhood sexual abuse civil registry, to eliminate the residence restriction on such person, to create the offense of grooming, and to extend the limitation period for prosecuting a violation of the law requiring certain persons to report child abuse or neglect under certain circumstances.

House Bill 331, sponsored by State Representatives Adam Mathews (R-Lebanon) and Tom Young (R-Dayton), modifies the law regarding village dissolution, and to modify official public notice requirements.

House Bill 364, sponsored by State Representatives Dave Dobos (R-Columbus) and Roy Klopfenstein (R-Haviland), exempts certain non-commercial seed sharing activities from the laws governing seed labeling, inspection, and advertising and to alter the requirements specifying which noxious weeds must be destroyed on a toll road, railroad, or electric railway.

House Bill 366, sponsored by State Representative Haraz Ghanbari (R-Perrysburg), enacts the Fight Organized Retail Crime and Empower Law Enforcement (FORCE) Act to create the Organized Retail Theft Advisory Council and an investigative task force, to create the crime of theft of mail, and to modify theft offenses and penalties related to retail property.

House Bill 403, sponsored by then-State Representative Al Cutrona (R-Canfield), creates new causes of action in relation to commercial motor vehicles towed after an accident, to exempt motor vehicle dealers from the prohibition against selling vehicles that have been tampered with under certain circumstances, to expand an exception to existing window tinting prohibitions, and to require transportation network companies to conduct an annual background check on their authorized drivers.

House Bill 452, sponsored by State Representatives Andrea White (R-Kettering) and Rachel Baker (D-Cincinnati), regards hospital violence prevention and related training, security plans, and incident reporting and to generally grant civil immunity for certain injuries to a person who acts in self-defense or defense of another during the commission, or imminent commission, of an offense of violence to protect the members or guests of a nonprofit corporation under certain circumstances.

House Bill 496, sponsored by State Representative James Hoops (R-Napoleon), revises the law governing property and lodging taxes and county auditors.

House Bill 497, sponsored by State Representatives Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) and Roy Klopfenstein (R-Haviland), makes various changes regarding county law, to extend the Erie county municipal court’s territorial jurisdiction, to modify educational requirements for public children services agency caseworkers, to extinguish a land use restriction and release an easement in Montgomery County, and to authorize the conveyance of certain parcels of state-owned real property in Knox County.

House Bill 531, sponsored by Beth Lear (R-Galena) and Brian Lorenz (R-Powell), enacts Braden’s Law to prohibit sexual extortion and to require service providers to comply with search warrants and interception warrants for electronic information.