Ohio House Passes Pro-Family Draft of the State Operating Budget!

We have an exciting update! The Ohio House of Representatives has passed its version of the biennial State Operating Budget, and it's packed with incredible pro-family policies. 

You can learn more about the budget process below, or simply check out the current highlights of the Fiscal Year 2026-2027 State Operating Budget as passed by the Ohio House!

General Policy

• Religious Released Time at School

  • Places a minimum programming requirement for religious released time programs during the school day, such as LifeWise Academy and School Ministries Ohio.

• THC Reporting and Research

  • Requires the Department of Behavioral Health and the Department of Commerce to conduct a study with an Ohio public university to research the potential health risks of cannabis and hemp-derived products.

    • This includes but is not limited to research on the physical and mental impacts of cannabis, the impact of hemp on the youth, and the relationship between cannabis use and suicide.

• Innocence Act—Protecting Children from Obscene Content

  • Requires that any organization that provides obscene or harmful materials to minors must verify the age of the user.

  • Allows the attorney general to bring a cause of action against organizations that fail to do so.

• The Success Sequence

  • Allows public schools to teach students the “success sequence,” an evidence-based curriculum that helps students avoid poverty and promotes healthy lifestyles.

    • The evidence indicates that 97% of children could avoid poverty in adulthood if they graduate high school, get a full-time job in their 20s, and marry before having any children.

• No Obscene Library Books in the Kids' Section

  • Removes obscene material related to sexual orientation and gender identity from the kids' section at the library and ensures they're instead housed in an area that is not primarily open to minors.

• Pregnancy Resource Centers Tax Credit

  • Allows up to a $750 donation to Pregnancy Resource Centers as a tax credit.

• Only Two Sexes

  • Defines that there are only two sexes: male and female.

    • “Males” are defined as belonging to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell, and a “boy” as a juvenile human male.

    • “Females” are defined as belonging to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell, and a “girl” as a juvenile human female.

• Abortion Reporting

  • Requires doctors to complete an individual abortion report, whether it is done surgically or through the use of abortion drugs.

  • Reports must also include the total number of Ohio and non-Ohio residents who have undergone an abortion after twelve weeks.

  • Requires these reports to be published on a dashboard by the Ohio Department of Health.

  • Requires the annual abortion report to be released in March instead of October.

• Banning DEI in Medicaid

  • Prohibits using Medicaid funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

• No Funding to Promote Gender Transition

  • Prohibits the distribution of Medicaid funds to provide mental health services that promote social gender transition.

  • Prohibits taxpayer funding of youth shelters that promote social gender transition.

Education Policy

• Unused Facilities

  • Adds chartered nonpublic schools to the categories of schools with the right of first refusal to purchase unused public school facilities.

• Nonchartered Educational Savings Account (ESA)

  • Establishes a state-funded Educational Savings Account for students attending nonchartered nonpublic schools, valued at 75% of the EdChoice scholarship. 

• Homeschool Tax Credit Expansion

  • Expands the homeschool tax credit from $250 per family to $250 per student.

• Student Cell Phone Ban

  • Requires public school districts to adopt a policy banning student cell phone usage during the public school day.

• School Transportation Study

  • Requires the Director of Education and Workforce to establish a workgroup on student transportation. 

    • The workgroup shall monitor and review the student transportation system and develop recommendations for changes to better meet the transportation needs of Ohio students, published in an annual report.

What's the Budget Process?

Cycle & Fiscal Year

Ohio has a two-year budget cycle, with our annual fiscal year running from July 1 through June 30.

Each fiscal year is referred to by the year it ends, so that's why our new budget, beginning July 1, is called the Fiscal Year 2026-2027 State Operating Budget.

Drafting

The budget drafting process begins in January, six months before the current budget expires.

It starts with the governor unveiling his draft, which then goes through multiple revisions in the Ohio House and Senate. The budget is currently moving through the Statehouse as Substitute House Bill 96. 

Once the legislature passes the bill, the budget is sent back to the governor for his review. The governor has line-item veto power, meaning he can strike any single item from the final budget before signing it into law.

What's Next?

With the budget passed out of the House, the next step is for it to be voted out by the Senate Committee, and then it will head to the full Senate for a chamber vote. The budget can be amended in both the committee hearings and on the floor. From there, with the Senate's amendments, it will head into further deliberations, which could take months.

For more information, contact CCV at 513-733-5775 or contact@ccv.org. For media inquiries, email media@ccv.org.

As Ohio's largest Christian public policy organization, Center for Christian Virtue seeks the good of our neighbors by advocating for public policy that reflects the truth of the Gospel.

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