l985-1993
About l00/613 districts banned corporal punishment voluntarily.
1993
A bill sponsored by Senators Dick Schafrath and Lee Fisher was passed banning corporal punishment September l, 1994 unless school districts followed a number of procedures. The law allowed parents, for the first time in Ohio, to opt out of corporal punishment for their children by following district notification procedures in districts maintaining its use.
1997-1998
An EMIS report and follow-up survey by the Center for Effective Discipline, found a total of 950 students were paddled in that school year, a decline from the 68,000 students paddled prior to the first corporal punishment law in l985 allowing local boards to ban its use.
1999
A Center for Effective Discipline study using reports on incidences of corporal punishment in Ohio public schools in l999-2000 and standards reported on state report school report cards cards found that 66 percent of all paddlings administered were from schools that fell in the lowest quartile of standards met.
2005-2006
An EMIS report and follow-up survey by the Center for Effective Discipline found 270 students were hit 453 times in l7 school districts.
2007-2008
An EMIS report and follow-up survey by the Center found 110 students were hit 131 times in six school districts. A bill to ban corporal punishment sponsored by Representative Jon Peterson (R-Delaware) was reported out of the House Education Committee but failed to progress in the legislature which was controlled by Republicans in both houses.
2008
The Ohio State Board of Education adopted a position calling for a legislative ban on school corporal punishment by a 17-4 vote.
2009
In June, 29 states had banned school corporal punishment including nearby states West Virginia, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and Iowa
On July 17, Governor Ted Strickland signed into law a ban on school corporal punishment in Ohio. The Governor proposed a ban on its use in HB 1, the state biennial budget bill, as one of his school reform measures in the budget. The Ohio House, controlled by Democrats passed the bill with the ban language intact. The Ohio Senate controlled by Republicans struck the ban from the bill. It went to a conference committee. The Governor's proposal included a ban on corporal punishment in chartered non-public schools. That part of the proposal was struck from the bill in conference committee but the ban remained. HB 26 sponsored by Representative Brian G. Williams (D-Akron), a mirror-image of the Governor’s proposal was ready to be sent to the Senate if the Governor’s proposal failed.
Corporal punishment was banned in all public schools effective October l5 2009 making Ohio the 30th state to do so. The Center for Effective Discipline led a coalition of 50 organizations supporting the ban. Many of the board members of the Center for Effective Discipline as well as the Executive Director and the President had been involved in the effort to ban corporal punishment in Ohio schools since the mid-l980’s. Ten bills leading to the ban were introduced during these twenty five years.
2010
Center for Effective Discipline became a part of the National Child Protection Training Center in 2010. Gundersen National Child Protection Training Center works to end all forms of child abuse, neglect and exploitations through training, education, advocacy, prevention and awareness, providing care and treatment for children, families, and adult survivors.