Dayton Public Schools define steps in new graduation system

Board to vote on local piece of state’s newest rules for ‘readiness.’

Dayton’s school board on Tuesday will vote on their local piece of Ohio’s newest high school graduation rules — a set of three ways the state says students can show “readiness” to move on.

The new state graduation rules, which are complicated, are an option for current juniors and seniors, and mandatory for the class of 2023 and beyond.

To earn a diploma, the state says students will have to “do the basics” by passing 20 classroom credits, “show competency” either by passing one state exam each in algebra and English II or by meeting certain career/college/ military standards; and “show readiness” by earning at least two seals from a list of 12 (science, job readiness, technology and others).

Each school can create its own standards for three of those seals — the fine and performing arts seal, student engagement seal and community service seal. Last week, Erin Dooley, chief of secondary schools for Dayton Public Schools, explained the district’s approach to those three options.

“The purpose of (the seals) is to demonstrate academic, professional or technical skills that align with student interests and their planned next steps after high school,” Dooley told the school board.

Dooley said for DPS students to earn the arts seal, they’ll have to earn at least three classroom arts credits, passing classes like ceramics, theater, choir, band or

ple getting released from jail who were in detox but not in recovery and at risk when they were released.

“If we need to be going to a treatment center out of state, that’s what we were doing. You just do what you need to do to help people,” she said.

In March and April, Kitchen said, so many people were contacting the organization who weren’t sure what to do to help their loved ones, as everyone in all the different organizations and in government were scrambling to figure the situation out the best they could.

“If they couldn’t get treatment, or somebody didn’t reach out to get treatment for them, their bodies don’t handle their drug of choice at the same dosage when they have detoxed. So, they would go back on the streets, they would use how they were prior to going in jail. They overdosed and died,” Kitchen said.

The Ohio county with the highest overdose rate was Scioto County with 35.22 deaths per 100,000 people. Clark (16.63 deaths per 100,000 people) and Montgomery (16.07 deaths per 100,000 people) counties had the eighth and ninth highest rates.

In Montgomery County, the loss of life is higher than the year before but lower than the devastation of 2017. So far, preliminary data indicates 321 people in the county died from accidental overdoses in 2020, compared to 285 deaths in 2019, 289 in 2018 and 566 in 2017.

Kitchen said people working on recovery need support, accountability and help they weren’t getting when secluded in the pandemic.

“When you have addiction issues, oftentimes those are aligned with mental health issues, and being alone is not a healthy thing. Also, if you end up using drugs, you’re alone, and if you overdose alone you are probably going to die,” she said.