COLUMBUS – Ohio will require students to be immunized against meningitis under a new law, one of several signed into law Thursday by Gov. John Kasich.
It requires students to be immunized against meningococcal disease once they reach a certain age, which will be determined by the Ohio Department of Health. The requirement would start in the 2016-17 school year.
With few exceptions, the proposal would apply to students at public and nonpublic schools that are subject to state standards. Students could be exempt for medical or religious reasons.
The measure was sponsored by Republican Sen. Cliff Hite of Findlay. Hite has said his family learned how quickly meningitis can affect young people when his niece died hours after contracting the disease.
Kasich also signed a bill into law extending the time period for prosecuting rape and sexual battery to 25 years.
The bill signed Thursday also provides an additional five years for prosecution from the time a potential suspect is identified through DNA testing.
The legislation comes as the Attorney General’s Office continues to go through a backlog of untested rape kits, with numerous cases of DNA matches in a criminal database.