Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from medical mutual, providing more than one point four million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at Medd Mutual.

Com slash Ohio by the law offices of PorterWright Morris and Arthur LLP.

Now, with eight locations across the country, PorterWright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community, Morad PorterWright Dotcom and from the Ohio Education Association, representing 100 24000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at O H E A dot org, college students throughout the state are getting vaccines.

Businesses and food banks prepare for this summer, and the U.S. Senate race gets a little more crowded.

We'll talk about these topics and more.

And this week's state of Ohio.

Welcome to The State of Ohio, I'm Jo Ingles.

After more than a year of a state of emergency and with a law coming into effect in June that allows state lawmakers to overturn health orders, this week, there's just a single order from the Ohio Department of Health.

It pulls back some existing regulations and condenses the rest.

Governor Mike DeWine says this is an attempt to simplify covid-19 orders, but that Ohioans should continue to wear masks, keep distance, wash hands and gather outside if possible.

It seems to me that those are things that just drive how we how we stayed safe.

Use your common sense, first of all, and understand that the virus is still out there.

The mask mandate remains and there are new rules on mass gatherings such as festivals, proms and graduations.

The change keeps indoor capacity limits at twenty five percent, but removes outdoor capacity limits, replacing them with distancing protocols and keeping groups or pods to a maximum of 10 people after months of being considered a possible Democratic U.S. Senate candidate next year.

Former Ohio health director Amy Acton says she won't run after all in a written statement act and referred to the vitriol and hate in the current political climate.

And she called on Ohioans to be more kind in their words and actions.

This clears the way for Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan, though he hasn't announced he'll run.

Meanwhile, the Republican field continues to grow.

Cleveland area car dealer Bernie Marino is the latest to throw his hat in the ring to run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated next year by Senator Rob Portman.

Moreno released this Web ad this week announcing he joined fellow Republicans Jane Temkin and Josh Mandel.

Venture capitalist JD Vance and Cleveland businessman Mike Gibbons, who lost the primary in 2018, are also reportedly considered possible candidates.

More than 50 colleges and universities across Ohio are launching covid-19 vaccination clinics this week, including all 14 public universities.

The state has set a goal to vaccinate most college students before the summer break, State House reporter Andy Chow explains.

Thousands of college students are lining up to get the covid-19 vaccine, including here at Ohio State University's Schottenstein Center.

Gov.

Mike DeWine toured the shot to talk to students about the vaccine.

Students like Anne Marie Sibella, a third year marketing student who says there's a sense of responsibility among her peers at OSU to get vaccinated.

I was very hopeful.

I was just very excited to get here and get the shot going.

It's really awesome to see so many other people here doing the same thing.

I'm just very hopeful for a great future at Ohio State especially.

We're such a great community that I definitely felt like it was my job to kind of keep what we had instead of going forward, whether that's getting tested or getting the vaccine.

I just wanted to play my part in that.

To Win says Ohio is working with local health departments to make the vaccine available to every public and private college and university, either by holding vaccination clinics on campus or creating a connection for those higher education institutions.

The goal is to have every college student who wants the vaccine to get it before the schools go out in early May.

That's our goal.

And, you know, again, we think that what that does is it will increase the number of students who actually get vaccinated because they can get it on their own campus.

And that's a huge, huge thing.

Students say this increases accessibility and can be helpful for people who are returning home to a different state where it might be harder to get the vaccine.

Vaccinating students now can also help college leaders plan for in-person instruction in the fall.

D'Wayne says the state wants vaccinations to outpace a spike in covid-19 cases that's been recorded over the past few weeks.

DeWine says public health officials around Ohio believe the increase in spread is due to the new variants of the virus.

We don't think this is the behavior, you know, I'm looking at numbers every week and we are still at ninety three percent sitting right here at.

Ninety three percent of people in retail establishments or in these mass, so we're not seeing a tremendous change in behavior, Ohioans are doing a very, very good job.

We just have this variant and it's just more dangerous.

It is much more contagious.

Along with higher education institutions, the state is also working with local health departments to make the vaccine available for high schools to vaccinate students 16 years and up Andy Chow Statehouse News Bureau.

As summer approaches, things are looking up for Ohio's restaurant industry.

Ohio Restaurant Association President John Bacher says March was the best month for restaurants since the pandemic began.

That capacity at Ohio's restaurants is still limited due to distance spacing.

But Barker says the warmer weather is helping.

There are people out.

People are out a little bit more walking around on these warm days.

You see a lot of folks outside.

And now we're seeing these stories in the outdoor dining coming back.

The door is short for downtown outdoor refreshment areas allow customers to order drinks from a restaurant or bar and consume them outside on streets or sidewalks within a specified area.

Parker says restaurants have benefited from expanding their patios into alleys or even streets.

In some cases, people say this feels a little bit like Renault's.

Or maybe we're in Paris now.

I know that's a stretch.

You know, you got to have a couple of glasses of wine, not really to get there, but it does feel better and it brings a little life back to the city.

And so it's good to see.

One problem, though, is staffing, Barker says many restaurant owners say they are finding difficulty in bringing their former employees back to work.

Folks who have gotten the extended unemployment and now they've gotten the stimulus.

This is right out of the lips of many, many of the former employees saying I'm just going to take it easy for the rest of the spring and maybe into the summer before I reenter the workforce.

And so attention for all that really good.

It's helped people immeasurably, but it is having kind of an unintended consequence that right now I can't we cannot talk to an operator who says they are not having trouble hiring people right now.

Parker says the full turnaround for restaurants might not happen until next year.

He says his association is working with restaurants to recruit employees and retain them.

The onset of summer might be good for the restaurant industry, but for other Ohioans it marks the time when it's going to be harder to get the food they need to feed their kids.

Schools will be letting out for the summer.

So what happens to the children who get many of their meals at those schools throughout the year?

And what happens to their families who rely on food banks?

Well, we are very fortunate in the state of Ohio that the Ohio Department of Education, in conjunction with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, have been utilizing a broad array of waivers that are now available to us through the United States Department of Agriculture.

It is amazing.

I counted before I came over to do the interview.

USDA has granted over 70 different waivers on our child nutrition programs, everything from waiving area eligibility to on site meal consumption.

So the challenge is going to be are those community based and faith based organizations as well as schools going to open for the summer food service program this year?

So, again, we're doing a lot of outreach.

We recognize that a lot of communities have not gone back to traditional school models.

Some are going to be holding summer school.

So we're working with those organizations to make sure that the summer food service program for children is widely available.

And where it is not, then food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens will step in to feed those children who are missing their school meals.

Is the need as high as it was last summer or is it higher?

It ebbs and flows, certainly.

We saw almost immediately when the stimulus checks were issued, those survival checks, the demand fell off a little bit.

But again, it was really a decision for families individually to make a decision about whether they were going to use those dollars to replenish their pantries and go to the store where they're going to catch up on bills.

So it's been varied across the state.

I was out in Newark last week and talking to families that were there, picking up food from the Newark County, the Newark Food Pantry Network.

And many said that they use the stimulus checks just to catch up on past due rent.

Certainly the US Pulse survey that's been issued almost monthly since the pandemic began and this comes out of household surveys found that.

Thirty two percent of Ohioans, more than two point seven million Ohioans were struggling just to be able to meet basic household necessities.

Again, that's rent, utilities, food, medication, health care.

You mentioned the locations.

Typically, when you do that summer feeding program with the kids, you do it in schools, but a lot of the schools are closed.

So what are you doing about locations this summer?

Some of our food banks will be doing not only meal prep, but also providing summer food service program sites that will be going into communities, working with libraries who have really been have a huge expansion within the library network, Parks and Recreation, local faith based organizations.

And again, the United States Department of Agriculture has waived a lot of the regulations to make it easier.

The issue is, will those organizations, traditional organizations and nonprofit organizations return and operate programs this summer?

If not, we're going to be expanding other things, certainly emergency food distribution, making sure that families with children are enrolled in or dissipating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or the food stamp program that are currently not receiving those benefits.

You right now, you have the Ohio National Guard and they're in there helping and distribution at these food banks.

Are they going to be helping with the summer program?

And are your volunteers coming back?

Is they're getting vaccinated house all that working right now?

We are blessed that the governors emergency order and as long as well as the additional federal funds that came through to support the National Guard, we anticipate having them at a reduced complement on this hunger relief mission through September.

We are gradually trying to return to as normal as normal can be.

And again, as more of our senior volunteers get their vaccinations and feel comfortable and returning, then we'll be able to transition again without the National Guard.

But they have been an absolute godsend.

Over 500 soldiers and airmen continue to serve in communities across the state of Ohio.

So, again, they're doing some transport.

Not sure if they're going to be doing summer meal programs.

But again, we are recruiting volunteers.

If you have time this summer, please contact your local food bank.

If not, call the association at six one four two two one four three three six.

And we'd love to connect you with volunteer opportunities in your community.

OK, that's great.

Earlier when we were talking off camera, you had said that Senate bill twenty two, which the legislature passed, takes away authority from the governor on health orders.

You had said that that is going to have some effect on food programs.

Can you explain that one of the provisions that the United States Department of Agriculture provided to states was a snap supplemental emergency allotment, meaning that individuals who were not receiving the maximum amount were able to get additional snap benefits.

But part of that condition is that the state had to have an emergency disaster declaration.

So, again, one of the potential unintended consequences, if the legislature doesn't act to extend that, the more than one one point five million Ohioans would lose access to about one hundred million dollars a month and one hundred percent federally funded food assistance benefits.

So obviously, you're going to be doing everything in your power to make sure they do extend that right?

Absolutely.

And again, as we meet with legislators and communicate with them during the budget process, and we believe this is still a very fluid process, I think, as it Senate bill.

Twenty two, that veto override, I don't think people were really clear about it.

We really weren't clear that it was tied directly to this federal provision of the emergency snap allotment.

So we're educating the members to let them know.

One hundred million dollars a month of one hundred percent federally funded food assistance is a lot to have to refill fill that gap if we're not successful in getting that extended.

Do you think there's a lot of things like that out there that that are going to fall through the cracks if if these orders expire and are not renewed?

I think that that the administration certainly it's our understanding that Governor Duyn and his staff are looking at it.

There's a lot here to have to unpack.

As I said to you, USDA has granted over 70 different waiver provisions just and their complement of federal nutrition programs to.

Again, each one of these options or waiver provisions have to be examined to determine exactly what's linked and what's not link between the federal disaster orders and as well as the state.

And last question, Senate Bill 17, it makes some changes in the way requirements are for the SNAP program.

It also makes changes in what recipients need to do to qualify for that program.

Can you talk a little bit about what that's doing and how that works and what your stand is on it?

We currently are opposed to Senate Bill 17.

I think again here, if you look at the SNAP program, it has one of the highest thresholds as far as eligibility determination.

In fact, somebody doesn't even get benefits until their identification as well as their income and employment is verified.

The state uses some 14 different data sets to look at, and that's fourteen federal and five state data sets to determine whether the individual is actually eligible.

The other thing is it's going to drive up the administrative costs and not provide one additional meal or one additional dollar in federal food assistance benefits.

So, as I said before, other federal programs should aspire to the low error rates that the SNAP program has.

And we are really concerned that here again, we may be looking at some very unintended consequences that would drive eligible people out of the program instead of investing in the program.

So at this point, we are continuing to work with the sponsor.

But the state has other pressing issues.

And again, the food stamp program has the that has the highest threshold of eligibility determination, has the lowest error rates, possible benefits are 100 percent federally funded and only the poorest of the poor receive benefits.

Ohio is launching a new program aimed at coordinating care for kids with complex mental and behavioral health issues, which has been discussed on this show in the last few weeks.

The Ohio Rise program is part of a plan to keep families intact while seeking treatment.

In the past, some parents of children with serious mental health issues have had to give up custody of their kids in order to qualify for funds needed for care.

Or they had to send their children to a Kongregate care setting like a group home in 2014.

My wife and I were forced to surrender custody of our 16 year old son, Andrew, when his violent outbursts and behaviors became too extreme to address at home in addition to autism and also has a severe intellectual disability.

He's nonverbal and he has several mental illnesses.

Now, over the course of his childhood, we worked hard to meet his needs and to create a loving and nurturing environment for him.

But after some especially violent outbursts at home and at school, we were told it was no longer safe to have them in our home and that he needed out of home residential treatment.

Andrew's Medicaid waiver wouldn't assist with that.

Neither would our family's private insurance.

We were told that our only option was to surrender custody to our county's children services agency.

Making that phone call is the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life.

Now, my family, like many in our situation, struggled for so long in silence, isolated and afraid of what would happen to Andrew once we started down that path.

That fear turned to sorrow once we surrendered custody and Andrew was sent to a facility over two hours away from our home, and I remember that first weekend he was away, we drove down and they told us we couldn't even see him, but we just sat in the parking lot just to be close to him.

And that sorrow turned to frustration when I attended meetings and I watched multiple agencies behave almost like they were playing hot potato with my son's health care.

Now, we visited Andrew every weekend for two years.

That's over twenty five thousand miles longer than the circumference of the earth.

I'm happy to say that now as an adult, we have guardianship over him.

He's doing very well in a supported living environment.

He's happy and we now have a great relationship with him.

Governor Mike DeWine says Ohio rise will make it possible for people like the Butler family to get the help they need without having to relinquish custody.

Habiba Grimes, CEO of Positive Education Program in northeast Ohio, supports the change.

I think that Mark very beautifully captured or powerfully captured a number of the struggles that we see with youth and families here in northeast Ohio who are in need of perhaps intensive care coordination services using a high fidelity rap model.

The families that we serve are facing multiple challenges.

The needs of their child are presenting concerns in the school system often as well as in the home.

The complex needs that they have may result in police contact and may also results in contact with the Department of Children and Family Services as the family and child are trying to navigate the needs.

We also see children who come into contact with our hospital systems.

Many of the children that we serve are experiencing suicidal thinking.

They are also expressing suicidal gestures and attempts.

And so we are seeing that the hospital systems are eager to have partners who can support the needs of these young people without them having to be placed into psychiatric beds or to stay in hospital beds for a long period of time.

For many of the young people we serve, they are in need of support from their community.

And there are financial barriers to the families being able to access some of those sources of support in the community where the child is living.

Our partnership necessitates deep engagement with each of those systems as well as the schools so that our children are able to stay in their home and have their families not overwhelmed by the needs that are presenting from all of these different presenting problems that include not only aggression toward others, but aggression toward themselves.

Grimes says she thinks the changes will make treatment more effective and are a positive step in the right direction for families, providers and communities.

We've been first energized by the cabinet that is in council that have come together across multiple departments in order to identify what the possible solutions are for the young people that that are being served at connections.

The departments can sometimes feel like a silo to the families that are needing the supports.

And so they're trying to navigate the school system and then and the Department of Developmental Disabilities.

In some cases, they're also trying to navigate, in some instances, the juvenile court system.

And so the the opportunity for a coalition of programs and and departments coming together to design a set of services that are going to work for children and necessitate the engagement and collaboration of each of the different systems, assures that the whole child and family can be seen, heard and understood and supported in Ohio.

Rise really powerfully represents that possibility through the collaboration that's occurring in the design of the service and then in the implementation that's being envisioned.

DeWine says it's better for families because the end goal is to bring treatment to those in need, allowing them to stay in their own communities.

Ohio rise as part of an overhaul of the Medicaid program, which is expected to take place over the next year.

That's it for us this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau.

Thanks for watching.

Please check us out at Statenews.org.

You can follow the show Karen Kasler, Andy Chow and me on Facebook and Twitter.

And be sure to join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from medical mutual, providing more than one point four million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at Medda Mutual dot slash Ohio by the law offices of PorterWright Morris and Arthur LLP.

Now, with eight locations across the country, PorterWright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community, Morad PorterWright Dotcom and from the Ohio Education Association, representing 100 24000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at O H E A dot org.