COLUMBUS, Ohio — In a bipartisan move for Ohio lawmakers, House Bill 33 included legislation that provides $5 million for public schools to provide free menstrual products and dispensers for their students.
What about online schools though?
Ohio Virtual Academy has been around for 22 years. The K-12 school has 15,000 students enrolled in its program.
Kristen Stewart, the executive director and head of the school said the law is not clear about online public schools, but Ohio Virtual Academy is still providing menstrual products to the 840 students that need them.
Stewart said 60% of their students would be eligible for free or reduced lunch at a brick-and-mortar school.
Since virtual school students do not get that food with online school, Ohio Virtual Academy is choosing to help them in this way.
School officials said the law gave them the idea to provide these products, whether they will be reimbursed or not, because they feel it's the right thing to do for their students.
They're hoping this action will get attention from lawmakers to include online schools more clearly in this legislation.
"We're going to be spending about $20,000 on this initiative and I don't expect us to get any of that back, but again, right is right,” Stewart said. "We can’t move forward educating our young ladies or even any of our students if they don't have basic needs, and that basic need is food, shelter and a way to stay healthy."
Stewart noted students turn to online schools to learn for many reasons, like bullying, their health or their overall learning style.
She said none of those reasons take away the need for a healthy environment to learn.
"Virtual schools are not always understood of what students come to us and knowing that a lot of our students purposely pick the school because it's the right fit, but they give up things to do so,” she said. “I think it's good for everyone to hear so that maybe some of these things, as legislation goes through, can be met.”