The state will allocate $5 million in funding to support Ohio schools' compliance with a new requirement to provide free feminine hygiene products for students.
Ohio laid out the funding in its budget for the 2024 fiscal year.
The passage of House Bill 33 requires all public schools and chartered nonpublic schools that enroll girls in grades six through 12 must provide free period products for the students on school premises. Schools themselves are to determine where those products are kept in the schools.
The new requirement is laid out in section 3313.6413 of HB-33 — a document spanning over 6,000 pages.
According to the bill, schools can choose to provide the free products to students below the sixth grade, but they are not required to do so.
Of the $5 million budgeted, the state has planned that $2 million of that will be provided for the installation of dispensers for the feminine products. The remaining $3 million is intended to reimburse schools for the costs of buying the products themselves.
Parts of HB-33 went into effect beginning July 4, but other provisions aren't effective until October 3; it's unclear when exactly the requirement to provide feminine hygiene products goes into effect.
This is the first time schools in Ohio have been required to provide any form of assistance for students' menstrual needs.
It's an initiative that has been mirrored by Hamilton County officials in recent years; in 2022, the Hamilton County Commission on Women & Girls announced the county purchased 110 dispensers from a local small business with plans to install 72 of those in public women and gender-neutral bathrooms in all county-owned administrative buildings.
The same commission also worked on the repeal of the "Pink Tax" in Ohio, a sales tax on tampons and other feminine hygiene products. It also pushes for free period products in schools and businesses.
"We never question offering free toilet paper and soap in public restrooms," Commission President Stephanie Summerow Dumas said in a 2022 release announcing the dispensers. "Why would we not offer the same essential access to basic hygiene products like tampons and pads?"
The American Medical Association reports the average lifetime cost of period products is about $1,800.
