About ESCs

ESCs are required by law to: 

• carry out anything charged to them by the General Assembly and/or the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce.
• operate Business Advisory Councils where education and business leaders collaborate on programs that address regional workforce needs and provide work-based learning experiences for students.
• ESCs are responsible for approving all Special Education Cooperative Programs to ensure compliance and high-quality educational opportunities for students of all abilities.

Educational Service Centers (ESCs), as defined in both State and Federal law as school districts, are public education agencies.

• ESCs are local political subdivisions.

• ESCs are school districts under state law – 3311.055 Ohio Revised Code.

• ESCs are local education agencies (LEAs) under federal law – 20 USCS §7801(18) (ESEA, IDEA, HEA, Perkins).

• ESCs are governed by publicly-elected boards of education.

ESC are defined in law as, “(A) -The term ‘local educational agency’ means a public board of education or other public authority legally constituted within a State for either administrative control or direction of, or to perform a service function for, public elementary schools or secondary schools in a city, county, township, school district, or other political subdivision of a State, or of or for a combination of school districts or counties that is recognized in a State as an administrative agency for its public elementary schools or secondary schools. (D) The term includes educational service agencies and consortia of those agencies.”

As public entities, ESCs receive some state funding to support operations. While ESCs are government bodies, they do not have taxing authority. Rather, each ESC depends on revenues from client schools and districts, state operating subsidies and payments, contracted services to districts, and grants and state funding. The state operating subsidy represents the primary direct public funding received by ESCs. ESCs also receive a minimum per pupil fee transferred from each client school district. ESCs also may receive direct subsidy through the provision of services for gifted and talented students and special education transportation services.

• Keeping with the tradition of maintaining local control of public schools, ESCs operate under the oversight of a locally-elected Governing Board. The day-to-day operations of ESCs are conducted through ESC superintendents, treasurers and other administrators.
  
  
• Districts are able to realign to a different ESC (anywhere in the state) every 2 years, consistent with the state budget process, if they are not satisfied with the services they are receiving.
  
  
• ESCs don’t exist if not for their client school districts. Under section 3311.0510. (A) of the Ohio Revised Code, if all of the client school districts of an ESC terminate their agreements the governing board is abolished and the ESC is dissolved by order of the superintendent of public instruction.

Every Ohio school district with an enrollment of 16,000 or fewer students is required to affiliate with an ESC.

Ohio school districts with an enrollment of more than 16,000 students may affiliate with an ESC. All but one school district in this group have chosen to establish a primary service agreement with an ESC.

• Currently, ALL Ohio school districts purchase services from an ESC.
• Districts may purchase services from any ESC at any time – even ESCs to which they are not aligned.