Friday, June 18, 2004 Young offenders, Sunday sales covered under new Ohio laws
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The Associated Press
COLUMBUS - Gov. Bob Taft signed a bill Thursday that requires the state to give more information to school districts about paroled or released juvenile offenders.
He also signed a bill to lift Ohio's more than 70-year ban on Sunday liquor sales.
Both laws take effect in 90 days.
The Department of Youth Services now must release records about a student's offenses, including behavioral assessments and education plans, to the superintendents of the districts where the student could enroll.
Previously, the department could only tell a school district that a youth had served detention without releasing information about the severity of the offense.
The district office must keep the records confidential but can use them to determine whether the student should attend regular school or be placed in an alternative setting.
About 1,000 juveniles released from detention enroll in school yearly, the department said.
The bill was inspired by an attack in which a handcuffed 17-year-old on parole ran from a school and stabbed an Akron couple.
Little opposition met the effort to overturn a ban on Sunday liquor sales that dates back to Prohibition.
Under the new law, liquor stores will be able to sell alcohol from 1 p.m. to midnight on Sundays, but only if area residents already have voted to allow bars or restaurants to sell hard liquor on Sundays.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving was notified about the bill several months ago but decided not to take a position on it, said Doug Scoles, executive director of the Ohio chapter of MADD.