Also on April 10, Governor Mike DeWine delivered his fourth annual State of the State address, which is the third consecutive year since the pandemic forced him to cancel his address in 2020 and 2021. While always a champion for children’s issues, this year Governor DeWine made this the prime focus of his speech.

Some highlights include:

• School-based clinics for mental health support for students – Emphasized the Student Wellness and Success Funds and the new Appalachian Children’s Health Initiative to serve 375,000 residents and at least 61,000 students
• Behavioral health workforce – Addressed how the demand for behavioral health services has increased twice as fast as the current workforce, needing 4,700 new counselors, 4,300 new social workers, 4,500 new chemical dependency professionals, and a substantial number of psychiatrists to meet the growing demands.
• The Comprehensive Maternal Care (CMC) program – Focused on the need to identify where more practitioners can meet the needs of the state where half of all births are covered by Medicaid and expand on the Ohio Department of Medicaid’s current work with 138 Obstetrics/Gynecology (OB/GYN) practices across Ohio covering over 35,000 Ohio mothers.
• Outcomes Acceleration for Kids (OAK) – Announced a new program to illustrate that Medicaid-managed care is shifting its focus to positive health outcomes instead of the business of care.
• OhioRISE - Described how some children in Ohio have extremely complex behavioral health care needs and how this program will continue to connect families and children with the most complicated care to providers, serving an additional 14,000 families since the last State of the State address. There are over 11,000 children getting intensive care, and over 32,000 children enrolled in the program.
• Family Connects pilot program to launch in 11 counties – Shared information on his new home visiting program called Family Connects that will happen in 11 counties across the state and enable every new birthing parent to be eligible for home visits from a nurse beginning three weeks after the baby’s birth. This aims to reduce infant mortality and address postpartum depression.
• Childcare expansion - Governor DeWine highlighted two different strategies focused on advancing affordability of childcare and building capacity of childcare providers with the creation of the Childcare Choice Voucher Program. It will be available to families with incomes of up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Level and an estimated additional 8,000 families will benefit from it. Once a family is approved, the voucher will help cover the cost of tuition for 12 months. Payments will be determined by the child’s age and the type of childcare, with families’ copayments being set at 9%. He also outlined an $85 million Childcare Access Grants program for providers to increase capacity through new or existing programs, complete repairs, or to provide additional support to staff and families to support children with special needs.
• Workforce development and marijuana - Discussed the recently passed statute that legalizes marijuana in Ohio and asked the legislature to further regulate the use of marijuana to limit smoking in public spaces. He expressed concern about the use of intoxicating hemp, commonly referred to as Delta-8, and asked that the legislature restrict the sale of these products to youth.