Ohio Administrative Code and Rulemaking Procedure
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Ohio Administrative Code
- The OAC contains regulations promulgated by Ohio administrative agencies.
- Arranged by Agency
Sources:
- Free Ohio Administrative Code Online - Unannotated, by Lawriter
- Ohio Administrative Code (West Group, 1994 - ) KFO 34.5 O35 [Reference, Reserve, Ohio Room] Includes annotations, Ohio Administrative Law Handbook and Agency Directory.
- Westlaw (OH-ADC ) - annotated. Also see Administrative Code Index (OH-ADC-IDX) .
- LexisNexis( Ohio Administrative Code) -annotated.
- LexisNexis Academic>From the Sources Tab, specify geographic region=Ohio and select Administrative Code. Available in the law library to the public. Available remotely with a CSU ID and Scholar PIN.
Regulations "adopted by reference" are not contained in the Ohio Administrative Code. You must locate the text in other documents. This is especially true of the building code, which incorporates the Ohio Basic Building Code by reference. The General Index volume to the Ohio Administrative Code contains a list of documents incorporated by reference. The Ohio Legislative Service Commission or Ohio Secretary of State can provide the text of the regulations adopted by reference, if the text is not available otherwise.
Rulemaking Procedure:
There are two rule-making procedures in Ohio, one in ORC Chapter 119 (Ohio Administrative Procedure Act, 1943) and the other in ORC 111.15 . Rule-making procedures under ORC Chapter 119 require agencies to give notice of their intent to promulgate new rules and to conduct public hearings. ORC 111.15 procedures have no notice and hearing requirement.
The basic steps for Chapter 119 rulemaking are:
1. Agency gives public notice in the Register of Ohio of: (1) the proposed rule; and (2) the public hearing to be held on the proposed rule.
2. Agency files the proposed rule, fiscal analysis and rule summary with the Ohio Secretary of State, Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) and Legislative Service Commission. These documents are published in the Register of Ohio.
3. Agency holds a public hearing on the proposed rule.
4. JCARR reviews the proposed rule, unless exempt by statute. JCARR will tell the General Assembly if a proposed rule should be invalidated.
5. The agency finalizes the rule, and files a final rule with JCARR, Legislative Service Commission and the Secretary of State. The rule can not be finalized until 66 days after filing the proposed rule. The rule may not become final if the legislature objects.
6. The General Assembly can invalidate an adopted rule within 59 days after it was filed with JCARR.
For more details, see Michael Burns, An Overview of Administrative Rulemaking in Ohio , Ohio Legislative Service Commission Members Only Brief , vol. 121, issue 15, rev. 4 (Feb. 25, 2005); the library's Administrative Law Research Guide; and Ohio Administrative Law Handbook, (Thomson West 2007), KFO 34.5 O35.
Updating Regulations contained in the Ohio Administrative Code:
Step One: Keycite or shepardize to see if the regulation was held unconstitutional or otherwise invalid by a court
Step Two: Find any new regulations changing, adding or repealing Administrative Code sections. See below.
Finding Proposed Regulations and New Regulations :
Here are some sources to find newly adopted regulations and proposed regulations:
- Ohio Monthly Record (OMR) (West Group, 1977- ) KFO 35 .A23 O35 [Reference , Reserve, Ohio Room ] - Contains a rule number table and subject index.
- Register of Ohio - As of July 3, 2000, this is the official gazette to notify the public about proposed and adopted regulations. Searchable by rule number and keyword.
- Lexis - OHRGST -Ohio Register from April 2002 to current; OHREGS - includes Ohio Administrative Code and the Ohio Register; OHRGTR - Regulation Tracking, showing proposed regulations and actions on them for the past two years; RGALRT - Reg Alert, Nov. 1997-current, text of proposed and final regulations.
- Westlaw - Summaries and status information on current, proposed and adopted regulations is contained in OH-REGTRK and OH-STN-REGTXT ; while OH-REGTXT contains the full text of proposed and adopted current regulations.
Finding Prior Regulations
In the current Ohio Administrative Code, after the text of the code section, you will see a "history" or "credit" section. Here is a typical example:
The citations in this history section indicate the year and page number of the Ohio Monthly Record (OMR) where you can find prior versions of the regulation. The letters indicate what happened to the regulation, for example, R-E means repealed and reenacted, RRD means the rule review date and A means amended. There is a table of abbreviation meanings in the first volume of the Ohio Administrative Code.
Note that the last citation, "prior OLC 2.1", does not have an "OMR" cite. That is because the regulation was issued before the Ohio Administrative Code was created in 1977. Pre-1977 regulations can be obtained from the agency itself. Area libraries may have some of these old regulations. For example, "Industrial Commission regulations, relating to all workshops and factories, effective Jan. 1, 1967", is available at the Cleveland State University Library, HD7262.5.U62 O25 1967. The State Library of Ohio (part of Ohiolink) has the most complete collection of pre-1977 regulations.
Places to find prior OAC regulations:
- Ohio Monthly Record (OMR) (West Group, 1977- ) KFO 35 .A23 O35 [Reference , Reserve, Ohio Room ] - Contains a rule number table and subject index.
- Lexis ( OH - Ohio Administrative Code Archive 200X -fill in the year) has old copies of the Ohio Administrative Code, back to 2004.
- Westlaw (OH-ADCXX -fill in last two digit of year) has old copies of the Ohio Administrative Code back to 2002.
- Ohio Register databases on Lexis from 2002-:OHRGST -Ohio Register from April 2002 to current; OHREGS - includes Ohio Administrative Code and the Ohio Register; OHRGTR - Regulation Tracking, showing proposed regulations and actions on them for the past two years; RGALRT - Reg Alert, Nov. 1997-current, text of proposed and final regulations.
- Regulations before 1977 - See previous paragraph. Obtain from agency itself, local library or State Library of Ohio. May be reproduced in older treatises. For example: Ohio EPA: State of Ohio, Environmental Protection Agency, laws and regulations, 1974, available at the Cleveland Law Library.
Further reading: Ohio Administrative Law Handbook, Thomson West 2007, KFO 34.5 O35 . Ohio Legal Research Guide by Putnam and Schaefgen, Chapter 10, KFO75.P88 1997 Administrative Law Research Guide, section on Ohio. |
SA , July 3, 2007