Are Claimants Who Are Attending School Eligible for Ohio Unemployment Compensation?

Able and Available for Work

Once a person is qualified for unemployment, they must meet certain criteria each week that they apply for benefits. These criteria include, among other things, requirements that the person be able to work, available for suitable work, and actively seeking suitable work. (R.C. 4141.29(A)(4)(a)(i)).

As a general matter, the available requirement requires the person to be available 24/7 to work full-time.

Training and School

When a person restricts their hours of availability to work because they are attending school, they run the risk of ODJFS determining that they are not sufficiently available for work to qualify for benefits. Ohio has addressed this issue in two instances.

ODJFS Approved Training Programs

Individuals attending an ODJFS training course remain available for work. Revised Code 4141.29(A)(4)(c) explains, “An individual who is attending a training course approved by the director meets the requirement of this division, if attendance was recommended by the director and the individual is regularly attending the course and is making satisfactory progress.” Further details regarding such training programs are available through ODJFS.

Attending School

If a person starts to attend school after their job came to an end, and they restrict their hours to attend that school, they may well find their benefits denied. However, Revised Code 4141(A)(4)(d) provides an exception for people who were attending school while working. To meet this exception, they person will have to show that:

The individual was attending a regularly established school at the time they became unemployed
The individual’s base period qualifying weeks were earned in whole or in part while attending school
The person must make themself available on any shift of hours for suitable employment with their most recent employer or any other employer in their base period.

This third test, the availability test, is ambiguous. However, the 11th District Court of Appeals explained and clarified that if claimant was a student during their employment, they will not be required to quit their schooling to be eligible for benefits. KOHOWSKI v. Ohio Bur. OF Emp., 11th Dist. Ashtabula CASE NO. 1191, 1985 Ohio App. LEXIS 6132, at *6 (Feb. 15, 1985).

Conclusion

If a person was attending school when they became unemployed, ODFJS should not deny their benefits merely because they continue to attend that school after applying for benefits.