The Ohio School Design Manual is a comprehensive set of standard guidelines for the design of school facilities. The manual was developed by OSFC staff, in cooperation with architects and nationally recognized educational planners.

The design manual sets necessary minimum standards of quality for the state’s educational facilities and provides a flexible set of guidelines to serve the diverse needs of local school communities and the children they serve. The design manual is updated annually.

The Ohio School Design Manual is available on CD at no charge by sending in this order form or contacting OSFC at (614) 466-6290.

Recent editions of the OSDM are also available for downloading by chapter. These files are large and may take awhile to load. Because of the file size, some chapters are divided into multiple parts in the online version.

2013 Ohio School Design Manual (Update only)

2012 Ohio School Design Manual

2011 Ohio School Design Manual

2010 Ohio School Design Manual

2009 Ohio School Design Manual

2008 Ohio School Design Manual

 Ohio School Design Manual Update Committee

The Ohio School Design Manual Update Committee has scheduled a series meetings to allow manufacturers, vendors, and suppliers to present products, systems, and materials for consideration by the Committee for inclusion in the 2013 Ohio School Design Manual. These meetings provide an opportunity for industry input to assure current best practices while establishing a uniform level of quality for products, systems and materials used in the construction of state funded public schools.  Participants should be prepared to offer specific language revisions to the 2012 Ohio School Design Manual.

The Committee will meet on

• July 18, 2013
• October 17, 2013

The meetings will begin at 8:00 am and last until 4:00 pm. The format will be 25 minute presentations every half hour throughout the day. The presentations must be scheduled in advance by calling Franklin Brown at the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission at (614) 466-6290.

The Ohio School Design Manual (OSDM) includes specifications for systems and materials, which are mentioned, with purpose, in a generic manner. Neither the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission nor the Ohio School Facilities Commission endorses products by trade name or source.  Materials and systems not categorically mentioned in the OSDM but which have the potential to be of good value to Ohio’s schools can be incorporated into designs through the Commission's Variance Process.