7 Things Ohio Grandparents Paid Full Price For That Grandkids Get Free
Remember paying a copay at the front desk before your kids’ checkup?
Your grandkids’ well-child visits usually don’t require it.
With prices up nearly everywhere, it’s nice to find things that went the other way for Ohio families.
Here’s what Ohio grandparents paid full price for that grandkids get free.
1. Overdue Library Fines
Overdue library fines used to follow a family for years, a nickel or a dime a day that added up fast on a stack of picture books.
Gone.
The Cleveland Public Library dropped daily overdue fines in 2019.
Cuyahoga County, Columbus Metropolitan, and Cincinnati and Hamilton County libraries all followed with fine-free policies.
A grandkid can rack up a two-week-late stack of graphic novels today and hand it back with nothing but an apology.
2. National Park Pass
A family vacation built around a national park used to mean an entrance fee at every single gate.
Every car, every stop, every fee.
The federal Every Kid Outdoors program now hands any fourth grader in the country a full year of free entry to national parks and federal lands.
That pass covers the fourth grader’s whole household at the gate, Ohio families included.
Free entry.
A family driving from Ohio to a national park now skips the gate fee as long as a fourth grader is riding along.
3. Museum Ticket
The Columbus Museum of Art charged every adult visitor at the door for most of its history.
Not anymore, if the visitor is 25 or younger.
A $4 million gift funds the museum’s new Access 150 initiative.
It waives admission for everyone 25 and under and for the adults escorting a child 16 or younger.
One ticket.
A grandparent can bring the whole family through the door and pay for exactly one ticket: Their own.
4. Season at Cedar Point
A season pass to Cedar Point used to mean paying full price for every member of the family, toddlers included.
That’s no longer true for the smallest riders.
Cedar Point’s Pre-K Pass gives kids ages 3 to 5 a complimentary season pass once a parent or grandparent buys a pass for themselves.
The family has to register online and visit the park in person to activate it.
No extra charge.
A grandparent who covers the adult admission can bring a preschooler back to Cedar Point all season long for nothing more.
5. Well-Child Checkup
A well-child visit used to come with a copay at the front desk before the doctor ever walked in.
Federal rules changed that math for insured families nationwide, Ohio families included.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires compliant health plans to cover preventive services with no copay or deductible at all.
That list includes well-child checkups and routine vaccines.
Zero dollars.
A parent can book a grandkid’s yearly checkup and a full round of shots without opening a wallet at checkout.
Why “Free” Still Costs Somebody
None of these programs run on nothing.
The Columbus Museum of Art’s free admission comes from a single $4 million foundation gift, spread across five years, not from the museum’s regular budget.
Library fines disappeared for a different reason.
Studies convinced library boards that unpaid fines were keeping low-income families away, costing more in lost visits than the fines ever brought in.
A grandkid’s free ticket usually means a donor, a taxpayer, or a business is covering the difference somewhere out of sight.
6. Ride to a School Activity
Getting a teenager to an after-school job or a weekend activity used to mean gas money or a bus fare out of somebody’s pocket.
Not for Columbus City Schools students anymore.
The Central Ohio Transit Authority runs an Educational Pass Program for high schoolers at Columbus City Schools and a long list of partner schools.
It covers unlimited rides at no cost, good on weekends and holidays too.
No fare box.
A grandparent picking up a grandkid from a shift no longer has to plan their whole evening around it.
Psst! How much do you know about Ohio? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Ohio IQ
Answer these questions on Ohio history and firsts. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
The world’s first electric traffic light was installed in 1914 in which Ohio city?
7. Game of Bowling
A summer afternoon at the bowling alley used to run a family several dollars a game per kid, shoes included.
Not this summer.
Bowling centers across Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Northeast Ohio take part in Kids Bowl Free.
Registered kids get two free games a day, every day, all summer long.
A grandparent still pays for their game and shoes.
How Long These Deals Last
None of these perks come with a lifetime guarantee.
The Columbus Museum of Art's free-admission funding runs on a five-year clock, through 2031, tied directly to that one foundation gift.
Cedar Point's Pre-K Pass has to be requested fresh every year, with a registration window that closes before the season starts.
Kids Bowl Free runs on a summer calendar too, and a center that participates one year can drop out the next.
No guarantee.
Worth checking each spring, not just assuming.
The library fine waivers are the one item on this list built to stick around for good.
A board can always reverse a policy, but no library system that dropped fines has brought them back yet.
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