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Board adopts school-counselor credentials and licensing-fee changes; debates bachelor's requirement for health and PE teachers
Summary
The State Board approved school-counselor credentialing language and updated licensing and late-filing fees, but removed a proposed bachelor's-degree requirement for physical-education teachers and tabled parts of the health-education rule for legal alignment with RSA 189:10.
The State Board of Education adopted an initial proposal revising credential requirements for school counselors and approved updates to educator licensing fees and late-filing fees. At the same time, the board debated proposed credentialing changes for health education and physical-education teachers, and members voted to remove a newly proposed bachelor's-degree requirement from the physical-education rule and to table some health-education curriculum details.
Steve (department presenter) introduced proposed updates to multiple educator-licensure rules. Board members generally supported the school-counselor credential proposal and voted to approve the initial proposal for ED 508.01 relative to school-counselor credentialing requirements.
Board discussion turned to physical education and health-education credential language. Members questioned a new requirement that would have added a bachelor's degree as a hard bar for certain positions (the transcript noted longstanding practice that nurses and others with associate degrees have served as health educators). Several board members said experience and demonstrable skills are more important than a generic bachelor's credential for roles such as health or physical education teacher. One board member suggested adding an experience requirement as an alternative route rather than a blanket degree bar.
After discussion, the board moved to approve the physical-education credential proposal with the bachelor's-degree requirement omitted and tabled the health-education rule language that referenced a list of curriculum items pending reconciliation with existing statute (RSA 189:10) and further legal review. The board also adopted 505.09 (educator licensing fees) and sections 509.04 and 509.05 related to late-filing fees for licensure renewal.
Department staff will review statutory references and return with clarified language to align any curriculum-specific lists to the governing RSA citations. The board asked the department to consider experience-based alternatives and to ensure rules do not conflict with statute.
