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House passes parental bill of rights after heated debate over school disclosure rules
Summary
Lawmakers approved legislation affirming parental rights in education, and considered separate but related mandatory-disclosure rules for school employees after lengthy debate over a "clear and convincing" evidence standard and how disclosures intersect with child-abuse investigations.
The New Hampshire House on Thursday approved legislation establishing a parental bill of rights and separately debated related mandatory-disclosure rules for school employees after hours of floor amendments and public testimony.
Supporters said the bill reaffirms parents’ central role in the upbringing and education of their children. Opponents — including educators, child welfare advocates and some lawmakers — warned that certain language in amendments could make it harder for school staff to report suspected child abuse and could undermine students’ confidential access to school counselors and clinicians.
Lawmakers spent much of the morning and early afternoon arguing over the meaning and effect of the phrase “clear and convincing evidence” in the bill’s definition of a “compelling state interest,” and over a separate, high-profile amendment that would require school employees to disclose information to parents on request. Representative Deborah DeSimone, the bill’s sponsor, said the measure “prioritizes issues that are of greatest concern to Granite Staters” and “affirms that parents have a fundamental right with respect to the education and upbringing of their children.”
Opponents said the provision as drafted would raise an unusually high legal standard for school staff to share concerns with child-protection agencies. Representative Raymond, speaking against the majority amendment, warned that “clear and convincing is a legal term that means 90% sure,” and said that standard is typically used in termination-of-parental-rights proceedings, not routine school disclosures. She said the result could be that “a child disclosing abuse to a teacher would not be enough for the school to call DCYF.”
Debate also focused on a companion bill, Senate Bill 96, that would require school-district employees to disclose to parents information about their children. Supporters said the change gives parents a right to honest, timely answers; opponents said it could put school social workers, psychologists and counselors — who in many circumstances hold legally protected confidentiality with students — in impossible positions.
Representative Michael Potenza offered a floor amendment to SB 96 adding enforcement mechanisms for willful violations; the House adopted that amendment in a roll-call vote. Representative Kluger and others stressed the need to protect trusted, confidential relationships students have with clinicians: “The supreme court has already affirmed that children have a right to confidentiality in whatever they tell a psychologist or social worker,” Raymond said during debate.
The House ultimately voted to concur with the Senate on House Bill 10 (the parental bill of rights) with the body’s amendments and then adopted a series of floor amendments and committee changes to the mandatory-disclosure bill. The bills now move on in the legislative process. The transcript records multiple roll-call and division votes on amendments and on concurrence with the Senate version of the parental bill.
