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Committee backs technical fix clarifying foster parents’ authority in special education
Summary
The House Children and Family Law Committee voted to recommend passage of HB 178, a bill that removes redundant language from New Hampshire special education statute to clarify appointment of foster parents for educational decisions; sponsors said the change is clerical and not substantive.
The House Children and Family Law Committee recommended passage of House Bill 178, which removes redundant wording from New Hampshire’s special education statute to clarify language about appointing foster parents to make educational decisions for children in their care.
Representative Nancy Murphy, the bill sponsor, told the committee she filed HB 178 at the request of a Merrimack constituent with special-education expertise. Murphy said the change "removes confusing redundant language to better clarify the statute's meaning" in RSA chapter 186-C, section 14-a, paragraph 1, and does not change policy.
Committee members pressed on practical consequences. Representative J. Markel asked whether the bill should explicitly state that foster parents are not "sole and exclusive" decision-makers if a biological parent’s rights remain; he said parents of children in foster care retain some rights unless parental rights are terminated. Senator Sullivan said he read the statute as allowing appointment of foster parents only when appropriate and questioned whether the statute clearly excludes biological parents. Murphy and other members said the issue might be better addressed in separate legislation if substantive change were intended.
No members of the public testified on the bill. The committee took the bill into executive session and a member moved that HB 178 be reported "ought to pass." The motion passed by voice vote.
The bill’s sponsor and committee members emphasized that HB 178 is intended as a textual cleanup to resolve duplication in statutory phrasing and to reduce confusion for parents, foster families and school officials carrying out special-education decision-making responsibilities.
The committee did not adopt substantive changes during its deliberations; representatives flagged the wider policy question of when parental rights coexist with foster-parent decision-making and suggested that would be better addressed in separate, substantive legislation.
