Bill requiring educators to answer parents’ questions moves forward

Holly Ramer/AP file photo

By JEREMY MARGOLIS

Monitor staff

Published: 04-24-2024 2:47 PM

Modified: 04-24-2024 3:28 PM


A bill that would require educators to answer parents’ questions about their children “completely and honestly” will move forward in the New Hampshire House without a recommendation from its Education Committee.

On Tuesday – a day after the committee heard testimony from nearly 30 parents, educators, legislators and advocates, the majority of whom opposed the bill – dueling motions to recommend passage of and to kill the bill both failed to garner a majority vote from the evenly-divided 20-person committee. All 10 Republican representatives supported the bill, while all 10 Democrats opposed it.

The bill, SB 341, passed the Senate earlier this month. It would require teachers to respond to written inquiries from parents within 10 business days, an obligation that some feel would force educators to out LGBTQ students before they are ready to come out to their parents themselves.

The bill, which passed the Senate earlier this month, has triggered a debate about the extent parents have a right to know what happens in their children’s classrooms.

Opponents of the bill have argued the proposed law would fray relationships of trust between children and teachers.

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