HB 1524  - AS INTRODUCED

 

 

2024 SESSION

24-2534

02/05

 

HOUSE BILL 1524

 

AN ACT relative to authorizing parents of special education children to observe in the classroom setting.

 

SPONSORS: Rep. Dunn, Rock. 16; Rep. K. Perez, Rock. 16; Rep. Aures, Merr. 13; Rep. See, Merr. 26; Rep. Tierney, Coos 1; Rep. Andrus, Merr. 5; Rep. Seidel, Hills. 29; Rep. A. Lekas, Hills. 38; Rep. Ouellet, Coos 3; Rep. Sellers, Graf. 18

 

COMMITTEE: Education

 

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ANALYSIS

 

This bill requires school districts to put in place policies allowing parents of children with individualized education programs to observe in the classroom setting.

 

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

24-2534

02/05

 

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

 

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Four

 

AN ACT relative to authorizing parents of special education children to observe in the classroom setting.

 

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

 

1  New Paragraph; Individualized Education Programs; Classroom Observation by Parents.  Amend RSA 186-C:7 by inserting after paragraph III the following new paragraph:

III-a.  To insure that parents can participate fully and effectively with school personnel in the consideration and development of appropriate educational programs for their child, school districts shall develop policies allowing classroom observation of students participating in an individualized education program.  The policies shall, upon request by a parent, provide timely access to parents and parent-designated independent evaluators and educational consultants for observations of a child’s current individualized education program and of any program proposed for the child, including both academic and non-academic components of any such program.  Parents and their designees shall be afforded access of sufficient duration and extent to enable them to evaluate a child’s performance in a current program and the ability of a proposed program to enable such child to make effective progress.  School districts shall impose no conditions or restrictions on such observations except those necessary to ensure the safety of children in a program or the integrity of the program while under observation or to protect children in the program from disclosure by an observer of confidential and personally identifiable information in the event such information is obtained in the course of an observation by a parent or a designee.  The department of education shall develop rules under RSA 541-A relative to the development of these policies.

2  Effective Date.  This act shall take effect July 1, 2024.