New Hampshire  scored WELL on the State Student Privacy Report compared to other states. That will CHANGE AND get worse if SB196 passes and signed into law in NH.

SB196 will REMOVE “informed consent,” from parents, before a non-academic survey is given to children in a public school.  That means your children may be answering questions about their sex lives, gender identity, drug use, etc., and you may never know it. 

For an example of an invasive survey, please see this one from the University of New Hampshire: 
 
Here are reasons to KEEP the law as it is, PRO-PARENTAL RIGHTS:
1) The APA Code of Ethics is very clear in support of parental consent when administering these kinds of surveys to minors. 
2) If this new law is passed, parents can still opt out but many parents testified in the past that they never received notification about the surveys
3) Essentially, “opt out” makes the assumption an entire family voluntarily gives up their right to privacy. This is wrong.

4) In the private sector industry standards and best management practices require “opt in” as the standard. 

5) In our legal system, and in the State imposed standards on all Industries, we legally require “opt in”. There is no justification to 

carve out a special standard for schools when it comes to the issue of parental rights and privacy.

PLEASE attend the Senate Education Committee hearing on Tuesday 1/29 at 10:15am 
LOCATION: Legislative Office Building behind the State Office in Concord

 

If you cannot make the hearing, send an e-mail to: 
Jay.Kahn@leg.state.nh.us, Jeanne.Dietsch@leg.state.nh.us, Jon.Morgan@leg.state.nh.us, Ruth.Ward@leg.state.nh.us, David.Starr@leg.state.nh.us, tricia.melillo@leg.state.nh.us

Ann Marie Banfield currently volunteers as the Education Liaison for Cornerstone Action in New Hampshire. She has been researching education reform for over a decade and actively supports parental rights, literacy and academic excellence in k-12 schools. You can contact her at: abanfield@nhcornerstone.org