BIG NEWS: HB603 Passed the New Hampshire Senate today and is on the way to Governor Hassan’s desk.
Will she support parents on this important legislation, or will she veto HB603?
CONTACT GOVERNOR HASSAN
Office of the Governor
State House
107 North Main Street
Concord, NH 03301
(603)271-2121
(603)271-7640 (fax)
How did your New Hampshire Senators vote?
All of the NH Democrat Senators and one Republican (Senator Nancy Stiles) voted AGAINST PARENTS. The rest of the Republicans in the NH Senate voted in support of parents and HB603.
This bill declares that a student exempted from taking the statewide assessment by the student’s parent or legal guardian shall not be penalized. The bill also requires a school district to provide an appropriate alternative educational activity for the time period during which the assessment is administered..
We’ve brought parents information on how bad the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) is. Parents who’ve made themselves aware and chose to refuse to let their child take the SBA, have always had the right to refuse the assessment for their children. However HB603 was needed because many administrators tied to mislead and bully parents into forcing their children to take it. We even heard from parents who had to hire an attorney to get their school administrators to acknowledge their parental rights.
We suspect the opponents of parental rights in NH still think there is a risk to federal funding IF NH Statute reflects a parent’s right to refuse. Unfortunately that sends a strong signal that $$ is more important than parental rights.
We also want everyone to be aware that we know of no state that’s lost federal dollars (OUR DOLLARS) because state laws acknowledges a parents right to refuse.
When you contact the Governor, let her know that there is NO excuse to deny a parent’s right to refuse. She doesn’t need to use $$ as an excuse to deny you of your rights.
Share this information with her: http://www.fairtest.org/why-you-can-boycott-testing-without-fear
As far as we know, no school or district anywhere in the country has ever been penalized for failing to test enough (95%) of its students. Further, seven states (Utah, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and California) have laws allowing opt out, and none have been sanctioned. Parents, students and teachers generally should not fear harmful consequences to their schools due to federal law if parents boycott standardized tests.