NEA-New Hampshire Legislative Advocacy Toolkit 

 in Legislative Action / Legislative Update (updated on )

Introduction 

Most of the tools you need to be a legislative advocate for public education are right at your fingertips through NEA-New Hampshire. Just go to www.neanh.org and click on the Legislative Dashboard.  

LINK: NEA-NH Legislative Dashboard  

From here you will have access to our: 

Tracking Important Bills 

NEA-New Hampshire uses a legislative tracking website called Fast Democracy to help our team track the hundreds of hearings, amendments, bill filings and more. As a member you have access to that same tool! 

You can click on the full list of ALL 2025 NEA-NH Tracked Bills or click on a particular subject area on our bill tracker site. 

When you click on a link you will see a list of all the bills we are tracking in that category. If you want, you can click on “Subscribe to this bill list” to get daily or weekly updates as to the status of those bills. 

Take Action 

When it is time to take some kind of action, we try to make it as simple and straightforward for members to help when there is a big bill or hearing coming up. Here are some of the things you can do now, and throughout the legislative session. 

  • Go to our Action Center which is on our Legislative Dashboard 
  • Click on one of the guided actions that will pre-fill an e-mail message to either your state legislator or a relevant committee.  
  • When a bill is first being heard, that link might take you directly to the General Court Website, where you can submit written testimony online or just simply register your support or opposition to a bill. 

House 

House Sign-in Form and Online Testimony Submission 
View House Online Testimony Submissions 
House Remote Sign In/Submit/View Testimony Directions (PDF) 

Senate 

Senate Remote Sign In 
Senate Remote Sign In Directions (PDF) 

Contact Your Elected Officials 

  • You can share your opinion on legislative issues with your state representatives and state senator by sending them a personal e-mail or even better by giving them a phone call directly over the phone. You can look them up and find their contact info by going to the General Court website.  
  • TEMPLATE FOR AN INTRO PHONE CALL/E-MAIL: 
  • Introduce yourself to them letting them know what town you live in so they know you are constituent.  Also let them know what sort of educator you are (teacher, paraprofessional, school nurse, etc…) 
  • Let them know that you follow the issues going on at the legislature carefully because you care about public education, your union, retirement, etc… 
  • Let them know you will be contacting them from time to time on legislation important to you 
  • Feel free if it is a good conversation to name an issue coming up (i.e. school funding, vouchers, special education…) 
  • TEMPLATE FOR ASKING THEM TO VOTE A CERTAIN WAY ON A BILL: 
  • Introduce yourself to them letting them know what town you live in so they know you are constituent.  Also let them know what sort of educator you are (teacher, paraprofessional, school nurse, etc…) 
  • Let them know what bill you are calling about and the subject of the bill.  
  • Tell them your position (support/opposed) and give your reason. If you need talking points about a bill you can use the ones we put in the Action Alert to guide you. If you have a personal or work-related story to back up your position that is even better. 
  • Even if they disagree with your position be sure to be respectful.  

Testify in-Person 

  • Come to Concord and testify before a committee. Many educators won’t be able to make live hearings because of the times most of them are held during the day. However, if you do come to Concord, testifying on a bill is simple. Here are the steps to do so: 
  1. Be sure to find the building and room (hearings are held in either the State House (SH) or the Legislative Office Building (LOB) and the time of the hearing. 
  1. Set aside extra time for major hearings and know that sometimes the start of hearings run late. 
  1. Try and be ten minutes early 
  1. Sign in to speak when you arrive. In the House you generally fill out a pink card at the front of the room and hand it into the chair or have one of the representatives pass it down to the chair. In the Senate they typically use a signup sheet with a clipboard. In either case put your name, contact information, and that you are representing yourself. Also check off whether you are in support or opposition to the bill you are there to testify on.  
  1. Come prepared with testimony that you write our or write down bullet points so that you can keep your remarks organized. In larger hearing on contentious issues where a lot of people come to testify, committee chairs will sometimes limit you two to three minutes.  
  1. When you make your remarks be sure to address the chair of the committee and at the conclusion of your remarks indicate whether you are willing to take any questions. If you do take questions and are not sure about how to answer its ok to say you do not know or that you can follow up with the committee. 
  1. Of course, if you have any questions you can always contact your Government Relations Director at bhawkins@nhnea.org.  

For more information on the committee, you are contacting or testifying before, you can find that by visiting the General Court Website: 

Questions?  

If you have questions on any of these issues or how to get involved, please feel free to contact Brian Hawkins, NEA-NH Director of Government Relations at bhawkins@nhnea.org.