Senate Education Committee Concludes Work on Rereferred Bills: Claremont Loan, Open Enrollment, and More
Claremont
This week, the Senate Education Committee approved an amendment that would replace the contents of HB 292 with language providing the Claremont School District with the ability to access a loan based on their future adequacy payments from the state. This bill will go to the floor in January when the Senate meets to take up re-referred bills.
The latest amendment language came out of discussions between the Senate and House Republican leadership to ensure that after the Senate passes the bill in January, the House would quickly concur with the changes rather than ask for a Committee of Conference, which could severely delay passage. This arrangement did not come without the House taking their own pound of flesh in this amendment as you will see below, which is why the Committee vote was 3 – 2 along party lines with the Democrats voting in opposition:
Here is a summary of the major changes from what was presented last month at the hearing:
- The revolving loan fund is available to any school district which faces a similar situation and district requests it, not just Claremont;
- The interest rate is pegged to the federal funds rate established by the Federal Reserve Bank in New York (which is currently 3.88%);
- The compromise contains a requirement that any school district who participates in this program must place the question of adopting RSA 32:5-b (the local tax cap law) before voters at the next annual meeting;
- The compromise contains a requirement that any school district within an SAU comprised of two or more school districts that participates in this loan fund has to put a question to voters about adopting the SAU budget as a separate warrant article (under RSA 194 C:9);
- Adds all resident students in a participating district to the list of "priority" groups who can still enroll in the private school voucher program even if the cap that year has been met;
- Adds a requirement around action that can be taken under the code of conduct for superintendents for financial mismanagement.
Open Enrollment
The Senate Education Committee also acted on the pair of open enrollment bills that were re-referred. HB 741 and SB 101 would each require every public school to be an open enrollment school. The language of this bill had been included in HB 2, the trailer bill to the budget, but was ultimately removed in Committee of Conference, and not included in the final budget bill signed into law by the governor. The Senate Education Committee is recommending the full Senate kill SB 101 and to send HB 741 to Interim Study. Interim study means that the bill will not leave the Senate, and while it may be studied for the remainder of the 2026 session, it is often a “nicer” way of letting a bill die. Each recommendation will be voted on by the full Senate in January along with other retained bills. While this may be the end of the road for these two bills, we know the issue will continue to be a major one in the 2026 session as lawmakers seek to revive it in newly filed legislation.
School Nurse Certification
The Senate Education Committee also recommended dispensing with HB 208, which would remove the requirement that school nurses be certified as a school nurse in addition to being a registered professional nurse. There are important certification requirements that come with being a school nurse that are different from registered nurses, and thankfully the Committee recognized that fact.
Drip…drip…drip, More 2026 Legislation Language Continues to get Published
Bill language continues to slowly trickle out so start following it on our 2026 legislative tracker here!
Questions?
If you have questions on any of these bills or ones not mentioned here, please feel free to contact Brian Hawkins, NEA-NH Director of Government Relations at [email protected].
