Bill Text - HB1671 (2024)

Relative to the complaint process for teaching discrimination and allowing educators and school officials a right of action for damages and costs for false accusations.


Revision: Dec. 13, 2023, 2:05 p.m.

 

2024 SESSION

24-2660.1

10/02

 

HOUSE BILL [bill number]

 

AN ACT relative to the complaint process for teaching discrimination and allowing educators and school officials a right of action for damages and costs for false accusations.

 

SPONSORS: [sponsors]

 

COMMITTEE: [committee]

 

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ANALYSIS

 

This bill provides that complaints for teaching discrimination first be made to the local school board and are appealed to the state board of education.  The bill also allows educators or other school employees falsely accused of teaching discrimination to initiate a civil action for legal or equitable relief.

 

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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

24-2660.1

10/02

 

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

 

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Four

 

AN ACT relative to the complaint process for teaching discrimination and allowing educators and school officials a right of action for damages and costs for false accusations.

 

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

 

1  Prohibition on Teaching Discrimination; Complaint Process; False Accusations.  Amend RSA 193:40, III-V to read as follows:

III.  Any person claiming to be aggrieved by a violation of this section[, including the attorney general,] may initiate a [civil action against a school or school district in superior court for legal or equitable relief, or with the New Hampshire commission for human rights as provided in RSA 354-A:34] complaint with the local school board. The school board shall investigate such complaint and make a determination in accordance with rules of the department in Ed 204, minimum requirements for due process by the local school board.  School board decisions with respect to complaints may be appealed to the state board.  

[IV.  Violation of this section by an educator shall be considered a violation of the educator code of conduct that justifies disciplinary sanction by the state board of education.

V.] IV.  For the purposes of this section, "educator" means a professional employee of any school district whose position requires certification by the state board pursuant to RSA 189:39.  Administrators, specialists, and teachers are included within the definition of this term.

V.  Any educator or other school staff member who is falsely claimed to be in violation of this section may initiate a civil action against any persons, or against the department of education, in superior court for legal or equitable relief.

2  Effective Date.  This act shall take effect January 1, 2025.