The parental-rights movement is alive and well in the N.H. Legislature.

A dozen Republican-backed measures to be considered by state lawmakers next year seek to address these rights in one way or another.

Opponents say parents already have many of the rights included in such bills. Some educators find this type of legislation insulting and say the proposals would just make their already hard teaching job harder.

At the top of the list is a bill by House Speaker Sherman Packard that would prohibit teachers and other school staff from withholding information from parents about a child’s health, well-being and education.

Lawmakers rejected two similar measures over the past couple years amid opposition from educators.

Another proposal is aimed at ensuring parents have access to their child’s library records. A third seeks to enhance parental consent rights involving a program that provides Medicaid services at schools.

An additional measure would amend the state’s educator code to include language about having a responsibility to parents. Another would prohibit school district personnel from transporting students to medical procedures without parental consent.

Exact legislative language for these measures hasn’t been released yet.

Sen. Tim Lang, R-Sanbornton, the Senate majority whip, said the bills are all intended to ensure parents’ rights to raise their children are not infringed upon or that important information is not kept from them.

“It’s about making sure we focus and emphasize parental engagement,” he said in an interview Friday. “Schools have a significant role in children’s lives so we want to make sure that parents are involved and have a significant role, as well, and that teachers know that for a fact.”

He said he hears from parents who feel schools are shutting them out and not keeping them properly informed. The parental-rights movement accelerated during the pandemic, Lang said. Some parents objected to the precautions schools were taking regarding COVID-19, but felt shut out at school board meetings.

Meanwhile, in a legislative update posted on its website Thursday, the National Education Association-N.H., which represents teachers, decries “culture war bills” that attempt “to insert educators in the middle of family situations to score cheap political points.”

Educators have also complained that some parental-rights measures in the past could have forced them to “out” young people to their parents about gender preference and sexual orientation.

For his part, Lang, who has four children, said he never felt that schools kept important things from him or that he couldn’t get the information he wanted. “I had a very good relationship with my children and still do, so I was never worried about them,” he said.

He said parental-rights legislation could help other families that have different experiences. “It’s the people on the borderline. Their kids are struggling in school. Their kids are having issues, socially.”

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