By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD — Adding that educators have a responsibility to parents as well as their students to the educators’ codes of conduct and ethics is not needed and could lead to potential problems, the Senate Education Committee was told Tuesday.

House Bill 235 adds to the second of four responsibilities outlined for educators under the code of conduct.

Currently the guideline states Educators have a “responsibility to students” and the bill would add “and parents as defined in RSA 193:1, III.”

Introducing the bill, Rep. Glenn Cordelli, R-Tuftonboro, called it a simple bill.

“We often talk about parental engagement in education and the need to have parents involved,” he said. “Representative Ladd (the bill’s prime sponsor) and others thought it would be important to add parents into the (educators’) code of conduct.”
He said it is critical to have parents involved in their children’s education from homework, to discipline, to cultural issues and they need to be referred to in the code.

But both Sens. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, and Suzanne Prentiss, D-West Lebanon, questioned if parents were to be added to the code, what were the parents’ responsibilities and who would determine that and enforce it as educators are subject to.

Cordelli said they are not talking about a parents’ code of conduct but an educator’s code of conduct.

Altschiller asked what in the code of conduct would apply to parents and was there no way to hold anyone accountable.

Cordelli said in New Hampshire there is no code for parents, but the state has taken the steps to provide guidance in the rights of parents established in law.

Prentiss said there is oversight and rule-making governing educators but nothing for parents.

“Why do you want to make this left-hand or right-hand turn,” she asked.

Cordelli said the bill would not change direction as parental involvement has been key since the start.

He said the code says educators are responsible to other educators, their students, the greater school community and for the ethical use of technology, but not to parents who are critical to their children’s education.

“We are trying to foster a professional relationship inside and outside (schools) for educators and parents,” Cordelli said. “We are not developing a code of conduct for parents.”
Megan Tuttle, president of the National Teachers Association — NH, opposed the bill as does every educator she talked to.

An engaged parent is welcome, she said, as educators want a partnership with parents which is essential to a quality education.

“There is a difference in a partnership with, and a responsibility to,” Tuttle said.

Teachers have to follow the directive of their school district, she noted, and depending on how the rules on responsibility to parents are written there could be an impossible situation between what a parent wants and what the district wants.

And the consequences for a teacher could go beyond just their current employment to their teaching license, Tuttle said.

According to the code of ethics teachers are responsible for supervising students both in school and at school activities, she noted, and with the addition of parents does that mean teachers have to supervise parents at a football game or a school dance?

“I don’t know how you would do that?” Tuttle said.

Teachers are responsible for their students first, and that is where the focus should be, she said.

Altschiller wondered if the bill would exacerbate a co-parenting situation where the parents want different information about their child presented in different ways.

Tuttle said as a teacher she had experienced that situation with co-parenting and does believe the change could make the situation worse, noting there is a lot of co-parenting today.

“This bill just adds parents without the rules which is very open ended and very vague,” Tuttle said.

Rep. Peggy Balboni, D-Rye Beach, also opposed the bill and said it is not needed as parents are mentioned throughout the code of ethics.

The bill gives the Department of Education the authority to impose a potentially arbitrary obligation on teachers to parents that could undermine that relationship, and it was made without any input from educators, she said. 

Teachers have to follow the directives of school administrators, Balboni noted, not the directive of parents.

Altschiller noted the bill leaves it up to the Department of Education to write the rules and what disciplinary actions could be taken.

Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.

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