HB1317

NH’s Multi-Tiered System of Supports for Behavioral Health and Wellness (MTSS-B) is a framework that helps provide behavioral health support to our students. The three tiers of this system work together to ensure that all kids in our public schools are given positive behavioral expectations. Some children can benefit from Tier 2, which simply means they will receive coping support and skill building. This can help children who are struggling in school. The kids with the highest needs have access to individualized behavioral health services through local community health care partners. There will always be some children who need more supports to be successful, and this is a thoughtful and impactful way of helping those children. MTSS-B can reduce exclusionary practices like suspension and expulsion. It can improve instructional time by decreasing disruptive behaviors in the classroom, and it can increase academic success. This initiative had bipartisan support and was signed into law by a republican governor just a few short years ago. I am not sure why this committee is considering ending the Multi-Tiered System of Supports before we see the impact it could have on our students. Please give this framework a chance to make a difference. Please vote ITL on this bill.

None of these changes included in this bill reduce the real-world obligations schools must meet. Standards still apply. Students still need services. Transportation, staffing, and instructional needs do not disappear. When the legal definition of adequacy is narrowed or blurred while obligations remain, the pressure does not go away. It shifts, most often onto local property taxpayers, increasing inequities between communities with very different tax bases.

Patient privacy is extremely important and must be protected.

I support HB1317 because strong, modernized patient privacy protections are essential for trust in our health system. Any updates to statute should safeguard sensitive health information without undermining public-health reporting or restricting access to reproductive or gender-affirming care. I urge the committee to ensure the bill’s language protects patients, not loopholes, and maintains the state’s ability to monitor health trends responsibly

I am in full support of this bill and in protecting patient privacy

Libraries should be controlled by the people and not by the government--to preserve critical thinking and avoid authoritarianism.

L

This is for the sake of all NH voters.

Children who identify as a gender other than those assigned at birth are extremely vulnerable and need supportive adults around them to help them navigate the life-changing decisions they will make. This bill would remove protections from young people who are being prevented from accessing gender-affirming care or being raised in a gender-affirming way by one or more parent or guardian despite what we know to be true about the positive and life-saving benefits of being raised in an affirming environment.

Please leave these poor children alone!