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Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New Hampshire House puts the brakes on child abuse bill, seeking to return to it next year
The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly, 342-1, to table House Bill 553. (Photo by Dana Wormald/New Hampshire Bulletin) A bipartisan effort in the State House to strengthen the legal definition of child abuse failed on Wednesday, but legislators said they hope to rework the bill and come back with it next year. The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly, 342-1, to table House Bill 553, which was co-sponsored by both Democrats and Republicans. By tabling the bill, the House has decided not to advance it, but it can still pick up the bill for reconsideration later. The bill would have updated the legal definitions of abuse and neglect, and created instructions for officials on dealing with both situations. For example, the bill would have added, 'Evidence of serious injury, broken bones, or unexplained injury to any non-ambulatory child, or frequent illnesses that are not being adequately addressed or controlled,' to the list of factors that constitute evidence of child abuse. The bill also sought other changes that would've made the language more 'trauma informed.' Rep. Alicia Gregg, the Nashua Democrat who introduced the bill, said the legislation ran into opposition from Republicans who were concerned it would infringe upon parental rights. 'They don't trust how the updated definitions will be interpreted,' she wrote in a message to the Bulletin. 'Unfortunately, there have been some extreme misconceptions on what definitions do (versus) ramifications that you find in subsequent statutes.' Gregg said she met with Republican leadership Tuesday ahead of the vote and they agreed to table it and work on amendments. If they hadn't tabled it, she believes it would've been voted down entirely. 'We will continue to work on the language to strike a balance that protects children and the due process of parents,' she continued. 'It's important to work cooperatively with stakeholders to ensure the definitions represent best practices and prioritize balancing the need for safety with the importance of keeping families together.' Among other things, the bill would have designated 'exposure of a child to … physical violence, verbal abuse, or psychological maltreatment directed at the child, a sibling, the other parent or significant other, or another person living in the home' as reason to suspect a child is being harmed. The bill also would have changed the statutory instructions on removing a child from the home from 'determine if the preservation of family unity is in the best interest of the child' to 'presume that family unity is in the best interest of the child; but, if it is determined to not be in the child's best interest, to secure placement in the least restrictive setting.' The bill also called for 'frequent' reviews of any child removed from the home with the goal of returning that child to the home as quickly as possible.
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New Hampshire's Bad Parenting Bill Is a Nightmare
The New Hampshire legislature is considering a parenting bill that would make it easier for the government to investigate parents for child abuse or neglect. It accomplishes this by removing the word "safety" from the legal definition of child abuse and replacing it with "physical, emotional or psychological welfare." That could be almost anything, of course. "I happen to be a tax-and-spend liberal," Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, tells Reason. "But this bill provides not one iota of additional help. It simply turns the [Division for Children, Youth and Families] into the 'well-being' police." House Bill 553 has 14 sponsors from across the political spectrum. State Rep. Alicia Gregg (D–Hillsborough), who filed the bill, told the New Hampshire Bulletin that she believes the state needs an "updated definition of what child abuse and endangerment looks like." She has worked with domestic abuse victims and hopes the bill will allow the state to set aside its "hesitancy to step in" and intervene "before we have a crisis." But New Hampshire already has "robust and effective" laws to protect children, says Will Estrada, senior counsel at the Home School Legal Defense Association. In fact, New Hampshire removes children from their families at a rate nearly double the national average, says Wexler. Overall, 37 percent of American children will be investigated by child protective services sometime before age 18. For black kids, that number is 53 percent. The proposed law does contain some good provisions for the children who are removed from their families, making sure there are "frequent" reviews of their case, and that children are returned home as soon as possible in cases of overreach. But its vagueness would allow state intervention not only when a child is in imminent danger—which most of us would want and is already the case—but whenever there is a "risk to a child's psychological or emotional well-being…or mental health." The bill also stipulates that "exposure of a child to verbal abuse, or psychological maltreatment directed at the child, a sibling, the other parent or significant other or another person living in the home" could also impair a child's well-being, opening the door to investigating parents who fight or shout at one of the kids. Finally, the law also comes down hard on "adultification," a new term for making a child take on some of the responsibilities an adult should presumably be doing for them. This happens in incredibly dysfunctional families as well as in incredibly functional ones—say, when a child of immigrants proudly translates for their parents at the doctor's office or the auto repair shop. Looking back on any tragedy, there's always the feeling that someone ought to have intervened sooner. But inviting the state to intervene in many, many more cases—and perpetually expanding the definition of abuse—will cause more problems than it solves. The post New Hampshire's Bad Parenting Bill Is a Nightmare appeared first on
