Recapping the 2026 Legislative Session
August 1st, 2026
The ink has dried on the final signatures of the 2026 legislative session, and now we know how education law will change in the coming year.
Though many of the most consequential bills failed to survive the session, none of the 36 new laws signed this year will improve public schools or ease the burden on property tax payers. Between potential tax caps, changes to special ed funding, and the unknown cost of enrolling voucher students in public schools, school district budgeting is getting more complicated this year. Additional pressures on teachers and scrutiny of budgets will increase administrative burden for districts, and no new funding is on the way to enable districts to respond more easily to the legislature’s demands.
By the Numbers
Let’s look at stats. Reaching Higher NH was tracking 215 bills related to education this session.
Of the 215 introduced:
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85 made it to crossover, meaning they passed their chamber of origin and were sent to the other chamber
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13 never got a floor vote because the House calendar was so packed that representatives could not vote on every bill before the crossover deadline
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27 were tabled, including 9 that were tabled immediately after being voted ought to pass
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27 were referred to interim study, a polite death in the second year of the biennium
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12 were sent to a Committee of Conference to work out differences between the House and Senate versions.
Ultimately, 47 bills made it to the governor’s desk. Of those, she vetoed 9, signed 36, and allowed 2 to become law without her signature.
What became law
School funding
The biggest change to school funding to come out of this session was in HB 1563, which alters the special education aid formula. The new formula lowers the threshold for districts to access state aid, but simultaneously increases the district’s financial responsibility for the highest cost special education students. The law also introduces new administrative requirements that will likely generate added costs to districts. In some cases, the compliance burden may be so high that districts forgo submitting for reimbursement for lower cost cases.
HB 1815, signed into law early in the session, could have profound long-term consequences. The bill makes no practical change to education funding. Rather, it changes the legal definition of the state’s contribution to an adequate education in such a way that could limit the state’s future legal liability and minimize the impact of the Rand and ConVal decisions.
Vouchers
Voucher advocates saw a few victories this session, while those hoping for greater transparency and accountability had little success. HB 1817, a bill that the NH Department of Education has said violates its funding policy principles, was signed into law, allowing voucher recipients to enroll in public school course offerings in their resident district for free. Though students enrolled in the Education Freedom Account program cannot be enrolled in public school more than 50% of the time, the new law mandates that districts allow access to courses and cocurriculars on the same basis as they are offered to enrolled district students. Previously, some districts allowed EFA students to access offerings for free, while others charged some or all of the cost of the program. Depending on takeup, the new law could result in additional costs that districts are forced to cover.
Though the governor had already opted New Hampshire into the federal voucher program, HB 1774, signed into law, will mandate that the Department of Revenue Administration continue to opt in.
Teaching
Many of the bills that attempted to police what is taught in classrooms failed, but the legislature did pass one bill that could add significant burden for educators. SB 430 requires that educators respond in writing to any inquiry from a parent within 10 days. In addition to the administrative burden of tracking and responding to requests, educators also worry that they will be asked to reveal sensitive information and that the new law could threaten the trust that is critical to a meaningful student-teacher relationship.
Learning
All of the bills that would have had an impact on the day-to-day learning experience of students in NH public schools failed to make it through the legislative process. A couple bills, however, could have consequences for certain groups of students, or could affect the learning experience down the road. SB 507 creates a committee to study violence against school staff members, and SB 575 creates a committee to study school bullying. Both of these committees could result in legislation that changes the school environment – hopefully for the better.
Local control
Several new laws change how local communities make decisions. HB 1300 requires that every town vote on a school district budget cap in the November general election. Districts have always had the ability to adopt budget caps if voters choose, though very few caps have succeeded. The new law mandates that every town include a question about a budget cap and an SAU administrative spending cap, and the text of that question is dictated by the state. Though towns can opt to hold public meetings to discuss the question, the law circumvents the usual school district budget and meeting process, and will force districts to budget for multiple scenarios, as the budget process begins before districts will know the result of the vote. Budget caps can make it difficult for districts to respond to unexpected changes, like when healthcare or transportation costs jump.
School districts will also now be required to publish the SAU budget as a separate warrant article on the March ballot, thanks to HB 564. Voters have previously had the ability to insist, via the warrant article process, that the SAU budget be a separate warrant article, but the new law requires it of all SAUs. If an SAU budget is not approved, funding for the SAU defaults to the previous year’s budget, adjusted for contractual obligations. It’s unclear how this new law might interact with any SAU spending caps adopted as part of HB 1300.
Other bills affecting local control increase the frequency of audits – even though officials expressed concern about the availability of auditors – and create a study commission to look at the efficiency of SAUs.
…but what about open enrollment?
Although open enrollment was a focus through much of the session, in the end, no bill made it to the governor’s desk. This is likely not the end of the road for the topic of open enrollment, though, and we expect to see proposals to expand the program in the upcoming legislative session.