2001 SESSION

01-0971

05/09

HOUSE BILL 530

COMMITTEE: Children and Family Law

ANALYSIS

This bill states that a parent or guardian's decision against having their child take prescribed psychotropic drugs or receive mental health counseling shall not be considered neglect.

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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.

Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]

Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

01-0971

05/09

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand One

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 Grounds for Termination of the Parent-Child Relationship; Refusal of Mental Health Treatment for Child Excluded. Amend RSA 170-C:5, II to read as follows:

II. That, although the parents are financially able, they have substantially and continuously neglected to provide the child with necessary subsistence, education or other care necessary for his mental, emotional, or physical health or have substantially and continuously neglected to pay for such subsistence, education or other care when legal custody is lodged with others; provided, however, it shall not be grounds for the termination of the parent-child relationship for the sole reason the parent of said child relies upon spiritual means through prayer in accordance with a recognized religious method of healing in lieu of medical treatment for the healing of said child. A parent or legal guardian's decision against medicating their child with psychotropic drugs or having their child receive mental health counseling shall not be considered neglect.

2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.