193-E:1 Policy and Purpose. –
I. It is the policy of the state of New Hampshire that public elementary and secondary education shall provide all students with the opportunity to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to prepare them for successful participation in the social, economic, scientific, technological, and political systems of a free government, now and in the years to come; an education that is consistent with the state-established academic standards, and school district or school curriculum.
II. Respecting New Hampshire's long tradition of community involvement, it is the purpose of this chapter to ensure that appropriate means are established to provide an adequate education through an integrated public education system of shared responsibility between state and local government, in recognition of the fact that local governmental entities, including school districts, are created by the state, receive their authority to act and operate from the state, and are therefore indivisible from the state for the purposes of providing an adequate education. In this system, the state and local governmental entities function collectively to ensure that an adequate version of the academic program defined in RSA 193-E:2-a is provided to New Hampshire pupils. Such a system of shared responsibility ensures flexibility in implementing diverse educational approaches to instruction and curriculum tailored to meet student needs, allows local governments to make the local infrastructure and administrative choices that are best for their particular communities, and helps ensure that local school districts remain accountable and responsive to community and family needs. How the state and its local governmental entities choose to raise, allocate, and spend financial resources to implement this integrated public education system is a political policy matter reserved to legislative and executive judgment and control.
Source. 1998, 389:1. 2005, 257:15. 2007, 270:3. 2016, 84:6, eff. July 18, 2016. 2026, 19:1, eff. May 26, 2026.