Manchester School Board Takes Advantage of Vulnerable Families

by Ann Marie Banfield

In a time where we need to help parents become even better parents, the Manchester School Board is going in the opposite direction. Today, the New Hampshire Senate Education Committee heard a bill (SB34) to support parental consent for Medicaid billing.

In many cases, parents will sign off on Medicaid services, but services can change, be added, or even discontinued. Parents need to be informed and consent every step of the way. Unfortunately, that isn’t the position of the Manchester Board of School Committee ,they testified in opposition of SB34.

Sean Parr, who serves on the Manchester Board of School Committee, came to testify that the board is looking to reduce administrative burdens within the school district. Unfortunately, that comes at an expense to parents whose children attend the public schools in Manchester. You can watch his testimony here beginning at 7:50.

Last year, the Biden Administration tried to eliminate consent requirements by parents when schools bill for Medicaid. The Feds decided not making that change based on the opposition, who identified the numerous problems that would follow.

From Education Week:
….the department said some opponents were concerned that students with disabilities could be denied reimbursement for and access to Medicaid services outside of school after their public benefits were billed for in-school services. Opponents also argued that decisions should lie with families, rather than school administrators.

“Health care decisions, whether in the doctor’s office or the billing department, are best left to the student, their parent(s), and their clinician,” wrote Robert M. Augustine, the 2023 president of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, which represents speech-language pathologists and others in the field, in a public comment.

Bill Knudsen, the director of education policy at ASHA, said the Biden administration withdrawing the proposal prevented possible “unintended consequences.”

There are other reasons for parental oversight when when Medicaid services are billed.

Senate Bill 34 would serve as a safeguard against the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive student information. Without proper consent, schools risk a student’s rights to privacy when they share personally identifiable information for billing purposes. Obtaining informed consent from parents ensures that parents or eligible students, are aware of the information being shared, and have the opportunity to control its dissemination.


According to testimony from Sean Parr, as a spokesperson for the Manchester School Board, this is too burdensome for the school district. Once again, Manchester school officials cannot be bothered with involving parents in their child’s life.

Let’s not forget that this is the school district that developed a policy that if a student comes to school, and uses a different gendered name, teachers are supposed to lie to parents, and not tell them. If parents don’t like, they’ve been told to take their kids to another school.

Who is most negatively impacted by these policies and procedures? The vulnerable families in the district. Immigrant and single working parents should be respected. There is no good reason to take advantage of them, and cut them out of this process. When parents take their children to a medical or mental health provider outside the school, they are informed every step of the way. Why should this be any different when their children walk into the Manchester schools?

This is also how we cut down on Medicaid fraud. By having parents review the services and billing it helps catch mistakes. It wasn’t that long ago that two young children were vaccinated after their parents strictly told school officials not to vaccinate their children. One child was in Rochester, the other was in Nashua but the providers never looked at the permission slips. If they did, they would have seen that the parents of two children wrote on those papers: DO NOT VACCINATE MY CHILD. When parents aren’t present, mistakes can happen. Having parents providing informed consent will help limit those kinds of mistakes.

School officials use a loophole in FERPA (Family Education Rights and Privacy Act) to bill medicaid without parent consent. This allows school officials to give billing contractors student information without parent consent. A parent may also sign a consent form but then not sign a form for each service provided. This means a parent may sign a form for a child in 4th grade but not be asked to sign a form again, even after moving to 5th grade, and after receiving additional services.

SB34, if signed into law, would make sure parents were aware that a new service is being billed. This would allow a parent to make informed decisions. This is especially important if their external services will be be disrupted which can happen from time to time. Any misdiagnosis of a child through the Medicaid billing codes and parents might not know that their child was labeled with a behavior or disability that could impact their future goals in life.

Wealthy or active parents might be able to stave off these problems by making sure they are fully involved with their child’s teachers and team working in the school. But the single mother, or the family who struggles with the culture or language are the ones who are being marginalized in this process. They shouldn’t exploit these families and their situations but make sure they are a full participant in their child’s life.

Contact the Senate Education Committee and tell them you support SB34
:
Ruth.Ward@leg.state.nh.us,
victoria.sullivan@leg.state.nh.us,
Daryl.Abbas@leg.state.nh.us,
Suzanne.Prentiss@leg.state.nh.us,
Debra.Altschiller@leg.state.nh.us,
ryan.meleedy@leg.state.nh.us

Author

  • Ann Marie Banfield

    Ann Marie Banfield has been researching education reform for over a decade and actively supports parental rights, literacy and academic excellence in k-12 schools. You can contact her at: banfieldannmarie@gmail.com

    View all posts
Share to...