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New Hampshire
After a year of ‘teeny tiny steps,’ advocates aim for bigger child care fixes • New Hampshire Bulletin
Two years ago, the House speaker appointed a special committee to solve or at least mitigate the child care crisis in New Hampshire. There’s disagreement among lawmakers and child care advocates about its success.
Committee members have sent a few bills to the governor seeking to tweak staffing ratios to allow workers to take additional children. Others would ease zoning requirements for in-home providers and allow a child to remain in child care for more than 13 hours a day in some situations. One would provide supplemental scholarship funding for children experiencing developmental delays.
“Teeny tiny steps” was how Rep. Mary Jane Wallner, a Concord Democrat on the committee, described the legislative efforts. Some of those steps concern her, she said. Wallner, who ran a day care for many years, worries expanding ratios are a step backward if they mean each child will get less care.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been significant attention or other investments in addressing the child care crisis since the pandemic put the shortage of affordable quality care on lawmakers’ radar.
The state has invested nearly $160 million in pandemic assistance, most of it federal dollars, to keep child care providers afloat. Last year, in what advocates called one of the Legislature’s biggest investments, the Senate put $15 million in the budget to vastly increase income thresholds for the state’s child care scholarship to make more families eligible. This year, lawmakers supported a bill that would spend $1 million to increase child care workers’ eligibility for the same scholarship.
Meanwhile, as advocates and lawmakers await the governor’s action on pending bills, they are looking ahead to the fall elections and next year’s budget process with hopes of achieving much more next year.
Here’s what to know about the child care landscape in New Hampshire.
Child care remains incredibly expensive and hard to find.
Last year, the average annual cost of center-based child care for an infant and 4-year-old was $31,868, a 12.5 percent increase from the prior year, according to New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute’s recent report, The Fragile Economics of the Child Care Sector.
For married couples earning the median income, $145,289, that would have reflected 20 percent of their annual household income, the report said. Using the same census data, the institute determined that would have equaled 41 percent of annual income for a single man and 61 percent for a single woman.
That’s far above the 7 percent of annual income the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services deems affordable.
Add the state’s high housing costs, and many young Granite State families may effectively have to choose between buying a home or having a child, the NHFPI report said.
Meanwhile, the pre-pandemic shortage of child care slots continues.
The analysis found that between 2018 and 2022, New Hampshire saw an average annual shortage of about 8,400 slots.
Ratio changes are controversial.
Ross Berry of Weare, a Republican who until recently served in the House and chaired that chamber’s Special Committee on Childcare, believed tweaking ratios would have an immediate and significant effect.
Lawmakers passed two bills doing that.
One would allow in-home providers to care for four children in addition to their own kids; the current limit is three. The other would slightly increase the number of infants and toddlers allowed in a child care classroom based on staffing.
Berry, who runs a child care center in Epsom with his wife, describes it as a math solution.
“If there are 330 licensed providers (in the state) and we can now take two kids in a demographic that need it most, we just created 660 new slots throughout the state without spending a single dollar in taxpayer money,” he said. “We’d see immediate results.”
Berry acknowledged the results would likely be more modest because not all child care centers would have the space or staff to qualify. And based on the feedback lawmakers got, many providers wouldn’t participate.
Michele Merritt, president of the advocacy group New Futures, was among those who urged the committee to defeat the bill, saying providers opposed it.
“The opinion of these individuals could not have been more clear – addressing staffing ratios is not the solution,” she wrote. “It would burden already burnt-out staff, create unsafe environments for children, and is simply irresponsible.”
Rebecca Woitkowski, the child and family policy director for the organization, said last week child care advocates will be watching to see how the bill is implemented if the governor signs it. Like Wallner, Woitkowski sees both bills as small changes that won’t solve the child care crisis.
“I don’t think there will be a ton of centers that get a waiver (to expand class size),” she said. “We have to do a lot more in the state overall to strengthen our child care system.”
More people are eligible for more generous assistance.
The most significant child care legislation came last year, not this year, said Jackie Cowell, executive director of the advocacy group Early Learning NH.
Lawmakers included $15 million in the budget to significantly expand the state’s child care scholarship program. Cowell called it transformational. She’s worried, however, that many parents who earned too much to qualify in prior years don’t know they might be eligible now.
Until the eligibility changes took effect in January, a family of three could earn no more than $65,000 a year to be eligible. That limit now is $89,100. And families who receive a child care scholarship will pay no more than 7 percent of their gross income on child care.
“People, honestly, before the change, could easily spend 20 to 30 percent of their gross income on child care,” Cowell said. “Sometimes more than half of take-home pay was for child care.”
Parents must submit an application through the state’s general assistance portal, NH Easy, though it is difficult to find information about the program on the site. Parents can also complete a paper application or apply at their local Department of Health and Human Services office.
Advocates want child care on the ballot.
Until her friends began having children, Tara Ryan, of Durham, thought all parents got three months of paid parental leave because it’s common in the technology field she and her husband were working in.
Now a mother herself, Ryan has discovered how untrue that is – and how hard it is to find affordable child care. She launched the state’s first chapter of Chamber of Mothers in Portsmouth last month determined to change that. Ryan’s message was written on their T-shirt: “Vote like a mother.”
The group is still determining whether it will take up paid family leave, affordable child care, or material health supports first. The goal is to make parents and children a key part of the narrative and legislative agenda.
“We are just moms. We don’t have the political connections,” Ryan said. “My story is not the only one to tell. There are so many stories.”
Her effort won’t be the only one.
Save the Children Action Network, based in Washington, D.C., recently hosted forums with the four gubernatorial candidates focused on the child care crisis. New Futures and Early Learning NH plan to continue their advocacy, too. Wallner hopes to continue her work on the House Special Committee on Childcare, too.
“I was happy to see this year that we were able to demystify that access to child care is not just a mothers’ issue,” said Woitkowski, of New Futures. “That it’s something the state should invest in because it’s a common good and it’s important for child health and development, and really important to the economy of the state.”
Cowell, of Early Learning NH, intends to make that a statewide conversation.
“One of the priorities for the future is to really work together with the Legislature, business community, policy makers, moms and dads … to find another funding source or sources to really raise the compensation for the child care field,” she said. “It can’t just be on the back of the families that need them.”
Local News
Investigators partnered with a nonprofit genetic genealogy analysis organization to identify the man who the remains belonged to.
After nearly four decades, a man whose skull was discovered in the New Hampshire woods has been identified.
Warren Kuchinsky was born in 1952 and was last known to be alive in the mid-1970s, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella and New Hampshire State Police Colonel Mark Hall said in a statement. In 1986, his skull was found in a wooded area in the town of Bristol.
At the time, investigators weren’t able to identify whose skull it was, according to officials. Last year, however, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner partnered with the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit organization, to solve the case using forensic genetic genealogy techniques.
Kuchinsky’s identity was confirmed through DNA testing of a surviving family member, according to officials. There is no evidence that his death was caused by foul play, according to the statement.
Founded in 2017, the DNA Doe Project partners with law enforcement, medical examiners, and volunteer genealogists to apply investigative genealogy to John and Jane Doe cases. By analyzing DNA profiles and building family trees from publicly available genetic databases and historical records, the organization has helped solve more than 250 cases nationwide.
“We are honored to have partnered with the State of New Hampshire on this case,” DNA Doe Project Team Leader Lisa Ivany said in the statement. “Through the power of investigative genetic genealogy and the dedication of our volunteer genealogists, we were able to develop a critical lead in less than 24 hours. We truly hope that this identification brings long-awaited answers to Mr. Kuchinsky’s family.”
Initial DNA testing turned up only distant matches, so the DNA Doe Project selected the case to be worked on at a virtual retreat in May 2025, according to the organization’s case profile. Over the course of a weekend, more than 40 genealogists from the U.S., Canada, England, and Scotland collaborated virtually to work on the case.
Within hours, the team discovered that the unidentified man had roots in New Hampshire and Quebec, according to the profile. They later zeroed in on Kuchinsky, who had attended school in Plymouth, N.H., but had no official proof of life past 1970.
“This identification reflects the power of partnership and scientific advancement,” Formella said in the statement. “The dedication of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the investigative support of the New Hampshire State Police, and the extraordinary work of the DNA Doe Project have restored a name to an individual who had been unidentified for nearly 40 years. We are grateful for their professionalism and commitment.”
New Hampshire
New Hampshire House Advances One of The Nation’s Most Extreme Transgender Bathroom Bans
The proposal would fine transgender people up to $5,000 for using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity.
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Bathroom bans targeting transgender people have been spreading rapidly across the United States. In previous years, adult bathroom bans in public buildings were limited to a handful of states with extreme laws. This year, they have become one of the primary vehicles for anti-trans legislation nationwide. Kansas was the first to act, passing a bathroom bounty hunter system and invalidating transgender people’s IDs. Idaho and Missouri began advancing their own bills. Now, the New Hampshire House of Representatives has passed its own version — one of the most extreme in the United States, which states that a trans person using the bathroom of their gender identity is a crime under the state civil rights act, violations of which carries hefty penalties. The bill passed 181-164 on Wednesday night, just weeks after Governor Kelly Ayotte vetoed a separate bathroom ban. Republicans are now sending her something far more aggressive — raising the question of whether they are trying to move the goalposts or simply daring her to veto again.
“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, with the exception of RSA 21:3, RSA 21:54, and paragraph II below, all multi-user facilities, including bathrooms, restrooms, and locker rooms located in buildings owned, leased, or operated by any municipality shall be used based on the individual’s biological sex,” reads the new bill. This prohibition is expansive: it applies to parks, rest stops, airports, civic buildings, and more, and could leave transgender people struggling to find a public place to use the restroom across the state.
The bill contains a novel enforcement mechanism not seen in any other state. It declares that a transgender person “asserting” that their gender identity allows them to use the bathroom is against the law under the state civil rights act, turning civil rights protections that were meant to be protective of transgender people into a weapon against them. “It shall be unlawful for any person to assert that their gender identity is a sex other than that defined in RSA 21:3 for the purposes of accessing places or services restricted on the basis of sex,” reads the bill. Such violations could result in fines of up to $5,000 per incident and even jail time if a person violates a resulting court injunction by continuing to use the restroom.
The bill also contains provisions for private businesses. It permits any owner or operator of a “place of public accommodation” — a category that under New Hampshire law includes hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, bars, and concert venues — to restrict bathrooms by assigned sex at birth. The bill then immunizes those businesses from discrimination claims: “Adoption or enforcement of a policy pursuant to this section shall not be deemed discrimination under RSA 354-A or any other state law,” it reads.
A separate bill, HB 1217, also passed on Wednesday. That bill permits governmental buildings and businesses to classify bathrooms and locker rooms by assigned sex at birth — similar to the bathroom bans Ayotte has already vetoed. It passed by an even wider margin, 187-163. It contains no enforcement mechanism, but rather, states that bathroom bans and sports bans are not discriminatory towards transgender people under New Hampshire law.
The bills are part of a larger movement towards bathroom bans for transgender people. Just last month, Kansas passed a bathroom ban that allows every citizen in the state to become a bounty hunter, where reporting transgender people in bathrooms can net them $1,000 per trans person caught. This law also invalidated trans people’s drivers licenses in the state. Meanwhile, Idaho and Missouri are both advancing extreme anti-trans bathroom bans of their own, with Idaho’s ban even applying to private businesses, making it against the law for a private business to allow a trans person to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity.
The bills are substantially more extreme than the one vetoed by Governor Ayotte just weeks ago. In a veto statement of a bathroom ban last month, Ayotte stated, “I believe there are important and legitimate privacy and safety concerns raised by biological males using places such as female locker rooms and being placed in female correctional facilities… At the same time, I see that House Bill 148 is overly broad and impractical to enforce, potentially creating an exclusionary environment for some of our citizens.”
It remains unclear why Republicans are pushing an even more extreme version of a bill their own governor has already vetoed three times. The bill still needs to pass the New Hampshire Senate and be signed by Ayotte to become law. One possibility is that the more extreme HB 1442 is designed as cover for HB 1217 — making that bill appear moderate by comparison and improving its chances of earning a signature. Another is that Republicans believe they can pressure Ayotte into signing, or are simply laying the groundwork for an override attempt down the line. Regardless, HB 1442 is one of the most extreme bathroom bans moving through any state legislature in the country, and transgender people across New England will be watching closely as it advances to the Senate.
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