2026 SAU 90 Article 3: Child Benefit Services for Children Who Attend Sacred Heart School – $48,626 (Petitioned)

Shall the School District vote to raise and appropriate funds in the amount of $48,626 to provide child benefit services, in accordance with RSA 189:49, for students who are residents of the Hampton School District and attend Sacred Heart School located in Hampton, New Hampshire? BY PETITION.

What it means: Sacred Heart School is a private religious institution in Hampton. Hampton students electively attend Sacred Heart as opposed to attending the Hampton public schools. This Article asks for an offset for child benefit services in lieu of the taxpayers paying for the students to attend public school. There are 41 Hampton students who are in attendance at Sacred Heart School in the current academic year (out of about 240 total enrollment in grades Pre-K through 8). The dollar amount requested is $1,186 per student. About 30% of the funding goes toward health-related services, and the balance to technology and similar items.

Those in favor say:  As long as the funds are used for the child benefit services listed in the NH law, they may be appropriated for those purposes. The use of the funding by Sacred Heart School falls within the allowed purposes. Sacred Heart School sends invoices to the SAU 90 office, which is responsible for assuring they are valid and appropriate requests, and then the invoices are paid. No money is dispensed directly to the school.

Parents of Sacred Heart students are also Hampton taxpayers and they pay the same tax rate for SAU 90 as the parents whose children attend the public school. If those 41 children were to attend the SAU 90 schools, the cost might not be the same cost-per-student as SAU 90 (over $30,000) but it would certainly be more than the $1,186 that is being asked via this petition, especially because the funds are used for health-related and technology resources, which would be required regardless of which school the child attends.

Those opposed say: Some who opposed this request are concerned about separation of church and state. People have expressed concerns about supporting a religious organization, even if the funds are not specifically used for religious purposes. Some questioned why the families don’t just use the Education Freedom Account (EFA) to manage the additional cost, should the parents choose to send their children to a private school.

Fiscal Impact: A home valued at $600,000 would see an increased tax impact of  $5.00 if this article passes.