Allows citizens of a city or town who are at least sixteen (16) years of age to register to vote and to vote in school committee elections in municipalities where school committees are elected entities.

Plain-English Summary

This bill would lower the voting age to 16 specifically for school committee elections in Rhode Island cities and towns where school committee members are elected by the public. Under current law, you must be 18 years old to vote in any election. This proposal would create an exception, allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to register to vote and cast ballots in this one specific type of local election.

The bill directly affects teenagers aged 16 and 17 who live in Rhode Island municipalities that hold elections for their school committees. It would give these young people a say in choosing the officials who make decisions about their local public schools — including things like curriculum, school policies, budgets, and staffing. School committee members are among the officials with the most direct impact on students' daily lives, so supporters of similar laws elsewhere have argued that students have a particular stake in those elections. Not every city or town in Rhode Island has an elected school committee, so the bill would only apply where those elections already take place.

The bill has been introduced in the Rhode Island Senate and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, with a hearing scheduled for April 2026. It has not yet been voted on or signed into law. If passed, Rhode Island would join a small but growing number of jurisdictions across the country that have extended limited voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds for certain local elections.