BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – With 13 legislative days remaining, dozens of education bills are advancing through the Alabama Legislature, ranging from early literacy mandates and teacher workforce changes to school consolidation and new graduation requirements.
Alabama Daily News is tracking more than 150 education-related proposals this session. A handful have already received final passage, several are one vote away from Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk and roughly 100 remain in committee.
Lawmakers also still must make their changes to and pass the $10.5 billion FY27 education budget Gov. Kay Ivey proposed in January. Debate on the Education Trust Fund budget which funds preK, K-12 schools and higher education, is expected before legislators take spring break the last week of March.
Here’s what has passed, what’s close to passing and what’s still waiting.
Still in committee
Roughly two-thirds of the education bills Alabama Daily News is tracking remain in committee, leaving limited time for lawmakers to move them before the session ends. Some of them, though, are high-profile and sponsored by legislative leadership. They include Rep. Terri Collins’ bill to modify the metrics used to determine schools’ A-F report card grades and a proposal by Sen. Arthur Orr and Rep. Danny Garrett’s to tie some higher education funding to colleges’ educational outcomes, including possibly graduation rates.
Sent to the Governor
Senate Bill168 prohibits teachers from solely using the three-cueing system of teaching reading to young children. Sen. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, sponsored the bill. Effective June 1. Read more here.
Senate Bill 149, sponsored by Sen. Matt Woods, R-Jasper, provides a path for military veterans to obtain a temporary teaching certificate. There are requirements, including documenting four years of military service and passing the Praxis test for the subject area the veteran wants to teach. The certificate will be valid for five years. Rep. Rick Rehm, R-Dothan, sponsored the House version of House Bill 306. Effective Oct. 1. Read more here.
House Bill 78 provides for restrictions on screen time for children five and under in publicly-funded or regulated early education settings. Rep. Jeana Ross, R-Guntersville, carried the bill. Effective Oct. 1. Read more here.
Awaiting final floor vote on the House floor
Senate Bill 62, sponsored by Orr, R-Decatur, would set up the Alabama Charter School Finance Authority to allow public charter schools to issue bonds to fund project needs. Would become effective Oct. 1.
Senate Bill 158 would require public high schools to designate a school day for students who choose to take the military entrance exam, called the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. Sen. Randy Price, R-Opelika, sponsored the Senate version and Rep. Matt Simpson, R-Daphne, sponsored the House version, HB196. Would become effective Oct. 1.
Senate Bill 196, sponsored by Sen. Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro, would exempt schools from following the public works law to purchase playground equipment, but they will have to follow the state’s applicable bid law. Would become effective June 1.
Senate Bill 72, sponsored by Chesteen, lowers the age from 25 to 22 for a student to be eligible for the state’s ReEngage Alabama Grant Program, which provides up to $3,000 for a student to return to college.
The bill adds eligibility for students to earn a baccalaureate degree after having received an associate degree. Collins, R-Decatur, is carrying the House version, House Bill 125, which is awaiting consideration on the House floor. Would become effective Oct. 1. Read more here.
Senate Bill 74, also sponsored by Chesteen, would expand the current student loan reimbursement program for math and science teachers, called AMSTEP, to include teachers in certain subjects where acute teacher shortages exist. The House version, HB124, sponsored by Collins, is waiting for final passage on the Senate floor. Would become effective Aug. 1. Read more here.
Awaiting final vote on the Senate floor
House Bill 178, sponsored by Garrett, R-Trussville, would allow city boards of education to consolidate their systems into a single system. He said there are multiple school districts with small numbers of students and that schools could put more money into classrooms for education purposes if they combined their resources.
A Senate committee amended the bill so it would have to return to the House for concurrence. Garrett’s bill would become effective Oct.1.
Collins sponsored a similar bill, House Bill 380, for county boards of education to consolidate, but it would require a constitutional amendment to do so. The bill is awaiting a vote on the House floor.
House Bill 329, sponsored by Rep. David Faulkner, R-Mountain Brook, would require public school students to pass a state-board approved or college-level computer science course as a graduation requirement beginning with the class of 2032. Becomes effective Oct. 1.
House Bill 7 addresses how schools can address terrorist threats. Rep. James Lomax, R-Huntsville, is the sponsor. This bill would require a one-year suspension for a student charged with threatening a school and would increase criminal penalties for the crime. Read more at this link.
Rep. Alan Baker, R-Brewton, has sponsored a related measure, House Bill 188, which updates criminal definitions and penalties for terrorist threats but does not amend school discipline law or require specific disciplinary consequences for students.
House Bill 189, also sponsored by Baker, would require a juvenile court to notify a school official – public or private – if a student is charged with or is being adjudicated for certain crimes or offenses. Would become effective Oct. 1.
House Bill 122, sponsored by Collins, would give schools flexibility in how long they offer a qualified math or science teacher a TEAMS contract. Educators on TEAMS contracts are paid higher amounts than other subject-area teachers. The bill drops the requirement for schools to offer a full five-year TEAMS contract to a teacher with over 20 years of service, instead allowing the school to offer a contract up to a total of five years. Would become effective Oct. 1.
House Bill 138, sponsored by Rep. Kenneth Paschal, R-Alabaster, would allow retired state employees to work as a school bus driver without having their retirement benefits suspended as long as their earnings remain below a calculated limit. Paschal said this is to address a chronic bus driver shortage. The provision would end on Dec. 31, 2030. Would become effective Oct. 1. Read more here. Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Fairhope, filed a similar bill, Senate Bill 28, but it covers more than school bus drivers. Read more here. Elliott’s bill passed the Senate and was amended in a House committee, so if it receives passage on the House floor, it will head back to the Senate for concurrence.
House Bill 225, sponsored by Rep. Van Smith, would decrease the amount of days certain school positions – supervisors, managers or newly created positions – that become vacant during the school year would have to be posted from 14 to seven days. Smith said schools need to be able to fill vacancies quicker during the school year. Would become effective Oct. 1.
HB250 would exclude from state income tax any contributions made to a Trump Account (read more here) by an employer for the employee’s federal gross income. It would also make permanent the exclusion for employer payments made for the employee’s student loan if excluded from federal income tax.
Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, is sponsoring the House version while Sen. Dan Roberts, R-Mountain Brook, is sponsoring SB79, which is identical to HB250. The Senate version is awaiting a final vote on the House floor. Would become effective May 1.
House Bill 151, sponsored by Garrett, would repeal the requirement for the University of Alabama to seat a Physicians Advisory Board for the School of Medicine. Read more here. Would become effective Oct. 1.
House Bill 152, also sponsored by Garrett, would repeal the requirement for the University of Alabama to have a two-year graduate School of Social Work, instead giving UA the authority to do so. Read more here. Would become effective Oct. 1.
House Bill 50, sponsored by Collins, would establish the Imagination Library of Alabama Program to provide free age-appropriate books to children through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Would become effective Oct. 1. Read more here.
Awaiting committee action in the second chamber’s committee
There are two dozen education-related bills that have passed their chamber of origin and are awaiting committee consideration in the second chamber.
Public K-12 schools are the focus of bills impacting everything from whether chaplains will be allowed to volunteer in public schools to whether students who are in homeschool or private school can enroll in public schools for certain courses.
House Bill 8 and Senate Bill 305 would allow chaplains to volunteer in public schools.
Senate Bill 248 would allow students to leave campus during the school day for religious instruction. Read more here.
Senate Bill 209 would require public schools that teach sex education to emphasize sexual risk avoidance. Read more here.
House Bill 183 would allow homeschool students to take career technical education courses in public schools.
Senate Bill 201 would allow homeschool and private school students to enroll in public schools to take Junior ROTC courses.
Some bills create or expand college scholarship programs or otherwise impact higher education institutions.
House Bill 98 creates a scholarship program for dependents and spouses of long-serving law enforcement officers. Read more here.
House Bill 377 expands the Alabama G.I. and Dependents’ Educational Benefit Act to include graduate courses in medical fields.
Senate Bill 59 and House Bill 165 would require public colleges and universities to develop plans that show how federal budget cuts could impact their operations and how they will react to those cuts. Read more here.