By MARY SELL, Alabama Daily News
The Alabama House of Representatives voted 81-19 to approve a bill requiring students to attend kindergarten or take a readiness test before entering first grade.
House Bill 331, by Rep. Pebblin Warren, D-Tuskegee, now goes to the Senate. A similar bill died last year without a vote in that chamber.
The bill would increase kindergarten enrollment by about 5,000 students annually, according to a fiscal note.
“This bill is a first-grade readiness bill,” Warren said on the House floor Wednesday evening. “If we want our students to be successful, we’ve got to give them a foundation.”
She said students who don’t attend kindergarten are at a disadvantage when they enter first grade with students who may have attended pre-K and kindergarten.