Senate approves bill to pay teachers more for paraprofessional experience
The Alabama Senate passed Senate Bill 217, sponsored by Sen. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, which will allow school paraprofessionals and classroom teacher’s aides to get paid more for their experience if they get a license and become classroom teachers.
Currently, newly certified teachers with paraprofessional or classroom aide experience don’t get paid any more than a teacher without that classroom experience.
If passed, SB217 would provide certified teachers with one year of experience credit on the local salary schedule for every two years that they previously worked as a paraprofessional or classroom teacher’s aide at a public school in the state, provided that they have a minimum of four years total experience.
The minimum starting salary of an Alabama teacher with a bachelor’s degree and no experience is $44,266. Under the bill, a starting teacher with six years of paraprofessional experience could earn at least $48,643.
This bill would apply to certified teachers hired on or after June 1, 2024.
House advances effort to shield minors from explicit content on smart phones, tablets
The Alabama House passed a bill Thursday that would require smart phones, tablets and other internet-enabled devices to automatically shield minors from explicit content, and establishes significant civil penalties for manufacturers were they to not comply with the new law.
House Bill 167, sponsored by Rep. Chris Sells, R-Greenville, would require smart phones and tablets to verify the age of the user, and were the user to be under 18, automatically enable an adult content filter. Manufacturers could face civil penalties as high as $50,000 per violation under the bill, and could also face additional consequences from the Alabama attorney general, such as having licenses or certificates to do business in the state being revoked.
“It’s as simple as when (a minor) sets up their Apple ID, they put their age in and it automatically turns the filter on,” Sells said on the House floor. “They’re actually doing it now for ages 12 and under, and this just moves it up to the age of 18.”
Sells had filed a near-identical bill last year that made its way out of the House, but never passed in the Senate. The bill received praise from both House Republicans and Democrats alike, with Rep. Napoleon Bracy, D-Saraland, telling Sells that he believed it to be “probably the most important bill for us to vote on this year.”
The bill passed unanimously, and now makes its way to the Senate.
Sentencing reform for habitual offenders fails in House
A bill that would give certain incarcerated Alabamians a chance to be resentenced failed in the House Thursday after coming short of the 60% support required to advance the bill beyond the budget isolation resolution, a procedural vote that’s required to advance any legislation ahead of the state’s budgets.
House Bill 29, sponsored by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, would strictly apply to inmates who were sentenced to life without parole under the state’s habitual offender law. The bill would not apply to those who had been convicted of homicide, a sex offense, or a crime that involved causing serious injury to a person, and would sunset after a period of five years.
Should the bill have passed the BIR vote, England said he intended on introducing an amendment that would also exclude inmates that were convicted of a crime that involved any kind of injury to another person, serious or not.
“This is not a mass release of anybody, what it is is an opportunity, if you meet very specific circumstances, to be eligible for review for resentencing,” England said.
Though 49 voted in support of the BIR, the 49-48 vote failed to see the resolution reach the required 60% threshold, thereby halting the bill in its tracks.
Anti-squatter bill adopted by House
Members of the House voted in favor of a bill Thursday that would expedite the process by which a property owner could have an intruder removed from a dwelling, a bill that its sponsor said was an effort to be proactive in combating the practice of squatting, or taking up residence in someone else’s property with the intent of establishing legal protections to remain on the premises.
“Currently in our nation, we’re experiencing an epidemic of individuals who are finding themselves on peoples’ properties, and we’re having difficulty establishing who has the right to be where they should and should not be,” said Rep. Craig Lipscomb, R-Gadsden, the sponsor of the bill.
Under House Bill 182, a property owner could have an individual removed from their dwelling by law enforcement within a period of 24 hours by signing a sworn affidavit. The bill would also create both criminal and civil penalties for those who file a false affidavit.
Lipscomb noted that while squatting was not a frequent occurrence in Alabama, he sought to be proactive on the issue rather than reactive, citing instances of increased squatting in states such as New York, where squatters’ rights are established after residing in a dwelling for 30 days, regardless of who actually owns the property.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
Bill would require permits, regulations on ATV parks
Legislation to require ATV parks in the state to be permitted and inspected by their local county governments was approved Thursday in the Senate Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee.
Chairman Andrew Jones, R-Centre, is the sponsor of Senate Bill 254.
He said that regulations in other states on the large, rural parks that allow people to camp and ride ATVs have meant Alabama’s unregulated parks are becoming more popular, and more of a nuisance for their neighbors. Jones and several people during a public hearing spoke of traffic, noise issues and environmental concerns, including impacts downstream of ATVs ridden in creeks and other waterways.
He said one in his area has upwards of 1,000 visitors per weekend, most of them from out of state.
Besides a permitting process, the bill would also require the park owner to carry at least $5 million in liability insurance. Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Huntsville, said that requirement would be expensive for a lot of operators and would put some out of business.
Jones said he’d be willing to make amendments to the bill as it advances.
“I understand that there are a lot of these facilities that are good neighbors,” he said. “… But I think we’ve got to do something to avoid the wild, wild west in some areas.”
Two senators voted against the bill. Sen. Lance Bell, R-Riverside, said he voted no because of concerns about private landowners’ rights.
Rep. Ron Bolton, R-Northport, is sponsoring the same legislation, House Bill 403, in that chamber.