Paid parental leave bill clears Senate committee
A proposal to provide state and education employees with up to eight weeks of paid parental leave is moving forward in the Alabama legislature.
Senate Bill 199, sponsored by Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, cleared the Senate Ways and Means Education Committee on Wednesday. The bill would give female employees eight weeks of paid leave for childbirth, miscarriage or stillbirth. Male employees could get up to two weeks. Employees adopting a child three years old or younger would also get eight weeks. If both parents are state or education employees, one gets eight weeks while the other gets two.
Figures introduced a similar bill last year. She said concerns arose about distinguishing miscarriages from abortions.
“So we added language that the pregnancy had to be at least 12 weeks or more when they had the miscarriage, and also that it would be verified by a healthcare professional that it was not an abortion,” Figures told the committee. Abortion would be allowed only when necessary to prevent a serious health risk to the mother, a determination that must also be verified by a healthcare provider.
A fiscal note attached to the bill did not provide a total estimated cost but outlined the potential financial impact for employers. State agencies would see decreases in savings on employees who now take unpaid time off for the birth of a child. Those decreases include $8,600 per employee who uses eight weeks of paid leave and $2,100 for an employee who uses two weeks.
Local school boards could see costs of $4,800 per employee for eight weeks of leave and $1,200 for two weeks of leave.
Bill to keep sex offenders from being first responders advances
A bill prohibiting sex offenders from serving as first responders is one vote away from final passage in the Alabama Legislature.
House Bill 27 by Rep. Kerry Underwood, R-Tuscumbia, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday and is now in line for its last needed vote in the Senate.
Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, asked Underwood to summarize the legislation in committee.
“No sex offender, adult or juvenile, can accept or maintain employment or a voluntary position as a first responder —” Underwood started to explain.
“You can stop right there,” Smitherman said, ready to vote in favor of the bill.
The bill defines a first responder as a “paramedic, firefighter, rescue squad member, emergency medical technician, or other individual who, in the course of his or her professional duties, responds to fire, medical, hazardous material, or other similar emergencies, whether compensated or not.”
Underwood sponsored the bill because of a situation in his district. Alabama Daily News previously reported that a registered sex offender volunteering at the Colbert Heights Volunteer Fire Department, convicted in 2019 of sexual abuse in the first degree. His victim was under the age of 16, according to the state’s sex offender registry.
Bill calls for parental notification of teens’ traffic tickets
Rep. Jamie Kiel, R-Russellville, is again sponsoring legislation requiring law enforcement agencies to try to notify parents when their teens receive traffic tickets.
House Bill 285 require that “if a minor under 19 years of age is cited for any traffic infraction, the citing agency shall make a reasonable effort to notify the minor’s parent, legal guardian, or legal custodian of the infraction unless the minor has been emancipated by court order or operation of law.”
“I have three children,” Kiel told the House Youth and Senior Advocacy Committee on Wednesday. “I’ve got all teenagers, and if one of my children is driving my car and using my gas, under my insurance, my liability, and they get pulled over for speeding, I have no way of knowing that unless they were honest and told me that.
“And so I would like to be able to correct my child, and I would like for parents in Alabama to be able to correct their children if they were pulled over and hopefully save lives because of that.”
The bill received a favorable report and moves to the House.
Kiel named the legislation T.J.’s Law after Tyler Jeffery “T.J.” Morgan, a 21-year-old Tuscumbia resident who died of blunt force trauma in a wreck in 2022. He wasn’t wearing his seat belt. His mother, April Vafeas, while later sorting Morgan’s belongings found three seat belt citations he’d received as a teenager while he was driving a vehicle registered to her.
“That’s something I would have liked the opportunity to have corrected,” she told ADN last year.
A similar bill from Kiel came close to final passage last year, but didn’t get a final vote in the Senate on the last day of the session amid debate and delays related to gambling legislation.
Alabama Senate committee approves no-cost community college for some high school students
The Senate Ways and Means Education Committee advanced a bill that would cover the cost of community college courses for eligible high school juniors and seniors who leave high school and enroll full-time in community college.
Senate Bill 196, known as the Move On When Ready Act, is sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur. He told committee members the bill is modeled after a similar program in Georgia that has been in place for a decade.
“Why do we make children, if they’re ready to move on and they’ve got the academic capability to move on and go to a high level, why do we say ‘well, you’ve got to stay, you’ve got to sit in that seat till you’re a high school graduate?’” Orr asked.
Under the bill, students who enroll full-time in community college before completing high school could still earn their diploma by earning comparable credits in community college.
Funding would come from the Move on When Ready Fund. A fiscal note for the bill showed community college tuition and fees costs $5,300 per year while the K-12 Foundation program equivalent costs $6,400. Community colleges would receive the lower amount.
“It really is a dual enrollment program on steroids,” said Sen. Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, said. “It’s a very progressive idea for public education.”
Orr said he expects a small number of students would participate.
Prohibition of three-cueing reading method nears full passage
House Bill 9, sponsored by Rep. Leigh Hulsey, R-Helena, prohibits public school teachers from using “three-cueing” to teach students how to read. The bill was approved by the Senate Education Policy committee and now heads to the Senate floor.
“It’s strengthening the implementation of the Literacy Act by addressing a common barrier to student learning, a non-evidence based method of instruction called ‘three-cueing,’” Hulsey said.
“Three-cueing does not emphasize phonics-based learning, and it causes students to be overly dependent on visual cues, which leads to guessing or seeking to just memorize.”
The bill also bars teacher preparation programs from training future teachers in the method.
Hulsey said the bill is similar to one filed last year but includes new accountability measures. If the State Board of Education, which banned “three-cueing” in May, finds the method is being used, it must report it to lawmakers and the public. The same requirement applies if a teacher preparation program is found to be using it.