Lawmakers gave educators, parents and students plenty of new tasks as a result of the laws passed in this year’s legislative session.
They made an assortment of policy and curriculum changes, including dramatically broadening school choice, changing math and science graduation requirements, making it easier for students to work a job and adding due process rights for students - while at the same time making it easier for teachers to send disruptive kids out of the classroom.
The biggest news of the session was the creation of a $100 million education savings account program, which is very similar to a voucher program. Families of eligible students can use the vouchers to pay for private school tuition or other eligible educational expenses.
The first batch of $7,000 vouchers will be available in the 2025-26 school year for low-income students. In 2027, all students will be eligible for vouchers.
Families of eligible homeschooled students could receive $2,000 for each student, up to $4,000 total per school year.
The state Department of Revenue is still working out mechanics of how families and schools will access the funding.
While universal vouchers are still somewhat new, news reports show that the biggest group of families who access the vouchers have children already attending private schools.
High school students don’t have to take as much formal math and science anymore. Lawmakers, with endorsement from state superintendent Eric Mackey, passed the Workforce Pathways diploma as part of a seven-bill package aimed at supporting economic development.
Supporters wanted to give students more flexibility in which math and science courses - college prep or career prep - they can take. Lawmakers said the current structure expected all students to go to college, but data shows 48% of the class of 2021 went to college following graduation.
The class of 2024 was required to take four math courses and four science courses to earn an Alabama high school diploma. Starting in 2024-25, the number of total credits needed to graduate (24, or six credits per year) won’t change, but students will now have to take only two math classes and two science classes. The student can substitute career technical classes for those credits.
Shortened science requirements are already in place; Alabama requires only two mandatory science courses: biology and one of three physical sciences. Students can choose from career tech, advanced placement, International Baccalaureate, dual enrollment or other approved courses to earn their additional credits in science.
There are currently three required math courses - Geometry, Algebra I and Algebra II - so the new diploma requires only two. Students can choose from career tech, advanced placement, International Baccalaureate, dual enrollment or other approved math courses for their final math credit.
It’s unclear whether students who have already registered for their high school classes will have a chance to change their current math or science courses for the 2024-25 school year.
Beginning with the 2025-26 school year, children who have not attended a formal kindergarten program - public or private - will be assessed to make sure they’re developmentally ready to enroll in first grade. The idea is to make sure that students will have a meaningful first grade experience and be able to learn alongside their first-grade peers.
In 2025-26, even if a child’s test shows they may not be ready for first grade, the student will still be able to enroll in that grade. But beginning in 2026-27, children who aren’t ready, as measured by the assessment, will be placed in kindergarten.
Currently, local schools are required to assess students who want to enroll in first grade but haven’t been to a formal kindergarten program, but it is up to each school district to determine how that’s done. This law standardizes the enrollment process, and the state department will develop a test for school officials to use.
Two new laws broaden parents’ ability to see what materials teachers use in the classroom.
Starting this school year, parents will have increased access to the curricular materials - books, textbooks, other information - teachers use in their classrooms. The Parents’ Right to Know Act requires schools to post materials teachers plan to use at any point during the school year at the start of the school year.
Parents and guardians can request additional information and lodge complaints if the teacher does not respond. The complaint process is laid out in the law, instructing parents to file a complaint first with the local superintendent, and if there’s no resolution within 10 days, to take the complaint to the state superintendent.
Parents are now the sole determining authority as to whether their 14- or 15-year-old child can work a job outside of school hours. Lawmakers removed the requirement for school officials to have to sign off on the eligibility to work form.
Lawmakers made big changes to out-of-school suspension, expulsion and alternative school placement processes. The law, which goes into effect Oct. 1 of 2024, standardizes steps and says all students must be given due process. That means access to evidence, a full description of the alleged violation, a speedy hearing and a right to question witnesses at a minimum, when one or more of those three disciplinary actions is on the table. Students will also have a right to appeal the board’s decision.
The Teachers’ Bill of Rights could mean another big change in classrooms this year. The law creates a process for removing a child from the classroom when that child is disrupting class - five actions described in the law - and what must happen for the child to come back to the classroom.
These are the five behaviors specified in the law that allow teachers to exclude students from classrooms:
If a student is excluded from the classroom two times in one semester, principals are required to hold a conference with the student’s parents.
The state board of education will develop a model policy that local school boards can adopt to ensure the law is implemented properly.
While schools previously had flexibility about which incidents were documented, all out-of-class referrals now must be documented and a school administrator must certify the child is ready to return to the classroom before the teacher is required to let the child return to class.
Two laws were passed that change current rules around testing. The first allows students learning virtually full-time to take the state standardized tests remotely beginning with the 2025-26 school year.
The second law excludes test results of students who have transferred into public school from a nonpublic school from the school’s state report card for the first three years the student is enrolled in public school.
Nearly all of the previously mentioned laws impact teachers, but there are a couple of new laws directly aimed at teachers.
First is a 2% pay raise - and that’s for all education employees, not just teachers.
The starting salary for a teacher went up way more than 2%, to $47,600, from $44,226 for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree. In her state of the state speech in February, Gov. Kay Ivey said she wants Alabama’s starting teacher salary to be the highest of our neighboring states.
According to AL.com’s research, surrounding states’ starting salaries for teachers are:
So for now, Ivey gets her wish. But she needs to keep a watch on Tennessee. Tennessee’s governor just signed into law a bill that will raise starting teacher salaries to $50,000 by 2026.
Paraprofessional educators who become certified teachers will now get one year of credit for every two years they worked as paraprofessionals in schools. So if a person worked as a paraprofessional for 10 years and then became a certified teacher, their starting pay would be based on a teacher with five years of experience.
Lawmakers failed to pass a bill giving teachers paid parental leave. Currently teachers have to build up sick leave or take unpaid leave. If a teacher takes unpaid leave, the teacher has to cover the full cost of their health insurance premium until they return to work.
There could be more assistant principals this next school year, as a law more clearly defining the role of an assistant principal also requires every school to have an assistant principal (if funding is available).
It’s still unclear about what kind of impact a law banning diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in K-12 schools will have.
The state board of education three years ago passed a resolution preserving “intellectual freedom and non-discrimination” in public schools, and while worded differently from the state board’s resolution, identifies and prohibits similar divisive concepts.
This law goes farther than the resolution, banning schools from requiring students to attend any classes based on their race or requiring students, employees or contractors to attend or participate in DEI programs.
A law requiring comprehensive school safety plans becomes effective Oct. 1. That law, called the School Security Act, creates a full range of safety requirements including having a designated district safety coordinator who does everything from attending multiple trainings to stay on top of current trends and concerns to coordinating an annual meeting of local public safety officials.
Maps of each school building will be created and updated by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, and those maps will be standardized and shareable with appropriate law enforcement and safety personnel.
School districts will be inspected at least once every five years, and the inspectors will help officials identify weaknesses and how to make their buildings safer. Some of these activities and requirements are already in place due to the recommendations of Ivey’s SAFE Council in 2018.
Lawmakers passed two laws aimed at student safety.
The first law requires public schools to conduct fentanyl prevention and drug awareness programs to students in grades six through 12. That begins with the 2024-25 school year.
The second law, effective beginning in the 2025-26 school year pertains to public and nonpublic schools and requires officials to create an emergency response plan if an individual has a cardiac emergency on school grounds. Schools must have an emergency response team and must stay trained in how to use Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs).
Lawmakers provided $5 million in funding for schools to purchase Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs).
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