Education featured prominently in the Alabama legislative session again this year, with lawmakers expanding school choice for students and making new requirements for high school graduates.

They gave all school employees a raise, with special emphasis on school nurses, support personnel and a bonus for special education teachers.

Read more legislative coverage from AL.com here.

Lawmakers approved a historic $11.6 billion in spending for education – $8.8 billion education budget and $2.8 billion in a supplemental allocation. The supplemental allocation will fund mostly one-time expenditures but also will fund a new savings account and a new grant program administered by the lieutenant governor’s office.

Here are 12 topics — including dozens of bills and amendments — that legislators tackled during the 2023 session.

Teacher pay increases, expanded leave

Teacher pay is going up by 2%, bringing the starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree to $44,226 from $43,358 for the current year. Math and science teachers who are contracted through the state’s TEAMS program will see raises, too. Starting salary for a TEAMS teacher will rise to $49,530 from $48,558 for the current year.

Community college employees will receive a 2% raise, too.

The funding formula that determines how many teachers the state funds was adjusted for fourth through sixth grade, resulting in 100 more state-funded teachers in those grades statewide.

Alabama state employees – which includes teachers – will now be allowed to use up to 8 weeks of accrued sick leave to care for a child three years old or younger that they adopted or are petitioning to adopt. Like me, you’re probably thinking, couldn’t they already do that? Well, no, not according to existing law. That new law becomes effective Sept. 1.

One more bit of good news for K-12 classroom teachers: Half of the total classroom supply money – $1,170 per state-funded teacher – for the 2023-24 school year will be available before the school year starts. That’s a big deal because before now, funding for supplies wasn’t available until Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year. Some districts with strong local tax bases could front the money to teachers, but most couldn’t.

Teacher preparation

The Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact standardizes requirements among states that participate, and if signed into law, Alabama will be the ninth state to participate. Effective when 10 states sign the compact. Signed by Gov. Kay Ivey.

Alternative teacher preparation programs got another boost by lawmakers who widened the doorway a bit more after the state board of education approved regulations allowing few alternative teacher prep programs to operate. The law allows programs that have certified at least 10,000 teachers nationwide or who are accredited to operate in Alabama. Waiting on the Governor’s signature.

School employee pay

Special education teachers will receive a $1,000 bonus as part of the new education budget for the 2024 fiscal year. That’s in addition to a $5,000 bonus paid to special education teachers who have obtained national board certification. Effective Oct. 1.

Speech therapists will also receive a $1,000 annual stipend.

School nurses will receive a huge bump in pay thanks to the new education budget. For a first-year LPN, starting pay will be $33,264, up from $22,181 this year. Starting pay for an RN with a bachelor’s degree will be $47,322, up from $42,198 this year.

Some school support personnel, such as custodians, lunchroom workers and bus drivers, could see a raise depending on their current hourly rate. Lawmakers mandated all school support personnel receive a minimum of $15/hour, and added $15 million to the budget to fund the increase. It’s unknown how many employees this will impact statewide.

Money, money, money

The regular budget sends K-12 education $6 billion, a $363 million or 4.4% increase. Higher education will receive $2.3 billion, a $140 million or 1.7% increase.

The $2.8 billion supplemental sends $753 million, or 27% of the total, to K-12 education, $926 million, or 33% of the total, to higher education, and $362 million, or 13% of the total, to other spending. The tax rebate will cost $393 million and a new savings account will start with $354 million.

They also changed the rules about how education will be funded from here on out – unless they change the law again, of course. Changes to the Rolling Reserve Act – which lays out a formula for the budget process – cap budget increases to 5.75% by 2027. The changes also create that new savings account, called the Educational Opportunity Reserve Fund, to catch tax revenue beyond what was budgeted.

Lawmakers created a K-12 Capital Grant program with $179 million of the supplemental appropriation. The Lt. Governor’s office will oversee the program – a first for Alabama – and details are forthcoming. Local school districts will be required to supply matching funds on a sliding scale of availability of local funds and must be endorsed by the district’s Alabama lawmakers.

Expanding school choice

Students with disabilities will soon be eligible for tax credit scholarships through the Alabama Accountability Act to pay for tuition and fees at private schools or an out-of-district school that will accept the student. In addition, students with IEPs can use scholarship proceeds to pay for therapeutic services such as speech and occupational therapy.

The AAA also raised the cap on income eligibility for scholarships, which will allow more students to be eligible. Currently, only students whose family income is below 185% of the federal poverty level are eligible. That level was raised to 250% under the changes.

About 2,800 students are using tax credit scholarships during the current school year according to the Alabama Department of Revenue. At its peak, more than 4,000 students used the scholarships.

The law provides more money for individual scholarships, raises the amount of tax credits available and designates more schools as priority – previously called “failing” – meaning more families could claim tax credits for moving their child away from a priority public school.

Distressed college loan program

Lawmakers approved a loan program that will allow eligible colleges to take a loan to shore up finances during difficult times. The bill was an effort to save Birmingham-Southern College, which will now be able to borrow up to $30 million through the program. Effective immediately upon being signed by the Governor.

Parents’ rights acknowledged

Lawmakers approved a one-page bill that puts into state law a parents’ “fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children.” Further, it says the law applies to “disputes between parents and the government or third parties,” but doesn’t specify anything beyond that. Waiting on the Governor’s signature. Effective not earlier than Sept. 1.

Parental rights bills have appeared in at least 35 states in the past two years, according to The 19th, a nonprofit news organization that tracks legislation impacting women and marginalized communities.

Special education classroom cameras

K12 schools will now be allowed to place cameras in classrooms for students with disabilities under certain conditions. Schools can apply for grants to fund the cameras, with lawmakers putting $500,000 into the fund for the 2024 fiscal year. Waiting on the Governor’s signature. Will be effective as early as Sept. 1.

Charter commission re-do & Literacy Task Force changes

Two new laws impact key governance bodies – who they are and how they do their work. The first makes major changes to the 10-member Alabama Public Charter School Commission by shifting the appointment authority from the state board of education to legislative leadership. The law also requires commissioners to attend training and lengthens their terms to four years.

The Commission has approved 11 startup public charter schools since being formed in 2015. Nine are currently operating, one charter was revoked before the school opened, and one chose not to open after being approved. Two more are set to open at the start of the 2023-24 school year, and one will open the following year.

Changes to Alabama’s third grade reading law extended the period for schools to use their choice of materials for core reading, reading intervention and testing until 2027. The current chair of the Literacy Task Force, which vets and recommends those materials, will be replaced by the director of the Alabama Department of Education’s Alabama Reading Initiative. The Task Force will be required to include two public K-12 teachers among seven members appointed by the Governor and the state superintendent.

The bill is waiting on the Governor’s signature, and will become effective immediately.

Data collection and use

Two new data collection processes will result in better evaluation of what’s working in preK through higher education.

The first, called ATLAS, is a longitudinal data collection, meaning the various agencies that have preK, K12, higher education and workforce data, will share that data with a central agency which will then compile and analyze what the data says. It will allow officials to see what is and isn’t working to lay a path for students and workers. Effective Sept. 1.

The law also requires all public school students to earn a college or career ready indicator before graduating, beginning with the class of 2026. This bumps up a requirement set by the Alabama Board of Education for graduates to earn an indicator beginning with the class of 2028.

The second, called the Students Right to Know Act, is a tool for students to see all sorts of information related to higher education, including which majors are the highest-paying and which schools have the highest completion rate, as well as information about student loan default rates and costs, among other information. Waiting on the Governor’s signature. Will be effective Jan. 1, 2024.

Financial literacy course required for graduation

Lawmakers enthusiastically enacted a law requiring public school students to complete a course on personal financial literacy and money management before graduating. Students in the ninth grade at the start of the 2024-25 school year will be the first to have to meet the requirement.

Required topics in the course include information on bank accounts, principles of money management, credit, insurance, contracts and investments, among others.

Students are already required to take a course in career preparation, of which financial literacy is a component.

Athletic programs

The prohibition on biological males competing in school sports or on athletic teams for women was expanded to include higher education. Only about 30 transgender athletes have competed openly nationwide in college sports, according to Inside Higher Ed. The prohibition has been in place for K12 schools since 2021. Effective Aug. 1.

Rural, 1A, 2A, 3A and Title I schools are now eligible for a grant to employ an athletic trainer for their middle and high schools starting with the 2024-25 school year. A $7,500 grant will be available for each school annually. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, who is a former high school coach, said many schools aren’t able to afford athletic trainers though they’re commonplace in wealthier schools. Effective Sept. 1.

Here’s another one related to school sports: All schools must now accept cash at sporting events. Every lawmaker voted in favor, Ivey signed it into law, effective immediately. No more credit cards only, which is what lawmakers said they’d seen happen. Effective immediately.