Alabama lawmakers want schools to add 30 more instructional days and may add funding for schools that extend their calendars.

Currently, Alabama school districts must provide 180 days of instruction each year, but they set their own start and end dates. Under a bill filed this week, HB333, schools that add 30 days of instructional support could apply for a grant to cover additional costs.

Reps. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, and Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, are sponsors.

Collins said an extended learning calendar helps students avoid summertime learning loss, helps schools add more opportunities and helps working families.

Under the bill, schools could apply for a grant if they add 30 instructional days and provide a budget and evidence of community support.

Alabama school officials have struggled to get students to participate in voluntary summer reading camps in recent years. The Literacy Act requires districts to offer 60 instructional hours in reading through summer camps for kindergarten through third grade students who are identified with a deficiency. But student attendance is not mandatory and participation rates are low.

According to information from the Alabama Reading Initiative, of the 101,000 students eligible for summer reading camp in 2022, 32,000 attended.

Of those students, most maintained their reading levels, but rising first graders had “marginal loss” in reading levels from spring to fall.

This summer, math camps must be offered for students in kindergarten through fifth grade, but again, attendance is optional.

Vincent schools in Shelby County operated on a year-round calendar from 1993 to 2008. That ended when the district’s board of education forced Vincent to adopt the calendar used across the district.

Fonde Elementary School in Mobile has been operating on a year-round calendar for six years, using a 180-day regular calendar and offering multiple week-long intersessions for students to catch up, Mobile County spokesperson Rena Philips said. “Students love it and teachers love it,” she said.

Collins said she visited the school a few years and was impressed with how the school operated and the results they were having.

Collins said she hopes school district officials and communities will keep an open mind and be willing to try it.

“This is not being forced on anybody,” she said, “but I’m hoping that truly innovative school systems that have a sense of urgency for student achievement will look into using the modified calendar to extend learning opportunities for students.”

The bill will be considered by the House Education Policy, which Collins, who chairs the committee, said could come up for discussion next week.