Title 16

(a) The State Superintendent of Education shall establish the Alabama Committee on Grade Level Reading. The committee shall consist of four members appointed from each State Board of Education district. The Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representa…

The State Superintendent of Education shall provide technical assistance to local education agencies in complying with this chapter. The State Board of Education shall adopt rules as necessary to implement and enforce this chapter. (Act 2019-523, §8.)

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the Alabama Numeracy Act. (Act 2022-249, §1.)

Beginning August 1, 2022, the State Superintendent of Education shall provide training to full support and limited support schools relating to the Alabama Multi-Tiered System of Support framework. The framework shall outline the evidence-based best practices of multi-tiered syste…

The department, through the Office of School Improvement, shall do all of the following: (1) Add educators experienced in the implementation of teaching elementary mathematics through problem solving to the Office of School Improvement. (2) Add highly qualified staff with experie…

(a) Beginning January 1, 2024, the department, through the Office of School Improvement, the Office of Mathematics Improvement, any other sections within the department, and regional and national experts in school turnaround, shall develop a State Academic Intervention framework …

(a) Beginning August 1, 2022, the State Superintendent of Education, through the Office of Mathematics Improvement, shall convene and oversee a Postsecondary Mathematics Task Force to develop guidelines for institutions of postsecondary education to train early childhood and elem…

(a) On or before June 30, 2024, the State Superintendent of Education shall develop and submit to the State Board of Education for approval, recommendations for the creation of a K-5 mathematics coach endorsement for teachers who hold a valid Alabama professional educator certifi…

(a) Beginning October 1, 2022, the State Superintendent of Education shall convene a working group to create the Alabama Instructional Leadership Framework, applicable to all K-5 administrators. The State Superintendent of Education shall utilize an external partner to facilitate…

(a) Beginning January 1, 2023, the department shall lead a working group to develop a School Turnaround Academy, to train principals and teacher leaders to specialize in evidence-based school turnaround strategies and practices. The department shall partner with national or state…

(a) Beginning January 15, 2023, the Executive Committee of the Alabama STEM Council shall employ an external consultant to evaluate this chapter, the work of mathematics coaches, and the implementation and outcomes. The external consultant shall be selected through an open reques…

(a) The State Superintendent of Education, through the Office of Mathematics Improvement and other sections of the department, shall provide technical assistance to local education agencies in complying with this chapter. (b) The State Board of Education may adopt rules as necess…

Funds appropriated by the Legislature in support of this chapter shall be allocated to support all of the following: (1) The staff and operations of the Office of Mathematics Improvement, including the director and regional coordinators, professional learning activities, and admi…

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: (1) ALGEBRAIC REASONING. Recognizing and generalizing about patterns and relationships; representing patterns and relationships by analyzing structures of the patterns; and using mathematical…

(a) By July 4, 2022, the State Superintendent of Education shall convene an Elementary Mathematics Task Force to provide the State Superintendent of Education and the State Board of Education with vetted and approved recommendations for high quality, evidence-based comprehensive …

(a) There is created in the department an Office of Mathematics Improvement, that shall be formed by July 4, 2022. The State Superintendent of Education shall appoint a Director of the Office of Mathematics Improvement whose exclusive focus is K-5 mathematics. The director shall …

(a) Each K-5 teacher who is providing instruction in mathematics, with the full support of his or her principal, shall do all of the following: (1) Dedicate an average minimum of 60 minutes per day for Tier 1 mathematics instruction, for a minimum of 164 instructional hours per y…

(a)(1) A kindergarten student or incoming grades 1-5 student identified with a mathematics deficiency, or who demonstrates the signs of dyscalculia, shall be provided intensive mathematics interventions recommended by the Elementary Mathematics Task Force to address his or her sp…

(a)(1) Subject to the appropriations of the Legislature, every public K-5 school with a student population of less than 800 K-5 students shall be allocated one mathematics coach and every public K-5 school with a student population of 800 or more K-5 students shall be allocated t…

(a) Beginning August 1, 2022, to facilitate improvement in mathematics achievement in public elementary schools, the department, through the Office of Mathematics Improvement, shall annually identify full support and limited support schools based on student proficiency at levels …

(a) Commencing with the summer after the 2022-2023 school year, each full support school shall provide the Alabama Mathematics Summer Achievement Program to all students in grades four and five identified with a mathematics deficiency. (b) The Alabama Mathematics Summer Achieveme…

This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the School Principal Leadership and Mentoring Act. (Act 2023-340, §1.)

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings: (1) ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL. An individual who is certified for the position of assistant principal, as prescribed by the board, and who is employed full-time by a local board of education as an …

(a)(1) A design team shall be appointed to develop the program. In selecting design team members, the superintendent may consult with professional associations that primarily serve school administrators, higher education partners, and others to facilitate a design team with exper…

Commencing with the 2023-2024 school year, the design team shall develop the program in three phases, with increasing complexity and accountability, and implemented in the following stages: (1) Commencing with the 2023-2024 school year, each school administrator shall develop a c…

(a) Any appropriation by the Legislature shall be used, in part, to fund salary supplements and related benefit costs for school administrators and other costs relating to the program. (b)(1) The department shall provide an annual supplement of up to ten thousand dollars ($10,000…

(a) The Legislature shall annually appropriate to the department an amount sufficient to cover the actual costs of developing and implementing the program including, but not limited to, the awarding of stipends and grants and the hiring of additional staff as necessary. Any appro…

(a) On or before the first legislative day of the 2025 Regular Session, the superintendent shall submit a report to the Legislature regarding the design and implementation status of the program. The report shall be submitted to the Chairs of the Senate Finance and Taxation Educat…

This chapter shall be known as the Creating Hope and Opportunity for Our Students’ Education Act of 2024, or the CHOOSE Act. (Act 2024-21, §1.)

(a) The Legislature finds and declares the following: (1) The CHOOSE Act was enacted to expand educational opportunity in Alabama and enhance the ability of Alabama parents to choose the K-12 educational setting that best meets the needs of their children. (2) Recognizing the imp…

As used in this chapter, unless otherwise specified or unless the context requires otherwise, the following terms have the following meanings: (1) ACADEMIC YEAR. The 12-month period beginning on July 1 and ending on the following June 30. (2) DEPARTMENT. The Alabama Department of…

(a) To offset the cost of qualifying educational expenses, there is established a refundable income tax credit subject to this chapter and to the availability of monies in the CHOOSE Act Fund established pursuant to Section 16-6J-8. (b)(1) For the years beginning on January 1, 20…

(a) To participate in the program, a parent of an eligible student must do all of the following: (1) Submit to the department any information required by the department for implementation of the program, including the name of the eligible student. (2) Agree to claim the credit on…

(a) To be approved by the department, an education service provider must do all of the following: (1) Submit to the department any information required by the department for implementation of the program, including its address, contact information, and a summary of each program o…

(a) It is the intent of the Legislature that educational savings accounts be made available to parents of participating students beginning with the 2025-2026 academic year. (b) The department shall administer the program with respect to parents of eligible students by doing all o…

(a) To identify fraud or other potential misuse of program funds, the department shall do both of the following: (1) Conduct random financial audits of ESAs and education service providers, including participating schools. The random financial audits shall be conducted with suffi…

(a)(1) The CHOOSE Act Fund is created in the State Treasury for the purpose of providing funding for the tax credits authorized by this chapter. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, the Legislature shall appropriate not less than one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) to …

If any part of this chapter is challenged as violating either the state or federal constitutions, parents of eligible students and participating students shall be permitted to intervene as of right in the lawsuit for the purposes of defending the constitutionality of the program.…

This chapter may be cited as the Alabama Charter School Finance Authority Act. (Act 2026-585, §1.)

The State Treasurer may invest any idle or surplus money of the state in bonds of the authority. The governing body of any county or municipality is authorized in its discretion to invest any idle or surplus money held in its treasury in bonds of the authority. The bonds shall be…

The property and income of the authority, all bonds issued by the authority, the income from the bonds or from any other sources, the interest and other profits from such bonds ensuring to and received by the holders thereof, conveyances by and to the authority and leases, mortga…

The authority’s legal situs or residence for the purpose of this chapter shall be Montgomery County. Any action to protect or enforce any rights under this chapter shall be brought in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Alabama, and the court shall have exclusive original jur…

While any of the bonds issued by the authority remain outstanding, the powers, duties, or existence of the authority or of any of its officers shall not be diminished or impaired in any manner that will affect adversely the interest and rights of the holders of such bonds. The pr…

All monies received by the authority pursuant to this chapter shall be deemed to be trust funds for the holders of the bonds and shall be held and applied for the benefit of the bondholders of the respective issues as provided in this chapter and as provided in the authorizing re…

It is the intent of the Legislature by passage of this chapter to enable the state, acting by and through the Alabama Charter School Finance Authority, to aid state charter educational institutions in the financing and refinancing of project costs on a tax-exempt basis. To this e…

As used in this chapter, the following terms have the following meanings: (1) AUTHORITY. The Alabama Charter School Finance Authority created by this chapter and any successor or successors thereto. Any change in name or composition of the authority shall in no way affect the ves…