BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Senate committees advanced a number of education-related bills Wednesday, most with little discussion, including several that didn’t reach final passage last year.
The Senate Education Policy Committee approved a bill allowing students to leave campus during the school day for religious instruction release time.
Committee member Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, said the bill has been changed in multiple ways to address concerns from school administrators brought up after last year’s bill failed to pass a House committee.
The House’s refusal to take up a similar bill last year prompted harsh criticism from Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, who vowed to see the measure return this session.
Shelnutt said Senate Bill 248 no longer requires school boards to adopt a policy allowing religious instruction released time. However the bill does require school boards to allow parents to “choose for his or her students to attend a religious release time program conducted by a sponsoring entity.”
It restricts sponsoring entities to churches or local community-based religious organizations and allows a superintendent to deny students participation in a program if there is what Shelnutt said, “an objective substantial risk of physical harm.”
Another condition includes that only churches or local community based religious groups are allowed to run a released time program.
Other changes include allowing a local board to adopt policies requiring certain conditions, including:
- Parents would have to complete a checkout authorization form in order for their child to participate in a release time program,
- The sponsoring entity may conduct criminal background checks for personnel that are likely to have “direct ongoing contact” with students,
- Students are responsible for any missed work,
- Students cannot leave during certain instructional interventions
The committee approved the bill without opposition, sending it to the Senate floor.
Sex education requirements
Shelnutt also brought back a bill restricting the topics that educators can teach students in sex education classes. Sex education is not mandatory in Alabama schools, but if school boards choose to offer it, Senate Bill 209 would set limits on what can be taught.
The bill would require any program taught in Alabama’s public schools to teach “sexual risk avoidance.” Sen. Kirk Hatcher, D-Montgomery, asked Shelnutt for a layman’s explanation of what sexual risk avoidance is.
Shelnutt said it stresses that “the best way to avoid pregnancy and sexual diseases is to wait for sex,” and that the “success sequence” of first getting a job, then getting married and then having children is how to conduct their lives.
“It does not limit any talk about contraceptive use,” Shelnutt added, “just, we’re not going to teach that to fourth and fifth graders and show them examples of how to put on a condom.”
Hatcher expressed his concern that the bill restricts information students may need. “I’m just concerned about whether or not we’re still going to be educating our young people as best we can – appropriately – around issues that might be consequential to their well being.”
The bill requires some topics be taught, including the process for adoption and surrendering a newborn infant baby, while restricting information on other topics, including how to obtain abortion services.
The committee advanced the bill, sending it to the Senate floor.
Displaying the 10 Commandments in public schools
The committee also approved Senate Bill 99, sponsored by Sen. Keith Kelley, R-Anniston, that requires a display of the Ten Commandments in historical context in America’s founding in fifth through 12th grade history classrooms and in at least one common area in a school accessible only to students in fifth grade and above.
“The display would also include quotations from the the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Alabama constitution’s preamble,” Kelley told committee members, adding, “All displays must include a clear disclaimer stating that Alabama is not establishing a religion, and matters of faith remain personal choices for students and families.”
Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, commended Kelley’s efforts and said he plans to support the bill on the floor, adding that he wished it included school prayer but would not offer an amendment that might delay it.
The bill does not require school boards to purchase the display but allows schools to accept donations to cover the cost. The bill requires the State Department of Education to identify and post on its website a list of free resources for schools.
The bill now heads to the Senate floor.
Schools not required to produce public records for solicitation purposes
In a separate committee, lawmakers also advanced a new proposal affecting access to school records.
Senate education budget committee chairman Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, introduced Senate Bill 272 to prohibit anyone from using public records requested from a school board to solicit property or services from people named in those records.
“We’ve had a request from the State School Board Association because it seems that there’s been an abuse by those that want to get records, particularly names, of people in a particular school system, and then take those names and try to hustle them, to sell them things,” Orr told committee members.
“This would put some limitations on it, that you can’t use it for profit,” he added.
The bill also requires school boards to redact certain information from financial records before releasing them to a requestor.
It authorizes the attorney general to impose a penalty of up to $500 for anyone who violates the provisions of the bill.
The committee advanced the bill to the Senate floor.
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