BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to consider a bill this morning that would require automatic one-year suspensions for students charged with making school threats and increase criminal penalties for those offenses.
House Bill 7 would change how Alabama schools respond when students are accused of making terrorist threats. The bill strengthens existing criminal penalties and requires schools to suspend students for at least one year if they are charged. Students would also have to complete any court-ordered mental health evaluation or counseling before returning to school.
The committee is scheduled to meet at 8:30 a.m. today. A livestream of the meeting is available on the Alabama Legislature’s website.
Rep. James Lomax, R-Huntsville, carried the bill in the House after its original sponsor, Matt Woods, was elected to the Senate. During floor debate, Lomax said the measure responds to an increase in threats against schools in recent years.
“This is very close to a lot of our members,” Lomax said. “There’s been a lot of terrorist threats against our schools, credible or otherwise, which have created a lot of mental health problems for our young people.”
Recent incidents include at least three schools canceling classes on Jan. 30 after receiving threatening phone calls. Last week, a student in Marshall County was arrested after making a threat at a high school. On Tuesday, Lauderdale County school officials removed an elementary student for making a threat.
The bill revises Alabama’s terrorist threat laws, defining what a “credible threat” is and maintaining felony penalties for first-degree offenses. It also requires courts to order restitution, up to $10,000, to cover law enforcement and school response costs.
While much of the debate has focused on schools, the bill’s criminal provisions extend beyond K-12 campuses. It applies to threats against churches and other religious institutions and adds hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities housing disabled or immobile individuals to the list of protected locations.
The mandatory suspension and reporting requirements apply specifically to public school students.
Under the bill, principals would be required to notify law enforcement when a student’s conduct warrants a terrorist threat charge. If a student is charged, the school must suspend the student from regular classes for at least one year and prohibit the student from being on public K-12 school property during that time.
Before returning to school, a student would have to resolve all related criminal charges and complete any court-ordered psychological evaluation or counseling, in addition to meeting local school board requirements.
Nationally, many schools have adopted behavioral threat assessment approaches where multidisciplinary teams evaluate the seriousness and context of a threat before deciding how to respond. A 2025 report from the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center found the model is widely used in K-12 schools across the country.
Alabama’s focus on threat assessment dates back to 2018, when Gov. Kay Ivey created the Securing Alabama’s Facilities of Education Council following the Parkland school shooting. The council recommended adopting evidence-based threat assessment models as part of a broader school safety strategy.
The Legislature reinforced that approach in 2024 through the School Security Act, which required districts to strengthen safety planning and ensure designated personnel receive training in threat assessment practices.
House Bill 7 has raised questions among some disability advocates about how the measure would interact with federal protections for students with disabilities. Federal civil rights data show that students with disabilities are suspended and expelled at disproportionately high rates compared to their peers.
Dustin Chandler, a disability advocate who trains first responders and law enforcement officers on best practices for interacting with people with disabilities, met with lawmakers this week to discuss the bill’s impact.
“In theory, yes, schools know to follow federal law,” Chandler said. “But in practice, that’s not always happening, and I just want to make sure we do what we can to protect students with disabilities.”
Lawmakers are expected to offer an amendment clarifying that disciplinary actions required under the bill remain subject to federal disability protections.
“Sometimes these laws just need advocates to say, ‘Hey, there could be a better way,’ and to make sure we’re protecting our most vulnerable students,” Chandler said.
“It’s getting more important than ever for disability advocates to pay attention,” he added, “because if we don’t, these things will just pass without anyone thinking about how they impact our most vulnerable students.”
Rep. Alan Baker, R-Brewton, has sponsored a related measure, House Bill 188, which updates criminal definitions and penalties for terrorist threats but does not amend school discipline law or require specific disciplinary consequences for students.
Similar versions of both bills reached the Senate floor last year but stalled in the final days of the session.
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