The 2026 legislative session ended last week, and while lawmakers passed more than four dozen education-related bills, a long list of others did not make it to the finish line.
The unsuccessful measures ranged from bills dealing with parents’ rights and gender-identity restrictions in public schools to proposals focused on school accountability, academic offerings, athletics and education benefits for veterans’ dependents and military families. Some stalled late while others never got a committee vote.
Here’s a look at some of the education bills left behind this year.
Accountability and school report cards
A number of the bills that fell short focused on accountability, from school grades and report cards to educator preparation programs and student data analysis.
House Bill 396 would revise Alabama’s public school grading system by changing how certain indicators are weighted for schools with and without a 12th grade and would create an Accountability Council and a new system for analyzing student performance data.
House Bill 604 would create an Accountability Council and require state agencies to develop a system for analyzing public school student performance data. A separate joint resolution, House Joint Resolution 346, tried to do the same thing but did not make it, either.
House Bill 406 would exclude students who receive a nonstandard high school diploma from being counted in a school’s report-card grade.
House Bill 495 would prevent the academic achievement of students who transfer from a failing school from being counted in a school’s report-card grade for the first three years after they transfer.
House Bill 603 would require the creation, annual review and publication of report cards for educator preparation providers and would allocate funding for that work. The Alabama Department of Education currently produces annual teacher preparation program report cards, but this bill called for more measures to be calculated and published.
Parent-rights and classroom policy bills
Other unsuccessful proposals dealt with some of the session’s most politically charged education issues, including parents’ rights, classroom transparency and restrictions related to gender identity.
House Bill 148 would place a constitutional amendment before voters to establish fundamental rights of parents. Those rights include the right of parents to direct the education, upbringing, care, custody and control of a child.
House Bill 23 would prohibit discussions of gender identity in public preK-12 schools, bar employees from displaying flags or other insignia related to sexual orientation or gender identity and from using pronouns inconsistent with a student’s biological sex.
House Bill 246 would require classroom curricula to be posted on school websites while creating an alternative review process for some copyrighted materials.
House Bill 24 would allow a parent’s written declaration that they want their child to be exempt from vaccine requirements to suffice.
Academic instruction and school operations
A separate group of bills would have addressed academic instruction and school operations, including math pathways, screen time, civics and school safety.
House Bill 353 would create an advanced math pathway in public schools that would result in a student taking Algebra I in middle school and at least one college credit-bearing math course in high school. It died waiting on the Senate floor.
House Bill 584 as introduced would limit screen-based instruction in kindergarten through fifth grade and require the State Board of Education to adopt standards for screen time. In committee, it was amended to include kindergarten through 12th grade.
Senate Bill 335 and House Bill 540 would create the American History and Civics Excellence Initiative, establish an online course of study and endorsement for high school teachers, provide a one-time stipend for those teachers and require the State Board of Education to adopt rules.
House Bill 187 would require public K-12 schools to have mobile emergency rapid response systems — like a wearable panic button — and would require the state superintendent to approve vendors and identify funding sources.
Student pathways and school choice
Some of the unfinished legislation focused on school choice and other pathways into or through Alabama’s education system.
House Bill 183 would allow homeschool students in certain circumstances to participate in public school career and technical education programs. The bill made it through the House and a Senate committee, but did not obtain final passage from the Senate.
House Bill 640 would require public colleges and universities to accept the Classic Learning Test to the same extent they accept the ACT and SAT. The CLT is designed to measure not just what students know, but how they think.
House Bill 592 would adjust the State Minimum Salary Schedule to give credit to accredited private-school teachers who move into public school employment.
Athletics and student sports
Lawmakers also left unresolved a set of athletics bills, from student-athlete compensation and eligibility to sports physicals and athletic association governance.
House Bill 340 would allow high school athletes to be compensated for their name, image and likeness.
House Bill 567 would create new requirements for tracking public high school student-athletes’ academic and athletic progress, informing them of post-graduation options and developing individualized transition plans.
House Bill 456 would require local governments to develop youth athlete protection policies to prevent child abuse in youth sports and would require criminal background checks for coaches.
Senate Bill 73 would prohibit public K-12 schools from belonging to certain athletic associations with boards of a particular composition or that enforce certain rules unless the Legislature authorizes those entities’ rulemaking.
House Bill 276 would require schools and athletic associations to accept sports physicals signed by certified registered nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and assistants to physicians as equivalent to those signed by a physician.
Senate Bill 110 would require schools to accept athletic participation physicals signed by certain certified nurses and would prohibit schools from belonging to athletic associations that refuse to comply.
House Bill 333 would require athletic associations to adjust a school’s athletic classification to reflect English language learners who do not participate in athletics.
House Bill 334 would bar future Alabama High School Athletic Association employees from participating in the Teachers’ Retirement System of Alabama. participation
Military- and veteran-connected students and families
The bills left behind also included several measures affecting military-connected students and veterans’ dependents.
Senate Bill 224 would revise the Alabama G.I. Dependent Scholarship Program by changing disability requirements tied to tuition assistance for veterans’ dependents.
Senate Bill 191 would require active-duty military families who homeschool to provide notice and comply with state homeschool law and would require local school systems to provide certain non-enrolled students access to Junior ROTC programs, facilities, special education services and interscholastic activities.
Senate Bill 201 would require some public schools with Junior ROTC programs to offer them to certain homeschool and private-school students from military families.
House Bill 377 would expand education benefits for certain veterans’ dependents by adding graduate medical field courses to the programs covered, subject to a tuition limit.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was originally published by Alabama Daily News.
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