Across the Board August: Key Takeaways from the ALBOE Board Retreat

Recapping important State Board of Education policy decisions for you

Here are our key takeaways from the August 27th Alabama State Board of Education Retreat, held at the American Village in Montevallo – and what they mean for Alabama’s students.

The American Village is Alabama’s Designated Semiquincentennial Celebration Capitol. Information about America 250, along with educational resources and opportunities to celebrate through Alabama’s schools and communities, can be found here.

Top 4 Takeaways

1. FY 2027 Proposed ALSDE Budget

Dr. Mackey and the board discussed an early draft of the ALSDE budget request for the Fiscal Year 2027. The board will continue to discuss this budget at the September work session and vote to send the request to the Governor’s office at the October meeting. After the Governor creates her recommended budget, it will be presented to the Legislature during the first week of the 2026 Legislative Session, which begins on Tuesday, January 13, 2026. Line items to watch:

• Foundation Program: $4.78 billion total. The Foundation Program funds K-12 public schools, including staff salaries and benefits, instructional support, utilities and maintenance, and other costs that schools and districts incur. The board is waiting on more data to develop their request for next year. There is currently no pay raise for educators included in the number.
• RAISE Act: $58 million, level funded. This funding will go towards student needs, targeting students who experience poverty, students with disabilities, English language learners, gifted students, and charter school students. It will be combined with funding that has already been appropriated to the RAISE Act Fund to fund the first three years of the program.
• Alabama Reading Initiative: $112.85 million to support the Alabama Literacy Act, level funded from FY26. These funds support reading coaches in every K-3 school, summer reading camps, and training in the science of reading for teachers.
• Struggling Readers Beyond Grade Three: $12 million, a $2 million increase over FY26. The board talked extensively about increasing this funding request. Supporting all struggling readers in grades 4-12 would cost $52 million. We expect to see this line item’s request increase before the final proposal is sent to the Governor’s office.
• Alabama Numeracy Act: $114 million, a $19 million increase over FY26. These funds would go towards the Office of Math Improvement and supporting math coaches in targeted schools.
• Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI): $38.8 million, a $3 million increase over FY26, to support the new Science Course of Study.
• Summer and Afterschool Programs: $47.2 million. In FY26, the Education Trust Fund supported these programs at $17.2 million, and the FY25 Supplemental budget contributed $30 million. The board is requesting that the full cost of these programs be supported through the FY27 Education Trust Fund.
• Principal Leadership Mentoring Act: $33.2 million, a $603,115 increase over FY26.
• Advanced Placement: $14.5 million, a $1 million increase over FY26 to expand AP courses to more schools across the state.
• Computer Science (CS4AL): $7 million, a $1 million increase over FY26.
• English Language Learners: $4 million, a $2 million increase over FY26.

The board discussion did not address funding shortages that will significantly impact the FY27 budgets, specifically PEEHIP and federal funding cuts from One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that will affect Alabama. PEEHIP is Alabama’s Public Education Employees’ Health Insurance Plan, and costs are projected to increase from $360 to $418 million more dollars than the amount budgeted for in FY26. This means that the state legislature will likely need to appropriate more money for PEEHIP in the FY26 Supplemental and the FY27 Education Trust Fund budgets.

The OBBBA was signed into law on July 4, 2025, and it will begin to go into effect in 2026 and continue on to be fully implemented by 2034. The OBBBA impacts students individually through cuts to Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cuts. The OBBBA shifts some of the costs for these programs from the federal government to the states. As these cost burdens shift from the federal government to Alabama, state leaders will have to assess the impact to the education budget and will have to make challenging decisions about how to proceed. We will be covering these topics in an upcoming blog post.

2. Mental Health Supports for Students

The board spoke about the multiple places that mental health supports for students are listed in their preliminary budget proposal, and a conflict between new legislation that was passed this session, and older legislation. Within the School Safety and Climate section, the line items include:

• Mental Health Collaborative (training) – $250,000, level funded from FY26
• School-Based Mental Health Service Coordinator: $7.65 million, a $2.96 million increase over FY26.
• Mental Health Telecounseling Project: $2.5 million, as a new initiative.

These three line items demonstrate a focus on student mental health. The board specifically discussed the telecounseling project, and how implementation could work in schools, including how to protect student’s privacy, while maintaining student safety.

Dr. Mackey brought Legislative Analyst Connor Johnston to talk about the impact of SB 101 on telehealth and counseling in schools. SB 101 is a new law, championed by Senator Larry Stutts, that increases the age at which a minor may consent to mental health services from 14 years old to 16 years old. The legislation emphasizes parental rights in healthcare decisions and ensures that parents have access to their minor children’s health information. This means that students will be required to gain parental consent to access mental health services in school until they are 16 years old. Additionally, Connor shared that there are some aspects of SB 101 that contradict previous legislation, specifically that counseling for bullying cannot be conducted one-on-one but must be done with groups of students, as required by the Jamari Terrell Williams Student Bullying Prevention Act of 2018. Dr. Mackey shared that he would look to the Attorney General for guidance before sharing any implementation information with districts. The board anticipates discussing SB 101 further, providing memos to district leaders, and revising the Administrative Code to reflect the new law in the near future.

3. Funding Paid Parental Leave

The board discussed how the Paid Parental Leave Act went into effect on July 1, but funding will not be directed from the state to districts until October 1, which is the start of the new fiscal year. For the first three months, state employees, including teachers, are eligible to receive their benefits under the Paid Parental Leave Act, but local districts must cover the cost. Under the law and regulations, eligible state employees, K-12 teachers, and AL Community College System employees who have been working for 12 months or more will receive 8 weeks of paid leave (females) or 2 weeks of paid leave (males) in conjunction with the birth, stillbirth, miscarriage, or adoption of a child. The ALSDE will survey districts to assess the amount of money spent on employees taking leave in the first three months of the new law, in order to better estimate the budget request for FY27.

4. Funding ACCESS – Distance Learning

Dr. Mackey focused on the ACCESS distance learning line item in the budget, and the board discussed its implications. ACCESS provides free virtual learning courses to public school students in grades 6-12. In 2020, the legislature voted to allow all students, including private and homeschool students, to enroll in ACCESS. The online courses are paid for by the ALSDE through a line item in the budget. For FY27, the draft request totals $26 million for the program. This is an increase of $3.5 million. This increase is due to a higher uptake in these programs from private and homeschool students. The board discussed whether there should be a cap for the total students enrolled in ACCESS that the state will pay for, and whether public school students should be prioritized. The board will likely come back to this conversation at the September board meeting.

The Alabama State Board of Education usually meets on the second Thursday of each month, with the exception of the July meeting, to discuss important policies, procedures, and changes for Alabama’s K-12 public schools. The Board takes official action during their monthly meeting and then follows up with a Work Session to get updates and discuss future action that will be voted on at the next board meeting. You can watch them live and see old meetings here.