Alabama Senate approves bill providing due process for public school students

Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, speaks at a rally in support of legislation protecting access to in vitro fertilization at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama on Feb. 28, 2024. The rally took place ahead of scheduled committee hearings on the bills on Wednesday. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

The Alabama Senate Thursday approved legislation creating a uniform suspension and expulsion process for public K-12 students.

HB 188, sponsored by Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, extends due process to children in the school disciplinary system. The bill passed 32-0.

“They are the only body that did not have due process,” said Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, after the Senate adjourned. “You and I are grown people. We have due process all the way through the legal system.”

Smitherman said that some places had their own due process, but this creates an “equalizing baseline system.”

The Senate was originally supposed to take up Smitherman’s version of the bill, but he said that Collins’ bill reflects the concerns of interested parties.

Smitherman filed a version of the bill last year, but it failed on the Senate floor. Collins also filed a version of the bill last year, but representatives and speakers at a public hearing shared concerns about demographics and anonymity. 

The bill was altered throughout the 2024 session.

“We finally got there,” said Smitherman after the Senate adjourned. “It’s just sometimes it takes a while. You know how the cake sometimes don’t want to rise up? But we were able to put enough yeast in this cake, to get it up to where it was supposed to be. And now I think it’s going to be something that people are going to enjoy all around the board.”

Under the legislation, the principal or the principal’s designee would be able to consider the age of the student, disciplinary history of the student, seriousness of violation or behavior or whether a lesser intervention would suffice in considering punishment. .

Before a recommendation for long-term alternative school placement, long-term suspension or expulsion, a local board would need to provide a disciplinary hearing. The disciplinary hearing would be held within ten days after the initial suspension, if the parent or guardian responds, unless there is good cause or agreement between the parties. 

The student could be represented by legal counsel or another advocate of the student’s choice at the student’s expense. The student, representative and parent or guardian would be able to review  any evidence five days prior to the hearing. Representatives of the school will present evidence at the hearing.

The student, parent/ guardian or representation may present a defense, question present adverse witnesses offering testimony, offer testimony from witnesses (excluding students under 14), offer written statements and present other documentary, audio or video evidence. Witness anonymity is protected, and witnesses cannot be compelled to testify.

The legislation also requires a “reasonable written notice” to the student and parent or guardian with a statement of a time, place and nature of the hearing, as well as a short statement outlining the alleged violation, with the provision of state law or student conduct violated and recommended disciplinary action. 

It would also need to include a statement outlining the rights of the student at the hearing and an optional hearing waiver indicating that the parent or guardian assents to the alleged violation and any recommended action. If a parent or guardian did not respond to the notice, the hearing would be waived.

The local board of education will provide an electronic or written record of the hearing to each party in the hearing, upon request.

The student and his or her parent or guardian would be notified of the decision within five days of the hearing with a written record and instructions on the appeal process. 

The bill passed with little discussion on Thursday with only Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia, asking about language for “per incident.”

Jerome Dees, Alabama policy director of the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, said in a statement Thursday that the law was an acknowledgment that student rights “do not stop at the school door.”

“While there is still more work to be done to address the “school-to-prison” pipeline in Alabama, especially for Black and Brown students, this is a major step in the right direction,” Dees wrote.

The House concurred with Senate changes.

This story was updated to reflect that the House concurred with Senate changes.

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