Rep. Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff, listens during a session of the Alabama House of Representatives on Tuesday, March 14, 2023. An Alabama House committee Wednesday approved a bill sponsored by Gidley that would allow chaplains in K-12 schools. (Stew Milne for Alabama Reflector)
An Alabama House Committee passed a bill that would allow local school boards to allow chaplains in public K-12 schools.
HB 8, sponsored by Rep. Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff, is the latest iteration of legislation filed for the past several years in the Alabama Legislature. The bill would allow but not mandate schools boards to vote on authorizing chaplains.
“This bill does not require a school board to adopt this. It just requires them to make a decision,” Gidley told the House Education Policy Committee Wednesday.
Gidley said the bill would help teachers that have “a lot of stress and anxiety that may not feel comfortable going to some of their peers.”
Under the bill, chaplains would have to complete a “recognized chaplain training program” and have a criminal background check before working at schools.
Individuals who have to register as sex offenders are not permitted to volunteer as chaplains.
“This is directed to give our teachers, and of course I don’t guess it would hurt an administrator or bus driver who needed that support as well, but to give the same support we give our law enforcement,” Gidley said.
Similar bills to allow chaplains on school campuses have been filed in the past. In 2024, Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham filed a similar bill that passed in the Senate but failed to make it to the House floor. The same year, Gidley also filed a similar bill. Critics of the legislation in the past have expressed concerns that it could violate constitutional separation of church and state.
“I know this committee has passed this before, and I appreciate the sponsor for working with us to make some changes, I think that really improved it,” Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, said during the meeting.
Changes to the bill include requiring chaplains to complete training and removing a deadline local school boards have for deciding if chaplains will be permitted on campus.
The bill moves to the House.
From Alabama Reflector Post Url: Visit
Author: Andrea Tinker