Alabama Senate committee approves teachers' injury compensation bill
Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Huntsville, listens to Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman speak in the chamber on Feb. 4, 2025 at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The Alabama Legislature began its 2025 session on Tuesday. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)
An Alabama Senate committee Wednesday approved a bill that would expand workmen's compensation to Alabama teachers.
SB 1, sponsored by Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Huntsville, creates the Public Education Employee Injury Compensation Program to prevent teachers from paying out-of-pocket for injuries occurring on the job. The bill also creates a governing board and a trust fund.
The bill does not create a revenue source for the trust fund. A fiscal note attached to bill estimates the total cost of the program at $14.9 million a year.
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'I think it's very important and it's my top priority,' Givhan said.
Givhan sponsored a similar bill last session that passed the Senate but did not come out of the House. The senator said he worked with Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, to try to address the chamber's concerns, which mainly focused on mirroring language currently used for state employees' workers compensation. State employees currently receive compensation for on-the-job injuries.
'We did move more towards the model that the state employees have in terms of language set up in there,' Givhan said.
Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, commended Givhan for bringing the bill again, saying it is long overdue. However, he said he wanted a bill that would give teachers sick leave upon hiring. Currently, teachers accumulate one sick day per month of employment, according to the State Department of Education.
'We've got a shortage of teachers,' Smitherman said. 'We're still trying to keep people in the profession and you know, and when you ask somebody to come out their pocket to pay for all those things.'
The bill now goes to the full Senate.
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