Alabama

Our key ally in Alabama is VOICES for Alabama’s Children, a statewide child advocacy organization that represents the interests of children at the policy and decision-making level of state government. They promote research-based policy solutions to improve overall child well-being. Through the Alabama Kids Count Data Book, they document the health, safety, education, and economic conditions of children in the state’s 67 counties.

2021 Policy Environment and Progress

State early childhood policy progress is dependent both on the state’s policy environment and the numerous efforts — by those listed on this page and many others — who worked both independently and collaboratively to achieve wins for young children.

Advocacy Landscape:

Policy Landscape:

$9.49B STATE BUDGET
Estimated FY20 State General Fund Expenditures

ALIGNED GOVERNMENT
House (R), Senate (R),
Governor (R)

48% LOW-INCOME
250,454 Young Children (0-8) are Below 200% FPL

The beginning of the 2020 session promised the brightest revenue forecast in decades. Post COVID-19, almost all agency budgets were flat-funded or cut. Alliance allies in Alabama renewed their focus on developing a broader coalition of unified voices to speak on behalf of the child care industry and issues facing young children. Work during this session resulted in a stronger, more sustainable, and more robust child care system. Child-serving agencies including the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education and Mental Health received increases in funding.

By July, Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR) had enacted in some way all of the allies’ recommendations related to how to spend CARES Act funds. Alliance allies also helped to squeeze out a $6 million increase for First Class Pre-K, which expands the program by 45 classrooms.

H157 requires a juvenile court to consider a child’s relationship with current foster parents and child’s best interests when deciding whether to terminate parental rights; provides that a juvenile court is not required to consider a relative for candidacy to be a child’s legal guardian if the relative has not met certain requirements (NCSL).
SR31 creates a Commission to study feasibility of midwifery program at Wallace State Community College, citing high rates of infant and maternal mortality (NCSL).
$6M increase in pre-k funding during the 2020 legislative session, despite the COVID-19 crisis and level funding across almost state agency budgets. This added 55 classrooms to the Alabama First Class Pre-K program, bringing access level to 38% of four-year olds.
Increase in FY20 General Funds to Office of School Readiness and an increase to promote the governor’s Strong Start, Strong Finish education initiative to support a comprehensive approach of collaboration to improve education from pre-k to the workforce. There was an overall increase in pre-k from state and federal sources combined (NCSL).
46.8% increase in FY20 General Fund over FY19. FY20 total is $3,135,000 (NCSL, 2020).

*Early childhood policy progress in a state is the result of numerous efforts — by those listed on this page and many others — who worked both independently and collaboratively to achieve wins for young children.

More from Alabama:

Allies Act on Montana’s Interest in Pre-K — and Send Them to Alabama

December 12, 2018

When the National Governors Association heard that the administration in Montana was looking to learn more about Pre-K strategies in rural states, they turned to the Alliance for Early Success — and allies in Alabama — to deliver.

Download the full 50-State report.

The Alliance for Early Success 2020 50-State Progress Report on Early Childhood Policy expands state data (disaggregating low-income young children by race) and provides high-level state policy trend analysis for the nation as a whole. Click the icon to download the report.

State Budget Data: National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), “Table 4: Fiscal 2020 State General Fund, Estimated (Millions); The Fiscal Survey of the States.” Spring, 2020

Low-Income Data (including disaggregation by race): National Center for Children in Poverty, “NCCP Analysis of ACS 1-year Estimates—Public Use Microdata Sample, 2019.”

State Action Data: Provided by state advocates, October-November 2020, with analysis and synthesis by Frontera Strategy for Alliance for Early Success, “Protecting Progress and Investing in Scale: The 2020 50-State Progress Report on Early Childhood Education Policy.”

Additional State Actions: Mincic, Melissa, Early Care and Education, State Budget Actions, Fiscal Year 2020. National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), October 2020.