MONTGOMERY — Members of the Alabama Senate unanimously passed legislation creating workers’ compensation benefits for public K-12 employees in Alabama on Tuesday.
The bill sponsored by State Sen. Sam Givhan (R-Huntsville) establishes the Public Education Employee Injury Compensation Program to provide injury compensation benefits to full-time public K-12 education employees beginning no later than October 1, 2026. Currently, public education employees who are injured on the job must pay out-of-pocket expenses and seek reimbursement from the Board of Adjustment for any on-the-job injury.
The bill would create the five-member Public Education Employee Injury Compensation Board to administer the program and oversee the benefits paid to injured employees. The bill provides that members of the board shall not receive compensation but may be reimbursed for travel and per diem expenses paid from the fund at the same rate as state employees. The bill would establish the Public Education Employee Injury Compensation Trust Fund in the state treasury to fund the program. According to the bill’s fiscal note, the cost of the program to provide coverage for full-time public K-12 employees would be an estimated minimum of $14.9 million.
Givhan said on the Senate floor on Tuesday, “We have something for our state employees if they’re injured on the job but we do not have it for our education employees.”
“So many people that I have talked to did not realize that our teachers and lunchroom workers and maintenance staff, coaches, so forth that they did not have workers’ compensation insurance,” Givhan said. “People just assumed that people working in the school system have workers’ compensation insurance. One of the good things is that we don’t have injuries at the same level, right? But there are people that have to deal with special ed students who are tough to control and they can sometimes unintentionally hurt people and sometimes intentionally. We have no mechanism other than going to the Board of Adjustment which is apparently universally recognized as an unacceptable way. There’s too many things that are not getting paid, there’s too many delays, there’s too much hassle in the process.”
The bill now goes to the House.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email caleb.taylor@1819News.com.
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