State board overview
Alabama State Board of Education
What the Alabama State Board sets statewide and what the current official record documents.
Who sets statewide education policy?
The Alabama State Board of Education is a nine-member statewide governing body: the Governor serves as ex officio president and eight members represent elected state board districts. It adopts statewide rules and courses of study; local school boards and systems carry out many policies in their own schools.
Nine-member board
Governor Kay Ivey is president ex officio; eight members represent state board districts 1 through 8.
Statewide authority
Recent actions include course-of-study adoption, educator-certification rules, textbook recommendations, and annual state-funding apportionment rules.
State device limits, with local implementation
The July2025 Department FOCUS Act memo describes devices being switched off and stored off students’ persons during the instructional day from2025–26, with specified plan, supervised-learning and safety-emergency exceptions. It directs local boards to adopt device and internet-safety policies. Local compliance is not established here.
Funding record is incomplete
Board minutes record annual Foundation Program and RAISE Act apportionment rules, but this reviewed set does not provide a complete per-pupil spending figure or final statewide funding comparison.
A statewide rule or course standard does not show how each local system implements it or what an individual school spends.
Where the district stands
The same source reports 91.56% for the 2024 cohort.
47,956 students were at or above the 444 cut score in the preliminary report.
The reviewed official board documents do not provide a comparable statewide per-pupil expenditure figure.
Major projects
Digital Literacy and Computer Science course of study
Adopted December 2025The Board adopted a statewide K–12 course of study that includes computational thinking, digital proficiency, responsible technology use, and high-school exposure to emerging technologies including AI. It does not set student or employee AI-use rules.
- Board adopted the course of study
Funding
No dedicated implementation appropriation identified in the reviewed board record.
Business Software Applications I standards
Approved for 2026–27 implementationThe Board embedded career-preparation and required financial-literacy standards in Business Software Applications I.
- Board approved revised standards
Funding
Career and technical education; no separate new allocation identified in the collected record.
Foundation Program and RAISE Act apportionment rules
Amended rules adopted September 2026The Board adopted amended annual-apportionment rules for state Foundation Program and RAISE Act funds. The collected record does not provide a complete per-system allocation table.
- Board announced intent to adopt amendments
- Board adopted amended apportionment rules
Funding
Alabama Foundation Program and RAISE Act funds; allocation detail is not included in this reviewed set.
Recent news
Based on reviewed official Board minutes, agendas and work-session publications, standing policy documents and the Department’s July2025 FOCUS Act memorandum. Historical archive sources were classified separately by official date fields or original publication dates.
Get alerts for Alabama State Board of Education
We read every agenda, packet, recording, and set of minutes, and write up the decisions that affect families — each one linked to the document it came from.
Copy the RSS link into your feed reader to get new published alerts.