Resource: Fact Sheet

Vote ‘Yes’ on HB 386: Help Alabama families by reducing the state grocery tax

By Alabama Arise
Alabama Arise supporters gather outside the State House in Montgomery during Arise’s Legislative Day on April 11, 2023. More than 100 Alabamians came to urge their legislators to end the state sales tax on groceries. Lawmakers reduced the state grocery tax from 4% to 3% in 2023 and now are considering another reduction in 2025.

Why Alabama needs to untax groceries

  • The grocery tax increases hunger rates and drives many struggling families deeper into poverty.
  • Alabama’s tax system is upside down. On average, people with low incomes pay a much higher share of their income in state and local taxes than the wealthiest households do.
  • The grocery tax is a major reason that Alabama’s tax system is so upside down. Grocery taxes take a much bigger bite out of household budgets for Alabamians with low and middle incomes than for wealthier people.
  • Most states have rejected the grocery tax. Alabama is one of only 10 states still taxing groceries.

How HB 386 would help people across Alabama

  • HB 386 by Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, would reduce the state sales tax on groceries from 3% to 2% starting on Sept. 1, 2025. This would build on the progress made in 2023, when the Legislature reduced the tax from 4% to 3%.
  • Reducing the state grocery tax by 1 percentage point would save an average Alabama family of four about $125 to $150 a year.

Bottom line

Alabama’s grocery tax is a cruel tax on survival. Lawmakers should pass HB 386 to continue the progress toward eliminating the state grocery tax once and for all. And they should work to identify more sustainable, less harmful options to fund public education and other vital services.

Vote ‘No’ on SB 84 and HB 477: Junk health plans are not the solution for Alabama’s health coverage gap

By Alabama Arise

Junk health plans lack basic consumer protections.

  • SB 84 and HB 477 would allow a “nonprofit agricultural organization” to offer unregulated health plans to its members in Alabama. The bill explicitly says these benefits would “not [be] provided through an insurance policy.”
  • Unlike health insurance sold by other carriers, plans like the ones offered under SB 84 and HB 477 could deny someone health coverage based on previous medical history. If people with preexisting conditions are accepted, they could be charged a higher premium and/or not have coverage for care related to their preexisting conditions.
  • These new plans could put caps on key benefits, and they would not have to limit annual and lifetime out-of-pocket costs for consumers. This could leave patients with massive medical bills or force them to forgo needed treatment.

Junk health plans lack financial oversight.

  • Plans under SB 84 and HB 477 would lack the financial requirements that Marketplace insurance has.
  • The plans could charge whatever prices they want without regulatory oversight, and they would not have to spend a minimum share of the money they collect on medical care.

Junk health plans are not a solution for closing Alabama’s health coverage gap.

  • Alabamians deserve health coverage that delivers stable, high-quality insurance they can afford to use when illness strikes. This coverage should include a full set of benefits to protect people when they become sick, and it should be available regardless of one’s medical history to prevent discrimination.
  • Good health coverage should be properly regulated to ensure that customers’ financial and medical interests are protected.
  • The plans offered under SB 84 and HB 477 would not ensure affordable or adequate health coverage for the nearly 200,000 Alabamians in our state’s coverage gap. Lawmakers should focus instead on boosting our state’s workforce by expanding Medicaid coverage to ensure every Alabamian can get the health care they need to survive and thrive.

Updated March 25, 2025, to add references to HB 477.

HB 89 and SB 102 would improve maternal health, save money and save lives in Alabama

By Jennifer Harris

Presumptive eligibility allows doctors and other providers to determine Medicaid eligibility for expectant mothers who are likely to be eligible. This allows women to begin receiving Medicaid coverage in the first trimester without having to wait for the agency’s official eligibility decision.

More than 50% of expectant mothers in Alabama are eligible for Medicaid coverage for prenatal medical care crucial for the health of both mother and child. Yet that care is regularly delayed because Alabama doesn’t have a timely procedure to allow many mothers to get prenatal care.

HB 89 by Rep. Marilyn Lands, D-Huntsville, and SB 102 by Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, would allow expectant mothers to receive Medicaid coverage earlier in the pregnancy, when health care is essential for the mother and child. These bills would expand presumptive eligibility and reduce red-tape barriers to coverage.

Why do we need presumptive eligibility?

The wait for Medicaid’s official eligibility approval can prevent mothers from receiving care earlier in their pregnancy. Areas with a lack of maternal health care access compound this issue, increasing the cost of higher-risk pregnancies and deliveries.

Presumptive eligibility allows up to 60 days of Medicaid coverage for women who have not yet been formally approved for coverage but who submit proof of pregnancy and household income information to their maternity care provider. This would allow mothers to see a doctor, receive pregnancy verification and begin prenatal care while the Medicaid approval process is ongoing.

What are the benefits of presumptive eligibility? 

  • Alabama has some of the nation’s highest rates of infant mortality, maternal death and low birth weight. Maternal mortality is higher among patients with late or no prenatal care. 
  • More than 1 in 4 pregnant women (27%) do not receive prenatal care until the second trimester, according to the March of Dimes. This can lead to costlier care later in pregnancy or postpartum. 
  • Receiving prenatal care in the first trimester can improve outcomes and save millions of dollars by diagnosing and treating conditions that may worsen over time without medical attention, thereby reducing risk for maternal and infant death or severe complications. 
  • The state cost for presumptive eligibility – just $273,700, according to the fiscal note – is small compared to the potential savings, both in dollars and especially in lives.

What can the Legislature do to help?

Vote “yes” on HB 89 and SB 102 to improve maternal health, save money and save lives in Alabama.

Alabama’s death penalty system remains unusually cruel

By Dev Wakeley

Overview

Alabama took an important step toward death penalty reform in 2017, but the state’s system remains broken. That year, Alabama finally outlawed judicial override in capital cases. That means judges no longer can impose the death penalty when a jury recommends life without parole. But the ban was not retroactive, and dozens of people sentenced that way remain on death row. Overall, Alabama has more people on death row per capita than any other state.

Death penalty opposition more than doubled nationally in the past 30 years, Gallup found. This may result partly from high error rates. For every 10 people executed since 1976, one innocent person has been set free. More states are ending capital punishment, with Virginia becoming the first Southern state to do so in 2021.

Alabama’s death penalty laws do not align with multiple U.S. Supreme Court rulings. Racial disparities also plague the state’s system. People convicted of killing a white person in Alabama are more than four times more likely to get a death sentence than people convicted of killing someone who is not white, the Equal Justice Initiative found in 2011.

How lawmakers can help

Alabama should enact these changes to reduce injustices in its death penalty system:

  • Make the judicial override ban retroactive.
  • Require unanimous agreement from the jury to sentence people to death.
  • Require prosecutors to prove a defendant was 18 or older at the time of the crime.
  • Forbid executions of people with serious cognitive impairments.
  • Stop using particularly cruel and painful methods of execution.
  • Impose a moratorium to study and end racially biased death penalty practices.
  • Provide increased transparency.
  • Ultimately eliminate capital punishment.

Bottom line

Our state should reduce and eliminate unequal, unfair practices in its death penalty scheme. Alabamians deserve a fair, unbiased justice system, and these reforms would be steps toward a more just state.

Former Arise senior policy analyst Mike Nicholson contributed to this fact sheet.

Alabama’s parole system is still broken. How can we fix it?

By Dev Wakeley

Overview

Alabama’s parole system has fallen far short of even its own standards for success over the last five years. These failures have worsened the shortcomings in our criminal justice system. Alabama’s three-member parole board granted parole in only 26% of cases in 2024, even though its own guidelines recommended parole in 81%.

Alabama has the lowest parole approval rate of all 50 states, analysis of 2022 data shows. This low rate is accompanied by one of the highest incarceration rates in the country.

Keeping people imprisoned against release guidelines contributes to overcrowding and violence in prisons, as the opportunity for parole is an important incentive for good behavior. And these conditions are why Alabama is facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice for failure to protect people the state incarcerates. 

How lawmakers can help

Fixing the parole system won’t be easy, but Alabama lawmakers have several reasonable solutions available to improve it.

  • HB 40, sponsored by Rep. Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, would allow appeals of parole board decisions to circuit court. This would help remedy the board’s stubborn refusal to follow its guidelines. 
  • Alabama doesn’t allow people to attend their own parole hearings. That needs to change. People deserve to be present at the proceedings that determine whether they will remain imprisoned.
  • Our state needs to address the significant racial disparities in its parole system. Black men were 25% less likely to be granted parole than white men in 2023.

Bottom line

Alabama’s parole system needs to follow its own rules. We need to eliminate racial disparities and increase parole board oversight, and we need to ensure people can attend their own parole hearings. These changes would be an important step to improve our state’s criminal justice system and build a more just Alabama.

Former Arise senior policy analyst Mike Nicholson contributed to this fact sheet.

Expand voting rights to right past wrongs and safeguard democracy in Alabama

By Dev Wakeley

Overview

Alabamians who want to exercise their fundamental right to vote often face numerous hurdles to exercising that right. These barriers – both physical and procedural – reduce civic engagement and election turnout.

Alabama does not allow early voting and has a complicated process for people who seek to vote an absentee ballot. And recent legislation has made voting more inconvenient for many Alabamians and built even more administrative hurdles to participatory democracy. But lawmakers have a range of policy options to reverse that trend and make it easier for Alabamians to make their voices heard through the democratic process.

Recent policy changes made voting harder in Alabama

The Legislature has passed several laws in the last decade to make voting more inaccessible. These laws have made a historically inequitable process even more burdensome, particularly for older adults, people with disabilities, and Black and Hispanic people.

These laws’ enactments came after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder overturned the part of the Voting Rights Act requiring preclearance in some jurisdictions. This provision had required the U.S. Department of Justice to review and provide advance approval for proposed voting law changes in Alabama and many other states with a history of racial discrimination in election procedures.

Shortly after the decision, Alabama began enforcing a 2011 law requiring certain forms of photo voter identification. Policymakers in 2015 also closed or reduced service hours at driver’s license offices in dozens of counties. The state later reversed those cutbacks, which had caused disproportionate harm in Black communities.

Lawmakers created another barrier to voting in 2021 by banning curbside voting. Curbside voting, used successfully in Mississippi and other states, would make it easier for many older adults, pregnant voters and people with disabilities to access polling places.

Another limitation on civic participation came in 2024, when the Legislature passed a law that makes it a felony to receive or provide funding knowingly for certain forms of assisting voters with absentee ballot applications. The threat of criminal penalties likely will have a chilling effect on organizations and people who are trying in good faith to assist voters who need help.

Other proposals in recent years have sought to create further limits on Alabamians making their voices heard. These bills have included attempts to remove election officials’ ability to respond to declared emergencies by extending voting hours or accommodating voter needs.

Pro-democracy policies would build a better Alabama

Alabama has a painful history of dismantling systems that ensure democracy if doing so would help those in power. But our state can and should pursue a better path by lifting barriers to civic participation and making it easier for all Alabamians to make their voices heard at the ballot box.

Here are a few policies that would strengthen democracy in our state:

  • Register voters automatically through driver’s license offices unless they choose to opt out of registration. Automatic voter registration increases voter turnout, and it has worked well in states like Georgia and West Virginia.
  • Remove the modern poll tax that requires repayment of fines and fees before many people convicted of a criminal offense can regain voting rights.
  • Allow an early voting period for voters who cannot make it to the polls on Election Day.
  • Create a same-day voter registration process.
  • Remove the ban on curbside voting to increase accessibility for voters with disabilities and for older voters.
  • Eliminate the burdensome photo ID requirement for voters to cast ballots.
  • Allow absentee voting without requiring voters to provide an excuse.
  • Make Election Day a state holiday.

Bottom line

Hostility to democracy and civic engagement is a longstanding and shameful characteristic of Alabama’s racist and discriminatory past. And recent new voting limitations unfortunately have demonstrated that the anti-democratic mindset remains a powerful presence in our state.

Pro-democracy policies like early voting and automatic voter registration would help move Alabama away from its shameful past. Removing policy barriers to voting in Alabama would help build a more equitable future where our policymakers are responsive, inclusive and justice-serving, and where every Alabamian can stay engaged in the policymaking process.

Former Arise senior policy analyst Mike Nicholson contributed to this fact sheet. 

Fund public transportation to improve life for all Alabamians

By Dev Wakeley

Overview

Inadequate funding for public transportation keeps thousands of people across Alabama from meeting basic needs. Unreliable bus systems cause people to be late for work, risking the loss of their jobs. If parents have a car that breaks down in rural Alabama, their children may miss doctor’s appointments, school and other activities because public transit options are booked well ahead of time. Without reliable rides, people needing medical care miss check-ups and treatments, worsening Alabama’s rural health crisis.

Even when the transit system works, it falls far short of meeting public needs. No public transit system in Alabama operates past 11 p.m., even on weekends, and many rural lines operate by appointment only from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Alabama must do more to meet the challenge of connecting its people to jobs, services and education.

A 1952 amendment to Alabama’s constitution (Amendment 93) prevents using state gasoline tax revenues for purposes other than roads and bridges. As a result, the most logical source of state funding for public transit, a source all our neighboring states use, remains off limits in Alabama. Without dedicated state funding, Alabamians will continue to lack transit options that residents of other states enjoy. Building this modern public transit infrastructure would provide a job-creating boost for economic development.

The Alabama Public Transportation Trust Fund (PTTF) was created in 2018 to help fix our transit issues, but the Legislature has never funded it. The return on transit investment makes allocating money to the PTTF a wise use of public funds. Every million dollars invested in transit creates 50 full-time jobs, which are long-term jobs with good pay. A $50 million General Fund appropriation could enable federal matching up to $200 million for capital improvements and could double the investment for operations expenses.

Bottom line

Alabama’s public transit systems need state investment to provide the same services as our neighboring states. Now is the time to invest in public transportation to ensure all Alabamians can participate in our economy and get where they need to go.

Support legislation to fund public transit, increase workforce participation and improve lives

  • Alabama is late to the table on state funding for public transit, and it’s time to catch up. All four of our neighboring states fund public transportation.
  • Our state leaves millions in federal matching funds on the table every year. The federal matching rate for capital improvements is 4-to-1 – or up to 400% of state investment. For operations, federal grants can double state investment.
  • Every million dollars spent on operations creates 50 jobs. These jobs provide good benefits and an average operator’s salary of more than $70,000.
  • Alabama’s public transit options are limited because of lack of funds. No public transportation service in our state operates past 11 p.m., even on weekends.
  • Companies and workers identify transportation needs as one of the biggest current barriers to workforce participation.

What would SB 11 do if passed?

  • SB 11, sponsored by Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison, D-Birmingham, would create a $5 vehicle tag fee to provide a dedicated funding source for public transit needs across Alabama. This would provide about $25 million in state funding each year to the Public Transportation Trust Fund (PTTF), which the state created in 2018 but has not yet funded.
  • With federal matching funds, this investment would fuel up to $125 million worth of transit projects every year. These investments would create stable, high-quality jobs and help build our state’s infrastructure to support Alabamians’ workforce participation.

The PTTF’s flexibility would empower the state to help stabilize struggling rural counties while also supporting infrastructure needs in fast-growing regions.

Paid parental leave improves life for Alabama workers

By Dev Wakeley

Overview

We all benefit when new parents are able to dedicate more time to bonding with their children. Paid parental leave is a crucial policy to promote stronger families, and it also helps more people remain in the workforce and continue to contribute to our economy. Alabama lawmakers should embrace the opportunity to ensure paid parental leave is available for all state employees and teachers.

Paid parental leave’s benefits for Alabama children and parents are clear and broad. Babies have better outcomes across the board when their parents can stay with them in the crucial weeks after birth. Fewer babies are born with dangerously low birth weights when mothers have paid leave to address medical issues throughout pregnancy. Paid leave also cuts the risk of rehospitalization in half for mothers and infants following birth.

From an economic perspective, paid leave also makes sense for employers because it reduces employee turnover. This policy can help employers save the equivalent of 50% to 200% of a worker’s salary on hiring and training a new worker to replace one who otherwise might have to quit to meet caregiving duties. Paid parental leave is a common-sense, pro-family policy that will result in a better, healthier future for all of us across Alabama.

Paid parental leave is growing across the South

Since 2020, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee have implemented paid parental leave for new groups of public-sector workers. After enactment, Georgia doubled its initial parental leave duration. Municipalities, too, are beginning to recognize the benefits of paid leave for workers. Birmingham implemented 12-week paid parental leave coverage for its city employees in 2023.

These steps forward contribute greatly to better quality of life for the workers covered by the new policies. Paid parental leave eases economic stresses for new parents and helps mothers in particular to remain in the workforce.

Beyond the benefits to workers, state agencies also benefit from providing paid parental leave. Workers who have more stable economic situations and feel valued as people are less likely to leave a job. And employee churn is expensive for agencies. The average cost of replacing a worker is between six and nine months’ salary. For technical employees, filling an open position can cost employers double the worker’s salary.

Great momentum for paid parental leave in Alabama

Alabama has an opportunity to take the same step forward as many of our neighboring states. Bills to provide parental leave for both state employees and teachers made significant progress in the 2024 legislative session. Rep. Ginny Shaver, R-Leesburg, sponsored a bill that passed the House and came one step from Senate passage last year. Shaver will file the bill again in 2025. As introduced, this bill would provide eight weeks of paid parental leave for state employees, covering childbirth and adoption.

Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, sponsored a bill to provide 12 weeks of paid leave for teachers in 2024. This bill won Senate committee approval, and it was combined with the state employees’ bill on the Senate floor before time ran out on the last day of the session to iron out details and secure passage. Covering teachers is important with regard to retention because better compensation policies can overcome some of the factors that contribute to teachers leaving the profession.

Best practices for paid parental leave in Alabama

Alabama has an opportunity to implement a paid leave policy that will lead the South. A first-class parental leave policy should meet these standards to ensure the highest benefit to both workers’ quality of life and agencies’ retention rates:

  • Sufficient duration. At least 12 weeks of parental leave at full replacement rate should be available to workers.
  • Broad coverage. Both parents should be covered to support bonding and recovery of both mothers and infants.
  • Flexibility. Workers should be able to use parental leave at a time they decide would best benefit their families in the first year of a child’s life.
  • Inclusivity. Workers should be able to use parental leave for adoptions, childbirth, long-term foster care and new family caregiving duties.
  • Availability after adverse outcomes. Leave should be available in case of a child’s death during the first year or of a miscarriage after the first trimester.

Bottom line

Like any employer, our state should ensure its workers have jobs that support their ability to care for their families. The teachers, social workers and many other state employees who help look after our children and who build up Alabama for all the families in the state should be able to create and grow their own families without scrambling to pay the bills.

Paid parental leave is a common-sense policy that helps workers care for their families while maintaining their careers and financial well-being. State officials often have said Alabama is pro-family. Ensuring that teachers and state employees have paid parental leave is an important step to prove it.

Remove tax incentives for companies that break child labor laws in Alabama

By Dev Wakeley

Overview

Companies that accept public money through economic development incentives should be held accountable when breaking laws that protect workers. 

But because Alabama’s historical development model caters to big companies at the expense of workers, consequences for bad actors are too light. 

The state’s development philosophy is heavy on tax breaks and light on accountability for companies that accept them.

These tax incentives can climb to hundreds of millions of dollars per company. But policymakers too often don’t demand good wages, fair treatment of workers, or worker input into decisions when handing out incentives. 

Further, the state doesn’t take public money away when companies and their subsidiaries break labor laws, including laws that prohibit employing children in dangerous work.

The scourge of child labor violations in Alabama

Child labor scandals have plagued the state recently, and the number of children illegally employed nationally has increased significantly in recent years. Bad employers often seek out cheap labor to maximize profits, and that profit-above-all mentality can result in worker abuses.

In 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor sued multiple companies in the Hyundai supply chain for violations occurring at a facility in Luverne. The lawsuit alleged that Hyundai, its subsidiary SL Alabama and temporary worker agency Best Practice Service jointly employed a 13-year-old to work 60-hour weeks in auto manufacturing. 

Hyundai received more than a quarter of a billion dollars in tax incentives for the initial plant buildout, and the company has received millions more since then in expansion incentives.

At the same time Alabama has refused to force accountability on companies for breaking child labor laws, the state has stripped incentive eligibility from companies that voluntarily recognize unions. 

Many lawmakers voted to strip incentives from companies that choose to support workplace democracy. But the Legislature so far has not extended the same financial consequences for companies that break child labor laws.

Hyundai’s supply chain is not alone in violations of child labor laws. Alabama’s agricultural industry, particularly chicken processing plants, has a recurring problem with employers exploiting child labor in dangerous work settings. 

And child labor violations can be deadly for workers victimized by bad employers. As one example, Apex Roofing paid a $117,175 fine in 2024 after a 15-year-old boy in Cullman County fell to his death on his first day illegally working to install a roof on an industrial building.

Not all companies with child labor problems have gotten generous state incentives like Hyundai has received. But common sense dictates that Alabama shouldn’t be using public money – much of which ironically is diverted from the Education Trust Fund – to subsidize companies that illegally employ children in dangerous work.

How Alabama lawmakers can fix this problem

SB 22, sponsored by Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, would be an important step toward corporate accountability in Alabama. This bill would allow removal of tax incentives from companies that violate either state human trafficking laws or child labor provisions in the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

This bill would provide an important enforcement avenue for basic standards of human decency from employers and important protections for Alabama’s children.

Bottom line

Companies that break child labor laws shouldn’t receive public money while they’re doing so. The people of Alabama deserve good jobs and responsible employers. Economic development does not require that we accept bad actor companies taking dangerous, illegal shortcuts. Bad employers harm their workers and the overall economy, and they shouldn’t be rewarded for exploitative business practices.

SB 22’s removal of tax incentives from child labor law violators would help protect Alabama children from dangerous economic exploitation. And it would force companies to act more fairly toward workers and communities across our state.

School breakfast for all: What Alabama can do to help feed all of our kids

By Alabama Arise

By Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst, and LaTrell Clifford Wood, hunger policy advocate | January 2025

Overview

Alabama can and should do more to equip our children and our schools for success. One big step would be to provide school breakfast for all our children. And our lawmakers can make major progress toward that goal this year with a modest allocation from the Education Trust Fund (ETF) budget.

Alabama Arise is recommending an ETF appropriation of $16 million to support public schools, including public charter schools, that wish to provide breakfast to all their students. 

From this amount, each of the 1,459 Alabama schools participating in the National School Lunch Program would be eligible to receive a $5,000 base grant to upgrade their food service capacities.

The remaining $8.7 million could be distributed to eligible schools to bring their breakfast service reimbursements to the maximum possible federal level.

The benefits of school breakfast

Children who start the day with breakfast learn better, participate more in class and are less likely to skip school than are kids who don’t get breakfast. But tight family budgets, busy mornings and before-daylight bus routes can mean many children arrive at school hungry. School districts across the country have found that breakfast for all children, served after the first bell, reduces hunger and helps kids learn.

It’s time for Alabama’s school districts to join their peers nationwide in feeding breakfast to all of our kids. Here are just a few of the benefits:

School breakfast reduces child hunger across our state. In Alabama, 23% of school-age children are food insecure, meaning they do not always have enough to eat or know when they will get their next meal. That rate is even higher among children of color. School breakfast could guarantee a morning meal for all Alabama children during the school day. School breakfast for all kids also allows schools to experiment with food delivery services like grab-and-go kiosks or breakfast in the classroom that increase participation and make sure kids are ready to start the day.

School breakfast reduces chronic absenteeism. Nearly 1 in 5 Alabama children have been chronically absent from school, and 53% of Alabama schools have high absenteeism rates. Research has shown that students who get breakfast at school have improved attendance and decreased tardiness, according to the Food Research and Action Center. 

School breakfast improves standardized testing and math scores. Alabama ranks 48th in average math ACT scores. Academic achievement improves, especially for math, when breakfast is available for school-age children.

School breakfast reduces behavioral problems. Child hunger contributes to impulsivity, hyperactivity, irritability, aggression, anxiety and substance abuse, according to the National Institutes of Health. Reducing hunger would reduce these behaviors.

How Alabama lawmakers can help feed children

The Alabama Legislature can help schools offer school breakfast for all children.  The Legislature can help feed Alabama’s schoolchildren by appropriating ETF dollars to match federal funds for school breakfast. Schools that choose to offer breakfast to all their children can use these matching funds to give all their students breakfast at the start of the school day. Thirty-five other states are considering similar legislation, and eight states have approved some form of school meals for every child.

How is school breakfast funded now? Many schools already provide breakfast for all children, but other schools need state help. Some Alabama schools offer breakfast to income-eligible children under the traditional federal School Breakfast Program, administered by the Alabama State Department of Education. 

Schools with a significant number of low-income children can receive the maximum federal reimbursement for all meals served. But some Alabama schools can’t make the federal reimbursement rate work for them without additional state or local dollars. And some Alabama schools would like to offer breakfast for all their children but don’t want to deal with federal regulations that might impact their Title 1 distribution to local schools.

Bottom line

Providing school breakfast at all public schools would be an important step to improve child nutrition and student success. An ETF budget appropriation of approximately $16 million would allow Alabama schools to be made whole if they can’t receive the maximum federal reimbursement for these meals. This support for school breakfast for all would help children grow, thrive and learn across Alabama.