HB21 • 2026

Employees, annual leave to attend school related activities authorized

Children Education Labor Parental Rights

Passed Legislature

This bill passed both chambers and reached final enrollment, even if later executive action is not shown here.

Sponsor: Sellers
Last action: 2026-01-13
Official status: Pending Committee Action in House of Origin
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

The official text states the act becomes effective on October 1, 2026, but metadata indicates it passed both chambers and reached final enrollment while also showing a 'Pending Committee Action' status with a future date of January 2026. The effective date in the bill text is definitive for when the law starts.

HB21: Parental Right to Participate in Schools Act

This bill creates a new law allowing parents and guardians of school-age children to take up to 48 hours of leave per year for their child's school activities.

What This Bill Does

Establishes the Parental Right to Participate in Schools Act.
Allows eligible employees who are parents or guardians to take up to 48 hours of leave within a 12-month period for school-related activities.
Permits this leave to be unpaid or replaced with existing paid time off, such as vacation or personal days, at the employee's choice.
Requires employees to give at least 10 days' written notice before taking leave unless the event was not reasonably foreseeable.
Allows employers to deny a leave request if it would cause substantial disruption to business operations or make production unusually difficult.
Requires employers to post and maintain a notice about this law in the workplace, with fines of up to $100 per day for willful failure to do so.

Who It Names or Affects

Employees who are parents or guardians as defined by the act
Employers operating within Alabama that employ one or more employees
The Alabama Department of Workforce, which is responsible for enforcement and handling complaints

Terms To Know

School-related activity: A parent-teacher conference, school-sponsored performance, rehearsal, sporting event, or any other school function where the child participates.
Parent or guardian: Biological parents, individuals with legal custody, guardians, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and their spouses or domestic partners.

Limits and Unknowns

The bill does not specify if the leave must be taken in one block of time or can be split into smaller parts.
Employers may deny requests that cause substantial disruption to business operations, but the text does not define exactly what counts as a major problem.

Bill History

2026-01-13 House
Pending Committee Action in House of Origin
2026-01-13 House
Read for the first time and referred to the House Committee on Commerce and Small Business

Official Summary Text

Employees, annual leave to attend school related activities authorized

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

HB21 INTRODUCED
Page 0
HB21
TB7QB55-1
By Representative Sellers
RFD: Commerce and Small Business
First Read: 13-Jan-26
PFD: 25-Jun-25
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TB7QB55-1 06/11/2025 OW (L)cr 2025-1987
Page 1
PFD: 25-Jun-25
SYNOPSIS:
Existing law does not expressly permit employees
to take time off to attend school-related activities.
This bill would establish the Parental Right to
Participate in Schools Act.
This bill would permit employees who are parents
or guardians of school-age children to take up to 48
hours of leave annually from employment to attend
school-related activities.
This bill would permit employers to deny leave
in certain circumstances.
This bill would require employers to post and
maintain notice of this act, and provide a penalty for
noncompliance.
This bill would also require enforcement of the
act by the Alabama Department of Workforce.
A BILL
TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
Establishing the Parental Right to Participate in
Schools Act; to permit certain employees to take leave to
attend school-related activities; to provide for
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HB21 INTRODUCED
Page 2
attend school-related activities; to provide for
implementation; and to provide for enforcement by the Alabama
Department of Workforce.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA:
Section 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as
the Parental Right to Participate in Schools Act.
Section 2. (a) For the purposes of this section, the
following terms have the following meanings:
(1) EMPLOYEE. Employee as defined in Section 11-80-16,
Code of Alabama 1975.
(2) EMPLOYER. Any individual, partnership, association,
corporation, or business entity that employs one or more
employees within the state.
(3) PARENT or GUARDIAN. Any of the following:
a. A biological mother or father of a child.
b. An individual with legal custody of a child.
c. An individual who acts as a guardian of a child.
d. An aunt, uncle, or grandparent of a child.
e. An individual married to or in a domestic
partnership with any individual listed in paragraphs a.
through d.
(4) SCHOOL-RELATED ACTIVITY. A parent-teacher
conference, school-sponsored performance, rehearsal, sporting
event, or any other school function where the child is a
participant.
(b)(1) An employee who is a parent or guardian may take
up to 48 hours of leave within a 12-month period to attend
school-related activities for his or her child.
(2) The leave may be unpaid or substituted with any
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HB21 INTRODUCED
Page 3
(2) The leave may be unpaid or substituted with any
available paid leave, including vacation, personal, family,
compensatory, or leave bank leave, at the discretion of the
employee.
(3) An employee shall provide at least 10 days' advance
written notice of the leave request unless the school-related
activity was not reasonably foreseeable.
(4) An employer may deny leave if granting such leave
would create a substantial disruption to business operations
or make production or service unusually difficult.
(c)(1) Employers shall post and maintain notice of the
requirements of this section in a conspicuous place within the
workplace in a form established, by rule, by the Department of
Workforce.
(2) An employer who willfully fails to post the
required notice may be fined up to one hundred dollars ($100)
for each day the notice remains unposted.
(d) Employees may file complaints regarding violations
of this act with the Alabama Department of Workforce.
Section 3. This act shall become effective on October
1, 2026.
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