Menu
The Governor shall be the President of the State Board of Education, and the board shall elect a vice-president from its members annually. The State Superintendent of Education shall be the secretary and executive officer of the board.
The members of the oard shall be qualified electors of the State of Alabama, and each member shall be a qualified elector in the district which he represents. No person who is an employee of the board or who is or has been engaged as a professional educator within five years next preceding the date of the election shall be eligible for membership on the board. For the purposes of this section the term “professional educator” shall include teachers, supervisor or principal of any public or private school; instructor, professor or president of any public or private university, college or junior college or trade school; any state, county or city superintendent of education; or other person engaged in an administrative capacity in the field of education.
Before exercising any authority or performing any duty, each member of the board shall qualify as such by taking and subscribing to the oath of office prescribed by Article XVI of the state constitution, the certificate whereof shall be filed with the records of the board.
The State Board of Education shall exercise, through the State Superintendent of Education and his professional assistants, general control and supervision over the public schools of the state, except institutions of higher learning which by law are under the general supervision and control of a board of trustees, and shall consult with and advise through its executive officer and his professional assistants, county boards of education, city and town boards of education, superintendents of schools, school trustees, attendance officers, principals, teachers, supervisors and interested citizens, and shall seek in every way to direct and develop public sentiment in support of public education.
Necessary to Make Effective the Law\s Purpose: In order to meet emergencies that may arise because of any defect in the language or purpose of this title, the State Board of Education may make such rules and regulations as will give full force and effect to any or all of its provisions.
The State Board of Education may adopt a seal for the authentication of its official acts.
The State Board of Education may remove for incompetency, immorality, misconduct in office or willful neglect of duty, any person appointed under the provisions of this title, not subject to the provisions of the state Merit System, upon making known to him in writing the charge against him and upon giving him an opportunity of being heard in person or by counsel in his own defense, upon not less than 10 days’ notice. In case of vacancy due to any cause, the State Board of Education shall fill the vacancy, unless otherwise provided, and until a successor shall qualify.
Members of the State Board of Education shall be indemnified for any loss incurred as a result of damage done in the performance of their duty as a member of the State Board of Education and for which the member is personally liable. The indemnification shall be made by including such members under the general liability insurance coverage of the General Liability Trust Fund in accordance with the provisions of Section 36-1-6.1.
(a) The county board of education shall be composed of five members, who shall be elected by the qualified electors of the county.
(b) County boards of education unless otherwise provided by law may use the provisions of this subsection to establish single member election districts with one board member elected from each district. School boards exercising this option may establish five or seven such districts. Such plan shall be considered only after two weeks public notice has been given, outlining generally the school districts under consideration. The members so elected, or appointed in the event of a vacancy, shall be residents of the school district. Such residency shall have been established at least one year before the general election at which the candidate is to be elected, or appointed in the event of a vacancy. Whenever a member of a county board of education moves his or her domicile from the district he or she represents, he or she shall cease to be a member of the county board of education, and a vacancy shall occur. The member shall provide notice of the move to the secretary of the local board of education before the commencement of business at the first meeting of the local board of education following the move. The boundaries of such single member districts shall be determined by a majority vote of the county board of education. The county board of education shall apportion the districts according to the last federal decennial census for the county utilizing the principle of equal representation. Thereafter, each county board of education choosing to implement single member election districts shall reapportion those districts within six months following the publication of the results of each federal decennial census.
(c) No person shall be eligible for election or appointment as a member of a county board of education unless he or she satisfies all of the following qualifications:
(1) Is a person of good moral character.
(2) Has obtained a high school diploma or its equivalent.
(3) Is not employed by that county board of education, unless serving as a member of the county board of education on April 20, 2012.
(4) Is not serving on the governing board of a private elementary or secondary educational institution.
(5) Is not on the National Sex Offender Registry or the state sex offender registry.
(6) Has not been convicted of a felony.
At the general election of state and county officers, a member or members shall be elected for terms of six years to succeed the member or members whose term or terms of office expire at that time. The members of the county board of education shall hold office until their successors have been elected and qualified. Before exercising any authority or performing any duties as a member of the county board of education, each member thereof shall qualify by taking and subscribing to the oath of office prescribed by Article XVI of the state constitution, the certificate whereof shall be filed in the office of the judge of probate of the county.
The county board of education shall hold a meeting each year for the purpose of giving the public an opportunity of presenting to the board matters relating to the allotment of public school funds or any other matter relating to the administration of the public schools of the county. The time and location of such meeting shall be determined by each local board of education and shall be given public notice.
As the chief executive officer of the State Department of Education there shall be a State Superintendent of Education, who shall be appointed by the State Board of Education and shall serve at the pleasure of the State Board of Education; provided, however, that the State Board of Education may enter into a contract with the State Superintendent of Education for his services for a period not to exceed four years.
The Superintendent of Education shall be a person of good moral character, with academic and professional education equivalent to graduation from a standard university or college, who is knowledgeable in school administration and has training and experience sufficient to qualify him to perform the duties of his office.
The salary of the State Superintendent of Education shall be such amount per annum as shall be set by the State Board of Education in an amount within the range now or hereafter established by law, to be paid in installments from the annual appropriation of the State Department of Education.
Before entering upon the duties of the office, the superintendent shall take the oath prescribed in the constitution.
Before entering upon the duties of his office, the State Superintendent of Education shall execute to the State of Alabama a bond, to be approved by the Governor, in an amount to be fixed by the State Board of Education, for the faithful performance of his duties.
The State Superintendent of Education shall explain the true intent and meaning of the school laws and of the rules and regulations of the State Board of Education. He shall decide, without expense to the parties concerned, all controversies and disputes involving the proper administration of the public school system. The State Superintendent of Education shall enforce all the provisions of this title and the rules and regulations of the State Board of Education. He shall file charges with the State Board of Education or other controlling authority and shall recommend for removal or institute proceedings for the removal of any person appointed under the provisions of this title for immorality, misconduct in office, insubordination, incompetency or willful neglect of duty.
The State Superintendent of Education shall execute the educational policy of the State Board of Education. He shall call and conduct conferences of the county or city boards of education, county superintendents of education, city superintendents of schools, supervisors, attendance officers, principals and teachers on matters relating to the condition, needs and improvements of the schools.
The State Superintendent of Education, under rules and regulations promulgated by the State Board of Education, shall have the authority to review actions and orders of county and city boards of education and of county superintendents of education and city superintendents of schools in matters relating to finance and other matters seriously affecting the educational interest. Upon such review the State Superintendent of Education shall have the power to determine from the facts the just and proper disposition of the matter. The order of the state superintendent shall be binding.
In cooperation with other authorized agencies, the State Superintendent of Education shall prepare, or cause to be prepared, and submit for approval and adoption by the State Board of Education rules and regulations for the protection of the health, physical welfare and physical examination of the school children of the state.
In addition to providing quality instruction in classrooms and fiscal soundness, all local boards of education shall be accountable for compliance with statutes and regulations regarding school safety and discipline. The State Department of Education shall send to all local boards of education and all local superintendents of education, on or before August 1 of each year, a manual containing all acts of the Legislature and all regulations promulgated by the State Board of Education which pertain to school safety and discipline. Within thirty (30) days of receipt of this manual, each local board of education shall provide to the State Board of Education a report, in the form prescribed by the State Department of Education, describing its compliance with these acts and regulations. If a local board of education is determined by the State Board of Education to have failed to comply in any material respect with these acts and regulations, the State Department of Education shall provide assistance to obtain compliance. If after one year, the State Board of Education determines that a local board of education refuses or fails to come into compliance with these acts and regulations, the State Superintendent of Education shall intervene in and assume the direct management and day-to-day operation of the local board of education for such period of time as the State Board of Education deems necessary to bring that local board of education into compliance with these acts and regulations.
(a) The right to opt in to a sex education curriculum if one is provided by the school district.
(b) Open enrollment rights pursuant to section 15-816.01.
(c) The right to opt out of assignments pursuant to this section.
(d) The right to opt out of immunizations pursuant to section 15-873.
(e) The promotion requirements prescribed in section 15-701.
(f) The minimum course of study and competency requirements for graduation from high school prescribed in section 15-701.01.
(g) The right to opt out of instruction on acquired immune deficiency syndrome pursuant to section 15-716.
(h) The right to review test results pursuant to section 15-743.
(i) The right to participate in gifted programs pursuant to section 15-779.01.
(j) The right to access instructional materials pursuant to section 15-730.
(k) The right to receive a school report card pursuant to section 15-746.
(l) The attendance requirements prescribed in sections 15-802, 15-803 and 15-821.
(m) The right to public review of courses of study and textbooks pursuant to sections 15-721 and 15-722.
(n) The right to be excused from school attendance for religious purposes pursuant to section 15-806.
(o) Policies related to parental involvement pursuant to this section.
(p) The right to seek membership on school councils pursuant to section 15-351.
(q) Information about the student accountability information system as prescribed in section 15-1041.
(r) The right to access the failing schools tutoring fund pursuant to section 15-241.
(a) Rights under the family educational rights and privacy act of 1974 (20 United States Code section 1232g) relating to access to children’s official records.
(b) The parent’s right to inspect the school district policies and curriculum.
All bonds of officials and employees required under the provisions of this title shall be executed by a surety company authorized to do business in Alabama and, unless otherwise provided, approved by the State Superintendent of Education. The said bonds shall, unless otherwise provided, be filed in the office of the Department of Education in Montgomery, unless otherwise instructed by the State Board of Education. In all cases where bonds are not filed in the office of the Department of Education, certified copies thereof shall be filed in such department.
The official bond of every state official, agent or employee, except the bond of the Secretary of State, must be filed in the office of the Secretary of State and recorded in a fair hand or by printing the same or by the use of a typewriter or other writing or printing or photostatic machine, word for word in a well-bound book or books and indexed in alphabetical order according to the title of the office, and all of said bonds shall remain on file and in the custody of the Secretary of State, except the bond of the Secretary of State, which shall be filed, recorded and remain in the custody of the Auditor.
In all cases, official bonds must be filed in the proper office within 40 days after the declaration of election or after the appointment to office, except bonds of tax assessors and tax collectors which shall be filed on or before September 1 next after their election or appointment.
Every official bond of a county or municipal officer, agent or employee required by law to be filed with any public officer must be by such officer recorded word for word in a well-bound book and properly indexed.
The Governor, in his discretion, may and, with the approval of the Governor, the governing body or the director or head of any department, institution, commission, bureau or agency may, in their discretion, require a bond in such amount as they may deem necessary of any agent or employee in said department, institution, commission, bureau, board or agency. Said bond shall be payable to the State of Alabama conditioned as other official bonds. The premium on said bonds shall be payable out of the funds of said department, institution, commission, bureau, board or agency. A copy or duplicate of the bond of every agent or employee required to give bond shall be filed in the office of the department, institution, commission, bureau, board or agency requiring same. The original of all such bonds shall be filed and recorded in the office of the Secretary of State as other official bonds are recorded.
The bond of each public officer required by law to give bond must, unless it is otherwise provided, be made payable to the State of Alabama, with such sureties as the approving officer is satisfied have the qualifications required by law, with condition, in all cases in which a different condition is not prescribed, faithfully to discharge the duties of such office during the time he continues therein or discharges any of the duties thereof.
The approval of all official bonds shall be in writing, endorsed on the bonds, and shall show the day and year on which the same were approved and be signed by the approving officer.
The bond of any public officer which is not in the penalty, payable and conditioned and has not sureties having the qualifications required by law must not be approved, and the officer approving a bond not conforming to the law in any or all of these respects shall be guilty of a neglect of duty and shall subject himself and his sureties to a civil action by any person injured and a recovery to the extent of such injury.
No officer, with whom any official bond is required to be filed, shall allow the same to be filed in his office, unless the approval of the proper officer appears thereon, endorsed according to the provisions of this article.
Every officer, in whose office the official bond of any public officer is filed, must endorse on such bond the day and year when the same was filed and sign his name to such endorsement.
Any officer who fails to endorse the date of the filing of an official bond as required by law must, on conviction, be fined not less than $50.00.
All personal sureties on official bonds must be residents of the state, and the aggregate value of their property, real and personal, not exempt from debts and other liabilities and in excess of their debts and liabilities must equal the penalty of the bond, and such property must be within the state. If the duties of the office of the principal are limited to a single county, the sureties must be residents of that county, and their property must be therein situated.
No officer of the United States required to give an official bond; no municipal officer required to give an official bond and no officer, state or county, required to give an official bond must be deemed a sufficient surety on any bond taken under this article.
A practicing attorney-at-law must not be deemed a sufficient surety on the official bond of the judge of probate or of the clerk or register of any court of record or of any other officer of a court of record or of the sheriff or deputy sheriff or the coroner, or of any constable, general or special.
A surety on an official bond or on a bond intended as an official bond cannot avoid liability thereon on the ground that he signed or delivered it on condition that it should not be delivered to the proper officer or should not become perfect unless it was executed by some other person who does not execute it.
The provisions of this section shall apply to bonds of state, county, municipal and public corporate officers; to bonds of executors, administrators, guardians, receivers, assignees, and other trustees, and to all bonds and undertakings executed in the commencement or progress of any suit or judicial proceeding, civil or criminal.
If any officer required by law to give bond fails to file the same within the time fixed by law, he vacates his office. In such case, it is the duty of the officer in whose office such bond is required to be filed at once to certify such failure to the appointing power, and the vacancy must be filled as in other cases.
If any public officer required by law to give bond fails to file the same in the proper office within the time prescribed, notice of such failure must be given by the officer in whose office such bond is required to be filed, by or during the first two days of the session of the circuit court held in the county in which the officer so failing resides next after such failure to the district attorney of the circuit to which such county belongs.
Any officer who omits to give notice of failure by a public officer to file his official bond as required by law must, on conviction, be fined not less than $100.00.
(a) Every official bond is obligatory on the principal and sureties thereon for:
(1) Every breach of the condition during the time the officer continues in office or discharges any of the duties thereof;
(2) The faithful discharge of any duties which may be required of such officer by any law passed subsequently to the execution of such bond, although no such condition is expressed therein; and
(3) The use and benefit of every person who is injured, as well by any wrongful act committed under color of his office as by his failure to perform or the improper or neglectful performance of those duties imposed by law.
(b) The words, “for the use and benefit of every person injured,” as used in subsection (a) of this section, shall include all person having a direct and proximate interest in the official act or omission and all persons connected with such official act or omission, by estate or interest.
(a) The bonds of all officers required to give bond shall be conditioned in the following form:
“Whereas the above bound A. B. was duly elected (or appointed) to the office of _____ on the _____ day of _____, for the term of _____ years from the _____ day of _____; therefore, if he shall faithfully perform and discharge all the duties of said office during his continuance therein, then the above obligation to be void.”
(b) A failure to observe the form prescribed in subsection (a) of this section shall not vitiate any official bond. All official bonds shall be valid and binding in whatever form they may be taken, except so far as they may be conditioned for the performance of acts in violation of the laws or policy of the state, whether in the proper penalty or without any penalty, whether correct or incorrect in their recitals as to the term of office or otherwise, whether properly payable, whether approved by the proper officer or not approved by any or whether irregular in any other respect. Such a bond, if delivered as the official bond of the officer and serving as such, shall be obligatory on everyone who subscribed it for the purpose of making the official bond of such officer to the full penalty or, if it has no penalty, to the full penalty of the bond which might have been required.
Whenever any officer required by law to give an official bond acts under a bond which is not in the penalty, payable and conditioned or without sureties of the requisite qualification and sufficiency as prescribed by law, such bond is valid and binding on the obligors therein and stands in the place of the official bond, subject, on its condition being broken, to all the remedies which the person aggrieved might have maintained on the official bond of such officer, executed, approved and filed according to law.
It shall be lawful to show by parol that any bond or recognizance was taken by an officer in the discharge of his duty, although such fact ought to appear upon the bond or recognizance or in writing or of record and does not so appear; and, if an officer takes a recognizance in a case where he should have taken a bond, it shall bind the parties in the same manner as if it had been authorized.
Any public officer required by law to give bond who performs any official act before his bond is approved and filed as required by law must, on conviction, be fined not less than $500.00.
Such bonds are not discharged by a single recovery, but proceedings may, from time to time, be instituted thereon until the whole penalty is exhausted.
When any state or county official shall have collected or paid out any money as fees, salary or compensation for official services rendered under any law of Alabama, general or special, which law, subsequent to such collection or paying out, shall be declared by the Supreme Court of Alabama to be unconstitutional or void or illegal, such officer shall not be liable either individually or on his official bond in any civil action brought for the recovery of such money so collected or paid out, nor shall the person to whom the same shall have been paid be liable therefor.
All the provisions of this article shall apply to the official bonds of all public officers of this state whose office may be established hereafter, unless the contrary is expressly provided.
It shall be the duty of the Governor to require additional bonds of the Director of Finance and Treasurer or any other officer whose bond is required to be approved by the Governor whenever in his opinion the interest of the state demands.
The form, procedure, etc., for the additional bonds under Section 36-5-40 shall be as provided in Sections 11-2-23 through 11-2-29.
Official bonds required of all officers, agents and employees of the State of Alabama and its boards, agencies and commissions or any additional bond that may be required must be made by a surety company or surety companies or guaranty company or guaranty companies authorized by the laws of this state to make such bonds and qualified to do business in this state.
The premiums on bonds required by this code of officers, agents and employees of the state and its boards, agencies and commissions shall not exceed the rate established for the same or comparable bonds by a nationally recognized rating bureau. But the minimum charge for the premium on any such bonds may be $5.00.
When any official bond or bonds required by this code of officers, agents and employees of the state and its boards, agencies and commissions shall be secured or insured by a guaranty or surety company or companies, the premiums shall be paid out of the funds of the department, institution, commission, bureau or agency for the officers or employees of the same.
If any state office or position for which a bond is required by this code should be abolished, terminated or consolidated with another office or position, then the bond provided for in this code shall be cancelled on those employees who by reason of the termination of their positions will not be continued in the service of the state.
Any person who is surety upon the official bond of any state officer or employee may discharge himself of such suretyship whenever he is in danger of being made liable on such bond and has no adequate remedy against his principal in consequence of his inability to discharge such liability, upon his making an application in writing setting forth such facts.
This application must be addressed to the official or to one of the officials required to approve such bond and must be sworn to.
The officer to whom such application is addressed must require the principal named in such application to appear before him on and at a certain day and place and give a new bond, which requisition must be in writing, signed by the officer making the same and must be personally served on such principal before the day named therein.
On the execution of the additional bond provided for in this division, the same must be approved and filed with the application and requisition with the first official bond.
Every such additional bond approved and filed as provided in this division is binding on the obligors from the time of its approval and subjects them to the same liabilities, proceedings and remedies as are provided in relation to the first official bond of such officer or employee.
On the execution, approval and filing of such additional bond, such applicant shall be discharged as surety on the bond on which such application was made from all liability for any breach of the condition therein contained accruing subsequently to the filing of such additional bond.
The discharge provided for in Section 36-5-65 does not affect the previous liability of any of the obligors, but in case of the discharge of any one or more obligors under such section, the same shall operate as a discharge of all other obligors.
Whenever the sureties on either bond have made any payments thereon on account of the principal obligor therein, they are entitled to the same remedies and recoveries against the sureties in the remaining bonds as are provided by Section 11-2-29.
If such requisition is personally served and the officer or employee named therein fails to give an additional bond within 15 days after the day specified in such requisition, he vacates his office, and the officer making such requisition must at once certify the same to the appointing power, who must fill the vacancy.
If you are a US citizen, our team will help you EVERY STEP OF THE WAY!
All you have to do is fill out our contact us form and we’ll help you devise a plan in your State.
Our goal is to help people fight tyranny throughout the world!