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The Alabama Senate passed the Alabama K-12 Public School and State Employee Paid Parental Leave Act of 2025 on Wednesday afternoon.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, was filed last week, along with its companion bill in the House of Representatives, HB327, carried by Rep. Ginny Shaver, R-Leesburg.
Gov. Kay Ivey championed this bill in her State of the State Address last month, saying that she was looking forward to passing “a good, responsible parental leave bill to support both our state workers and teachers.”
The Alabama K-12 Public School and State Employee Paid Parental Leave Act of 2025 proposes eight weeks of paid parental leave for female state employees and teachers and two weeks for male employees for the birth, stillbirth, or miscarriage of a child. The leave also applies to the adoption of children aged three or younger.
For someone to be eligible for parental leave after a miscarriage, a healthcare professional would have to verify that the loss of the child occurred at or after the 12-week gestational period. To be eligible for parental leave after a stillbirth, a healthcare professional would have to verify that the loss of the child occurred at or after the 20-week gestational period.
Neither of these terms includes an abortion unless “necessary to prevent a serious health risk to the unborn child’s mother.”
In the case of an adopted child where both parents are eligible for the benefits, the parents are permitted to decide which would take eight weeks of leave or two weeks of leave.
An amendment was added to clarify that employees within the community college systems and the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind were also eligible for parental leave benefits. It was also clarified on the floor that teachers at specialty schools in the state would receive these benefits as well.
