Prefiled bill would provide compensation for injured teachers in Alabama

A high school classroom in Florida. A state senator has prefiled a bill that would provide compensation to teachers injure on the job. (Getty)

Mary Anne Leonard used to run and chase with her students all of the time. In a freak accident, her head hit a playground pole.

“At first, I was in denial,” she said. “I was like, ‘Well,’– because I used to play football with my brothers and stuff, and got the wind knocked out of me–so I thought, ‘Well, this is no big deal, got a goose egg.”

She went to the nurse when she began experiencing symptoms. After about a year, she realized migraines that made it difficult for her to function left her disabled. She also had trouble seeing due to a warped left cornea.

Leonard didn’t take out disability insurance because she never expected to be hurt while working. Leonard had medical bills coming in.

Her bills piled up, and her husband had to go into early retirement to be her caregiver. She’s walking with a cane, has two sets of glasses and is on several medications. Her son is helping them financially, but they make too much money for food stamps.

“All I ever wanted, ever since I was a young child, all I ever wanted to do was to be a teacher, and I became it and then after I became it, I mean, I love working in the school system, and I love those kids but after what happened, I was just like, ‘Wow, that dream just got squashed,’” she said. “I can never teach again. That’s all I can do to take care of my family, just the things that I have to do for everyday life.”

An Alabama senator has prefiled a bill that would provide compensation benefits for full-time education employees like Leonard who were injured while working. It would be known as the “Mary Anne Leonard Educators’ On-The-Job Injury Act.”

The 2025 session of the Legislature begins next February.

The bill, labeled SB 1, is sponsored by Sen. Sam Givhan, R-Huntsville. It would provide that salary for education employees would be continued for up to 90 days after injury, with the possibility for extension. Givhan said that the Public Education Employees Health Insurance Program (PEEHIP) would continue to fund medical bills.

Under the proposal, an executive officer or designee will inform the employee of their rights before a board of adjustment hearing and applicable written policies within seven, rather than 30, days after the injury.

Givhan, an attorney, said in an interview Tuesday that in past litigation with the state of Alabama, he learned that education employees did not have workers compensation coverage.

“There are some provisions that allow for the potential recovery through the board of adjustment,” he said. “This is not working well, and in my judgment, is not a satisfactory resolution for people who are injured taking care of our children.”

Givhan said that he worked with the board of adjustment attorney and accepted many of the changes the attorney recommended.

The senator filed a version of the bill in the last session. It passed the Senate but did not get out of the House.

Charles Murry, a spokesman for House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, wrote in a text that he and Givhan worked together with members of the education community on the bill towards the end of the session.

“He feels good about the progress and looks forward to picking up where we left off in 2025,” Murry wrote over text.

Givhan said that state employees receive workers compensation. He said that the state lacks compensation for the middle tier of teachers. He said that teachers, especially math or science teachers, in the Huntsville area might decide to work at Redstone Arsenal.

“A different type of bureaucracy, but not having all the education bureaucracy,” he said.

He said that they have the TEAMS program in place, which provides more money for some STEM teachers, and he is trying to do something similar for special education.

“We have a lot of problems, too, in recruiting and retaining special ed teachers, and I think we need to take a look at that again,” he said.

Leonard said that she would tell people to take out disability insurance and if there’s anything that can be done to move compensation for teachers forward, they should do that.

“We deserve to be taken care of, because we’re taking care of everybody’s kids in the state of Alabama, so if we’re doing that, then they should take care of us, because otherwise these people can’t go to work,” she said. “So it’s a very, very important job, and it should not be taken lightly.”

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