State Board of Education’s code change sparks concerns among disability rights advocates

The Alabama State Board of Education prepares to vote at its meeting on Feb. 13, 2025 in Montgomery, Alabama. Left to right: Board members Jackie Zeigler; Tracie West and Kelly Mooney; Alabama State Schools Superintendent Eric Mackey; Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey; and board members Tonya Chestnut; Yvette Richardson; Marie Manning and Allen West. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector)

The Alabama State Board of Education Thursday  unanimously approved an updated code relating to education preparation programs (EPPs), which regulate university’s teaching programs. 

But State Superintendent Eric Mackey said universities should step up to regulate their programs.

“They are universities, so they’re supposed to be managing their syllabus and their content,” Mackey said in an interview. “I mean, I would like to think that the trustees at the universities will take some responsibility and say, ‘We want to make sure we’re turning out quality teachers.’”

The code also updated language relating to special education teaching programs. The board heard from educators from across the state, some in opposition to the changes.

Sara McDaniel, a special education professor at the University of Alabama, said the new language is too broad and said it did not “point to the individual nature and comprehensive nature of what our special education graduates need to know.”

McDaniel pointed out that the new language significantly cuts the state code’s section on standards for special education teachers, which used to be 15 pages. Disability rights advocate and former U.S. Department of Education employee Victoria DeLano discovered the change in February and expressed concern on social media.

“I know this state and what is happening, and I’m deeply concerned about that loss of expertise. Retaliation is the norm here, and families do not file complaints because of the very real fears,” she wrote in a comment on LinkedIn. “There is likely to be no push back from parents because they won’t know what is happening until their kid has fallen through.”

Mackey said that universities should manage the quality of their teaching programs and rely on the state as little as possible.

“If it turns out that universities come back to us and say,’ Look, we simply cannot guarantee quality on our own. We need the department to manage the quality control for us,’ then we’ll do that,” he said. “But I would like to think universities could do that on their own.”