HB78 Alabama 2026 Session

Summary

Primary Sponsor

Jeana RossRepresentative

Republican

Session

2026 Regular Session

Title

Early childhood education; guidelines for limited screen time for children in certain licensed child-care facilities, certain preschools, and public kindergarten established, annual training requirement for teachers and certain staff members established, Department of Early Childhood Education, Department of Human Resources, and State Board of Education authorized to implement and enforce limited screen time requirements

Summary

HB78 would establish state guidelines and training to limit screen time in early childhood settings and tie licensure and classroom policies to those guidelines.

What This Bill Does

The bill requires the Department of Early Childhood Education to create evidence-based guidelines on healthy screen time for birth through age five and make them publicly available. It sets standards for age-appropriate limits, high-quality programming, and active supervision, and prohibits background or passive screen time. It ties compliance to licensure and classroom operations for licensed child-care facilities, prekindergarten programs, and public kindergarten, with oversight by the relevant agencies and local boards; a policy for kindergarten must be adopted by 2027-2028. The act takes effect on January 1, 2027.

Who It Affects

• Licensed child-care facilities (day care centers/homes, group day care, night care) would be required to implement the guidelines and ensure staff complete annual screen-time training as a condition of licensure.
• Prekindergarten programs and public kindergarten classrooms would be required to implement the guidelines and training; local boards of education must adopt a kindergarten screen-time policy by the 2027-2028 school year.

Key Provisions

• Creates the Healthy Early Development and Screen Time Act (Article 4) and defines key terms such as adult-supervised use, early childhood education program, high-quality programming, screen-based media, and screen time.
• DECE, with DHR and the State Board of Education, must develop research-based guidelines on healthy screen time for birth through five years and publish them at no cost to the public.
• Standards require age-appropriate screen-time limits, define high-quality programming, prohibit background television, and require active supervision; screen time cannot substitute for teacher-led instruction or hands-on learning.
• Annual training on screen-time standards and alternatives must be provided to every teacher and staff member who supervises children.
• Compliance is monitored by the relevant agencies: DHR for licensed child-care facilities, the DECE for prekindergarten, and local school principals for public kindergarten; noncompliance can trigger corrective action, including disciplinary steps for educators in kindergarten.
• The act becomes effective January 1, 2027, with kindergarten policy adoption deadline by 2027-2028.

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 12, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.

Subjects

Children