Legislation reintroduced in Alabama this year would provide workers compensation benefits to public school teachers, bringing them in line with other state employees.
The measure would also align Alabama with most other states and jurisdictions where teachers are part of the comp system.
Senate Bill 1, introduced in late May, would transition teachers from the state’s current system, which requires injured teachers to pay out-of-pocket medical expenses for work injuries and then file for reimbursement.
Alabama’s Board of Adjustment adjudicates work injury claims, but the board has additional tasks. Experts say the process hurts teachers, who have a statutory timeframe of one year to file an injury claim.
“Education employees in Alabama have never had workers comp coverage,” said Allison King, government relations manager for the Alabama Education Association.
Terri Michal, field representative with the Birmingham chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, said the current process for compensating injured teachers is flawed.
Injured teachers must notify the Board of Adjustment, but individual school districts must also sign off on the claim and confirm an injury is work-related, which can be an added hurdle for teachers petitioning for reimbursement, she said.
If an injury is accepted, teachers must submit medical receipts to the Board of Adjustment for reimbursement, but red tape often means a long lag time between submitting for reimbursement and payment, Ms. Michal said.
In addition, there is no appeals process, meaning the three-member Board of Adjustment’s rulings are final, Ms. King said.
Proponents of S.B. 1 say the measure would benefit teachers and bring Alabama in line with much of the rest of the U.S. An earlier version of the bill failed to pass in the previous legislative session.
Experts say it is unclear why Alabama left teachers out of workers comp.
The Alabama Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
“It’s fairly clear from the statute that (the teacher) exclusion was intentional,” said Taylor Nichols, chief legal counsel to the Board of Adjustment, which falls under the state Department of Finance. “The statute says that local school boards are not required to have workers compensation unless it’s fully funded by the legislature, and that’s the only hint that we have that there might have been some discussion about funding there.”
State Sen. Sam Givhan, a Republican who authored the bill, said support staff and other school district employees are also excluded from workers comp.
“We’ve got some terrible examples of injuries that (require) people to go to the Board of Adjustment, which really wasn’t set up for workers comp claims to start with,” he said. “We’ve just not been satisfied with the results that they’ve been getting there.”
Injured teachers can seek medical care through their group health insurance plans but have to pay copays and deductibles, which they would not incur with a comp claim, experts said.
In some cases, teachers must pay out of pocket for expenses not covered by insurance, experts said.
In one case, a teacher who was punched in the face while breaking up a fight had to replace a $500 pair of glasses and the expense was not covered by insurance, Ms. King said.
Experts say Alabama is unusual in not providing teachers with workers comp.
“There is no compelling policy rationale to exclude teachers from workers compensation coverage,” said Steven Bennett, vice president, workers compensation programs, and counsel for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.
Mr. Bennett said he is unaware of any other state that excludes teachers from comp, but there are some exceptions among other jurisdictions. Teachers in New York City schools, for example, are covered for injuries through the United Federation of Teachers.
Despite not being eligible for workers comp, with its exclusive remedy provisions, Alabama teachers are still prohibited from suing their employers, said Michael Fish, a partner with Birmingham-based Fish Nelson & Holden LLC, an insurance defense law firm.
“In the usual case, the tradeoff for no (comp) benefits is the availability of tort liability,” he said. “Unfortunately for Alabama public school teachers, sovereign immunity removes employer liability from the equation.”
