The Alabama State Board of Education on Sept. 11 recorded unanimous votes on several agenda items, including adoption of the Alabama State Department of Education’s FY2026 operating budget, a notice of intent to amend an administrative rule governing school-based child nutrition personnel, and a resolution recognizing October 2025 as National School Lunch Week in Alabama schools.

The board approved the department's FY2026 operating budget, described at the meeting as the department's operating budget for legislatively appropriated funds; Dr. Mackey clarified that this is distinct from the larger foundation program budget that will be discussed in the board's work session and considered at a later meeting. "This is just the department's operating budget for our legislative funds," Dr. Mackey said.

The board also moved to announce intent to adopt an amended Alabama Administrative Code rule (described during the meeting as "rule 2 ninety-eighty-thirty-zero 0.05") pertaining to school-based child nutrition program personnel. Dr. Mackey said the U.S. Department of Agriculture has loosened some federal credentialing requirements and the department is proposing to loosen state rules accordingly, particularly to make it easier for small districts to fill child nutrition director positions while still requiring training and certification. He said the rulemaking notice opens a 35-day public comment period before the board would finalize any changes.

The board unanimously approved a resolution recognizing October 2025 as National School Lunch Week in Alabama schools; that vote was recorded without comment.

Procedural items approved without recorded opposition included the meeting agenda and the minutes from the Aug. 14, 2025 meeting.

No roll-call tallies or individual member votes were recorded in the publicly available transcript for these items; each motion on the record was shown passed by a unanimous voice or hand-raise vote. The meeting agenda included a brief department report noting that three districts in state intervention (Sumter County, Bessemer and Dallas County) are starting the school year better than last year and that the department will present executive reports on those districts at next month's meeting.