Ala. Code § 26-1-6

This is the official text of Ala. Code § 26-1-6, part of Alabama’s Code — part of the compiled statutory law of Alabama, published by the state as "Code." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Section 26-1-6 Parental Rights

Official statutory text

(a) The Legislature finds and declares both of the following:

(1) The Alabama Supreme Court and United States Supreme Court have recognized that parents have a fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children.

(2) The liberty protected by the due process clause includes the fundamental right of parents to direct the education, upbringing, care, and control of their children.

(b) The government may not burden the fundamental right of parents to direct the education, upbringing, care, and control of their child unless the government demonstrates that the application of the burden is narrowly tailored to a compelling state interest and the government uses the least restrictive means possible to further that interest.

(c) This section may not be construed as authorizing or allowing a parent to engage in child abuse or neglect.

(d) This section shall only be construed as applying to disputes between parents and the government or third parties and does not modify the law as to disputes between parents.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.