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Gov. Kay Ivey signs bill allowing yoga in Alabama public schools

Updated May 20, 2021; Posted May 20, 2021

By Mike Cason | mcason@al.com

Gov. Kay Ivey has signed into law a bill allowing Alabama public schools to offer instruction in yoga. ... The law ends a ban on yoga adopted by the State Board of Education in 1993 because of yoga’s connections to Hinduism.

Rep. Jeremy Gray, D-Opelika, today thanked Ivey for signing the bill and clearing the way for schools to begin offering yoga as an elective class or activity starting in the 2021-2022 school year. He said some schools are already doing yoga-like activities but use a different name, such as mindfulness movement.

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The Senate amended the bill to say that “School personnel may not use any techniques that involve hypnosis, the induction of a dissociative mental state, guided imagery, meditation, or any aspect of Eastern philosophy and religious training.”

Gray said the amendments were unnecessary because he said the bill already kept the religious aspects of yoga out of schools by limiting yoga instruction to poses, exercises, and stretching techniques. It prohibits chanting, mantras, mudras and the use of mandalas. He said he thinks the amendments were an effort to appease conservative groups who opposed the bill.

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