Two Alabama lawmakers are working on bills that would make the Dolly Parton Imagination Library a permanent program in the state.
House Bill 50, sponsored by Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, and Senate Bill 34, sponsored by Sen. Wes Kitchens, R-Arab, would both create the Imagination Library of Alabama Program. If passed, the program would use state funds to provide free books to children from birth until 5 years old through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
“The premise behind this is to make sure that every child in the state of Alabama, especially with the emphasis on the Literacy Act and other programs that have recently been implemented, but to make sure that every child in the state of Alabama has access to books and to help them develop a love for learning,” Kitchens said in a recent interview.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting program that mails free “high quality books” to children regardless of their families’ income. The initiative was started in 1995 by Parton to distribute books to families in Sevier County, Tennessee. In 2000, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library became a nationwide program.
Gov. Kay Ivey launched a statewide expansion of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in 2023. The prefiled bill makes no changes to the program but codifies an executive order Ivey signed in 2023 to establish the statewide expansion of the Imagination Library.
State funds will make up half of the funding for the program, while local partner programs will make up the other half.
Collins filed a similar bill in the House during the 2025 legislative session. It did not pass through the Senate due to time constraints.
Under the legislation, the Alabama Imagination Library will be managed by the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education. The department will also be required to work with a nonprofit agency to operate the program and create rules as needed.
Private donations are also allowed to be contributed to help fund the program.
“When you pass legislation, more people are going to hear about it, so more families with young children will be able to sign up. They’ll be more informed about it, and then local groups or individuals that are looking for something to support, they can see the benefits of this, and so they can choose to support it,” Collins said in a recent interview.
The books provided for the children must be considered age appropriate.
“Age appropriate when they’re very young, would be those big, almost cardboard pages, so that their little fingers can turn them by themselves,” Collins said. “And they may have more touch, and there’ll be less as they get a little bit older. They’ll still be simple books, but there’ll be some that they can start recognizing some of the words and some of the things that go with the pictures.”
On Dec. 1, Ivey said in a statement that 2 million books have been distributed by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to children in all 67 counties in the state. The statement also said over 106,000 children are enrolled in the program.
Read more at AlabamaReflector.com.