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Thursday, March 27, 2025 - Day 36
Archive of past GAE Legislative Alerts this year
The General Assembly will be in session tomorrow. Next week, legislators will be in session Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Friday will be the final day of this year's session.
The Senate Public Safety Committee, tomorrow at 7:30 a.m., will consider two bills pertaining to school safety zones and the use of speed detection cameras or red-light cameras. One bill would ban them outright; the other bill requires driver notification, such as signage or flashing, warning lights.
Tuesday, the House Health Committee will meet on Monday, March 31 to hear SB 39, a bill that preclude the State Heath Benefit Plan from covering gender-affirming procedures.
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Senate committee passes their version of 2026 budget
The Senate Appropriations Committee this morning passed their version of the 2025-2026 state budget. The Senate committee added $100 million more than the House version to pay for more private school, taxpayer-paid tuition vouchers.
The committee also axed $7 million that the House included for educators to help them pay for school supplies.
They also cut $28 million that the House proposed to fund a QBE funding formula poverty weight, which would have been used to fund school districts with a large number of students living in poverty. According to the House Budget and Research office, "With this funding, Georgia joins 45 other states in providing additional funds through a poverty weight to systems with a high level of these students."
The Senate committee also added a million dollars more than the House for local charter school expansion.
The full Senate will vote on this budget tomorrow.
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Senate Ed Committee hijacks bill
to allow up to five personal/professional days;
replaces it with anti-DEI language
At a late-afternoon hearing today, members of the Senate Education Committee gutted a bill (HB 127) that would have increased the number of personal or professional days an educator may take from three to five if the individual has sick leave available. The original language from HB 127 was added earlier to SB 148, a bill creating a pilot program for outdoor learning spaces, which passed the House Education Committee on March 25.
The sponsor of HB 127, Rep. Brent Cox, R-Dawsonville, addressed the committee, appearing irritated that his bill was gutted.
The bill now becomes an anti-DEI bill, based on SB 120. The title of SB 120 states: "... public schools, local education agencies, and public post-secondary institutions shall not promote, support, or maintain any programs or activities that advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). SB 120 was not passed out of the Senate before Crossover Day.
The committee also added language to restrict access to restrooms and changing rooms to an individual's sex as noted at birth.
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House Ed postpones hearing on GAE bill to provide compensation for aspiring educators
The House Education Committee was forced to postpone a hearing on a GAE-backed bill, HB 310, to provide compensation to student teachers. The House schedule ran late. No word yet on when the bill might come up again.
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Senate passes literacy bill today
The state Senate today passed HB 307, a bill that proposes additional resources to support reading programs for dyslexic students. The bill also limits the use of "three cueing" in teaching reading, except in limited circumstances. Three-cueing, or MSV, teaches reading by meaning drawn from context or pictures, syntax, and visual information, meaning letters or parts of words.
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Bill to limit puberty blockers
and hormone therapies
for minors passes committee
SB 30, which would originally outlawed prescribing or administering certain hormone therapies and puberty-blocking medications to minors, passed the House Public and Community Health Committee yesterday. The bill now allows these transition methods but puts limits on when they can be administered.
According to Capitol-Beat, which covers the session for news outlets in the state: "Parents would have to get two behavioral health specialists - either two psychiatrists, or a psychiatrist and a psychologist - to determine that their child has gender dysphoria. Then they would have to see a board-certified pediatric endocrinologist."
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School safety bill clears Senate panel
The Senate Judiciary Committee today passed HB 268 by committee substitute. HB 268 is school safety legislation would provide for reimbursement grants to local school systems that hire qualified "mental health coordinators" and for suicide awareness and prevention programs. By July 1, 2025, the State Board of Education, in collaboration with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, shall establish the essential duties and minimum qualifications for qualified mental health coordinators hired by local school systems.
The bill also requires that records of transferring students with a felony conviction be shared with enrolling local school districts. Such records could be from the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, the Department of Human Services, and the Division of Family and Children Services. Records pertaining to short-term suspensions, long-term suspensions, or an expulsion from another school shall also be shared with the enrolling school district.
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Bill to ban abortions in Georgia heard in Committee this week
A hearing was held in the House Non-Civil Judiciary this week to ban all abortions in Georgia.
The bill, HB 441, also gives "personhood" rights from the point of conception. No action was taken on the bill at this hearing.
According to the bill, "the term 'human being' includes a living human and an unborn child at every stage of development from fertilization until birth."
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Senate Republicans strip House bill to limit counties to one early voting location per election
HB 397, another bill co-opted by Senate Republicans, proposes to limit counties to one early voting location per election.
The newly-amended bill would prohibit counties from setting up multiple early voting sites, instead funneling early voters to one location.
71% of voters cast their ballot in-person, at early voting locations.
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REMINDER: CONTACT YOUR MEMBER OF CONGRESS
OPPOSE TRUMP ORDERS CLOSING THE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
President Trump signed an executive order last week to start the process of dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. Trump previously announced a 50% cut in staff at the Department.
Congressional approval is required, which makes it doubly important to contact members of Congress.
IMMEDIATELY CALL OR EMAIL your Congressional representative to tell them you oppose the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education and the draconian cuts Trump has proposed to the Department's budget.
What percentage of public school funding for your school district comes from the federal government?
Found out here how much your school system receives from the federal government. Scroll down to the interactive map of Georgia, where you can click on your county for details.
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| Next Legislative Update: Friday, March 28
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