On March 20, 2025, the following Georgia Senate committees met to discuss bills to potentially advance:
- Education and Youth voted on HB 307, SR 237, and HB 371
- Judiciary voted on HB 162, HB 131, HB 378, HB 447, and HB 288 and heard HB 123
- Regulated Industries and Utilities voted on HB 54, HB 187, and HB 635 and heard HB 630
- Higher Education voted on HB 192. HB 322, and HB 217
Select the associated links to read each bill in full.
Education and Youth
HB 307
This bill removes language of a previous bill that does not align with the Science of Reading standards passed in 2023. It prevents three-cueing from being used as a primary means of instruction in Georgia, adds dyslexia to the Georgia Early Literacy Act, and defines dyslexia. HB 307 creates the structure and composition of the Literacy Coach Coordination Committee to ensure quality uniform training of the coaches and adjusts the per diem of the coaches to ensure that their hotel is completely covered when they travel. Additionally, the bill extends the council’s sunset date and consolidates screening for dyslexia and grade level reading to one test.
This bill passed committee.
SR 237
This is a senate resolution dealing with the teacher, principal, and superintendent shortages in Georgia. The committee seeks to leverage the collaboration of a large group of organizations to understand how to attract and retain good teachers. Georgia teachers are leaving the profession faster than new teachers coming in.
The resolution passed committee.
HB 371
This bill increases the state’s maximum authorization for capital outlay funding from $300 million to $375 million. It also mandates that any new elementary school built after July 2027 includes a playground that meets minimum requirements set up by this bill to make sure it is accessible to everyone. Current ADA regulations are not enough to make playgrounds truly accessible to all with mobility and other issues.
This bill passed committee.
Judiciary
HB 162
This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), allows a judge who accepts the First Offender Act plea to seal the records of the convicted upon sentencing instead of completion of the sentence.
This bill passed committee.
HB 131
This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), requires self storage owners to notify customers directly when they become delinquent on their bill and allows the owners to use any commercially available means to attain three bidders for the auction for the unit to expedite the liquidation of storage units that have been forfeited. To put auction the unit, the owner must have contacted the customer by phone number or address.
The Press Association objects to this bill because it eliminates public notice of the unit going to auction. As notice is not required to be given to lien owners, the public notice is all they have.
This bill passed committee.
HB 378
This bill requires each state court clerk to publish and maintain information regarding the terms of court in a prominent location on its website so that all counsel can be informed of what those terms are.
This bill passed committee.
HB 447
This bill ensures prosecution against criminals who steal gift card information, return the cards to the shelves, and drain the card’s value.
This bill passed committee.
HB 288
This bill ensures that anyone who qualifies for sheriff must meet the standards and qualify within six months of serving in office. It also states that law enforcement officers who are accused of having credibility issues must be given due process to clear up those issues.
This bill passed committee
HB 123
This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), will require a pre-trial hearing to determine whether an accused person is intellectually disabled. If the person is found to be intellectually disabled, the death penalty will not be an option for sentencing.
This bill only applies to cases that go to trial after July 1, 2025.
The bill will return to committee at a later date.
Regulated Industries and Utilities
HB 54
This bill allows a physician to delegate to a PA the authority to assign home health services to a patient.
This bill passed committee.
HB 187
This bill offers clean-up language dealing with electrical contractors, plumbers, air conditioning contractors, low voltage contractors, and utility contractors to fix grammar and refer to “consultants” as “professional engineers”.
This bill passed committee.
HB 630
This bill decreases the number of members of the State Board of Registration of Used Motor Vehicle Dealers and Used Motor Vehicle Parts Dealers from 14 to 9, defines the division director, defines an established place of business, combines the two divisions of the board, removes the cap of the number of board members that can be appointed from a single congressional district. This bill gives the PLB division director the authority to administer licenses to applicants.
The board may establish fees for change-of-location licenses.
The bill passed committee.
This bill will return to committee at a later date.
HB 635
This bill clarifies, revises, and streamlines the process of issuing licenses. It eliminates term limits for board members, expands the eligibility of public building official position, eliminates the prior authorization requirement for the examination, and removes the limit on the number of exam attempts.
This bill passed committee.
Higher Education
HB 192
This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), aims to align skill training offered by high schools, technical colleges, and universities with skills in demand by Georgia employers. It will also track the percentage of graduates employed in high-demand fields, levels of average pay compared to the benchmarks, and the extent to which credentials of value offered by our educational agencies align with employer demand.
The Match Program will require each student’s individual college or career plan to be written in 8th grade.
This bill passed committee.
HB 322
This bill would allow the Dental College of Georgia to increase options for hiring faculty to educate and train the next generation of dentists in the state of Georgia. Individuals trained outside of the United States would be allowed to work as clinical faculty. This would offer a recruitment tool to combat the shortage.
This bill was passed.
HB 217
This bill, discussed previously (see HERE), extends a dual achievement pilot program from 2021 that allows students who failed out of high school or are no longer in high school to have a path to join technical colleges to get their high school diploma as well as a technical certificate. The bill extends the program for another 5 years.
This bill passed committee.
