Here’s a pop quiz for Georgia parents: Do you know what the General Assembly just did that will soon affect your child? A better question: Did you even know the General Assembly just met for its annual 40-day session?
Not to worry if the answer’s “no” — you’re in a no-judgment zone here. But to get you up to speed, here are the five soon-to-be laws that passed while you were between carpool drop-offs, doctor appointments and afterschool activities. Gov. Brian Kemp has 40 days from the end of the session to decide to sign or veto bills, or to let them become law without his signature.
1. Cellphone ban: It’s almost impossible to get kids to focus at school if they’ve got a cellphone pinging them all day, so help is on the way for frazzled teachers. A new bill from state Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners, will soon ban all personal electronic devices in Georgia public schools, from kindergarten through eighth grade.
Starting in July 2026, smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, e-readers, headphones and anything else with access to the internet will have to be put away for the entire school day. The new rules will be administered by individual school systems, but they’re not optional. Administrators will also need to develop plans for how to store phones, what kind of limits to have on field trips, and how parents can reach students in an emergency.
Hilton, who has three kids in Gwinnett County schools, describes the ban as, “bell-to-bell, no cell.” Along with keeping kids focused, he said administrators told him putting phones away could reduce in-school violence, bullying and cheating.
One unexpected group asking Kemp to veto the measure are parents from Apalachee High School, who said the only way they knew their kids were safe was by being able to text them during the deadly shooting there last fall.
2. School safety measures: The shooting at Apalachee High School last September spurred multiple proposals at the Capitol for new safety school measures, including the now-passed House Bill 268, a wide-ranging bill to harden schools’ defenses against intruders, as well as increase mental health support for students.
Among the many changes students may notice next year, the bill requires public schools to install mobile alert systems that connect with local law enforcement. It also creates an anonymous tip line to report students who could pose a threat to themselves or others; adds funding for mental health coordinators; and allows kids as young as 13 to be prosecuted as adults for making terroristic threats against a school.
Although Democrats supported many of the GOP-backed proposals, they also complained that no new gun restrictions were considered as a part of the school safety package, even for students deemed a threat to themselves or others.
3. Child care tax credits: It’s no secret that child care expenses can gobble up an entire paycheck. To help offset the cost for parents, lawmakers passed a $250 per child income tax credit to be applied to child care expenses for kids 5 years old and younger. House Bill 136 also expands the existing child tax credit and adds a tax credit for companies to pass on to employees for child care expenses.
4. Literacy coaches and reading screenings: Parents know early elementary school is the time when kids develop as readers, but dyslexia and other learning differences can make staying on track more difficult. House Bill 105, from former Dawson County School Board member and GOP state Rep. Will Wade, will require schools to screen kids three times a year for literacy skills from first through third grades. The same bill provides new literacy coaches in schools, as well as a program to develop extra support for students and parents who need it.
A separate bill, from state Sen. Rashaun Kemp, D-Atlanta, means kids will learn to read through phonics and phonemic awareness, not “three cueing,” which teaches kids to use visual cues, like context, to guess a word’s meaning.
5. Transgender sports bans: The first bill introduced in the Senate this session was SB 1, the Riley Gaines Act, which will require Georgia students to compete in only sports that match their sex at birth. The bill also applies to facilities for athletes, including restrooms, locker rooms, showers and overnight accommodations for competitions.
Although the Georgia High School Sports Association already has a transgender sports ban at the high school level, the soon-to-be state law applies from the elementary through collegiate level in the state. Schools that defy the law could eventually lose state funding.
Overall, the significant focus on schools this year came from House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, who pushed the school safety and literacy bills, along with the transgender sports ban, even before this year’s session began. “That’s our focus,” Burns said last week. “Keeping our young people safe in our schools and making sure that we provide the resources for literacy and for mental health.”
State Sen. Jason Esteves, an Atlanta Democrat who used to be the chairman of the Atlanta School Board, called the literacy and safety measures a good start, but with not nearly enough funding behind them. He also added that Republicans’ priorities this year were all wrong.
“When you have 70% of fourth graders not reading on grade level, that should require the entire attention of the Georgia Legislature and the governor,” he said. “In the same way that the leadership in the state Senate made girls’ sports a priority, they should have made literacy a higher priority.”
Bills that didn’t pass this year will be back in January when the Legislature meets again. In fact, it’s all complicated enough that it would make a terrific lesson for a class in a Georgia school.
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