Bill > HB268

Introduced Session

AN ACT To amend Chapter 11 of Title 15, Chapter 2 of Title 20, and Chapter 3 of Title 38 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the juvenile code, elementary and secondary education, and emergency management, respectively, so as to provide for the safety, health, and well-being of students and school communities; to require public schools to implement a mobile panic alert system capable of connecting disparate emergency services technologies to ensure real-time coordination between multiple state and local first responder agencies in the event of a school security emergency; to provide for the implementation of additional strategies or systems; to provide for exceptions; to provide for a short title; to require public schools to procure school mapping data; to provide for requirements of such school mapping data; to authorize the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency to adopt rules and regulations for the requirements for school mapping data; to provide for immunity from civil liability; to provide for the transfer of student records and other information among schools, law enforcement agencies, and other agencies with legal interests in students; to repeal references to the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities as legal custodian of school age children and to make conforming changes; to require memoranda of understanding between certain state agencies and local units of administration to include provisions relevant to the disclosure of student information; to provide for the release of student information from certain state agencies to local units of HB 268/AP administration; to provide for reimbursement grants to local school systems that hire qualified student advocacy specialists; to provide for minimum qualification and essential duties of such qualified student advocacy specialists; to authorize RESAs to participate in dispute resolution procedures; to provide for the designation of RESA student affairs officers; to provide for the Department of Education's chief privacy officer to promulgate a guidance document relevant to sharing student records and other information; to provide for the release of student education records by local boards of education and local education agencies; to provide for certain student education records to be deemed critical records; to provide for the transfer of student education records, including critical records, to receiving schools; to provide for required disclosures; to provide for provisional enrollment at receiving schools; to provide for the transfer of students seeking enrollment in any grade higher than third grade; to provide for case management consultations; to provide for policies and implementation; to require positive behavioral interventions and supports and response to intervention programs and initiatives for certain low-performing elementary and secondary and middle schools; to provide for school administrators to disclose certain information regarding students with the students' assigned classroom teachers; to provide for such information to remain confidential; to provide for reports of law enforcement official encounters with school age youth; to prohibit policies which deny or effectively prevent parents and legal custodians from reviewing certain education records; to provide for statutory construction regarding the disclosure of certain education records; to provide for local boards of education to petition courts to require parents to authorize the release of a transferring student's education records; to provide for evidence based suicide awareness and training programs and a state-wide anonymous reporting program; to provide for evidence based youth violence prevention training programs; to provide for student violence prevention clubs; to provide for local policies for anonymous reporting; to provide for mandatory assessments when certain students withdraw from or stop attending school; to update the "Parents' Bill of Rights"; to require written agreements for law enforcement HB 268/AP officers in schools to include specific terms and conditions relevant to the handling and disclosure of student information; to require the Department of Education to publish model terms and conditions; to revise provisions for school safety plans; to require public school safety plans to address the behavioral health needs of students; to provide for the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency to establish an emergency alert response system and a secure state-wide alert system; to provide for an emergency alert response system; to revise a provision relating to the use of a deadly weapon; to provide for additional offenses over which superior courts are authorized to exercise exclusive original jurisdiction for the trials of children 13 to 17 years of age to include the offenses of certain terroristic acts involving public and private schools and attempt or criminal conspiracy to commit certain offenses; to repeal a provision that limited superior courts from exercising exclusive original jurisdiction over the trials of children 13 to 17 years of age alleged to have committed aggravated assault only in certain cases involving the use of a firearm upon a public safety officer; to provide for which such cases shall be subject to the class A designated felony act provisions of Code Section 15-11-602 upon transfer to a juvenile court; to make conforming changes by including such additional offenses in the list of offenses for which juvenile and superior courts shall consider certain criteria when determining whether to transfer cases; to establish the elements of a particular offense of disrupting or interfering with the operation of a public school, public school bus, or public school bus stop; to provide for progressive discipline; to provide for the criminal offenses of terroristic threat of a school and terroristic act upon a school; to provide for penalties; to provide for definitions; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective date and applicability; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Jon Burns (R)*,  Chuck Efstration (R)*,  Chris Erwin (R)*,  Houston Gaines (R)*,  Gerald Greene (R)*,  Holt Persinger (R)*,  Bill Cowsert (R), 

Effective Date 2025-04-28 (on 04/28/2025)

Official Document