Day 40: 2026 Legislature Adjourns, Sine Die

On the final legislative day of the 2026 session, the House and Senate held marathon floor sessions that ran past midnight. Disagreement over property tax legislation and election bills stalled the movement of other bills, including several supported by PAGE.

Senate Floor Action

House Floor Action

Legislators Approve FY 2027 State Budget

Legislators approved the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 Budget, which includes $70 million to provide a literacy coach for every school serving grades K-3 as outlined in HB 1193, the Georgia Early Literacy Act of 2026. Funding literacy coaches and passing HB 1193 were priorities for House Speaker Jon Burns (R-Newington) and his colleagues. Funds were also added to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) to support the implementation of other components of HB 1193. The FY 2027 budget includes $100 million to cover a 2.9% increase in the employer contribution for the Employees Retirement System (ERS), which covers state employees. Adding these funds was a priority for Senate leaders as state retirees have not had routine cost of living adjustments.

The FY 2027 budget includes approximately $70 million to cover an increase from $1,885 to $1,935 in the per-member per-month employer contribution to the State Health Benefit Plan (SHBP) for certified educators. The per-member per-month cost is also going up for non-certified staff, but districts must cover this increase. Lawmakers also removed $15 million in funds they added to the FY 2026 budget for districts with high percentages of low-income students.

Changes in education funding in the FY 2027 budget include:

Georgia Department of Education

• $591,965 increase in one-time funds to complete storm damage repairs at FFA camps

• $325,051 increase for annual major repairs and rehabilitation at youth camps

• $498,206 increase for support staff to prioritize private funds for direct student services within agricultural education

• $706,885 increase for one-time funding to address data reporting errors and move to improve reporting accuracy in future years

• -$1,500,000 reduction for planning grant for State Completion Special Schools

• $500,000 increase for college preparatory exams

• $2.7 million increase to provide one-time grants to school districts to purchase vision and hearing screening equipment

• -$36 million reduction for an adjustment to the Local Five Mill Share

• $11.7 million increase to the Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula for enrollment growth and educator training and experience

• $36 million increase for the Teacher Retirement System for an increase in the employer contribution from 21.91% to 22.32%

• $69.8 million increase in the per-member per-month employer contribution to the SHBP for certified educators

• $70.4 million increase to add literacy coaches to the QBE formula

• $40.3 million increase in formula funds for the State Commission Charter School supplement

• -$615,550 reduction in formula funds for the charter system grant

• -$143,575 reduction in formula funds for local charter school grant

• $5.5 million increase for the Special Needs Scholarship based on enrollment growth

• -$8.2 million reduction for virtual schools that have failed to maintain acceptable College and Career Ready Performance (CCRPI) scores for out-of-system students

• $259,347 increase for Regional Education Service Agencies (RESAs) based on enrollment

• -$15.3 million reduction in one-time pilot funds to districts to provide targeted support to economically disadvantaged students

• $1.5 million increase in formula funds for grants for social work services

• $2.5 million increase for out-of-school care for statewide and community grantees

• $1 million increase for an artificial intelligence and coding literacy program

• -$1 million reduction for one-time funding and completion of construction industry certification program

Department of Early Care & Learning

• $892,200 increase in the per-member per-month employer contribution to the SHBP for eligible educators in the Pre-Kindergarten program

• $420,525 increase for the Teacher Retirement System for an increase in the employer contribution from 21.91% to 22.32%

• -$125,304 reduction in formula funds for teacher training and experience

• $12 million increase for year three of four-year phase in to reduce class size from 22 to 20

• $9.7 million increase to expand extended day program to the Pre-K priority group

• $708,500 increase to expand the Rising Pre-K program

• $3.9 increase to provide five days of leave for Pre-K lead and assistant teachers

• $350,000 increase for the Summer Transition partnership expansion

• $3.3 million increase to reflect enrollment growth in the SHBP

Governor’s Office of Student Achievement

• $4 million increase for ongoing operational costs associated with new responsibilities to support the Top State for Talent Initiative

• $301,720 increase for personnel and operations for two new policy positions

• $150,000 increase for professional learning and development for current teachers, literacy coaches, and administrators

• $330,000 increase to support the review and recommendations of high-quality instructional materials in Pre-K through third grade

• $96,000 increase for the review and recommendations of universal reading screeners

• -$2.6 million decrease to eliminate funds for the Governor’s School Leadership Academy

• $1.6 million increase in one-time funds to conduct phase two research and landscape analysis, conduct leadership pilot with selected RESAs, establish a framework for the Georgia READS community collaborative and provide ongoing data monitoring and quarterly reports to the Georgia Literacy Coordinating Committee and legislators

• $250,000 increase for director of literacy

Georgia Student Finance Commission

• $21.3 million increase for dual enrollment to meet projected need

• -$41 million reduction in funds for the Promise Scholarship voucher program, based on prior year utilization and anticipated growth of 80% (bringing total funding to $100 million)

Senate Action

The Senate unanimously agreed to the House’s changes to SB 431 by Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick (R-Marietta). The bill requires enrollment of foster care students who transfer to the school within three days. The legislation also prohibits assigning foster care students to remote learning due to missing records. If a school fails to comply, the principal or their designee must provide the parent or guardian with contact information for the appropriate RESA student affairs officer and GaDOE's chief privacy officer (CPO). GaDOE could also require the school to implement a corrective action plan upon the request of the RESA student affairs officer or the CPO.  SB 431 incorporates some recommendations of the Senate Study Committee on Additional Services and Resources for Transition Age Youth in Foster Care, which met last year. The final report of the study committee is available HERE. SB 431 moves to Gov. Kemp for his signature.

The Senate passed HB 328 by Rep. Kasey Carpenter (R-Dalton) after Lt. Gov. Burt Jones ruled a portion of the bill dealing with MARTA transit funding referendums germane to the underlying legislation. The PAGE-opposed bill expands the cap on Georgia's tuition tax credit Student Scholarship Organization (SSO) program, which currently diverts $120 million from the state general fund to private school vouchers. The final version of HB 328 increases the cap to $150 million annually (down from $220 million in an earlier Senate version). HB 328 also expands the waiver of the program's current six-week public school enrollment requirement to include children of active-duty military members, students with an IEP or 504 plan, and students with certain disabilities. It also includes language prohibiting General Assembly members and their spouses from receiving income from a student scholarship organization and sunsets the program on Jan. 1, 2032. Language from HB 565 by Rep. Rick Townsend (R-Brunswick), increasing the PEACH Education Tax Credit from $15 million to $25 million, is also included in the final version of HB 328, as is language from HB 1259 by Rep. Matt Dubnik (R-Gainesville). Dubnik's provision would prohibit local school systems that fail to maintain an average College and Career Ready Performance Index (CCRPI) score of at least 65 for the last two school years from providing virtual instruction to out-of-district students. The bill also requires school systems to compile a list of out-of-district students enrolled as of Oct. 1 and March 1 of each year. HB 1259 also excludes out-of-district virtual students from equalization funding calculations.

House Action

SB 475 by Sen. RaShaun Kemp (D-Atlanta) was recommitted to the House Rules Committee, but it was never brought for a final vote. The bill would have required local boards of education to treat local charter schools no less favorably than other local schools for purposes of special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) proceeds. The bill also lowered the percentage of eligible voters needed to trigger a local referendum on dissolving a city school district into a county district. The current threshold to do so is 25%, and SB 475 would lower that percentage to 10% of eligible registered voters.

The House approved SB 556 by Sen. Chuck Payne (R-Dalton) by a vote of 167-2. The bill provides for the inclusion of advanced fine arts courses, including advanced placement, Cambridge, and International Baccalaureate courses, in the calculation of student grade point averages for HOPE eligibility or other scholarship determination. Several other bills related to higher education were also added to SB 556. The Senate later agreed with the House version of the bill, which moves to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.

SB 513, the Every Day Counts Act by Sen. Jason Dickerson (R-Canton), failed the House by a vote of 80-90. The bill seeks to codify recommendations of the Senate Study Committee on Combating Chronic Absenteeism in Schools. The bill would have required local school systems to adopt a multi-tiered framework of attendance supports and interventions. A chronically unexcused student is defined as a student with five unexcused absences during the first 50 days of the school year. After the 50th school day, a chronically unexcused student is one who misses 10% of the total number of school days. SB 513 would also have established attendance review teams at the district level and, in some cases, at the school level to review cases and develop written attendance intervention plans in collaboration with chronically unexcused students and their parents or guardians. Schools would have been required to regularly update compliance records, designate chronically unexcused students as ineligible for extracurricular and interscholastic activities until an intervention plan is in place, and report noncompliance with the plans to GaDOE. SB 513 said that a student may be prevented from obtaining a permit or driver’s license unless the student is enrolled in school or compliant with an approved attendance intervention plan. Those who spoke against the bill from the well in the House were mainly opposed to the driver’s license provision.

The House agreed to the Senate's version of HB 651 by Rep. Alan Powell (R-Hartwell), which makes changes to how school zone speed cameras are approved and operated by local governments, specifically by allowing local referendums before a municipality or county approves a new speed camera contract. Each election authorizes the cameras for six years, then requires another referendum for continued use. The vote was 156-14, and the bill moves to Gov. Kemp for his signature.

Thank You For Following and Advocating in 2026

Gov. Kemp has 40 days after the session ends to sign or veto legislation. A comprehensive PAGE session summary will be published later this spring.

Thank you for following along during the 2026 legislative session and thank you also to the many of you who contacted policymakers and shared your perspectives on the impact of pending legislation.

It is our pleasure to serve you while you serve Georgia students.

Your PAGE Legislative Services Team (from left): Communications Specialist Rob Aycock, Policy and Budget Consultant Claire Suggs, Specialist Josh Stephens, and Director Margaret Ciccarelli.

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