Legislation: batch A — AK AL AR AZ CO CT DE GA HI IA ID

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

legislation/us/states/ga/2025-26/hb-256.md

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+---
+type: "Bill"
+title: "Social services; foster parents bill of rights; revise provisions"
+description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 49 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to programs and protection for children, so as to revise provisions relating to the foster parents bill of rights; to provide for definitions; to provide that such rights include relative caregivers and fictive kin; to provide for the development of administrative procedures; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
+jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
+legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
+session: "2025_26"
+identifier: "HB 256"
+citation: "Georgia HB 256 (2025_26)"
+classification: ["bill"]
+subjects: ["COURTS", "SOCIAL SERVICES"]
+status: "enacted"
+primary_sponsors: ["Chuck Efstration", "Clint Crowe", "Joseph Gullett", "Marcus Wiedower", "Matt Hatchett", "Rob Clifton"]
+version_count: 5
+action_count: 15
+vote_count: 3
+first_action: "2025-02-04"
+last_action: "2026-05-11"
+source: "openstates"
+source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c25f2bf5-246b-4b3f-8185-f3b1c291166e"
+source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
+source_hash: "1ff50284cb41cabfbd7fe44099dfe9301e33c67202bd6a2a747459c6c27fcc44"
+vintage: "2026-07-01"
+source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
+retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
+confidence: "reported"
+tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
+---
+
+# Georgia HB 256 (2025_26) — Social services; foster parents bill of rights; revise provisions
+
+A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 5 of Title 49 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to programs and protection for children, so as to revise provisions relating to the foster parents bill of rights; to provide for definitions; to provide that such rights include relative caregivers and fictive kin; to provide for the development of administrative procedures; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.
+
+## Version chain
+
+The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.
+
+1. **HB 256/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/249056.pdf)
+2. **LC 48 1421/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/231224.pdf)
+3. **LC 48 1711S/hcs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/242751.pdf)
+4. **LC 48 1711S/hs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/242118.pdf)
+5. **Sen Ctee Sub LC 48 1843S** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/247308.pdf)
+
+## Votes
+
+- House Vote #836 - 2025-2026 Regular Session — **171–0** (pass) · lower
+- Senate Vote #899 - 2025-2026 Regular Session — **47–0** (pass) · upper
+- House Vote #516 - 2025-2026 Regular Session — **164–0** (pass) · lower
+
+## Sponsors
+
+- Chuck Efstration — primary (person)
+- Clint Crowe — primary (person)
+- Joseph Gullett — primary (person)
+- Marcus Wiedower — primary (person)
+- Matt Hatchett — primary (person)
+- Rob Clifton — primary (person)
+
+## Timeline
+
+The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.
+
+- **2025-02-04** House Hopper `introduction`
+- **2025-02-05** House First Readers `reading-1`
+- **2025-02-06** House Second Readers `reading-2`
+- **2026-02-10** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2026-02-17** House Third Readers `reading-3`
+- **2026-02-17** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
+- **2026-02-18** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
+- **2026-03-25** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
+- **2026-03-25** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
+- **2026-03-31** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
+- **2026-03-31** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
+- **2026-04-02** House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub
+- **2026-04-10** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
+- **2026-05-11** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
+- **2026-05-11** Act 475 `executive-signature`
+
+## Source
+
+OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c25f2bf5-246b-4b3f-8185-f3b1c291166e`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).
+