---
type: "Bill"
title: "\"Creating Opportunities Needed Now to Expand Credentialed Training (CONNECT) Act\"; enact"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to elementary and secondary education, so as to enact the \"Creating Opportunities Needed Now to Expand Credentialed Training (CONNECT) Act\"; to provide for industry credentialing for students who complete certain focused programs of study; to provide for industry credentialing in individual graduation plans; to provide for the identification of certain critical and emerging occupations; to provide for a short title; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2017_18"
identifier: "SB 3"
citation: "Georgia SB 3 (2017_18)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bill Cowsert", "Freddie Sims", "John Kennedy", "John Wilkinson", "Lee Anderson", "Lindsey Tippins", "Matt Brass"]
version_count: 0
action_count: 22
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2017-01-20"
last_action: "2018-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/ebeaaf70-c35f-4ada-b07c-c1e5d44a9345"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "91f5d5d8ccad38617ae8c1ab99bcf71bf4b4957d034d02300c8e2fd014743b25"
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 SB 3 (2017_18) — "Creating Opportunities Needed Now to Expand Credentialed Training (CONNECT) Act"; enact

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to elementary and secondary education, so as to enact the "Creating Opportunities Needed Now to Expand Credentialed Training (CONNECT) Act"; to provide for industry credentialing for students who complete certain focused programs of study; to provide for industry credentialing in individual graduation plans; to provide for the identification of certain critical and emerging occupations; to provide for a short title; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.


## Votes

- PASSAGE BY SUBSTITUTE — **52–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Bill Cowsert — primary (person)
- Freddie Sims — primary (person)
- John Kennedy — primary (person)
- John Wilkinson — primary (person)
- Lee Anderson — primary (person)
- Lindsey Tippins — primary (person)
- Matt Brass — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-20** Senate Hopper
- **2017-01-23** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-14** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-02-15** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-17** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2017-02-17** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2017-02-21** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2017-02-22** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2017-03-22** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-24** House Postponed
- **2017-03-28** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2017-03-28** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2017-03-30** Senate Disagreed House Amend or Sub
- **2017-03-30** House Insisted
- **2017-03-30** Senate Conference Committee Appointed 37th, 50th, 40th
- **2017-03-30** House Conference Committee Appointed 14th, 150th, 178th
- **2018-03-09** House Conference Committee Report Adopted
- **2018-03-14** Senate Conference Committee Report Adopted
- **2018-04-05** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2018-05-08** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2018-05-08** Act 446 `executive-signature`
- **2018-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/ebeaaf70-c35f-4ada-b07c-c1e5d44a9345`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).