---
type: "Bill"
title: "Education; K-12; update and clarify certain provisions"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to education, so as to update and clarify certain provisions relating to K-12 education; to revise a provision relating to conflicts of interest of local board of education members; to provide that students who earn certain grades in dual enrollment courses in core subjects are exempt from taking end-of-course assessments for such courses; to authorize the sharing of data for certain program evaluation purposes; to provide for an annual review of tuition for the Georgia Virtual School; to eliminate a restriction on the Office of Student Achievement's authority to establish a nonprofit corporation; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2015_16"
identifier: "HB 959"
citation: "Georgia HB 959 (2015_16)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Beth Beskin", "Brooks Coleman", "Mike Dudgeon", "Randy Nix", "Valencia Stovall", "Valerie Clark"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 15
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2016-02-09"
last_action: "2016-05-03"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b163070d-fc0d-44b5-b30a-322005934689"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "76dd5550193d205f07bda976dfc90211b161ef856a0ab7e7e04f87a45dfcad83"
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 959 (2015_16) — Education; K-12; update and clarify certain provisions

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to education, so as to update and clarify certain provisions relating to K-12 education; to revise a provision relating to conflicts of interest of local board of education members; to provide that students who earn certain grades in dual enrollment courses in core subjects are exempt from taking end-of-course assessments for such courses; to authorize the sharing of data for certain program evaluation purposes; to provide for an annual review of tuition for the Georgia Virtual School; to eliminate a restriction on the Office of Student Achievement's authority to establish a nonprofit corporation; 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.

1. **HB 959/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/162186.pdf)
2. **LC 33 6405/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/156966.pdf)
3. **LC 33 6515S/hcs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/158940.pdf)
4. **LC 33 6515S/hs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/157813.pdf)
5. **Sen ctee sub LC 33 6625S** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/160472.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **157–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Beth Beskin — primary (person)
- Brooks Coleman — primary (person)
- Mike Dudgeon — primary (person)
- Randy Nix — primary (person)
- Valencia Stovall — primary (person)
- Valerie Clark — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2016-02-09** House Hopper
- **2016-02-10** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2016-02-11** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2016-02-17** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2016-02-26** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2016-02-26** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2016-02-29** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2016-03-15** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2016-03-15** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2016-03-22** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2016-03-22** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2016-03-24** House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub
- **2016-04-05** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2016-05-03** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2016-05-03** Veto V11 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b163070d-fc0d-44b5-b30a-322005934689`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).