---
type: "Bill"
title: "State Charter Schools Commission; authorize to establish a nonprofit foundation"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 31A of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to state charter schools, so as to authorize the State Charter Schools Commission to establish a nonprofit foundation; 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: "SB 156"
citation: "Georgia SB 156 (2015_16)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["David Shafer", "Ellis Black", "Fran Millar", "Jesse Stone", "John Wilkinson", "Lindsey Tippins", "Michael Williams"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 15
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2015-02-23"
last_action: "2015-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/accfaed1-0b43-46b9-91e4-bd761955068a"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "6e0256cf79f03b1567ee89cb22ef7bd893b209ffb71efb28f2ff6a9387dbbdce"
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 156 (2015_16) — State Charter Schools Commission; authorize to establish a nonprofit foundation

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 31A of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to state charter schools, so as to authorize the State Charter Schools Commission to establish a nonprofit foundation; 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. **As introduced LC 33 5996** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/148957.pdf)
2. **As passed Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/150587.pdf)
3. **SB 156/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20152016/153965.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **44–9** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- David Shafer — primary (person)
- Ellis Black — primary (person)
- Fran Millar — primary (person)
- Jesse Stone — primary (person)
- John Wilkinson — primary (person)
- Lindsey Tippins — primary (person)
- Michael Williams — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2015-02-23** Senate Hopper
- **2015-02-24** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2015-03-03** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2015-03-04** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2015-03-09** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2015-03-09** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2015-03-11** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2015-03-13** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2015-03-26** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2015-04-02** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2015-04-02** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2015-04-09** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2015-05-06** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2015-05-06** Act 182 `executive-signature`
- **2015-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/accfaed1-0b43-46b9-91e4-bd761955068a`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).