---
type: "Bill"
title: "Elementary and secondary education; administration of standardized assessments in paper-and-pencil format upon parental request; provide"
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 provide for administration of standardized assessments in paper-and-pencil format upon parental request; to discourage punitive actions for students refusing to participate in federal, state, or locally mandated standardized assessments; to provide for alternative administrations of student assessments; 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: "HB 425"
citation: "Georgia HB 425 (2017_18)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Clay Cox", "Dave Belton", "Joyce Chandler", "Mike Glanton", "Wes Cantrell"]
version_count: 0
action_count: 14
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2017-02-17"
last_action: "2017-05-09"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/dd260158-b9dc-4422-bd02-5db8864edd84"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "9d95d10e48bf2a1c16fbdf60d419159940aa0e5b29c25f74cab4658f02b36894"
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 425 (2017_18) — Elementary and secondary education; administration of standardized assessments in paper-and-pencil format upon parental request; provide

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 provide for administration of standardized assessments in paper-and-pencil format upon parental request; to discourage punitive actions for students refusing to participate in federal, state, or locally mandated standardized assessments; to provide for alternative administrations of student assessments; 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 — **151–18** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Clay Cox — primary (person)
- Dave Belton — primary (person)
- Joyce Chandler — primary (person)
- Mike Glanton — primary (person)
- Wes Cantrell — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-02-17** House Hopper
- **2017-02-21** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2017-02-22** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2017-02-27** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-03** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2017-03-03** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2017-03-06** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2017-03-14** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-15** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2017-03-20** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2017-03-20** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2017-04-04** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2017-05-09** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2017-05-09** Veto V5 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/dd260158-b9dc-4422-bd02-5db8864edd84`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).