---
type: "Bill"
title: "Georgia Occupational Therapy Practice Act; enact"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Title 43 of the O.C.G.A., relating to professions and businesses, so as to update and revise various provisions relating to occupational therapists; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2019_20"
identifier: "HB 253"
citation: "Georgia HB 253 (2019_20)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bill Werkheiser", "John LaHood", "Karen Bennett", "Karen Mathiak", "Lee Hawkins"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 15
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2019-02-11"
last_action: "2019-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/6202bf53-5c7e-493c-b6e8-a43625181d3f"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "705de100cf56c2e17a328fbebec7fec402ac77dac76199b575f1d6453b4b3f00"
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 253 (2019_20) — Georgia Occupational Therapy Practice Act; enact

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Title 43 of the O.C.G.A., relating to professions and businesses, so as to update and revise various provisions relating to occupational therapists; 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 253/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/186292.pdf)
2. **LC 33 7651/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/181056.pdf)
3. **LC 36 3863S/hcs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/183737.pdf)
4. **LC 36 3863S/hs** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/183011.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **158–9** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bill Werkheiser — primary (person)
- John LaHood — primary (person)
- Karen Bennett — primary (person)
- Karen Mathiak — primary (person)
- Lee Hawkins — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-02-11** House Hopper
- **2019-02-12** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2019-02-13** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2019-02-27** House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-05** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2019-03-05** House Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2019-03-07** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-18** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-21** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2019-03-26** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2019-03-26** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2019-04-04** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2019-05-07** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2019-05-07** Act 246 `executive-signature`
- **2019-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/6202bf53-5c7e-493c-b6e8-a43625181d3f`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).