---
type: "Bill"
title: "Social services; improvements to the operation of the child abuse registry; provide"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 8 of Chapter 5 of Title 49 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the central child abuse registry, so as to provide improvements to the operation of the child abuse registry; to provide definitions; to provide for notice of abuse allegations; to provide for reporting abuse cases to DFACS office; to provide for hearing on expungement of name from registry; 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 478"
citation: "Georgia HB 478 (2019_20)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Mandi Ballinger"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 17
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2019-02-25"
last_action: "2020-01-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d5ccec0f-debe-42a3-9c55-70b12f091341"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "1dffd6477b6418434ed82c42da634f8e93a43ab77b68d7fc7bbf0e66cc201f38"
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 478 (2019_20) — Social services; improvements to the operation of the child abuse registry; provide

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Article 8 of Chapter 5 of Title 49 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the central child abuse registry, so as to provide improvements to the operation of the child abuse registry; to provide definitions; to provide for notice of abuse allegations; to provide for reporting abuse cases to DFACS office; to provide for hearing on expungement of name from registry; 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. **Floor Amendment AM 48 0006** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/187270.pdf)
2. **HB 478/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/187655.pdf)
3. **LC 48 0075/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/182731.pdf)
4. **Sen ctee sub LC 48 0112S** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/185232.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **151–2** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Mandi Ballinger — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-02-25** House Hopper
- **2019-02-26** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2019-02-27** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2019-03-01** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-07** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2019-03-07** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2019-03-08** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2019-03-21** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-22** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2019-03-29** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2019-03-29** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2019-04-02** House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub As Amended
- **2019-04-02** Senate Agreed House Amend or Sub
- **2019-04-11** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2019-05-07** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2019-05-07** Act 252 `executive-signature`
- **2020-01-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/d5ccec0f-debe-42a3-9c55-70b12f091341`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).