---
type: "Bill"
title: "Safe Schools Act; enact"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the O.C.G.A., relating to elementary and secondary education, so as to provide for a school safety and anti-gang endorsement for eligible certificated professional personnel issued by the Professional Standards Commission; to require school safety plans to be submitted to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency; to require intruder alert drills in all public schools in this state; to require public schools to report completion of such drills to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency; to provide for parents and guardians to opt their children out of such drills; to provide for a definition; to provide for a short title; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2023_24"
identifier: "HB 147"
citation: "Georgia HB 147 (2023_24)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bill Hitchens", "Chris Erwin", "David Wilkerson", "Jan Jones", "Matt Dubnik", "Will Wade"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 15
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2023-01-31"
last_action: "2023-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/8c484233-628d-44cb-84cf-7f10f5110ea0"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "7eb4fb238eb588c885ba9d5a6341ef60391a910e8313846a4744456b64033d7c"
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 147 (2023_24) — Safe Schools Act; enact

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the O.C.G.A., relating to elementary and secondary education, so as to provide for a school safety and anti-gang endorsement for eligible certificated professional personnel issued by the Professional Standards Commission; to require school safety plans to be submitted to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency; to require intruder alert drills in all public schools in this state; to require public schools to report completion of such drills to the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency; to provide for parents and guardians to opt their children out of such drills; to provide for a definition; to provide for a short title; 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 147/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20232024/217714.pdf)
2. **LC 49 1174-EC/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20232024/213152.pdf)
3. **Sen floor amend 1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20232024/217630.pdf)
4. **Sen floor amend 1A** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20232024/217652.pdf)
5. **Sen floor amend 2** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20232024/217646.pdf)
6. **Sen floor amend 3** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20232024/217632.pdf)

## Votes

- Senate Vote #210 - 2023-2024 Regular Session — **22–33** (fail) · upper
- Senate Vote #211 - 2023-2024 Regular Session — **21–33** (fail) · upper
- Senate Vote #214 - 2023-2024 Regular Session — **52–3** (pass) · upper
- Senate Vote #212 - 2023-2024 Regular Session — **21–33** (fail) · upper
- House Vote #86 - 2023-2024 Regular Session — **148–20** (pass) · lower
- Senate Vote #213 - 2023-2024 Regular Session — **25–30** (fail) · upper

## Sponsors

- Bill Hitchens — primary (person)
- Chris Erwin — primary (person)
- David Wilkerson — primary (person)
- Jan Jones — primary (person)
- Matt Dubnik — primary (person)
- Will Wade — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-01-31** House Hopper `introduction`
- **2023-02-01** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2023-02-02** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2023-02-16** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-02-27** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2023-02-27** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2023-02-28** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2023-03-08** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-03-09** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2023-03-13** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2023-03-13** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2023-03-30** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2023-04-13** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2023-04-13** Act 7 `executive-signature`
- **2023-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/8c484233-628d-44cb-84cf-7f10f5110ea0`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).