---
type: "Bill"
title: "Education; needs based financial aid program; revise definition of eligible student"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Subpart 2A of Part 3 of Article 7 of Chapter 3 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the needs based financial aid program, so as to revise the definition of \"eligible student\"; to extend an automatic repealer; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2025_26"
identifier: "HB 38"
citation: "Georgia HB 38 (2025_26)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["EDUCATION"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Charles Martin", "Deborah Silcox", "Jan Jones", "Matt Reeves", "Scott Hilton"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 15
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2025-01-14"
last_action: "2025-05-12"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/11b25c05-3a2d-4de7-8351-72b1b0ec0c05"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "7814efcf24cd9651835058dad3e3d3e77ce87ff174730c513a089b89143748ae"
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 38 (2025_26) — Education; needs based financial aid program; revise definition of eligible student

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Subpart 2A of Part 3 of Article 7 of Chapter 3 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the needs based financial aid program, so as to revise the definition of "eligible student"; to extend an automatic repealer; to provide for related matters; to provide for an effective date; 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 38/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/238064.pdf)
2. **LC 61 0053/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20252026/229896.pdf)

## Votes

- House Vote #42 - 2025-2026 Regular Session — **169–3** (pass) · lower
- Senate Vote #315 - 2025-2026 Regular Session — **46–5** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Charles Martin — primary (person)
- Deborah Silcox — primary (person)
- Jan Jones — primary (person)
- Matt Reeves — primary (person)
- Scott Hilton — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2025-01-14** House Hopper `introduction`
- **2025-01-15** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2025-01-16** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2025-01-30** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-02-19** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2025-02-19** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2025-02-20** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-13** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2025-03-18** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2025-03-28** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2025-03-28** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2025-04-07** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2025-05-12** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2025-05-12** Act 118 `executive-signature`
- **2025-05-12** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/11b25c05-3a2d-4de7-8351-72b1b0ec0c05`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).