republic-os/legislation/us/states/ga/2019-20/hb-855.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	State Board of Education; determine eligibility criteria for foster care students to receive special education and related services; provisions	A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Part 3 of Article 6 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to educational programs, so as to direct the State Board of Education to determine eligibility criteria for foster care students to receive special education and related services; to require the Department of Education to provide guidance to local school systems; to require local school systems to immediately determine whether to initiate the initial evaluation process for newly enrolled foster care students; to require the State Board of Education to develop rules and regulations; to provide for definitions; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.	us/states/ga	Georgia General Assembly	2019_20	HB 855	Georgia HB 855 (2019_20)	bill		enacted	Bert Reeves Houston Gaines Katie Dempsey Marcus Wiedower Rick Jasperse Tom McCall	5	16	1	2020-01-30	2021-07-01	openstates	ocd-bill/17cfa7cc-1e41-44ea-8433-8eaea14d7ff3	http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl	49562bd0d94724e629e3d2d4c4af32efd47cdcf9000e2909c2113c2d375a5d94	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-ga

Georgia HB 855 (2019_20) — State Board of Education; determine eligibility criteria for foster care students to receive special education and related services; provisions

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Part 3 of Article 6 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to educational programs, so as to direct the State Board of Education to determine eligibility criteria for foster care students to receive special education and related services; to require the Department of Education to provide guidance to local school systems; to require local school systems to immediately determine whether to initiate the initial evaluation process for newly enrolled foster care students; to require the State Board of Education to develop rules and regulations; to provide for definitions; 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 855/AP* (committee substitute) — source
2. LC 49 0106/a (committee substitute) — source
3. LC 49 0158S/hcs (committee substitute) — source
4. LC 49 0158S/hs (committee substitute) — source
5. Sen floor amend 1 AM 49 0013 (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• PASSAGE — 166–0 (pass) · lower

Sponsors

• Bert Reeves — primary (person)
• Houston Gaines — primary (person)
• Katie Dempsey — primary (person)
• Marcus Wiedower — primary (person)
• Rick Jasperse — primary (person)
• Tom McCall — primary (person)

Timeline

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

• 2020-01-30 House Hopper
• 2020-01-31 House First Readers reading-1
• 2020-02-03 House Second Readers reading-2
• 2020-02-28 House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute committee-passage-favorable
• 2020-03-05 House Third Readers reading-3
• 2020-03-05 House Passed/Adopted By Substitute passage
• 2020-03-09 Senate Read and Referred referral-committee
• 2020-06-24 Senate Committee Favorably Reported committee-passage-favorable
• 2020-06-24 Senate Read Second Time reading-2
• 2020-06-25 Senate Third Read reading-3
• 2020-06-25 Senate Passed/Adopted As Amended passage
• 2020-06-26 House Agreed Senate Amend or Sub
• 2020-06-30 House Sent to Governor executive-receipt
• 2020-07-29 House Date Signed by Governor executive-signature
• 2020-07-29 Act 497 executive-signature
• 2021-07-01 Effective Date

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/17cfa7cc-1e41-44ea-8433-8eaea14d7ff3. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).