Education Subcommittees 2.2.26

Hello. Hello.

There we go. Hello. Alright. Just a quick programming note real quick. If you are here for the this is gonna be the 01:00 policy and innovation subcommittee.

We're here today for house bill three eighty three, nine zero seven, and ten twenty three. We do have a sign up sheet. If anyone does anyone wanna testify on anyone's bills that have not signed the sign up sheet? Alright. I think we're good then.

Just one or two more programming notes. We have a, house rule house rule 8.1, that prohibits in on the house and in committee chambers here, any signs, placards, things like that. So, if you have those, if you could please take them off or keep them where I don't see them. I don't wanna put anybody in time out. It's too early for that.

So, with that, thank you, guys. We are going to get started. One of my favorite traditions that we do at every education committee meeting, if you are a current or former teacher, educator, principal, would you please stand and let us recognize you? Committee, give them a round of applause.

Do we have any students

in the room too? Students, stand up. Hey. Hey. Hey.

Hey. And I'm a embarrass my own student. I have a college freshman at the University of Auburn. Well, I don't hear any War Eagle. That's fine.

He is in the College of Education studying to be a future music teacher. So, I'm gonna give him a special shout out today. So yep. You increase that teacher pay is what I'm saying. With that, leader, Will, would you please say, open us up in a word of prayer?

Be happy to. For those that wouldn't, bow with me. Heavenly father, we thank you for this day. We'd ask that you watch over us, guide us, protect us, protect those students that, are in our schools across this state, those teachers that are pouring into them, all of the administrators, all the faculty, the lunchroom workers, and the school bus drivers. We know how much they all care for these next generations.

Let us deliberate with kindness, humility, and from a spirit of friendship as we address important issues facing the children of the state. And all these things I ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, leader Wade.

With that, we are going to begin with house bill three eighty three sponsored by representative Brent Cox. The floor is yours.

Thank you, chairman. If y'all would look at LC four nine two zero zero nine, which is house bill three eighty three. So I'll start. This is in regards to NIL in high school high school sports in the state of Georgia. Line 13 is referred to as the Georgia High School NIL Protection Act.

In the state of Georgia currently, what we're wanting to do here is codify some of the the rules that currently our athletic associations are already doing. And first and foremost, many questions come up. Should NIL be allowed in high school sports? That's the debate many have had. But in regards to child acting laws that currently exist in the state, NIL for these athletes is also something that would also be allowed and is allowed in the state of Georgia.

One of the things that we wanted to make sure that we handled correctly in the state. Some of my, friends at the collegiate level and in the NFL have given me some stories where college athletes were receiving NIL contracts, where their agents had no sunsets on their contracts. And one of the things that hit me most is, these athletes went on into the NFL, and there were moments where some of the very large contracts, another eight or 10 or 12% could end up getting cut to an agent that was first hired back in college. The primary purpose here is to protect these student athletes. One thing that I wanna point to is that NIL in the state, you cannot recruit from a high school nor can a student athlete that has an n I NIL contract be able to wear, said school's logos or mascots to promote when they're promoting NIL.

Also, it's not something also talks about on line 77 and goes to lines 90 on absolutely what cannot be part of the endorsing program, which includes alcohol, tobacco, vapers, cannabis, all all the things that adults or that are not allowed, we're not gonna allow that in Georgia high school sports. You go to page five, which this is the key component in its line one zero one. This is when the contract ends. We wanna make sure that upon finishing high school, which is in line one of four, ten days after graduation, this contract is null and void and they have to renegotiate at the collegiate level in line one of six. It's thirty days after there are instances where they may not have graduated.

They may have gotten some other type of contract at a professional level. It could be other instances where they're leaving the state, so there's other options, and that's thirty days after as well. In lines one twenty eight, page six, this is where we're showing that representation and agents is allowed on NIL contracts. So the gist of this bill is to make sure when a student athlete moves to the next level of college, that that current structured contract they have is null and void, and they can now move forward into a renegotiated contract. Now rest for you to, any questions and ask y'all's favorable consideration.

Thank you, mister representative. I I I just wanna put it out there. I was quite the, cross country runner in high school. So Nike or Mizuno, I'm still open for business here. I saw number 24 light up first.

Leader Wade.

Just to clarify, I appreciate the bill, and, I know the heart behind it. I know that in high school means public or private school in the state enroll, this is line 27, 28 in grades nine through 12. I know in some systems, across the state, we do have eighth graders that are, eligible to play, like junior varsity teams, and we've seen some even eighth graders that, in some smaller systems that have been able to play on a varsity team. I think GHSA has some rules that govern or allow that. Is there a reason to consider, you know, not just defining it to gray, but and also if they are playing at the junior varsity or varsity level?

Just throwing that out there not to muddy your bill. I like the intent. I just I know in some systems, we have eighth graders that are playing JV and and, varsity sports.

I would be open to that. Things get a little interesting when we're talking about high school sports.

Yeah.

I'm I'm okay with that. I think at this point, we've not seen any seen any of that happen in the state. Doesn't mean it can't, but I would be open if that's,

the will committee. This since it's a subcommittee, I I'm just filling that out for you as the author to consider if you wanna get feedback from GHSA as well as legislative council. If the committee feels that this bill needs to continue to move through the process. I just think it's something worth consideration. Maybe not as much for now, but in the future, you know, I've seen my nine year old can do things as a nine year old on a baseball field.

I couldn't do until I was probably 13. So, yes, I was a poor baseball player. But regardless, I just wanna acknowledge those students if they are in high school and if they're a phenom, if you will, or just one of those top, athletes that we give them the same consideration if they're playing high school athletics.

Thank you.

You. Thank you.

Thank you,

mister Leader.

And I wanna thank you for bringing this bill. I I think all of us in this room would agree right now. NIL is kind of the wild wild west. And so, and and a lot of students and student athletes are are getting taken advantage of out there. So, kudos to you for bringing some guardrails, to bring some sensibility to this.

Representative Volley, number two.

Thank you, chair. Rep, appreciate your work on this. Two quick questions. Is there any cap on the amount of revenue or money a student athlete could earn in, let's say, a a given year?

No. There is not. We're not going to try to get in the way of free market and how that goes. I, I relate this to if you're an incredible artist or writer, and I've seen some incredible writers at a very, very young age in elementary school, and there's no cap when they're creating their literature or paintings. And I think that if someone has a name, image and likeness, similar to that, one of the things that's changed is at the collegiate level, you we had to be amateurs at one point.

Right? So now then with how things have changed, and we always kept that tight within high school sports too. So when you're in college, you weren't illegal as a now a professional, if you will. So there's no cap.

No, sir. And I'm I'm I'm supportive of of the spirit of allowing our our athletes to benefit from the value that their name or likeness is is creating. I'm just thinking of, you know, NCAA just a few years ago pre NIL was a hot mess. And these are young adults. We're now talking about 14 year olds.

I know leader Wade mentioned middle schoolers, 13 year olds. Any anytime we introduce money, at magnitudes and scales that, you know, these kids and their families have have yet to even think about. It it could lead to some unintended consequences. And so what what are the specific guardrails or mechanisms to control and safeguard our students, student athletes, their families from from any bad actors?

This was something that we discussed in detail, and we've been working on this bill for, I I guess, almost three three years now.

Yep.

So there there was a question. Should we have a percentage of money that's created? Well, first and foremost, NIL is allowed in Georgia already, and it is in other states within the high school level, we're just codifying that the agents at the end of their high school career, that they have to renegotiate those, and it could be the same agent, they can renegotiate it to keep them from bad actors that could try to lock them in. And then long term, they're at the collegiate level, maybe even at the NFL level, and it's still riding with them, which we do not want to see here in Georgia. As it relates, we had a thought at one point of helping the student athlete and managing their money so it didn't disappear, if you will.

And I removed that language because I think that that's the responsibility of the parents and the kid. And I just didn't think that was something that our government that we need more government to, to overlook that now education, whether through GHSA or somewhere else, on how to properly invest money and pay your taxes and all those things, absolutely need to encourage that. And it's something that in GHSA is here, I know, and hopefully, they can speak to some of that. But educating parents and kids is a key piece. It's important.

Thank you. Yes, sir.

Thank you. Good question.

We're gonna entertain two more questions. I know we got some folks to speak on the bill. I saw number 26, lineup, representative Townsend.

Mister chairman, thank you, representative Cox. I think it's a good bill. I really do. And my daughter's involved within that at the college level, and, it's it's it's a tough go. Question couple questions for you.

Just wanna make sure of a couple of things. You probably have it in here. I wanna reiterate straight what representative Wade said about the eighth graders. I know they're allowed to participate in junior varsity sports. You've got some kids in eighth grade who are getting scholarships now and scholarship offers.

So I definitely think that's something to consider, as a friendly amendment to kind of move it down to at least eighth grade with the who who can play junior varsity sports. Second, I like the way you worded it. I think it's pretty tight about they can't do the deals with anybody 18 or under. I mean, if it's like a substance, such as kratom or other things like that, that you make sure they can't advertise that. I I appreciate you putting that in there.

And I guess the last piece would be, assume it covers your independent associations, female sports, and then also like your eSports, because now you have esports as well. That's part of the Georgia High School Association. So would this cover all those ending list under Georgia High School or any kind of Georgia Independent School Associations?

It it covers any, association in Georgia as it involves athletics. It doesn't specifically call out GHSA because Okay. You can't do that. Correct. But, yes, it calls out all student athletes as that's defined by those associations.

Okay. And have you thought about what representative asked about the, going going down at least

from the grade level or more? Right. I told him we would absolutely look at that. I understand that. And it and, you know, I'm completely open to doing that.

And I think preparing, making sure that we don't lock us in at one place then have to come back and clean up, I think that makes sense.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, representative.

We've got, number 28, Chairman Chokas.

Thank you, mister chairman. Just a quick question. What if the athlete is injured and they have, you know, they're receiving some type of compensation, scholarship, or whatever. If they're injured, does is there any provision for that? And if they're injured injured in the line of doing their sports stuff, is there any anything in the language that would prevent them from cutting it off?

No. I would I would say that an injury would be something that would be negotiated between them and the agent. That would be independent of what I would try to do here. I'm gonna trust the spirit of, the law and in the communication between their agent and them. But, no, I have nothing in here that relates to that.

Thank you.

Thank you, representative. I think that exhausts your questions for now. We do have someone to speak on the bill, mister Robin Hines with, GHSA. If you would come up to the podium there, I am we've got a number of folks that have signed up on a number of bills. And, actually, sir, if you'd stand up right there, I think

I've got your mic going.

Perfect. I'm gonna try to limit everybody to about one and a half, two minutes if we can. We've we've gotta get out of this room and go to our next meeting at two. So, I know you you're good friends. I know you're not gonna take my my whole two minutes.

No. Right away, we have eighth graders who are getting NIL stuff across. It's it's crazy. Don't confuse high school NIL with the NCAA that when coupled with the transfer portal, it becomes a zoo. We're not that way.

The name, image, and likeness, everyone has the right to benefit from that. We support the bill. The bill actually is what our policies are currently. The thing that's important that, that representative Cox has done is have those contracts dissolve at the end because there are horror stories of somebody signing their second Major League Baseball contract for $50,000,000 and somebody they signed with when they were 16 years old gets, you know, 20,000,000 of that. So we totally support that.

You know, representative Cox has been with us from the very beginning in putting all this together. I appreciate his patience. We decided to wait until we could see what the problems were unless don't correct a problem that does not exist. Just to give you context, in the three years that we've been doing it, there's only been a 150 NIL deals. And the majority of those is somebody from, like, mama's kitchen in Barnesville gives a free meal to a student who posted they love mama's kitchen on their Facebook page.

That's the majority of what it is. But the possibility is there and there have been a couple of athletes who have come by and and and got some significant this is just good sense to because when they go to the next level, you know, the University of Georgia or Georgia Tech or something, they have people that take care of those things. They don't need an additional person to go and guide them who's basically would would get that money. Hadn't really necessarily been a problem. You know, I love the bill.

Certainly, we support that and appreciate the partnership that representative Cox and and representative, Chaz Cannon has spent with us in taking time to talk about these issues, and and we certainly support it.

If there are

any questions, I'm happy to answer.

Thank you, mister Hines. I don't see any, and I just wanna say I love Kane's chicken. Maybe that'll get me an NIL. Let's see. With that and not seeing any other, lights here, I I will entertain a motion from the committee if, there is one.

Motion approved.

Alright. I hear a a due pass from Chokas, a second from Townsend. Very good. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, all in favor of due pass on house bill three eighty three signified by saying aye.

Aye. All opposed, like sign? Bill passes. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, I'm a let my next two speakers duel it out, but we've got majority leader and the speaker per Tim. So ladies always go first in the house. As the, speaker per Tim is headed up, we've got a committee substitute. Hopefully, all of y'all have received that copy.

It's hot. Hot and

So the background of the committee And,

ma'am, pretend if you'd pull the

those of you

who've been on the committee for a while or where, we've been working on what we used to call alternative schools, we now call completion schools. This committee has worked very hard to offer to work towards offering, a public school option

working with,

I'm working with, the chairman, Erwin, Erwin. And just to update you, we used to we we originally we started out with, Mount Ned years and years ago, then expanded to Foothills that located in different places, but I think based in Athens. You have a coastal, array of school systems that have joined. This is where school systems joined together based on the legislation a few years ago. They signed an agreement that they're gonna offer, a completion school with locations throughout the schools that operate in that district or zone.

There's seven zones. They choose a superintendent, earns QBE funding. They they can provide additional local funding if they want. A lot of the classes are online. Since those three, one down based in the Albany area has opened is very successful.

The chair chairman Erwin could give you a better update on that, but, very proud that they are operating successfully and offering this option to students who are way behind or at risk of dropping out for both. The one in the Columbus area is on track. We've provided funding. I believe we're gonna offer some more funding in the budget, this year to get that one going, hopefully with is it next school year? Correct.

Next school year. That would be one, two, three, four. That would be five that would be operating. The Bibb County, Middle Georgia one is coming together and hopefully will open a year later. Is that right?

That's correct. Which would then offer an option to almost every student in Georgia except in the metro area. There has not been any real movement there. I think that'll be the last. One.

Many of those school systems are so large, they offer alternatives now. I personally think it would be best if they still went together and offered this, for example, my own school system, Fulton County, one of the biggest ones in the state, does not offer evening classes. And that is a hallmark of these completion schools is they offer night classes and, frankly, a a support network of teachers that are truly 100% focused on the needs of these students, but that's an update on what's happening. I have another update. I don't know how many bills we've done on this.

I hope this is it, but it probably won't be. Because as we learn more, we do more, and we figure out where are the holes and where are needs not being met. So I'll just jump right into it. If you turn to page three, and it's L C492591 s. So one issue that has come up, not certainly not universally, but in a limited way in some school systems, is some students, some families, and some of the completion schools have not felt like students were sufficiently informed that they had this option.

And if we're gonna offer this option and we're invested in this at the state level, we believe this is a high priority. We wanna make sure that every student and every parent is aware that they have this option. So what this section, provides for is that the completion school will provide twice a year to all the school systems that are affiliated with that completion school information on the programs and what's offered and all the programs that students have. After they receive that, they will the school systems will then make that information available electronically and in a physical location in the school so that all the students are aware and their parents are aware they have this option. The next section, we we we want to make sure that it is a seamless process for students who would benefit from these services to enroll.

Some of these kids don't wanna go back to their home school. They had a bad experience. It could be on them. It could have been circumstances in their life. It could be that it just wasn't a fit.

It may be that the student was being bullied. It may be that the student just had a, academically wasn't performing well without, you know, putting blame on who is responsible for that. It's just not working for the student. And so what the next section makes sure is that, if the student, starting on line 74, if they're enrolled or eligible to be enrolled, it makes it clear they have the right to attend this completion a completion school. They don't there's no gatekeeping.

Keeping. Nobody they don't have to go to their home school and ask permission. They don't have to necessarily be recommended. They, can go directly there, and the completion school and the home school, are and the completion school and the home school will work out the administrative logistics. I mean, in day and age where I can do all my banking and never walk into a bank, I think we can work out the logistics of enroll and, of course, they're not enrolling them.

You know, we've had that debate many times. It's it's a program like a career academy. They're enrolled at their home school if they're under the age of 18. They're attending the completion school for some or all of their classes. But their the accountability, their test scores track back to their home school until they're the age of 18.

If they are are not currently enrolled, meaning they, I guess, to to not you know, they're they're not enrolled anymore, but they're eligible to be enrolled and they live in that district, then the resident school system and the completion school will work it out as expediently as possible to, get them enrolled. The goal here is we want kids to graduate. And if they don't graduate, we want them to get as close as they can to graduate. We want progress, and we want options for students. If you go to the next section, section two, this was brought to me starting around line 105.

When we did this let this last iteration of legislation, we we anticipated, for example, in the metro area that perhaps one would go ahead and open, or or, say, in Bibb County. You know, we didn't know that they would get it together as quickly as they have and that, a completion school would open down there in, just a, I guess, a year and a half. So we allowed where there were prior relationships with a completion school by a resident school system with a completion school that wasn't in that region. What we're finding is if we don't wanna limit anybody. We don't wanna limit any student.

This is about students. And so if the metro, if if the metro area never really gets it together and forms one of these, if a school system like Rockdale this really is sort of a Rockdale provision. They are utilizing Foothills in Athens. And and I know Gwinnet County utilizes, I believe it's Foothills as well. They can continue to do so until or if a completion schools, I call it consortium, forms.

And then, let's see. The next section I don't know what this does. That they, if you excuse me, we moved some of these provisions around. So one one issue that has arisen, and I've particularly heard about this, in a in a in just several school system. We have a 180 school systems, so it's really just in a few places where a student is at risk, it is probably gonna be a dropout.

And a dropout as defined by the federal government is four years in a semester after you started, high school. So if a student looks like, look, they're never gonna graduate on time, but that doesn't mean that we don't want that student to graduate. The fact that they might get counted as a dropout, we you know? Okay. We'd rather they weren't, but, really, that's that's I don't care that much about.

What I care about is they get their high school degree. And so we wanna make sure that whether you can graduate on time or you cannot graduate on time, that you're given every opportunity to get that high school degree. And so, this spells out how a resident school system, it's a party to a completion school agreement, they're within that zone, one of the seven zones, that they will, provide what I call leads to the completion school that they have a contract with, if the student has been absent a certain amount of time, if they're what we refer to as a quitter. They're not beyond that dropout age of 18, in a semester. They're less they're lower they're younger than that.

And so, they will provide that so that the completion schools, a number of, particularly the existing ones, are very good at reaching out to students, reaching out to families, and encouraging them and explaining to them, here's how we can help you. Why don't you come try it? And so that's what this last section does. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, madam pro tem. And and thank you for what you're doing here to make sure that no student falls on the cracks and that we are trying to get everyone across the finish line because we know a high school degree set someone up for tremendous life fixed life success down the road. Y'all just about tied, but I'm gonna go with, representative oh, it's, Wilkerson, number three.

Thank you, mister chairman. Thank you for the legislation. Two quick questions. Section three, the communication between the local school and the completion school happens. I guess they let them know this student has dropped out.

Has quit.

Has quit. Has quit. Let me rephrase that. What communication then does the completion school have to give?

They're not required to. It just allows them to have that information, and it's been my experience that this is their mission. I I I feel confident they will, but I'm not requiring a particular

type of communication.

They're they're

actually the ones

who requested this or the completionists.

Is there

any concern that the communication that goes out doesn't is you've left your school, now you have to come here? No. There's no concern?

I I I'm not concerned about that. I I think it so years ago, when we had we called them alternative schools Mhmm. The student, and it's a long sort of convoluted history as to how it got to that. A student would unenroll at their home school and go enroll at a complete what we used to call an alternative school.

The

problem the concern I had and what what we saw in some cases was, you know, it took the accountability away from the home school. You're under the age of 18, and in some limited cases, students were encouraged. Maybe maybe it wasn't the best fit for them, but you certainly got them out of your graduation rate at the homeschool graduation rate. And what you, so we made a change a number of years ago that until the age of 18, you remained enrolled at your home school, and it's in your home school's best interest to make every effort to get you over the finish line, whether that's providing services at your home school, which is best for some students, or sending you to a completion school, or maybe, you know, maybe you worked a job and you need more flexible hours. You just don't wanna be at your home school.

And so they, used to, you know, make a real effort to to to, follow-up on these students, and they, I think this will this will lead to more of what was happening before in a good way Mhmm. And that there will be more coordination, of making sure that these kids are enrolled.

Okay. Thank you. And I think you answered my second question, which was that student, they go to the completion school. Do they still count in their home school's graduation rate?

Until the age of 18.

K. Thank you.

And between the ages of 18 and 22, they can they just are enrolled directly at the completion school because they've already been counted for the most part as a dropout. They've they've already been counted. Now they're just somebody we wanna help get over the finish line.

Alright.

Number 16, representative Glaze to my left.

Thank you, chairman. And thank you for bringing this bill, Pro Tem Jones. I was just wondering, will the graduation certificate come from both parties, or will it just be the high school of residence?

They would graduate technically from their home school.

And so we won't have have any problems with them being able to use that going into the military or any

Oh, no. It's it's a full fledged grad you know, they've graduated

Thank you. Graduation school. Yeah.

Thank you. Number 26 to my left. Representative Hill.

Thank you, Preach Hill. Good bill. Appreciate it very much. I know you've worked hard in that community. Quick question.

This doesn't affect any of the graduate graduation requirements they currently have or I know each school system sets their own they have to go by the state guidelines. But a lot of times, some are more, some are equal.

It doesn't change it. Perfect.

Thank you. Perfect. I'm gonna entertain one more question and then take, entertain a motion. Number 24, leader Wade.

I was actually at the time appropriate time. I'm ready to make a motion.

Alright. Love it. Sixteen, do you have a second?

So motion due pass.

Motion due pass. We have a second. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye.

Any opposed, like sign? Bill passes. Thank you.

Alright.

With that, we've got house bill ten twenty three. Mister Leader, if you'd step to the hot mic.

Good afternoon, mister chairman. Thank you. Alright. If I proceed

Yes, sir. So I

bring to you committee house bill 1023 l C492506. Just to, stay on track here, I've prepared some proposed remarks. Under speaker John Burns, chairman Erwin, who's present here, and the members of the house keeping Georgia students and educators safe has been a top priority. This is why I've introduced House Bill ten twenty three this year, which will require all Georgia public schools to implement one or more weapons detection systems at points of entry to public school buildings intended for student and public use. It does not apply to entrances which remain locked or equipped with alarm systems and are not intended for daily student use.

As a practicing attorney here in Georgia, I am used to entering a Georgia court house most days where I pass through security, which includes a weapons detection system. It's my opinion that Georgians Georgia students deserve a similar security when, entering Georgia public schools that includes a weapons detection system. This bill builds on existing law, which we passed last year, which, requires school safety measures and also existing law that requires school safety plans. But very importantly, House Bill ten twenty three allows local school systems to use available grant funding to implement these measures as practical and to take steps based upon the uniqueness of each Georgia school to implement the best possible system for that local school and the local school system. And this local discretion, which is included in the bill, allows for needed flexibility.

Mister chairman, I know there are several witnesses that have signed up to speak and maybe because we are, we have limited time in this room. You talked about what I would just do is invite all those who are here in favor of house bill ten twenty three to stand so that the committee members can see them. And then, of course, you can hear from any witnesses that you may like. And, thank you, mister chairman and members of the committee. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, mister leader. You read my mind. We've got 12 people signed up to speak, and I'm looking I got 15. So, thank you all for standing. We're gonna I'll probably entertain those who are opposed to it, but we're gonna answer some questions first and then, and then go from there.

And a reminder to the committee that, yeah, we've got a a committee after this at two. So, number three to my left.

Thank you, mister chairman. Mister majority leader, quick question. On line 25, you're referencing the school safety plan, I guess. Are you saying that these systems are required of that? You're just referencing that we have to have a school safety plan?

So, it's already law that a school safety plan has to be, determined by the local governing authority, but this would include a requirement that the local school system utilize weapons detection systems for all public schools.

And the funding would go toward that system. Correct?

Well, yes. Potentially.

Yes. Potentially.

So Like, if I'm at a football game, I see a system, but I also see people. Would there be any funding for the people that be required to maintain that system?

So as you'll see on lines 29 to 31, there's an opportunity to see grants necessary. It could be for infrastructure. It could be for personnel.

Okay. And I apologize we're rushed. I did appreciate the sports bill, but this was important. But I guess I take my kids high school. It has more than one entrance.

So you're saying that we'd have to have a detection system at every single building on McEachern High School's campus, as well as someone to monitor that, as well as I'm assuming when someone walks in with a weapon if they do, that they're not gonna stand there and wait for you to come. So you're gonna need cameras throughout the school system to figure out where they went.

So I'm

just trying to think through if, you know, I would love to have more conversation. I ten minutes is kinda hard to move something that's important, but, that's you know? Yeah. And those are my concerns right off the bat.

Yeah. Just to answer your question directly, it's any public school building where students are or are expected to be that a weapons detection system would be required, or that the door be locked with an alarm so that there's not an opportunity for unauthorized entrance. And potentially, what really that what what you've just outlined, it would be there would be points of entry to maybe a series of buildings so that there would it'd be a controlled area, just as we do with courthouse, facilities we do with other public buildings where there's an area after you pass security, the weapons detection system, then you'd be able to freely move into the Correct.

Come out to Nikitra, and I'll tell you around. There's probably there's multiple buildings and courthouses have sheriffs and full time people that are there. So I would love to make sure that we're not putting an undue burden on our school system because, you know, 20,000 is not gonna cut it when you're talking about a college campus.

I'm so glad you mentioned that, representative, because my objective is not to put an undue burden. I understand that local school systems are gonna deal with unique layouts of their buildings, and the objective here is to allow that flexibility locally to determine, number one, the appropriate type of weapons detection system, but then also how that's to be best

implemented at those

local schools. Perfect. Thank you. Representative Volley, to my left, your right.

Thank you, chair. Thank you, chair leader. Thank you for the bill. Two quick questions. I'm looking at lines 26 through 28 and just wanted to confirm that the mandated weapon detection systems only apply to those schools that aren't already, having some locked main entrance with the buzz in process.

This only applies to those schools without a locked front door, alarm systems, etcetera.

So if a school system already has a weapons detection system in place, and it's my understanding that 40 plus of the Georgia school systems already have those in place, that they would all already be satisfying

Got it.

The requirements of this bill.

And, again, I I I think safety is of the utmost concern for for parents, for staff, for school leaders, our students. Does it does it work? Is it is it does the cost justify the perceived benefit? Representative's previous question. And so, do we have any any information or data that, suggests that, the the the juice is worth the squeeze in terms of potentially mandating, hundreds, if not thousands, of of schools to implement, detection systems, which they may or may may not have the resources for.

So, I certainly believe that, this is worthwhile. Obviously, this is legislation I'm carrying. I also believe that, that this is very consistent with how we treat other public government run facilities and that weapons detection system can be implemented different ways and, can be done, in a way that's very responsible cost wise, but also the protection of Georgia students as, as has been said many times, by leaders in the in the state house. And I very much agree with every Georgia parent deserves to know when they drop their child off at school in the morning, they're gonna be able to pick them up safely, at the end of school. And I believe that House Bill ten twenty three is a very reasonable measure.

It's, an appropriate measure allowing for necessary flexibility locally while also ensuring that we have weapons detection systems, which I believe are very important.

Thank

you. Thank you. Thank you. Representative Glaze to my left, your right.

Thank you, chairman, and thank you for bringing this bill. I do see the great need for safety and for weapons to be detected so we can save children's lives. What I wanna know is how what's the time frame to that we're gonna allow, systems school systems to actually have all of their, schools come online?

Yeah. So the legislation is contemplated would would take effect this year effectively for the fall. So it would be for the fall semester that these would need to be in place. Certainly understand the importance of, flexibility around flexibility around funding as it relates to funding. And, obviously, there's an interaction with our state budget as to what grant availability they'll be as part of the budget.

As you might imagine, that's something that I'm thinking about a lot as well as part of this discussion.

And then the second part of the question is, if indeed there is school systems that have not been able to have not been able to secure the grants, is there a process that they can come to us and say they followed a b c? They've been they only received a certain amount of grants, and then see if there's funding that we could put in the state budget after next year to to help those schools comply.

Objective is for this not to be considered an unfunded mandate. My objective is for there to be, support necessary to ensure that weapons detection systems can be implemented in schools across the state.

Sounds like we're supportive, and we can figure it out. Yes.

Yes. Thank you. Alright, guys. We're gonna do two more quick questions. I'm gonna warn you guys.

No part a, part b. One part questions if you can. Thank you. Number 18, representative Cox to

to my left.

Can we do part z? Is that where thank you for bringing this. And I'm gonna try to weave this into one question. Private school events with public school events, whether it's athletics or beta club or whatever is occurring, as well as the riding of busses, the management by the sheriff or whatever vendor we're talking about. How are we going to manage that at other events other than just in the classroom?

And then who, at those events, will pay for this service?

So first of all, this is only for public school buildings where students are expected to be. So I just would I'm not saying that this is comprehensive. For instance, you just brought up buses. Okay? Buses are not part of this proposal right now, and I think that there's gonna be opportunities to discuss, other extensions potentially of this bill in other ways.

But the legislation before you just got into place, public school buildings where students are expected to

be. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Last but certainly not least, is representative Townsend.

Thanks, mister chairman. Thank you, leader, for this bill. After reading it, I do wanna commend you for leaving school systems of flexibility to carve out their own plan of how they're gonna do this. Too many times in education, we have cookie cutter approaches. What's good for a big school system like Gwinnett may not be good for a smaller

system

such as Macintosh and at the appropriate time.

We're gonna I'm gonna offer one more thing. If anyone's here, with a differing opinion, I see a couple hands back there. Do you guys wanna battle out to see once you come on up. Yeah. Is it Gretchen Walton?

That's oh, I'm sorry. That's you. Heather Harlett?

Heather Harlett. Harlett. With Georgia Majority for Gun Safety.

And If you can keep it to Yep. Ninety seconds.

Yep. So I certainly wanna applaud the goal. I think that's a shared goal of reducing firearms on school campuses. Another shared goal that we have is fiscal prudence, to spend taxpayer dollars in an effective way. I would encourage the committee to review the evidence, the juice being worth the squeeze of a meta analysis of the impact of weapons detection systems in schools.

And the net is that there is no supporting evidence that these systems actually would reduce violence. School school shootings, while horrific and tragic, are exceedingly rare and make up a very small percentage of gun violence in our state and across the nation. What is not rare is gun violence. A child dies every other day in Georgia due to firearms. The unfortunate truth is that Georgia is the is in the bottom third of US states for our rates of gun violence.

And here's what we know. Two thousand people die by firearms. Over two thousand people die by firearms each year in Georgia. More than half of that is suicide.

Madam, can you speak to the bill specifically concern? You you mentioned at the outset. It seems like now we're kind of deviating from that. Any anything in regards to the bill itself?

Sure. I mean, I'm I would just encourage us to look at the evidence, and I'm I will send you I'll send all of the committee members the, Perfect. Data and the stats. And, what I would say is that, over seventy percent of school shootings, when they happen, the shooter accessed a firearm from home. And so the real problem that we need to address is unsecured firearms.

We've submitted a, funding proposal for a safe storage education campaign throughout Georgia, and I would just suggest that there are more effective policy proposals to combat this goal.

So thank you.

Thank you so much. Gretchen Walton with Cobb County Schools.

Good afternoon. We also wanted to thank, both the governor and the legislature for the funding that's been provided to us over the last couple of years. Safety and security allow for teaching and learning. We I'm gonna take my educator hat off for two seconds, and we have, some pretty big concerns about the actual drafting of this legislation. The leader said that if the doors were locked and alarmed, that then they wouldn't have to have the, the weapons detection, but it actually says on line 27 the word and.

And to clarify, it's if those buildings are not used by students. We have one campus. I mean, representative Wilkerson talked about McEachran, that's an example. But we have another campus that has 22 buildings. It has 49 entrances.

And so when you talk talk about not wanting to have, any kind of unfunded mandate, that is a huge consideration. We have 17 high schools, so they're not all sweet little elementary schools with, you know, one entrance or in the front or back. Another consideration clearly is bus riders. If you're talking at the beginning of the school day, a a large portion of students come in to a different entrance. They do not come in at the main entrance.

So we have a lot of just operational concerns. I very much am willing to, if I don't have the expertise to rally the troops internally and get the expertise and also from neighboring, districts because we really do appreciate the safety and security, legislation in general. We have grave concerns about this particular drafting and the obligations that are one size fits all that it will put on districts. Thank you.

Thank you,

miss Walden.

I think

I see one more gentleman. Are you in line? Alright. I'm gonna give you thirty seconds. You can do it.

Right?

You can

do anything in thirty seconds. If you need to state your name too. Yeah. Jeremy Cavallero. I'm not in opposition of this bill.

Are you in support of it? Absolutely. Awesome. We appreciate that. We're gonna ask you to take a seat if that's okay.

Okay. And I'll come down and visit with you afterwards. Okay. Yes, sir. We have a motion on the table.

Well, actually, can you make the motion? Number 26.

Motion to approve.

Alright. Due pass. I hear a second. But Chokus, any discussion on the motion?

You guys

are killing me.

Number 24, leader Wade.

I just wanna ask this to respond to the, educators comments. Nothing in your bill prohibits any existing school system to implement technology or tools that will keep every single access door locked in the school system or to equip them with alarms. Correct? And as a former school board member, it was my job to ensure that we did those things in our local schools. So this will not prevent Cobb County to design a safety plan to implement those things through added dollars that this legislature has been giving since 2019 to school safety.

Is that a correct statement, sir? Alright. Thank you. Alright.

Thank you. We're gonna go down to number three here. Before I do, I'm gonna editorialize. My local high school, Norcross High School, has had one for about a year now. It gives me as a parent who has a student there, greater security gives him and the students security.

The system has worked flawlessly, and so no one no clapping, guys. It's a great speaker. We're not allowed to clap. So thank you for bringing this legislation. Number three,

represent Wilkerson. Thank you, mister chairman. And, again, I I do, respect that this committee has been focused on school safety, literacy, and there's one more, learning. The fact that we have spent more than thirty minutes on a bill dealing with NIL and we're being rushed through a bill that deals with school safety that's gonna dramatically impact our budget. Cobb County, we pay the largest portion of funding we pay is through school taxes.

I've educated my kids in Cobb County. I do believe I'm the only one up here that has done that. We may not always agree, but I do respect my local school system handling the safety of my kids. If you've never been there and seen that there's 20 entrances, it's easy to say you can put an alarm in there, but you have to man these. We cannot continue to make false promises to our students and families and and give false sense of security.

If we are serious about this bill, I would encourage that we have people whose districts are not bankrupt on this bill. I would encourage us not to make sure that we're funding companies that we're funding companies. But we actually deal legitimately with school safety and deal with school safety plans. To this day, this committee has never seen what this

Representative, do you have a question for the office?

No. This is discussion. My discussion is the fact that if we're gonna go through forty days and deal with literacy, school safety, etcetera, I would love to have a conversation about school safety and literacy and learning. Yeah. Okay.

Let's do that. If we could hold this bill information.

I I would

ask that the bill

be advanced at this time, but

I would have to. But Alright. Okay. Alright. We've got a motion on the table.

We've had discussion on the motion. I'm gonna take roll. All in favor of the motion do pass, say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Alright. So the opinion of the chair, the aye. We can get a hand count. Alright. All in favor of the motion do pass, signal by raising your hand.

Got it.

All opposed, like sign. She's not

on the committee. Yeah. Alright.

Motion passes. Thank you, mister Leader. Thank you. Alright. And with that, we are now gonna convene, the subcommittee on curriculum and academic achievements.

This meeting is adjourned.

Let us change over the room and we'll convene in just a minute. There is a sign up sheet on the front table. K. I'm gonna give y'all a couple more seconds to sign in if you need to sign in to speak to one of the bills, and then we'll get started. Okay.

I'm gonna go ahead and call, this meeting in the house education curriculum and and academic achievement subcommittee to order. Chairman Hilton, would you mind opening us in a word of prayer, please?

Thank you. If you'd be out with me, dear Jesus, we thank you so much for this day, the air we breathe, and everything you've given us. And and, Lord, we pray right now that you give us wisdom, justice, and moderation as we debate important issues, that helps move forward students in our state and, and keep them safe and help them learn. We pray these things in your holy name. Amen.

Thank you. Do we have any teachers in the audience today out there? If you are, raise your hand. Wave at us. Yay, teachers.

Yay. Students. Any students come to visit with us today? Nope. Okay.

In school. They are in school where they ought to be, I suppose. So I want we the last meeting went a little over, so we are a little bit time compressed. I think somebody has this room, shortly after 03:00. So let's, be brief if we can.

Wanna thank everybody, for being here today. Thank you, members. Thank you for those of you that have come in the audience. The first bill that we are going to hear today is HB nine seventy one, representative Townsend. And would you give us the LC number to make sure we are all on the same page?

Hang on. Okay. LC44385.

No. Did

I give you the wrong one?

Do you want me to give you the LC number we all have?

Sure. If it's later than that, I'll take it.

We have 492473.

Thank you. Yes.

No. Let's see.

Would you like to give me a copy of that one

and let me make copies real quick?

K1.

243. Yes. That's no. We're we're run with it.

Recess.

Yes. That's fine.

Okay. We good to go?

Yes. We're good.

I'm sorry.

Just so we're all clear. LC492473.

Yes.

Okay. So go ahead. At this time, present your bill.

Okay. This is actually a cleanup bill or follow-up bill that was passed back in, right before COVID. It allows some school kids and private school kids attend a college, a career academy in a neighboring county or a recent district. And the school system would collect the FTE for so they get the funding, and the parents would not have to pay. Plus, this is an opt in for the school system.

So it gives the school system a chance if they wanna do it or not. For example, my home school system and when the original bill passed allowed home school kids within Glenn County and in in in other counties that had a career academy for this private school homeschool kids to attend at no cost. And the school system opted in, and now they're doing successfully and have public school students and private homeschool school students under the same roof for the career academy only. Not for the general high schools, not for English, math, or whatever else, but for those career technical courses, the vocational courses. They offer things as construction, machining, nursing, graphic arts, all sorts of things with college career academies offer.

So again, this is really this is actually locally based too because the original pass set for kids within the county. But then, I think you've got the principal for the Golden House College Career Academy here. They'll testify how they have kids from out of county who wanna attend their career academy because McIntosh, Brantley, or Camden around us, they do not have a college career academy, so they can't send their kids to our place, not in the private private home homeschool area. And so our school system said, hey. We'd love to have these other kids, you know, go as well.

If we have available seats, we'll take them, and they have to go by the school system policies and everything else. What's nice about this is how many people heard of FFA before or FBLA or SkillsUSA, robotics, all those the TSA different organizations? Well, those kids can actually compete in those programs as well and compete for scholarships and things like that. So this is a win win for public ed, provident, and home

scores. K.

Thank you. Do I oh, I do see question. Y'all tied, so I'm gonna go in numerical order then. 16, is that you representative Lupton?

Thank you so so much, chair lady. Thank you so much, rep Townsend, for bringing the bill.

Yes, ma'am.

Can you just give me some basic numbers? How many programs like this are there in the state? Like, I I know in

you have right now approximately 60 Okay. 67 college academies throughout the state. Okay. What's nice about college, career academy, and I ran one for ten years.

Oh, I didn't realize that.

So that's kinda what I'm known for back home is running one of those college career academies. And, basically, each community when they have one sets it up to what's important to their community. So my career academy looks a little bit different than Rockdale. It looks looks different than CEC and Newnan. It looks different than

Liberty County's.

And so, that's what makes it nice. It's pro business and pro students.

Mhmm. May follow-up?

K. Just wanna about how far I mean, you feel like this expansion is gonna catch a lot

of It does.

Like a number of kids.

It is. The original bill was the adjoining school system. Then we looked at our adjoining school system like Camden. They're in a different Risa than we are. Okay.

And so we just wanna make sure we capture the RISA's. That's why we said RISA district or adjoining school system. Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you. Representative Dana.

Thank you. First of all, next time put opt in in the title so I don't have to prepare all these questions. I wanna get in. Yeah. But in terms of great is opt in, but in terms of cost, I know you talk about cost.

There's no cost to the families or the school. What an event that the student needs a laptop or some kind of resource.

Well, the school system, when they opt in, they treat they'll treat that kid like any other student for that those time periods.

Okay.

But they also get the FTE funding for it. So they they get the so for my kid, let's say, Mac let's say you you live in McIntosh and your kid lives in McIntosh, comes to Golden House College or Career Academy, the school system would collect FTE for it

Okay.

Which is how the schools get funded. So that that's what really was to care for the school systems. When we first passed this bill, I was, like I said, at the College Career Academy, senator Ligon, started in the senate side, and eventually, we got everybody on board. I don't think you'll see any opposition from either Page or GSSA or any of those guys because, quite a few school systems around the state are doing this.

Okay.

Okay. And this is just an opt in?

This is opt in. Option. Okay.

K. Thank you. Representative

Carter. Thank you. Thank you for allowing us to ask a few questions. For some for clarity for me, what this bill is allowing, allowing, basically, somebody could be anywhere in the state and they can, if they're homeschooled and if there's a career academy somewhere in the state, they can have the option to attend that.

You have to be with either in the adjoining county boundary wise, or you have to be in the recent district.

Okay. So because it wouldn't be practical for somebody

in North Georgia to attend South Georgia.

I'm saying that, but they gotta have their own transportation. So Correct. Yeah.

Want to

be clear about that. Then I I also what I heard is there is some type of competition that a homeschooler or where we're allowing to come into the career academies would be able to compete with the students.

We're gonna treat them like every other student. We don't believe ZIP code should matter, race should matter, ethnicity, nothing. A kid's a kid. When they walk in that school, they're gonna be treated like everybody else.

Okay. I think I was asking a question because because because the because what we're talking about are students who are not enrolled in the public school

Correct.

And we're providing legislation for those students to have access to, courses that a student in that public school have and the student is.

Yes, ma'am. And we're doing that already. We're doing that within the county already. All we're doing is expanding across the county lines.

Okay. But where I was getting to so that I can clearly understand that a homeschool student Mhmm. Will be able to come into the public school setting and compete with the in the public school environment, which could potentially if limit the access to a public school student because this student is homeschooled.

I don't see how I can learn with the access.

Well, it limits if there's a limited number of students who could go, because then when you're talking about competition. Right? And so now you want the home school student student to compete in the public school environment. I just wanna I'm asking you questions so I can understand as we're processing through.

Yeah. And, basically, if you go to the Golden House Career Academy, any other career academy, homeschool student, prep school student walks in that door, they can join FFA, FBLA, HOSA, whatever those organizations are that's based at that school.

Mhmm.

Not the base high schools, but the base in that school, and they're allowed to participate just like every other kid in whatever cocurricular. Remember, cocurricular is different than coco co, for high school sports. Co curricular means it's part of the academic instruction. So any of those organizations I just mentioned like FBLA, FCLA, any of those, all those are co curricular. So that's part of the instruction.

And so they're they are they are part of that group, so they get to participate in whatever that cocurricular organization does.

Okay. But if it's not

cocurriculum, they don't get to pick. Correct. They can't play football basketball basketball basketball basketball basketball basketball basketball basketball basketball basketball basketball basketball basketball basketball

basketball basketball basketball basketball.

Just want

I just want to be clear.

That's a great question.

So now my question because I don't know from SKU. So can students who are in a public school currently, if they wanted to go to a career academy in a in a joining research academy, do they have that same access?

Yes. As long as the two schools opt in. Gotcha. Such as we we allow McIntosh students right now. They actually carry a bus from McIntosh County High School to the career academy in Glen County just to attend.

Now it took a few years for that to get figured out

Okay.

But we had open arms.

Thank you. K. Yes. Thank you.

Representative Howard.

Yes. Thank you, madam chairman. Thank you, rep Tonson, for the bill. I think, you asked one of my questions. What's the, when it comes to capacity in the past, are there seats available where students are not filling those seats from the public schools?

There are some in certain programs, and doctor Depphard can speak to current numbers. Some of your programs, I'm just talking about, let's say, Golden Isles where I came from. At the time when I left, to go be a superintendent somewhere else, health care was hard to get in. And so that's one program it would be hard pressed for homeschool student and public student to get in because there's always there's already a waiting list by the kids from the two base high schools. So it depends on the seats available in the class.

But you had programs like construction, machining, welding, even engineering at the time, had open seats. So allowed those kids in home school, private school settings to fill in those open seats. May it a win win for the school system getting the FTE and the students participating in the community developing a workforce.

Yeah. And I I just follow-up on I don't I don't have anything against, you know, private and homeschooling, but if this program was designed for public schools, then in their capacity, is there another way to increase capacity with funding or whatever is necessary if we're gonna include private and homeschools?

If the school system wanted to because this is an opt in situation. So let's say you had a career academy, in County C in in in state of Georgia, and they're saying, you know, we're already maxed out. We're not going to participate in this. So that school system will not have to. Okay.

They would just opt out. Or they could see how they could add on a wing or a couple teachers to really expand it in their community if they wanted to based on community

needs. K. Thank you. We have one, speaker signed up to speak to this bill, doctor Debonheart. Would you, come to the podium?

Thank you.

Thank you, madam chairperson.

I just, wanna thank the committee for the opportunity to speak in support of this bill. I'm the principal of the Gordon Iles College and Career Academy here in, Glynn County, Brunswick, Georgia, and I've been the principal there for seven years. Yeah. I can tell you over the last five years, we've seen a tremendous interest increase in homeschool and private school students attending the Golden Isles College and Career Academy. Currently, we have about two dozen students that are from Glynn County.

K. However, I have parents that have approached me from three of our neighboring counties wanting their home school students to be able to participate in our career and technical education programs. K. Unfortunately, under the language of the current law, we are unable to do that. This bill would expand that access so that those students from Brantley, McIntosh, and Camden who would like to come to our academy can do so on a space available basis and have the opportunity to get a quality career technical and agricultural education.

Thank you so much. And I don't see any further, questions. Oh, representative

Carter. Thank you. You know, I'm getting a little older, so I remember I had

another question. Okay. A feeling.

And I wanted to make sure I look back in the building so I can, clearly access. So this is home school and private school. Mhmm. So my question now, I understand the FTE and how it's gonna be funded, but for students who are in the enrolled in a private school that are getting the Promise voucher, funding. I assume they're now also eligible.

And I guess this is gonna be an accounting nightmare for somebody because they've gotta figure out how is how is how is that gonna work?

Nothing. I know of them.

Yeah. Because I'm like make

an answer to that question.

Yeah. Because

he's He's there at school level now.

Okay.

But right now, as far as I know, because this happened internally now. So we have Glenn County homeschool and private school students attending the Career Academy now. And so they're doing it seamlessly. The CFO and everybody at the private schools and home schools organizations have seamlessly accepted those students and getting them the funding they needed. That I could tell you this, I mean this respectfully to Glenn County, if they weren't getting the funding they needed from the state, they would stop stop this what they're doing.

But they're getting the necessary Feet they're getting from the state, so, they're being made whole. Plus they're helping the community out with the workforce development.

Right. And and we do understand that. But I I think because this, the new Promise scholarship really just started, we only have a year end. So I would love to have some data around that, because if they're if a private school student is getting the $6,500, then they're coming to the public school in the career academy taking a class that's being funded out of the FTE that comes out of QBE. I just can and you may not have the answer today, but I would love to to understand that.

Thank you.

I'll track it down.

Okay. Chairman Hilton.

Thank you, madam chair. At the appropriate time, I'd like to make a motion.

Okay. I think it's the appropriate time.

I'd like to move, due pass.

Okay. There's second? Okay. So we have a motion and a second on HB nine seven one. Don't see any other discussion.

All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay. You are on to full.

Bias upstate.

Okay. Okay. Thanks, committee. Thank you, madam chair.

Thank you. You are on the full committee. Okay. Chairman Hilton, we've got house bill 10 o nine. And if you will give us the LC number when you get situated, that would be great.

Thank you, madam chair. I'll be working off of LC492527.

Gotcha. Okay. Go ahead whenever you're ready.

Alright. Well, before I begin, as a sign of solidarity, I'm gonna put my cell phone in my little pouch here before I get started. There we go. I don't wanna be distracted while I'm presenting. There we go.

Thank you, miss, madam chairman, members of the committee. First and foremost, I wanna thank this committee and and the house chamber for your broad bipartisan support last year of house bill three forty. There's a lot of work we do down here at at the education committee, some mundane, some like literacy, safety, learning that are incredibly important. And, mark this in in that category. From what I've seen so far of the early results, this has truly been life changing, for our schools and more importantly, our our students.

And it's really the impetus of why we bring you house bill 10 o nine today. On the bill itself, I'm gonna keep my comments short because we've got a a bunch of experts who are a lot smarter than me who are gonna testify. But since we've last spoken, 25 other states have ridden that wave nationwide of of what we've done. And Georgia, in our own way, we were unique. We stopped short of including high school, and frankly, I'm glad we did.

It allowed our folks to get adjusted, to this new policy, this new era, as I think all of the adults in the room have kinda woke it up to the fact that the pendulum has swung too far one way, and kids, in fact, do not learn when they are on their cell phone in class. And so, this is why we are here today to consider expanding this into high school. You'll see house bill 10 o nine, is a fairly simple bill and much of a replicate of what you saw last year. Just a couple minor changes, on lines 28. You'll see we eliminated e readers.

We've determined that a lot of these don't have two way communication device, and they are they are used in education. So we wanted to make sure to accept that piece of technology. Then if you go toward line 42 through 44, a question we get is around timeline. I thought this committee and their wisdom last year pushed it out to the start of this upcoming school year for grades k through eight. Likewise, this pushes it out to the start of 2728.

Once again, giving high schools in our state time to adapt, adjust, and appropriately communicate. This is important. I and a data point for this committee to consider is absent state law, roughly 20% of the state's high schools have already adopted a policy proactively on their own, which is a sign to me that we are moving in the right direction policy wise. Again, the schools this is begins with the the start of the 2728, school year. Another important line that the chairman brought to me and and several others, is on 54 through '56.

We understand that high school is a different set of dynamics, and so we wanted to make sure to exclude, kids who are in dual enrollment programs, work based learning, or other apprenticeship programs, the majority of which are or all of which are off campus. And so we wanna make sure that those students have that flexibility. That is the bill there. I I will address, kind of a common concern or question that I get, is around, okay, Scott. We have a bell to bell policy in this state.

Have we considered, going to instruction time only? And I'll share a data point that is revealing to me and hopefully this committee. Roughly, the states that have passed it right now, about 20 of those states have a bell to bell policy in place. Of the 20 that don't have a bell to bell policy, policy. Survey, 80% said that they were satisfied with a bell to bell policy while only 50% less than 50% were satisfied with a, instruction time policy.

The reason being is if by instruction time, we are not solving the issue. And the issue is we want teachers to teach and students to learn and our teachers not to be a cell phone police. If we have a policy that says instruction time, you're having to deal with the in and out and constant in and out of the cell phone, or if it's black and white, very simple. Beginning of the day, end of the day, kids get that. Teachers get that.

And it works for for schools, and it's highly effective. I'll leave you guys with this. I've been just blown away by the data so far. Georgia Southern, Emory University have all conducted studies, and the results are this. Grades are up, fights are down, test scores are up, and kids are interacting.

This is truly life changing work, what we're doing here today, and so I appreciate you guys' consideration. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Think who was who? Representative Rice, I think you were first blinking.

Yes. Thank you, chairman, for this bill. It's the results speak for themselves just as you, suggested a while ago, and you did mention one exception being with the dual enrollment students. And I will as author of the bill, I also wanna give you opportunity to speak for the exceptions on medical. We get some of the concerns on if there's a medical cause where a student would need a phone.

They could be great, to for you to be able to speak on that.

Absolutely. So I'm a parent of three school age children myself, one of which is on an IEP plan right now. And, as we did with house bill three forty, likewise, this bill, clearly lays out if you have a child who has special needs or any specific medical needs, we do, account for exceptions for those students. If you have a diabetes monitor or something where you absolutely need your phone, that absolutely makes sense. And so we accommodate those folks in house bill 10 o nine.

Thank

you. Chairman Tokas.

Thank you, ma'am. Madam chair, I would like to bring personal testimony in support of this legislation. Last year, I had two groups of school children. One of the groups had already implemented a bell to bell policy, and the other group had not. And, everything that you said, I witnessed firsthand last year in in the capital.

They were interactive. They they were asking questions and then and communicating with each other. The other group, they were running in the walls reading their stuff. I mean, it was amazing. So, at the appropriate time, madam chair.

K. We have a number of people, speaking to the bill today, so I will get back to you. Chairman Erwin.

Great. Thank you, chairwoman.

Chairman, thank you for your systematic study of this entire situation here and, and the data that you produced for us today. Talk to me, for a minute in your study how bullying is used by these phones during the school day.

Yeah. It's it's it's incredible. Kids are on social media. They're texting. They're arranging fights in the hallways and the bathrooms, and then they're filming those and putting those on the Internet.

And so, again, schools, Florida being one of the first states to implement a bell to bell cell phone free, they have a big study that came out of there. There. Again, the data showing that fights are down. So, this committee, I know we student safety is one of our our passion items. This absolutely speaks to that and and has has helped create a safer learning environment in our schools.

And Chairwoman, follow-up question.

Slightly.

If I could, chairman, you know, with that knowledge of bullying that you just gave me, is that why the bell to bell rather than allow during the in between class, the downtimes?

Absolutely. You know? And and, chairman Chok, is that your story was right on board. This is a a student safety bill. This is a mental health bill.

This is an academic bill. I I've visited my my son's high school the other day, and it was during the lunch period. And it just broke my heart to see a a table full of students, everyone looking down on their cell phone, not talking to each other. The pendulum has gone way too far one direction. We've gotta get kids interacting, socializing, having fun, playing a little flick football game, doing the things that we all used to do growing up, that helped us socialize and mature in the process.

Thank you. Representative Dana.

Thank you, representative, for this bill. Do we account for again, it's still an issue in in our community where we're concerned about safety. And, again, school shootings, when kids in that environment, the the phone has been a useful tool to communicate what's going on. That's still a concern. That's something that needs to be addressed.

Does this bill and any of the data address some of that?

It does. So there's a portion of the bill that speaks to, you know, an emergency situation. The school has to have a plan to reunite that child with their device so they could be in communication with their parent. I've talked to a number of student safe or public safety experts on three forty now on this legislation. And to a person, they all tell me an emergency situation, the last thing I want well, the first thing I want is my student focused on me, looking at my eyes, getting to a place where they need to be, and then afterwards, absolutely getting their phone back.

But but the safest outcome for that student is to be listening to directions, getting where they need to be. You know, heaven forbid, they're in a situation where their phone's going off and there's a shooter and that person identifies where they are at based on on that phone, signal. We want kids engaged and and get in the right direction. And then, again, like I said, as a dad, I wanna know as soon soon as possible, they get that cell phone back. But a lot of times, it jams up the the cell lines.

It's just not the thing you want in an emergency situation.

K. Thank you.

Representative Carter.

Thank you. So, you know, I I agree with this bill last year and I, you know, the the students came and advocated against it, and I and I thought it was nice seeing the kids. But here's my concern. In speaking with school board members and educators, the ones who have to make this decision, their concern is that it's really not solving a problem because it's making more work for the teachers. So with this policy bill to bill, will will as students come into the classrooms and leaving the classroom, is does this become additional management policy for teachers?

And, we dropping them off at beginning of each class? Are they dropping off at the beginning of the day? Because again, so we we've gotta go home and talk to our folk about this, and and this is the feedback that I'm I'm getting. I agree with you. They need to be focused.

I agree with you that, instruction is extremely important, especially when you have a live instructor in front of classroom. So help me with this.

Yeah. I'd refer you. So so Paige, professional association of educators, they, them along with Georgia Southern put together one of the most exhaustive studies I've seen of what teacher opinions are of this, and they are incredibly supportive and frankly a little upset with us that we didn't go to high school last year where where really the issue is. We wanna design it so that every school designs a program that works best for them. Grant Rivera, superintendent of Marietta, he shares a great story of so they use the pouches.

Right? But then they realized that, okay. Some kids were trying to get around a little bit. But when they implemented the pouch or a system, all of a sudden, it became kind of part of their culture that kids got used to it. You know, kids are resilient.

You know? Yeah. At first, they're they're not gonna like it. But the number of students that have come up to me post cell phone free classroom that has said, this is the you know, they're they love it because they're now getting what they may missed so much. It it's it's been a so when you go back to it may be a little painful at first, but they that culture's gonna be there, and they're they're gonna get

used to it, and they're gonna

the benefits far outweigh any inconveniences.

So was it you take it back to get in the school day or at each play?

No, ma'am. So, so bell to bell. So beginning of the day, you either wrap it in a pouch, you leave it at the front desk, whatever system works. And then at the end of the day, you you get it back. One one comment I got from somebody was, what about recruiters in college trying to or what about employers?

You know? Let me be honest. I I don't need a recruiter contacting my son at third period algebra when he needs to be learning algebra. You know? And so I think we've kinda got away from that.

You know? Is that and I find myself as a parent sometimes want text my kid in the middle of the day, and, I gotta you know? So it's an adjustment for us.

Right. Thank you.

Lepton of Lepton.

Thank you. Thank you, representative Hilton. And you and I have spoken about what a huge fan I am,

of this.

Two questions. In the study that was done, was did anything pop up about what is the most prominent or most effective way that the schools have found this? Did that did that study speak to that at all? Like, hey. This is the best process we found.

Yeah. Yeah.

And to would you consider, carrying a bill for a cell phone free legislature?

I've been asked to carry bills for cell phone free churches, cell phone free. Yeah.

Yeah. Again willing to sign that, by the way.

The the beauty of of having, let's get some mood lighting education committee after hours.

I'm really glad other people saw that. For a second, I thought, oh, I'm having some kind of episode.

Well, we'll, yes. So the data has shown that there like I said at the start, the real difference is bell to bell, instructional time. Over time and time again, bell to bell has been the best policy.

There there wasn't any, like, hey. 90% of schools use pouches or 70% use this. What what was that part of this?

I'm gonna let the the because I think we've got folks who have yeah.

Thank you. Yep.

Okay. And we do have a number of speakers. I am going to ask that you stay very close to one minute when, you speak because we do have to vacate this room. Our first speaker, I think Sharon Winkler, if you will come to the podium. Thank you so much.

I'd like to I'd like to introduce my son, Alex Pizer. Alex was 17 years old and a high and a junior in high school when he died by suicide influenced in part by cyberbullying. Alex

had

a keen intellect, mischievous humor, radiant spirit, and a loving heart. He was an honor roll student who was active in theater, band, his church youth group, and boy scouts. He had no history of mental health issues. Imagine being in school surrounded by recording devices that document every embarrassing moment you ever experience in school. Imagine then that those images are being spread on multiple social media platforms to all of your friends, your friends' friends, and everyone you know.

Then imagine your despair when you realize that none of your trusted adults have the power to stop the spread of these images and that the social media companies will not help you either. The re this is the reality that Georgia students face every day when cell phones are allowed in school. The Georgia Department of Education cites studies that found that smartphone bans in school result in a 43 to 46% in cyberbullying. You have the power to stop this destructive cycle. Please vote to forward HB one zero nine and extend the smartphone school ban to high schools.

George's parents, educators, and students will be so

grateful. Thank you. Thank thank you, miss Winkler, and and we are so sorry for your loss. That just breaks my heart to hear that. Margaret, Ciccarelli from Page, and then Miranda Thomas is will be next.

Good afternoon. I'm Margaret Ciccarelli from PAGE, the Professional Association of Georgia Educators representing about 94,000 educators statewide. And we're in strong support of this legislation because our members told us they need it. They need it. Throughout the fall, we we figured this question was coming.

And we also wanted to check-in with our members about how they felt about the k eight ban, which we are pleased that you passed last session. So we pulled our members, page members throughout the fall, received about 3,000 responses, and we asked them if they support, expanding the band. We asked them in that survey, but we also asked them in a collaborative survey, that we did with the Georgia Southern, University, College of Education, and I believe y'all have that survey in front of you.

It

is exclusively, devoted to educator opinion about cell phone use. And the reason the educator opinion is important is not because we always do the things that educators want us to do in schools. But in this case, they are the best view we have into the destructive nature of phones in schools. And they are strongly telling us by like 90% that they wish that we would extend extend the ban to high school grades. So a little bit why about more about why 87% indicate that student misuse of phones is a major distraction in their classroom.

They believe that it negatively impacts student focus at 95% and interferes with learning at 96%. Eighty eight percent indicate that student misuse of phones during the school day contributes to conflict and bullying. Georgia, is they support, they supported three forty at ninety percent rates. So Georgia educators and these and the Georgia Southern survey supported, support house bill three forty, the k eight ban at a 90% rate. And the number is 90% who agree that we should extend that to high school grades.

And on the issue of safety, which is on everyone's minds and you are wise to ask about. Fewer than 10% of educators in this survey believe that banning devices in high schools will compromise safety. Only 15% believe student access to phones improves safety. And more than 90%, reassuringly, are confident in their school's safety plan. Further in this survey, and I we don't have time to get into it, so I would just point you to table eight on page 13 for more information about educator opinion about various types of bans, if if you wanna review that.

We appreciate the opportunity to speak today on behalf of Georgia educators, would also refer refer you to Georgia Southern and doctor Abe Flanagan, who has done excellent research in this area, and we, stand with you to change the culture in schools.

Okay. Hold on just a second. Do you have a question of this speaker?

But it may be in this document. So if it's not, I would just

Exactly. Thank you, miss representative Carter. Okay.

After Miranda, our state school superintendent Richard Woods will be next.

Gosh. It's hard to go, after Margaret and before the superintendent. So I will be very brief. But hi, everyone. My name is Miranda Thomas, and I'm the Southeast Legislative Director for AccelAnet in Action.

And we appreciate the opportunity, to provide our support for h b ten o nine. Last year, h b three forty successfully removed cell phones from k through eight classrooms, and h b ten o nine simply extends that proven model to our high schools, aligning grades nine through 12 with the policies already working in k eight. As we saw under h b three forty, when phones are restricted bell to bell, students engage more deeply and classroom disruptions drop significantly. This bill gives our high school students the same focused learning environment we know already works, while maintaining exceptions for medical needs and off-site learning opportunities like work based learning. And since this came up earlier about discipline and fights in schools, I wanted to share some data from Orange County Public Schools in Florida.

They were one of the early implementers of these policies. And so first, the data shows that the further the phone is away from the student, the higher the GPA. So the further the phone is away from the student, the higher the GPA, whether that's doing homework or in classrooms. The other pieces of data that I wanted to share is that major

campus disruptions reduce were reduced

by a 100 and disruptions reduced were reduced by a 105% with

fighting down 31%. And get this,

and threats to the school reduced by a 158%. So this is some outstanding data, from Orange County Public Schools. But, subcommittee to pass HB 10 o nine.

Thank you. Thank you. Superintendent, before you take we'll let you talk as much as you want to. But, we have nine minutes to vote on this bill

And I

wanna pass. Before we have to leave the room. So let's all be as brief as we can be in our remarks.

Again, madam chair and members of the committee, appreciate, the opportunity to speak as representative Hilton. Once again, we come forward as myself and Department of Education to support this legislation. It is something we have been calling for for several years now, and we applaud this move, and to close the lap the gap between k k eight now to k 12. The data we are seeing currently, at the DOE for fully supports everything you have heard today. I do not see this as a cell phone restriction or, bill, but we're talking about academic and academic integrity and social, you know, support for our kids.

And I think that's what we have to look at. And with that, that being said, I think it is extremely important that for our districts, they do need to make sure that with the reunification process that they are aligned, that they probably need to have a drill and practice just to give assurance to our to our family members who are out there. But also it's important that we model what we expect. And that means that our teachers and administrators and all individuals need to make sure we preach practice what we preach. And I think that's something as we move forward.

But we do expect to see good data such as as what we're already seeing. And this year, as we look at the milestones, we will be able to have some data that will align and and I think we'll surely support this. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. Taki and and John from Solaris and then Julie Guesemarion. Guesemarion.

Doctor Julie. Yeah.

Thanks for having me. My name is Taki Skorris. I'm actually the manufacturer of the pouch that you have in front of you. And it you it's yours. All yours.

But we had two really good questions earlier. One was, one was, talked about how the teachers manage it, and then the other one was talking about, security, right, in in event of emergency. And so one of the three things that we or the three things that we really focused on when developing, this pouch was, one, it's gotta be super simple for the kids to use. And so what they would do, it'd be no different than, than a Chromebook or a case. They get assigned at the beginning of the year, and then it'd be with them throughout the entire year.

Two, we'd be making it super simple for the teachers to manage. They've already got way too much stuff on their plate. So for them, you would put it in the you put it in the pouch. You could either leave it in your locker. You could put it in your backpack.

You could put it in your, in your bag with, with your Chromebook or your laptop. And then, really the most important one is that safety piece. Like, you've gotta have, you've gotta have parents buy in. And one of the big things that we found over the past two years we're developing this is, you know, they are worried about the school shootings. They are worried about, you know, how can they get a hold of their kid, in the event of emergency.

So, the way this pouch is developed, it cuts off the signal so nothing can come through. But within seconds, they can lift it open, take out their phone, and can have contact with their, with their loved ones. That's it. Thank you guys very much. Thank you.

We are 100% in support of the the bill.

K. Thank

you. After, miss Gasmarion, Polly McKinney, and then Michael O'Sullivan.

Okay. Thank

you for the opportunity to testify. I'm trying to condense my five minutes down to one one minute. But I want I'm a professor of epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health. I've been in public health over forty years. And the last and I've been working with the school systems on many projects the last few years, specifically on cell phone use.

And I have data to share through a lot of the work we're doing in collaboration with the DOE, including statewide survey of district superintendents, educators, parents, and in-depth evaluations of specific school cell phone policies. And through all of this work, we have learned that high school cell phone restrictions improve teacher satisfaction, student focus, social connection, and mental well-being, as well as a number of a number of academic outcomes. Although parents' emergency concerns are understandable, they can be solved through a clear emergency communication protocol. And I have data to support all these statements that I'm I'm happy to share. Thank you.

Thank you. K. Let me remind you, we are running out of time. So please be extremely brief so that we have time to take this vote.

Okay. I'm Polly McKinney, advocacy director at Voices for Georgia's Children. We are in full support of this legislation. Everybody said everything that I had on all my notes and everything, except that the national data also back up all of the data that people have presented from more local sources. The the only thing that I have to add that I haven't actually heard is that in terms of enforcement, I think it'd be really important to make sure that the enforcement is is straight across the board.

And because preliminary data shows there are some disparities in enforcement with regards to, like, people's perceptions of other people. So that would be my only, little, like, implementation heads up, but we're fully in support of this bill. Thank

you. You. Michael Sullivan is waiting. Okay. Great.

I'm gonna go back to chairman Chokas for his motion.

Thank you, madam chair. I move do pass house bill one zero zero nine, l c four nine two five two seven.

Is there a second? We've got a motion and a second. Don't see any further discussion. So all those in favor, say aye. Aye.

Opposed? K. You are on to full. Congratulations.

Thank

you, madam chair. Thank you, committee. Thank you.

Oh, and also we have another group coming in. If I know y'all wanna chitchat but you can't do it in here. You've got to go. So this meeting is adjourned.