SB82: SB82 "Local Charter School Authorization and Support Act of 2025"; enact

Georgia charter schools can currently be approved either by a local school board or, if the local board denies a petition, by the State Charter Schools Commission at the state level. This bill, the 'Local Charter School Authorization and Support Act of 2025,' directs the State Board of Education and the State Charter Schools Commission to build a program encouraging local boards to approve charter petitions themselves rather than have them go to the state. Local boards that approve a new local charter school after June 30, 2025 would get a $250,000 incentive grant each year for three years, subject to available state funding, to help pay for oversight and compliance costs. If a local board denies a petition that the state commission later approves, it must publish a written explanation, and boards that deny too many petitions could lose their ability to renew special 'charter system' status for up to three years. The Office of Charter School Compliance must also write new guidelines for evaluating petitions. Most of these accountability provisions expire automatically on July 1, 2035, and the law takes effect once signed by the Governor.

• Creates a grant program paying local school boards $250,000 per year for three years for each new local charter school petition they approve after June 30, 2025.
• Requires local boards that deny a charter petition to publish a written statement within 20 business days explaining the denial and detailing school choice options and academic performance in the area.
• Blocks local school systems from renewing their 'charter system' status for up to three years if they deny two or more (or three or more, for larger districts) local charter petitions that the State Charter Schools Commission later approves.
• Directs the Office of Charter School Compliance to write and publish new statewide guidelines and a standardized rubric for evaluating charter petitions.
• Changes the state board's annual charter school report deadline to December 31 and expands which legislative committees receive it.
• Sets most of the new accountability and incentive provisions to automatically repeal on July 1, 2035.

Local school boards and school districts across Georgia that authorize charter schools, charter school petitioners and organizers, the State Board of Education, the State Charter Schools Commission, the Office of Charter School Compliance, and the Department of Education, which will administer the new grant program.

Local school boards would face financial incentives to approve charter petitions themselves and real consequences, including losing charter system renewal rights, if they deny petitions the state later approves. This changes the practical calculus for whether charter schools get authorized locally or by the state.

• Section 3 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 20-2-2064 to require denied petitions to be explained in writing within 20 business days and published online within three days by the Office of Charter School Compliance.
• Section 3 penalizes local school systems that deny two or more (or three or more for districts over 60,000 students) local charter petitions later approved by the state commission, barring charter system renewal for up to three years.
• Section 3 exempts systems whose charter contracts expire on or before July 1, 2025 from the penalty until their new contract term begins.
• Section 4 creates new Code Section 20-2-2064.2 establishing the $250,000-per-year, three-year incentive grant for boards approving new local charter petitions, reduced proportionally if funding is insufficient.
• Section 4 limits incentive grants to new charter petitions only, not renewals of existing charter schools, and lets grant money be used for authorizer staffing, compliance monitoring, and training.
• Section 5 requires the Office of Charter School Compliance to publish new evaluation guidelines, including a standardized rubric and public hearing procedures, for local boards reviewing charter petitions.
• Section 6 changes the state board's annual charter school report deadline to no later than December 31 and adds legislative committees as recipients.
• Section 7 makes the Act effective immediately upon the Governor's signature or becoming law without signature.

1. 2025-04-28Effective Date 2025-04-28
2. 2025-04-28Act 15
3. 2025-04-28Senate Date Signed by Governor (Senate)
4. 2025-04-10Senate Sent to Governor (Senate)
5. 2025-04-04Senate Agreed House Amend or Sub (Senate)
6. 2025-03-31House Passed/Adopted By Substitute (House)
7. 2025-03-31House Third Readers (House)
8. 2025-03-21House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)

• Clint Dixon (R, SD-045)Primary sponsor
• Steve Gooch (R, SD-051)
• Jason Anavitarte (R, SD-031)
• Chuck Payne (R, SD-054)
• Matt Brass (R, SD-006)
• Shawn Still (R, SD-048)
• Bo Hatchett (R, SD-050)
• Scott Hilton (R, HD-048)

1. PassedSenate voteMarch 6, 2025

   44 yea, 9 nay (1 not voting, 2 absent)

   Passage By Substitute: Senate Vote #194

2. PassedHouse voteMarch 31, 2025

   107 yea, 62 nay (3 not voting, 8 absent)

   Passage: House Vote #352

3. PassedSenate voteApril 4, 2025

   44 yea, 10 nay (1 not voting, 1 absent)

   Agree To House Substitute: Senate Vote #479

• charter schools
• education funding
• school boards
• K-12 education policy