HB385: HB385 Education; allow academically successful students who are concurrently seeking certain degrees to use the full number of hours of HOPE scholarship eligibility; provisions

Under current Georgia law, a student's HOPE scholarship (a state-funded college award) generally stops once they earn a bachelor's or first professional degree, regardless of how many eligible hours they have left. This bill amends O.C.G.A. § 20-3-519.2 to create two exceptions. First, a student who keeps meeting HOPE's academic standards while working toward both a bachelor's degree and a first professional degree at the same time can keep using their remaining eligible hours. Second, a student who met those standards while earning a bachelor's degree and starts a graduate program within 18 months can also keep using remaining hours, as long as they continue meeting the standards. The bill also reduces a student's eligible hours for a first professional degree by however many hours they got through dual enrollment courses (college courses taken in high school) if those courses were paid for with state dual enrollment funds. The changes would take effect July 1, 2026, and apply starting with the 2027-2028 academic year.

• Lets students who keep meeting HOPE scholarship achievement standards while simultaneously pursuing a bachelor's degree and a first professional degree use their full remaining scholarship hours.
• Lets students who met HOPE standards while earning a bachelor's degree keep scholarship eligibility if they start a graduate program within 18 months and keep meeting the standards.
• Reduces the number of HOPE-eligible hours available for a first professional degree by the number of hours a student already used through state-funded dual enrollment courses.
• Sets the changes to take effect July 1, 2026, applying starting with the 2027-2028 academic year.
• Repeals any existing state laws that conflict with these new provisions.

Georgia college and graduate students who receive HOPE scholarships, particularly those pursuing combined bachelor's and first professional degrees or moving quickly into graduate school, as well as students who previously used state-funded dual enrollment courses in high school.

Students in combined degree programs or those advancing quickly to graduate school could keep receiving HOPE funding they would otherwise lose after finishing a first degree, potentially reducing their college costs, while past dual enrollment use could shrink the hours still available to them.

• Section 1 revises subsection (d) of O.C.G.A. § 20-3-519.2 so that earning a baccalaureate or first professional degree no longer automatically ends HOPE eligibility for two specified groups of students.
• The first exception covers students continuously meeting achievement standards while concurrently pursuing a baccalaureate degree and a first professional degree.
• The second exception covers students who met achievement standards earning a bachelor's degree and start a graduate program within 18 months, provided they keep meeting those standards.
• Eligible hours for a first professional degree under the new exceptions are reduced by any hours already covered through state-funded dual enrollment courses under O.C.G.A. § 20-2-161.3.
• Section 2 sets the effective date as July 1, 2026, applying beginning with the 2027-2028 academic year.
• Section 3 repeals conflicting laws.

1. 2026-02-25Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2. 2026-02-24House Passed/Adopted By Substitute (House)
3. 2026-02-24House Third Readers (House)
4. 2026-02-12House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
5. 2025-04-04House Withdrawn, Recommitted (House)
6. 2025-02-27House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
7. 2025-02-13House Second Readers (House)
8. 2025-02-12House First Readers (House)

• Scott Holcomb (D, HD-101)Primary sponsor
• Carter Barrett (R, HD-024)

1. PassedHouse voteFebruary 24, 2026

   160 yea, 2 nay (3 not voting, 12 absent)

   Passage: House Vote #549

• HOPE scholarship
• college financial aid
• graduate school
• education funding
• dual enrollment