HB888: HB888 Education; in-state tuition for postsecondary education for certain noncitizen students; provide

Currently, Georgia law generally blocks noncitizen students from being classified as in-state for tuition purposes at University System of Georgia schools unless the Board of Regents finds specific evidence to support it. This bill rewrites that standard for the University System and adds a brand-new, similar rule for the Technical College System of Georgia, which previously had no such provision. Under the bill, a noncitizen student could get in-state tuition if they earned a high school diploma or GED-equivalent in Georgia, are legally authorized to work in the state, have lived in Georgia (or had a parent who has) since January 1, 2020, have no felony or serious misdemeanor conviction, and are applying to a school that admitted all academically qualified applicants for the past two years. Lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees may already be treated like U.S. citizens for this purpose, while certain international students on temporary visas remain ineligible.

• Rewrites Georgia's in-state tuition eligibility rule for noncitizen students at University System of Georgia schools (O.C.G.A. § 20-3-66), replacing board discretion with a specific five-part checklist.
• Adds a brand-new subsection to the Technical College System of Georgia tuition law (O.C.G.A. § 20-4-21) creating the same five-condition path to in-state tuition, which did not previously exist there.
• Requires applicants to show they earned a Georgia high school diploma or state-approved GED equivalent and are legally authorized to work in the state.
• Sets a residency test requiring the student (or their parent, if the student is a dependent) to have lived in Georgia continuously since January 1, 2020.
• Bars anyone convicted of a felony or a 'high and aggravated misdemeanor' (a serious misdemeanor charge under Georgia law) from qualifying.
• Limits eligibility to students applying to schools that accepted all academically qualified applicants for the past two years, and keeps certain temporary-visa international students ineligible.

Noncitizen students seeking college or technical school in Georgia, their families, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, and the State Board of the Technical College System of Georgia, which would administer the new eligibility rules for tuition classification.

For noncitizen students who grew up in Georgia, qualifying as in-state instead of out-of-state or international can mean paying thousands of dollars less per year in tuition. The bill would extend that possibility to technical college students for the first time and set clearer, more specific criteria for university students.

• Section 1 revises O.C.G.A. § 20-3-66(e) to replace the current discretionary Board of Regents standard with a defined five-factor test for noncitizen in-state tuition eligibility.
• Section 1 also keeps existing language allowing lawful permanent residents, refugees, and asylees to be treated like citizens, and excluding certain nonimmigrant visa holders.
• Section 2 adds a new subsection (e) to O.C.G.A. § 20-4-21 applying an identical five-factor eligibility test to Technical College System of Georgia tuition classification.
• Section 3 repeals any conflicting laws, a standard clause clearing away inconsistent prior statutes.

1. 2025-04-04House Second Readers (House)
2. 2025-04-02House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-03-31House Hopper (House)

• Kasey Carpenter (R, HD-004)Primary sponsor

• in-state tuition
• immigration and education
• college affordability
• technical colleges
• noncitizen students