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House · Introduced · 2025-2026 Regular Session

HB 1113: Georgia Defined Contribution Plan; exclude part-time students from membership

Last action February 12, 2026 · House Committee Favorably Reported

House Bill 1113 would change Georgia's Defined Contribution Plan law so that part-time students working for the state, not just full-time students, are excluded from joining the retirement plan.

Read the full bill text

These buttons carry the bill's own text, not the summaries below. Copy for LLM, View as markdown, and Send to AI use the Markdown version: the text as filed, then the summaries under a heading that names them as ours. View raw is the text alone.

The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Introduced version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.

In plain language

Georgia's Defined Contribution Plan is a retirement savings plan for state employees who are not part of another public retirement system. Current law already excludes full-time students working for a school, college, or state institution from counting as an 'employee' eligible for the plan. This bill amends O.C.G.A. § 47-22-1 to add part-time students to that exclusion. Under the change, any person performing services for an institution while duly enrolled as a part-time or full-time student would not be considered an employee for purposes of this retirement plan, meaning they could not join or accrue benefits in it. The bill repeals any conflicting laws but does not state a specific effective date beyond the standard process for bills becoming law.

What the bill does

  • Amends the definition of 'employee' in the Georgia Defined Contribution Plan law (O.C.G.A. § 47-22-1) to add part-time students to the existing exclusion for full-time students.
  • Prevents part-time students working for a state institution from being counted as plan members or accruing retirement benefits under this specific plan.
  • Leaves the existing exclusions for independent contractors and state board or commission members unchanged.
  • Repeals any prior laws that conflict with this new exclusion.

Who it affects

Part-time students who work for state institutions, the State Board of Education, or the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia while enrolled in classes, since they would no longer be eligible for this retirement plan. State agencies and universities managing student employment and payroll would also apply the updated definition.

Why it matters

Part-time student workers at Georgia state institutions would be treated the same as full-time student workers: excluded from the Georgia Defined Contribution Plan. This could affect payroll deductions and retirement benefit eligibility for students who work part time while attending school.

Key provisions

  • Section 1 rewrites the definition section of the plan (O.C.G.A. § 47-22-1) to insert 'part-time or' before 'full-time student' in the exclusion for students performing services for an institution.
  • The definitions for 'accumulated contributions,' 'board,' 'defined contribution plan,' 'employer,' 'member,' and 'plan year' remain unchanged from current law.
  • Section 2 repeals any laws or parts of laws that conflict with this Act.

From the bill

“A person performing services for an institution in which such person is duly enrolled as a <ins>part-time or</ins> full-time student;”

This is the amended language, but note the tag; the enacted text reads 'part-time or full-time student' as the new exclusion.

Discussed in meetings (6)

The House and Senate meetings that took this bill up, from their machine transcripts. Each account was written by Georgia Commons with AI and is not part of the record; the video is what was said.

  1. House Retirement Committee, February 10, 2026

    From 0:14:18 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 1113 would exclude part-time students from membership in the Georgia Defined Contribution Plan, matching the existing exclusion for full-time students and current administrative practice. A Technical College System of Georgia witness said the discrepancy surfaced during the state's move to Workday and affected part-time federal work-study students. The witness said technical colleges requested the change because many of their students attend part time. Another witness clarified that the bill concerns one specific mandatory savings plan for certain part-time and seasonal employees, not retirement plans generally. In response to questions about temporary work and payroll deductions, the sponsor said the change would reduce administrative work and eliminate withholding for students working limited hours. The committee approved the bill by voice vote, with no opposition heard.

  2. House Rules Committee, February 18, 2026

    From 0:32:37 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 1113 would exclude part-time students from the Georgia Defined Contribution Plan, extending an exclusion already available to full-time students. The sponsor described this as a small administrative change. A committee member asked whether the exclusion would cover work-study students, and the sponsor confirmed that it would. No vote was shown.

  3. Senate Higher Education Committee, March 24, 2026

    From 0:11:40 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 1113 would exclude part-time student workers from membership in the Georgia Defined Contribution Plan, extending an exclusion already written into law for full-time students. The sponsor described it as an agency bill for the Technical College System of Georgia. A committee member asked whether part-time student workers currently receive retirement benefits. The sponsor confirmed that they already do not and said the bill would align the law with existing practice. The chair reported no public comment and deferred separate action. The provisions were later included in the combined substitute for HB 1413, which the committee unanimously recommended as amended.

  4. House Higher Education Committee, April 1, 2026

    From 0:28:12 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair identified HB 1113 as the source of language excluding part-time as well as full-time work-study students from retirement-system participation in the combined package. The chair said the Technical College System of Georgia requested the change and that the retirement system had signed off. When a member asked why part-time students were being added, the chair said the students would not remain employed long enough to vest, making contributions an unsuitable use of student or state funds. The chair also questioned whether the clarification was necessary, expressing the understanding that part-time employees were already excluded. In response to another procedural question, the chair confirmed that the language had passed the House Retirement Committee, rather than this committee. No separate vote was taken on HB 1113.

Status timeline

  1. 2026-02-12House Committee Favorably Reported (House)
  2. 2026-02-03House Second Readers (House)
  3. 2026-02-02House First Readers (House)
  4. 2026-01-29House Hopper (House)

Sponsors

  • Carter Barrett (R, HD-24)Primary sponsor
  • Chuck Martin (R, HD-49)
  • Rick Jasperse (R, HD-11)
  • Brent Cox (R, HD-28)
  • Debbie Buckner (D, HD-137)

Topics

  • state employee retirement
  • Georgia Defined Contribution Plan
  • student workers
  • public pension eligibility

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