HB 1352: Student Character Development Act; enact

Georgia law currently does not set statewide rules for so-called released time programs, where students leave public school to take religious or moral instruction courses run by outside individuals or organizations. This bill, called the Student Character Development Act, requires every local school district (local education agency) to adopt a policy by August 1, 2026 letting students attend these released time courses for at least one hour per school week. The policy must require parental consent, attendance record-sharing with the school, and that the outside organization handle transportation and take full responsibility for students during the course. Courses generally cannot be held on school property unless the district already opens its facilities to community groups on equal terms. Districts may choose to award academic credit for completed courses, but only using secular, non-religious criteria similar to those used for other courses. Students attending these courses cannot be marked absent, and the Department of Education must help districts avoid losing state or federal funding over student participation, and must publish model policies. The law would take effect as soon as the Governor signs it.

• Requires every Georgia local school district to adopt a policy by August 1, 2026 allowing students to attend outside religious moral instruction (released time) courses at least one hour per school week.
• Requires parental written consent, attendance record sharing with the school, and outside-organization responsibility for transportation and student safety during the course.
• Bars released time courses from being held on school property unless the district already opens facilities to community groups under a neutral equal-access policy.
• Allows but does not require districts to award academic credit for completed released time courses, evaluated only on secular criteria such as instruction hours, syllabus, assessment methods, and instructor qualifications.
• Prohibits counting a student as absent while attending a released time course and puts the responsibility for missed schoolwork on the student.
• Directs the Department of Education to protect districts' state and federal funding levels regardless of participation and to publish model policies for districts to use.

Public school students and their parents or guardians, local school districts and their boards, outside individuals or organizations offering religious moral instruction courses, and the Georgia Department of Education, which must issue model policies and safeguard school funding.

Students could regularly leave school for religious instruction without being marked absent or losing school funding for their district, and some could earn academic credit for it. Districts would face a new mandate to create these policies, and outside organizations would take on responsibility for student safety and transportation during the courses.

• Section 2 adds new Code Section 20-2-692.5, requiring local education agencies to adopt a released time policy by August 1, 2026 covering at least one hour per school week.
• Subsection (b) sets conditions including parental consent, attendance recordkeeping, transportation responsibility, and a cap on local funds spent beyond academic credit purposes.
• Subsection (b)(6) restricts released time courses from being held on public school property except under a neutral equal-access policy already open to community groups.
• Subsection (c) allows optional academic credit for released time courses, judged only by secular criteria such as instruction hours, syllabus, assessment, and instructor qualifications.
• Subsection (d) specifies that students attending a released time course are not considered absent from school.
• Subsection (e) directs the Department of Education to protect state and federal funding levels for participating districts and to create model policies and procedures.
• Section 3 makes the Act effective immediately upon the Governor's signature or upon becoming law without signature.

1. 2026-02-19House Second Readers (House)
2. 2026-02-18House First Readers (House)
3. 2026-02-17House Hopper (House)

• Scott Hilton (R, HD-048)Primary sponsor
• Todd Jones (R, HD-025)
• Johnny Chastain (R, HD-007)
• Matthew Gambill (R, HD-015)
• James Burchett (R, HD-176)

• religious education in schools
• school attendance policy
• academic credit rules
• local school district policy
• Georgia education law