HB 1429: Courts; juvenile court clerks collect and submit data regarding monetary sanctions assessed for juvenile offenders to the Administrative Office of the Courts; require

Georgia law already requires juvenile court clerks to collect certain case information, but it does not currently require detailed tracking of monetary sanctions imposed on young people in the juvenile justice system. This bill amends O.C.G.A. § 15-11-64 to require clerks to collect and report additional data for every child accused of a delinquent act, a misdemeanor, or a felony, or found in need of services. The new data includes the child's sex, age, race, offense charged, whether the offense happened in a school safety zone, the referral source, the case disposition, and details about any fines, fees, court costs, or restitution imposed and their collection status. Clerks must upload this data into the Georgia Juvenile Data Exchange at least once a week. The Administrative Office of the Courts must compile the data into a public report by April 15, 2027, and every year after that.

• Requires juvenile court clerks to collect ten specific data points, including sex, age, race, offense, and school safety zone location, for each juvenile case.
• Requires clerks to report the type and amount of monetary sanctions imposed, such as fines, court costs, and restitution, plus their collection status.
• Requires weekly data uploads into the Georgia Juvenile Data Exchange, the state's juvenile case database.
• Requires the Administrative Office of the Courts to compile the data into a public report by April 15, 2027, and annually after that.

Juvenile court clerks statewide, who must collect and submit the new data; the Administrative Office of the Courts, which must build and publish the compiled reports; and juvenile offenders and their families, whose case and financial penalty information will be tracked in the state database.

The bill would create a public, statewide record of how often and how much Georgia juvenile courts impose fines, fees, and restitution on children, including whether those sanctions are actually collected. This could reveal patterns in how monetary penalties are used across the juvenile justice system.

• Section 1 adds subsection (e) to O.C.G.A. § 15-11-64, listing ten data points juvenile court clerks must collect for each case, including offense location and school safety zone status (O.C.G.A. § 16-11-127.1).
• Section 1 also requires clerks to report the disposition of each case, including monetary sanctions such as fines, fees, court costs, and restitution, and the sentence imposed.
• New subsection (f) requires data uploads into the Georgia Juvenile Data Exchange at least once per week.
• Subsection (f) requires the Administrative Office of the Courts to compile and publicly release the data annually starting April 15, 2027.
• Section 2 repeals any conflicting laws.

1. 2026-03-03House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
2. 2026-02-26House Second Readers (House)
3. 2026-02-25House First Readers (House)
4. 2026-02-24House Hopper (House)

• Bethany Ballard (R, HD-147)Primary sponsor
• Beth Camp (R, HD-135)
• Rick Townsend (R, HD-179)
• Carmen Rice (R, HD-139)
• Esther Panitch (D, HD-051)

• juvenile justice
• court fines and fees
• data reporting
• school safety
• court transparency