Georgia CommonsHouse · Introduced · 2025-2026 Regular Session
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
Last action March 3, 2026 · House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute
A House bill would require Georgia's juvenile court clerks to track and report data on fines, fees, and other monetary sanctions imposed on juvenile offenders, feeding it into a statewide database.
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 Comm Sub version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.
In plain language
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.
What the bill does
- 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.
Who it affects
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.
Why it matters
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.
Key provisions
- 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.
From the bill
“Each clerk of the juvenile court shall collect the following information for each child in need of services, delinquent child, and child accused of a misdemeanor or felony offense”
“Disposition of the case, including any monetary sanctions which may include, but are not limited to, fines, fees, court costs, and restitution”
“such upload shall occur no less than once per week”
Discussed in meetings (5)
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.
House Judiciary Juvenile Committee, March 2, 2026
From 0:21:48 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel
Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 1429 would require reporting sentences, monetary sanctions and collection status without changing sentencing rules. Asked why amounts matter, the sponsor cited collection costs of 41 cents per dollar in Texas and $1.17 per dollar in New Mexico, and said data could help compare fines with alternatives such as community service. One member proposed adding age and court jurisdiction and questioned whether reporting should begin only after final adjudication, rather than include accused children. The chair and an Administrative Office of the Courts representative said the broader collection language already exists in law; the chair said sanction information would not be available before disposition. The member remained concerned about the scope. The representative said the substitute aligned reporting language with other requirements. Members identified April 15, 2027, and annually thereafter as the deadline for the office to compile data. Another member urged attention to rehabilitation and burdens on parents. A further member wanted underlying problems addressed alongside data collection. The chair favored collecting evidence before proposing changes. A Deep Center witness supported the bill, saying records requests to superior courts in all 159 counties had often failed to obtain information about youth fines and fees. The committee approved the age and court-jurisdiction amendment, then passed the substitute as amended by voice vote, with no opposition heard.
House Rules Committee, March 4, 2026
From 0:38:03 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel
Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said HB 1429 would require juvenile courts to report sentences, monetary fines and fees, and whether those amounts were collected. The sponsor described the change as a way to improve clarity and transparency. No questions or decision followed.
Status timeline
- House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
- House Second Readers (House)
- House First Readers (House)
- House Hopper (House)
Sponsors
- Bethany Ballard (R, HD-147)
- Beth Camp (R, HD-135)
- Rick Townsend (R, HD-179)
- Carmen Rice (R, HD-139)
- Esther Panitch (D, HD-51)
Topics
- juvenile justice
- court fines and fees
- data reporting
- school safety
- court transparency