HB 989: Education; public comment periods during meetings of local boards of education; provide

Georgia law already requires local school boards to meet monthly and allows for public meetings to be open, but the current detailed rules for public comment periods are scattered and less specific. This bill rewrites O.C.G.A. § 20-2-58 to move and expand those rules. It requires local boards of education to hold a public comment period during every regular monthly meeting, and gives them the option to hold one during other meetings too. It requires that period be recorded or broadcast in the same way and to the same extent as the rest of the public meeting, including through webcasting. The bill keeps the rule that a board cannot require more than 24 hours' notice from someone who wants to speak, and keeps the board chairperson's discretion to limit how long people can speak and how many people can speak on each side of an issue. Public comment periods for monthly meetings must appear on the posted meeting agenda. The bill also broadens who can be removed for disrupting a meeting from 'members of the public' to any 'person.'

• Requires local boards of education to hold a public comment period during every regular monthly meeting, not just as a general practice but as a written legal requirement.
• Allows, but does not require, a public comment period at other (non-monthly) board meetings.
• Requires that any public comment period be recorded or broadcast in the same manner and to the same extent as the rest of the public meeting, including via webcasting.
• Keeps the existing 24-hour notice limit, barring boards from requiring more advance notice from someone who wants to speak.
• Keeps the chairperson's discretion to limit the length and number of individual comments during public comment periods.
• Broadens the disruption-removal rule from covering 'members of the public' to covering any 'person,' and moves this requirement into the open-meetings subsection.

Local boards of education across Georgia, school district administrators who run board meetings, and members of the public, including parents, students, and community members, who want to speak at or watch school board meetings in person or online.

Georgians who want to address their local school board would have a guaranteed opportunity to speak at every monthly meeting, and that comment period would have to be recorded or streamed just like the rest of the meeting, making public input and board reactions to it part of the public record rather than something that could go unrecorded.

• Section 1 revises O.C.G.A. § 20-2-58 to remove the old public comment language from subsection (a) and rebuild it in more detail within subsection (c).
• New subsection (c)(3)(A) requires a public comment period at every regular monthly meeting and permits one at other meetings.
• New subsection (c)(3)(B) requires public comment periods to be recorded or broadcast the same way as the rest of the public meeting.
• New subsection (c)(3)(C) bars boards from requiring more than 24 hours' notice before someone may speak during public comment.
• New subsection (c)(3)(D) preserves the chairperson's power to limit comment length and the number of speakers on each side of an issue.
• New subsection (c)(3)(E) requires public comment periods for monthly meetings to be listed on the posted meeting agenda.
• Subsection (c)(2) is expanded to explicitly permit broadcasting, including webcasting, at public meetings and during public comment periods.
• Section 2 repeals any conflicting laws.

1. 2026-01-27House Second Readers (House)
2. 2026-01-16House First Readers (House)
3. 2026-01-15House Hopper (House)

• David Wilkerson (D, HD-038)Primary sponsor
• Mekyah McQueen (D, HD-061)
• Solomon Adesanya (D, HD-043)
• Mary Williams (D, HD-037)
• Jordan Ridley (R, HD-022)
• Lisa Campbell (D, HD-035)

• school board meetings
• public comment
• open meetings
• education policy
• government transparency