SB 20: Veterinarians; student loan repayment; who practice shelter medicine and in nonprofit pet sterilization clinics; provide; create the State Veterinary Education Board for Shelter Medicine and Pet Sterilization

Georgia already lets the children of law enforcement officers, firefighters and prison guards killed or disabled in the line of duty receive tuition grants funded partly through income tax and driver's license donations. This bill extends that program to spouses of those workers, adds emergency medical technicians and Department of Transportation highway emergency response operators to the list of covered occupations, and raises the maximum grant from $2,000 a year (capped at $8,000 total) to $18,000 a year (capped at $72,000 total). It also creates a brand-new, parallel tuition grant for children and spouses of public school teachers and employees killed or permanently disabled by an act of violence while on duty. Separately, the bill overhauls the State Veterinary Education Board, adding two new members representing animal shelters and pet sterilization clinics, allowing the board to create committees, and letting it run a majority-vote quorum. It creates a new loan repayment program, funded by state appropriations, that pays up to $75,000 toward the student loans of veterinarians who work full time in shelter medicine or nonprofit pet sterilization clinics, at a rate of $25,000 per year of service, limited to four new contracts per year. Most of these changes take effect January 1, 2026.

• Expands the existing Public Safety Memorial Grant to cover spouses, not just children, of eligible public safety workers killed or permanently disabled on duty.
• Adds emergency medical technicians and Department of Transportation highway emergency response operators to the list of workers whose families qualify for the tuition grant.
• Raises the maximum annual tuition grant from $2,000 to $18,000 and the lifetime cap from $8,000 to $72,000.
• Creates a new tuition grant program for children and spouses of public school teachers and employees killed or permanently disabled by an act of violence while on duty, with the same $18,000 annual and $72,000 lifetime caps.
• Adds two new appointed members to the State Veterinary Education Board representing animal shelters and pet sterilization clinics, and lets the board create committees.
• Establishes a new loan repayment program paying veterinarians up to $75,000, at $25,000 per year of service, for working full time in shelter medicine or nonprofit pet sterilization clinics, capped at four new contracts a year.

Spouses and children of law enforcement officers, firefighters, prison guards, emergency medical technicians, and highway emergency response operators killed or disabled on the job; public school teachers and employees and their families; the Georgia Student Finance Authority; the State Veterinary Education Board; and veterinarians who work in animal shelters or nonprofit spay/neuter clinics.

Surviving spouses, not just children, of public safety workers could now get help paying for college, and grant amounts would more than double. Families of school employees hurt by violence would gain a new benefit. Veterinarians willing to work in shelters or low-cost sterilization clinics, jobs that often pay less, could get significant help paying off student loans, which could affect staffing at Georgia's animal shelters.

• Section 1-1 updates the income tax return and driver's license donation programs (O.C.G.A. § 20-3-316.2) to include spouses and public school victims of violence, and moves the start date to 2026.
• Section 2-3 raises the per-year grant cap from $2,000 to $18,000 and the total lifetime cap from $8,000 to $72,000 under the existing Public Safety Memorial Grant (O.C.G.A. § 20-3-452).
• Section 2-2 adds emergency medical technicians and highway emergency response operators to the definitions used for grant eligibility (O.C.G.A. § 20-3-451).
• Section 3-1 creates a new Subpart 7C (O.C.G.A. § 20-3-466) granting up to $18,000 per year, capped at $72,000, to children and spouses of public school teachers and employees killed or disabled by an act of violence on duty.
• Section 4-2 adds two new appointed members to the State Veterinary Education Board representing animal shelters and pet sterilization practice, and allows the board to form committees and act by majority vote instead of a fixed three-member threshold.
• Section 4-3 creates a new Part 6B (O.C.G.A. §§ 20-3-518.8 through 20-3-518.11) letting the board purchase student loans, up to $75,000 per veterinarian at $25,000 per year of service, for those working full time in shelter medicine or nonprofit pet sterilization clinics, limited to four new agreements per year and requiring a three-year service contract.
• Section 4-2 requires the board to keep separate funding accounts for the existing veterinary loan program and the new shelter medicine and sterilization loan program.

1. 2025-07-01Effective Date
2. 2025-05-14Act 304
3. 2025-05-14Senate Date Signed by Governor (Senate)
4. 2025-04-10Senate Sent to Governor (Senate)
5. 2025-04-04Senate Agreed House Amend or Sub (Senate)
6. 2025-04-02House Passed/Adopted By Substitute (House)
7. 2025-04-02House Third Readers (House)
8. 2025-04-02House Withdrawn, Recommitted (House)

• Kay Kirkpatrick (R, SD-32)Primary sponsor
• Carden Summers (R, SD-13)
• Chuck Payne (R, SD-54)
• Lee Anderson (R, SD-24)
• Elena Parent (D, SD-44)
• Scott Hilton (R, HD-48)

1. PassedSenate voteMarch 3, 2025

   54 yea, 2 nay

   PASSAGE BY SUBSTITUTE: Senate Vote #116

2. PassedHouse voteApril 2, 2025

   160 yea, 5 nay (2 not voting, 13 excused)

   PASSAGE: House Vote #399

3. PassedSenate voteApril 4, 2025

   50 yea, 2 nay (2 not voting, 2 excused)

   AGREE TO HOUSE SUBSTITUTE: Senate Vote #450

• veterinarian loan repayment
• tuition grants for first responders' families
• animal shelters
• school violence benefits
• public safety survivor benefits