SB 438: Education; the beginning age for compulsory school attendance from six years to five years; reduce

Under current Georgia law, children must attend school starting at age six, and school districts may, but are not required to, offer full-day kindergarten. This bill lowers the compulsory attendance age to five and changes local kindergarten programs from optional to mandatory, meaning every local school system would have to offer a full-day kindergarten program. The bill also requires that, except as otherwise provided by law, all children attend a full-day kindergarten program for one school year before enrolling in first grade. It updates related sections of Georgia's education code (O.C.G.A. §§ 20-2-150, 20-2-151, and 20-2-690.1) to reflect the new age threshold for compulsory attendance and enrollment eligibility. The bill would not take effect automatically. It only becomes law once the General Assembly passes a specific budget line item funding it in a General Appropriations Act.

• Lowers the age at which school attendance becomes legally required from six to five years old.
• Changes local school systems' kindergarten offerings from optional ("may offer") to mandatory ("shall offer") a full-day kindergarten program.
• Requires all children, with limited exceptions, to attend a full-day kindergarten program for one school year before enrolling in first grade.
• Updates the enrollment eligibility rule so children enrolled 20 or more days before their fifth birthday, instead of seventh, become subject to compulsory attendance rules.
• Ties the entire law's effectiveness to a future state budget appropriation specifically funding it, so it does not take effect on its own.

Families with five-year-old children, local school systems that must now offer full-day kindergarten, public school administrators managing enrollment and compulsory attendance enforcement, and state budget writers who would need to appropriate funding before the law applies.

If funded, families would need to enroll children in school a year earlier than current law requires, and every district would have to provide full-day kindergarten rather than half-day or no kindergarten. Districts without full-day programs would need to create them, affecting staffing and space.

• Section 1 amends O.C.G.A. § 20-2-150 so children enrolled before their fifth birthday, instead of seventh, become subject to compulsory attendance rules.
• Section 2 amends O.C.G.A. § 20-2-151 to change kindergarten offerings from permissive to mandatory and requires all children to attend a full year of full-day kindergarten before first grade.
• Section 3 amends O.C.G.A. § 20-2-690.1 to lower the compulsory attendance starting age from six to five.
• Section 4 makes the entire Act contingent on the General Assembly passing a specific budget appropriation naming this Act before it takes effect.
• Section 5 repeals conflicting laws.

1. 2026-02-02Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2. 2026-01-29Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Chuck Payne (R, SD-054)Primary sponsor
• Billy Hickman (R, SD-004)
• Chuck Hufstetler (R, SD-052)
• Max Burns (R, SD-023)
• Shawn Still (R, SD-048)
• Marty Harbin (R, SD-016)

• compulsory school attendance
• kindergarten
• education funding
• public schools
• Georgia education law