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Senate · Engrossed · 2025-2026 Regular Session

SB 471: Education; requires a student to wear a face mask or face covering while present on school property; eliminate automatic repeal provision

Last action March 6, 2026 · House Second Readers

A Georgia Senate bill would make permanent a 2022 law that bars schools from requiring students to wear face masks unless parents can opt their child out, by removing the law's built-in expiration date.

Read the full bill text

These buttons carry the bill's own text, not the summaries below. Copy for LLM, View as markdown, and Send to AI use the Markdown version: the text as filed, then the summaries under a heading that names them as ours. View raw is the text alone.

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 Engrossed version, the latest the General Assembly's website lists.

In plain language

In 2022, the Georgia General Assembly passed a law (Ga. L. 2022, p. 23/SB 514) saying that local school boards, superintendents, and school staff cannot make or enforce a rule requiring students to wear a face mask or face covering on school property unless the rule lets a parent or guardian opt their child out. That 2022 law included a provision that would have caused it to automatically expire at a later date. SB 471 amends that 2022 law by repealing and reserving Section 6, which was the automatic repeal provision. Removing that section means the mask opt-out protections no longer have a built-in end date and would continue to apply to Georgia public schools indefinitely, unless changed by future legislation.

What the bill does

  • Amends the 2022 law on school mask rules by repealing Section 6, which was the provision setting an automatic future repeal date.
  • Leaves in place the underlying rule that local school boards and staff cannot require masks unless parents can opt their child out.
  • Makes the parental opt-out protection permanent rather than temporary, since it no longer has a built-in expiration.
  • Repeals any other Georgia laws that conflict with this change.

Who it affects

Local school boards of education, school superintendents, and other school administrators, teachers, and staff who set rules about face coverings, as well as students and their parents or guardians in Georgia's public schools.

Why it matters

Without this change, the 2022 mask opt-out law was set to expire at some point, potentially leaving school mask policy without that specific state-level restriction. By removing the expiration, the bill would keep in place, on an ongoing basis, the requirement that parents be allowed to exempt their child from any school mask mandate.

Key provisions

  • Section 1 amends the 2022 Act (Ga. L. 2022, p. 23/SB 514) by repealing and reserving Section 6 of that Act, which contained the automatic repeal provision.
  • Section 2 repeals any other Georgia laws or parts of laws that conflict with this Act.
  • The bill does not change the underlying substantive rule that school mask mandates must include a parental opt-out.

From the bill

“is amended by repealing and reserving Section 6.”

This is the operative change that removes the 2022 law's automatic expiration date.

“no local board of education, local school superintendent, or school administrator, teacher, or other school personnel shall make or enforce any rule that requires a student to wear a face mask or face covering while present on school property unless such rule provides that a parent or guardian of such student may elect for his or her child to be exempt from such rule”

Describes the underlying 2022 rule that this bill keeps in place by removing its expiration date.

Discussed in meetings (14)

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.

  1. Senate Education and Youth Committee, February 10, 2026

    From 1:01:16 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said SB 471 would remove the June 30, 2027 expiration date from a law allowing schools to impose mask mandates only when parents can opt their children out. A committee member asked why the original law had an expiration date and why it should be removed now. The sponsor said lawmakers had been uncertain how COVID-related measures would work, but the sponsor had heard no problems with this requirement in public or charter schools. The sponsor also said a constituent raised concerns about its expiration. A motion to pass received a second, and the chair called for raised-hand votes for and against. The transcript does not give a vote count or an express announcement of the result.

  2. Senate Rules Committee, February 12, 2026

    From 0:13:03 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said SB 471 would remove the expiration date from the UNMASK Georgia Students Act. The sponsor explained that the 2022 law required schools imposing mask mandates to offer parents an opt-out and was scheduled to expire the following year. No questions or vote followed.

  3. Senate Rules Committee, February 17, 2026

    From 0:16:17 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: Presenting on the sponsor's behalf, the chair said SB 471 would remove the expiration date from provisions concerning face coverings in schools. The chair said those provisions were believed to expire the following year. No questions or calendar action followed.

  4. Senate Rules Committee, February 19, 2026

    From 0:12:30 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair said SB 471 had been covered previously and would remove an automatic repeal provision. There was no further explanation, questioning or vote.

  5. Senate Rules Committee, February 20, 2026

    From 0:09:30 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The chair said SB 471 would remove the upcoming expiration of the Unmasked Georgia Students Act. No substantive questions or calendar action followed.

  6. Senate Rules Committee, February 24, 2026

    From 0:20:45 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said the bill would remove the expiration date from the Unmask Georgia's Children Act. No questions or vote followed.

  7. Senate Rules Committee, February 25, 2026

    From 0:30:30 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said the bill would remove the expiration date from the UNMASK Georgia Students Act. No substantive questions followed, and the bill was not selected for the floor calendar.

  8. Senate Rules Committee, February 26, 2026

    From 0:14:10 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel

    Summary by Georgia Commons: Speakers characterized SB 471 as ending mask requirements but did not explain its provisions. A member later selected it for the floor calendar using the same description. The committee unanimously approved the calendar containing the bill.

  9. Senate floor session, March 3, 2026 (legislative day 26)

    From 3:35:23 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (Senate Third Read)

    Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said SB 471 would remove the expiration date from the law requiring schools with student mask mandates to let parents opt their children out. The sponsor said the policy began through an executive order during COVID and was placed in law four years earlier with a five-year expiration. No members asked questions or spoke against the measure. The Senate passed it 51-1.

Status timeline

  1. 2026-03-06House Second Readers (House)
  2. 2026-03-04House First Readers (House)
  3. 2026-03-03Senate Passed/Adopted (Senate)
  4. 2026-03-03Senate Third Read (Senate)
  5. 2026-02-12Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
  6. 2026-02-11Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)
  7. 2026-02-09Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
  8. 2026-02-06Senate Hopper (Senate)

Sponsors

  • Greg Dolezal (R, SD-27)Primary sponsor
  • Bo Hatchett (R, SD-50)
  • Ben Watson (R, SD-1)
  • Carden Summers (R, SD-13)
  • Russ Goodman (R, SD-8)
  • Rick Williams (R, SD-25)
  • Max Burns (R, SD-23)
  • Steve Gooch (R, SD-51)
  • Shawn Still (R, SD-48)
  • Jason T. Dickerson (R, SD-21)
  • Drew Echols (R, SD-49)
  • Matt Brass (R, SD-6)

Votes

  1. PassedSenate voteMarch 3, 2026

    51 yea, 1 nay (0 not voting, 3 excused)

    PASSAGE: Senate Vote #611

Topics

  • school mask policies
  • parental rights in schools
  • public school regulations
  • education law

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Machine-readable https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb471.md · https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md · MCP https://mcp.georgiacommons.org/mcp

SB471: Education; requires a student to wear a face mask or face covering while present on school property; eliminate automatic repeal provision | Georgia Commons