--- title: SB 471. Education; requires a student to wear a face mask or face covering while present on school property; eliminate automatic repeal provision collection: bills id: 2025-2026/sb471 cite_as: SB 471, 2025-2026 Regular Session (Ga.) canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb471 md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb471.md text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb471/text source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/72949 date: 2026-03-06 status: engrossed corpus_version: bills-2026-09-13 license: Public record of the Georgia General Assembly, via LegiScan; see about.md publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice. up: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026.md previous: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb470.md next: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb472.md index: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md omitted: votes and history omitted_chars: 515 omitted_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb471.md?full=1 bill_number: SB 471 session: 2025-2026 Regular Session session_slug: 2025-2026 chamber: Senate bill_type: bill status_date: 2026-03-03 last_action: House Second Readers sponsors: - Greg Dolezal - Bo Hatchett - Ben Watson - Carden Summers - Russ Goodman - Ricky Williams - Max Burns - Steve Gooch - Shawn Still - Jason T. Dickerson - Drew Echols - Matt Brass text_version: Engrossed has_text: true legiscan_url: https://legiscan.com/GA/bill/SB471/2025 upstream_id: 2111516 summaries_model: claude-sonnet-5 topic_tags: - school mask policies - parental rights in schools - public school regulations - education law --- # SB 471. Education; requires a student to wear a face mask or face covering while present on school property; eliminate automatic repeal provision ## Text Senate Bill 471 By: Senators Dolezal of the 27th, Hatchett of the 50th, Watson of the 1st, Summers of the 13th, Goodman of the 8th and others AS PASSED SENATE A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT To amend an Act providing that 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, approved March 29, 2022 (Ga. L. 2022, p. 23/SB 514), so as to eliminate the automatic repeal provision; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA: SECTION 1. An Act providing that 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, approved March 29, 2022 (Ga. L. 2022, p. 23/SB 514), is amended by repealing and reserving Section 6. SECTION 2. All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed. ## Summaries written by Georgia Commons The following was written by claude-sonnet-5 from the text above and is not part of the bill. Quote the text, not the summary. 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. ### Plain-language summary 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 it 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. ## Status - Status: Engrossed (2026-03-03) - Last action: House Second Readers (2026-03-06) - Sponsors: Greg Dolezal, Bo Hatchett, Ben Watson, Carden Summers, Russ Goodman, Ricky Williams, Max Burns, Steve Gooch, Shawn Still, Jason T. Dickerson, Drew Echols, Matt Brass - Official page: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/72949 > The history, votes, and amendments (515 characters) are at https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb471.md?full=1