Senate · Introduced · 2025-2026 Regular Session

SB 519: Education; provisions relating to the conditions of employment for employees of local school systems and other public schools; revise

Last action February 18, 2026 · Senate Read and Referred

A Georgia Senate bill would change several rules for public school employees, including who can evaluate teachers, what must be in teacher contracts, restroom break requirements, staff training, and school bus safety policies.

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

In plain language

This bill amends several parts of Georgia's education code (Title 20, Chapter 2) that govern working conditions for teachers and other school employees. It bars any public school employee from serving as the evaluator for other employees at the same school, and requires that employee performance surveys be conducted anonymously. The bill also requires that teacher contracts include the teacher's specific assignment for the coming year, not just their pay. It creates a new right to at least two planned restroom breaks per school day for teachers who work more than half the school day, with one break allowed to overlap with a planning period. It adds a requirement that professional development training be relevant to an employee's specific role, and requires local school systems to let school bus drivers request a bus monitor if they have safety concerns about student behavior on their bus.

What the bill does

Prohibits any public school employee from being chosen as the evaluator for another employee at the same school (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-210).
Requires that employee performance surveys used in evaluations be conducted anonymously.
Requires teacher and professional employee contracts to specify the employee's assignment for the coming school year, in addition to pay (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-211).
Creates a right to at least two planned restroom breaks per day for teachers working more than half the school day, with one allowed during a planning period (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-218).
Requires staff development and training programs to be relevant to an employee's specific role (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-230).
Requires school bus policies to let bus drivers request a monitor if they have concerns about student behavior on the bus (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-1126).

Who it affects

Public school teachers and other certificated professional employees, school administrators and superintendents who assign evaluators and negotiate contracts, and school bus drivers and the local school systems that set bus safety policy are all directly affected by this bill.

Why it matters

Teachers would gain clearer contract terms, guaranteed restroom breaks, and protection from being evaluated by a coworker rather than a trained evaluator. School bus drivers would have a formal way to ask for extra help when a student's behavior raises safety concerns, changing day-to-day practices in local school systems.

Key provisions

Section 1 bars any public school employee from serving as the evaluator of other employees at their school and requires anonymous performance surveys (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-210).
Section 2 requires teacher contracts tendered by May 15 to state the teacher's specific assignment for the next school year, not leave it open (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-211).
Section 3 adds a new requirement of at least two planned restroom breaks per day for teachers working more than half the school day (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-218).
Section 4 requires staff development training to be relevant to an employee's role, in addition to existing development purposes (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-230).
Section 5 requires local school bus policies to allow drivers to request a bus monitor over student behavior concerns (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-1126).
Section 6 repeals conflicting laws.

From the bill

“No employee of a public school shall be selected as the evaluator for other employees of such public school.”
Bars school employees from evaluating their coworkers.

“Every teacher who is employed in grades kindergarten through 12 for a period of time of more than one-half of the class periods of the regular school day shall be provided not less than two planned restroom breaks per day”
Creates a new guarantee of restroom breaks for most full-time teachers.

“Such policies and procedures shall provide for a school bus driver to request a bus monitor if he or she has a concern regarding the behavior of a student or students who ride his or her school bus.”
Gives bus drivers a formal way to request help with student behavior.

Discussed in meetings (2)

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.

Senate Education and Youth Committee, February 24, 2026
From 0:35:06 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel
Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor presented a substitute intended to improve educator retention through clearer employment rules and working conditions. The sponsor said it would require trained evaluators, prohibit same-school peer evaluations, keep individual evaluation records confidential and let educators choose to share performance data. The sponsor said districts would have to provide complete contracts, including salary and assignment, by May 15 and give written reasons for nonrenewal upon request. Other provisions described by the sponsor included two planned restroom breaks daily, training tied to an educator’s role and evaluation needs, annual acknowledgment of bus safety policies, and a way for bus drivers to request monitors for behavior concerns. The sponsor argued these changes would reduce uncertainty and burnout while preserving local authority. Asked why the bill mattered personally, the sponsor cited experiences spending a day as a principal and teacher, educators in the sponsor’s family, and the demands teachers face. The committee held a hearing only and took no vote.

Read aloud: Senate floor session, February 18, 2026 (legislative day 20), 0:27:06

Status timeline

2026-02-18Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2026-02-17Senate Hopper (Senate)

Topics

teacher working conditions
school employee evaluations
teacher contracts
school bus safety
education policy

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Machine-readable https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/sb519.md · https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md · MCP https://mcp.georgiacommons.org/mcp