Georgia CommonsSB 54: State Board of Education; establishment of a program and state-wide database relating to threats to safety made on or impacting school campuses; require
Last action January 29, 2025 · Senate Read and Referred
A Georgia Senate bill would require the State Board of Education to build a statewide alert system and a database tracking people who threaten school safety, covering all public elementary and secondary schools.
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 LegiScan holds.
In plain language
Georgia law currently has no statewide system requiring schools to quickly alert police and neighboring districts about safety threats, nor a shared database to track people who make such threats. This bill adds a new section to the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-20.1) directing the State Board of Education to create both. By July 1, 2026, the board must set up an emergency alert response system letting school administrators notify law enforcement and first responders of threats, and letting schools communicate with neighboring districts about threats or emergency procedures. By July 1, 2027, the board must build a secure statewide database where schools report and monitor safety threats. Students can only be added after local law enforcement verifies the threat and a school social worker evaluates the student. The board must also set standards for removal from the database and require counseling recommendations and mental health services for listed students. The board may consult with state emergency management, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and local school boards.
What the bill does
- Requires the State Board of Education to establish, by July 1, 2026, an alert system letting schools notify police and first responders of safety threats and communicate with neighboring districts.
- Requires the State Board of Education to build, by July 1, 2027, a secure statewide database tracking people who threaten school safety.
- Bars adding a student to the database until local law enforcement verifies the threat and a certified school social worker evaluates the student.
- Requires the board to create standards for when a threat qualifies for database inclusion and a process for petitioning removal, including another social worker evaluation.
- Requires local school systems to give parents counseling recommendations and provide the student with available mental health services once a student is added to the database.
- Authorizes the board to consult with the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and local school boards.
Who it affects
Public elementary and secondary schools and their administrators, the State Board of Education, local school systems and boards, school social workers, students accused of making threats and their parents or guardians, and local law enforcement and emergency responders who would receive alerts through the new system.
Why it matters
Schools and police would gain a faster, standardized way to share threat information and coordinate emergency responses. Families of students flagged in the new database would face real consequences, since inclusion requires law enforcement verification but still triggers mental health referrals and a formal removal process.
Key provisions
- New Code section 20-2-20.1(a) requires the alert system by July 1, 2026, covering notification to law enforcement, first responders, and neighboring school systems.
- Subsection (b) requires the statewide threat database by July 1, 2027, restricted to designated school personnel and limited to verified, investigated threats.
- Subsection (b) requires a certified school social worker evaluation before a student's name is added or removed from the database.
- Subsection (b) requires local school systems to offer counseling recommendations to parents and mental health services to students listed in the database.
- Subsection (c) allows the board to consult with the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and local school governing bodies.
- Section 2 repeals any conflicting laws.
From the bill
“The name of any person who threatens the safety of a school shall be included in such database; provided, however, that no student shall be entered on any such database until the threat to school safety has been investigated and verified by local law enforcement”
“the local school system shall provide the parents or guardians of the student with recommendations for counseling services and provide the student with available specialized mental health services while in school”
Status timeline
- Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
- Senate Hopper (Senate)
Sponsors
- Emanuel Jones (D, SD-010)
- Harold Jones (D, SD-022)
- Freddie Sims (D, SD-012)
- David Lucas (D, SD-026)
- Nan Orrock (D, SD-036)
- Gail Davenport (D, SD-017)
- Kenya Wicks (D, SD-034)
- Michael Rhett (D, SD-033)
- Sheikh Rahman (D, SD-005)
- Donzella James (D, SD-028)
- Nikki Merritt (D, SD-009)
- RaShaun Kemp (D, SD-038)
- Sonya Halpern (D, SD-039)
- Elena Parent (D, SD-044)
Topics
- school safety
- student privacy
- education policy
- law enforcement coordination
- mental health services