HB1231: HB1231 Education; teachers shall not be required to supervise students during their duty-free lunch period or planning period except in cases of extreme emergency; provide

Georgia law already gives most teachers a daily duty-free lunch period and a planning period. This bill rewrites that law (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-218) to tighten the rules around when schools can pull teachers away from that time to supervise students. Under current law, schools can require supervision during economic hardship or unforeseen staffing shortages. The bill narrows that to only "extreme emergencies," a defined term covering things like severe weather, armed threats, transportation breakdowns, or a teacher's illness or death. It specifically says a simple lack of substitute teachers does not count as an extreme emergency. Outside of an extreme emergency, schools could still ask a teacher to supervise during lunch or planning time, but only if the teacher agrees, and that teacher must then be paid an hourly rate based on their salary. The bill also makes clear these lunch and planning period protections cannot be waived by charter schools, charter systems, strategic waiver systems, or completion special schools. The changes would take effect July 1, 2026, starting with the 2026-2027 school year.

• Narrows the situations where schools can require teachers to give up duty-free lunch or planning periods to only 'extreme emergencies,' a newly defined term.
• Excludes a simple shortage of substitute teachers from counting as an extreme emergency that would justify requiring supervision duty.
• Requires schools to get a teacher's agreement, rather than simply requiring it, when asking for supervision help outside an extreme emergency.
• Requires hourly pay based on the teacher's salary when a teacher agrees to supervise students during lunch or planning time outside an emergency.
• Bars the duty-free lunch and planning period protections from being waived under charter school, charter system, strategic waivers, or completion special school waiver provisions.
• Sets an effective date of July 1, 2026, applying starting with the 2026-2027 school year.

Public school teachers in kindergarten through fifth grade (lunch periods) and kindergarten through twelfth grade (planning periods), local school superintendents and boards of education who schedule staff coverage, and charter schools, charter systems, strategic waivers school systems, and completion special schools that currently have waiver authority.

Teachers would gain stronger legal protection over their lunch and planning time, only losing it during genuine emergencies rather than routine staffing gaps, and would have to be paid extra if asked to cover for students otherwise. Schools would lose some flexibility to fill staffing gaps without either an emergency or additional pay.

• Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 20-2-218 to define 'extreme emergency' as severe weather, mechanical or electrical failure, an armed attack or threat, transportation disruption, or a teacher's illness or death, and states a lack of substitutes alone does not qualify.
• Subsection (e) limits mandatory supervision duty without teacher consent to situations involving an extreme emergency, removing the prior allowance for economic conditions or unforeseen personnel shortages.
• Subsection (f) allows schools to request (not require) supervision from teachers outside an extreme emergency, and requires hourly pay consistent with the teacher's salary if the teacher agrees.
• New subsection (i) states that the duty-free lunch and planning period requirements cannot be waived under several listed charter and strategic waiver provisions, including Code Sections 20-2-82, 20-2-2063.2, 20-2-2065, 20-2-2096.3, and 20-2-244.
• Section 2 sets the effective date as July 1, 2026, applying beginning with the 2026-2027 school year.

1. 2026-02-10House Second Readers (House)
2. 2026-02-09House First Readers (House)
3. 2026-02-06House Hopper (House)

• John Corbett (R, HD-174)Primary sponsor
• Martin Momtahan (R, HD-017)
• Don Parsons (R, HD-044)
• Gerald Greene (R, HD-154)
• David Wilkerson (D, HD-038)

• teacher working conditions
• public education
• school staffing rules
• charter school waivers