---
title: O.C.G.A. § 31-3-15. Establishment of health districts.
collection: code
id: 31-3-15
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 31-3-15 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-3-15
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-3-15.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/31-3-15/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t31-(v23)-2025-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=da7ded69_0#page=163
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia
heading_path: HEALTH / COUNTY BOARDS OF HEALTH
---

# O.C.G.A. § 31-3-15. Establishment of health districts.

The department is authorized, with the consent of the boards of health and the county authorities of the counties involved, to establish health districts composed of one or more counties. To further the purposes of this Code section, county boards of health may contract with each other for the provision of multicounty services and also exercise any additional powers as authorized by paragraph (7) of subsection (a) of Code Section 31-3-4; and in the performance of such contracts a county board of health may utilize its employees in other counties.

## History

Code 1933, § 88-215, enacted by Ga. L. 1964, p. 499, § 1; Ga. L. 1978, p. 2031, § 2; Ga. L. 2009, p. 745, § 2/SB 97; Ga. L. 2012, p. 446, § 2-36/HB 642; Ga. L. 2024, p. 42, § 4/SB 293, effective July 1, 2024.

## Editor's Notes

Ga. L. 2012, p. 446, § 3-1/HB 642, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: “Personnel, equipment, and facilities that were assigned to the State Personnel Administration as of June 30, 2012, shall be transferred to the Department of Administrative Services on the effective date of this Act.” This Act became effective July 1, 2012.

Ga. L. 2012, p. 446, § 3-2/HB 642, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: “Appropriations for functions which are transferred by this Act may be transferred as provided in Code Section 45-12-90.”

## Amendments

The 2024 amendment, effective July 1, 2024, deleted the former second through fifth sentences, which read: “The county boards of health of the constituent counties shall, at the call of the commissioner, meet in joint session to approve the selection of a director appointed by the commissioner to serve such boards in common. A county board of health is authorized to appoint one of its members to represent the board at a joint meeting for this purpose. The director shall be a physician who is licensed to practice medicine under Chapter 34 of Title 43 and who otherwise meets the requirements of the rules of the State Personnel Board. The district director shall have the same powers, duties, and responsibility as a director serving a single county board of health.”