HB 1378: Georgia Promise Scholarship Act; clarify student residency qualification for promise scholarship accounts

The Georgia Promise Scholarship Act lets eligible students receive state-funded scholarship accounts to use for education expenses, but only if they qualify to attend a public school on a specific list of low-performing schools. Current law says a student qualifies if they reside in the attendance zone of one of those listed schools. This bill rewrites that residency rule. Instead of looking at attendance zones, it says a student qualifies if, based on their primary residence, they are enrolled or eligible to be enrolled in a listed public school, or eligible to enroll in that school's qualified kindergarten program. The change is made in Section 1 by amending O.C.G.A. § 20-2B-22. Section 2 repeals any conflicting laws. The bill does not change funding amounts, application procedures, or which schools appear on the eligibility list.

• Replaces the 'attendance zone' residency test with a 'primary residence' and school enrollment eligibility test for the Georgia Promise Scholarship program.
• Clarifies that eligibility can be based on being enrolled or eligible to enroll in a listed public school, not just living within its attendance boundary.
• Extends the eligibility language to explicitly cover students eligible to enroll in a qualified kindergarten program at a listed school.
• Repeals any existing laws that conflict with this revised residency definition.

Families of students seeking Georgia Promise Scholarship accounts, students eligible for public schools on the state's designated list of qualifying schools, incoming kindergartners at those schools, and the state agency administering the scholarship program.

How residency is defined determines which families can qualify for a Promise Scholarship account. Shifting from an attendance-zone test to a primary-residence and enrollment-eligibility test could change who counts as eligible, particularly for students whose home address does not clearly match a fixed attendance boundary.

• Section 1 amends O.C.G.A. § 20-2B-22(a)(3), which lists qualifications for participating students in the Georgia Promise Scholarship program.
• The revised text ties eligibility to a student's primary residence and whether they are enrolled or eligible to enroll in a school on the list required by O.C.G.A. § 20-2B-29.
• The revised text adds explicit coverage for students eligible to enroll in a qualified kindergarten program at a listed school.
• Section 2 repeals any conflicting laws, a standard clause with no independent substantive effect.

1. 2026-02-20House Second Readers (Cámara de Representantes)
2. 2026-02-19House First Readers (Cámara de Representantes)
3. 2026-02-18House Hopper (Cámara de Representantes)

• Doreen Carter (D, HD-093)Patrocinador principal
• Patty Stinson (D, HD-150)
• Sandy Donatucci (R, HD-105)
• Stacey Evans (D, HD-057)
• Lydia Glaize (D, HD-067)
• Miriam Paris (D, HD-142)

• school choice
• education funding
• Georgia Promise Scholarship
• student eligibility
• public schools