SB 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

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.

• 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.

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.

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.

• 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.

1. 2025-01-29Senate Read and Referred (Senado)
2. 2025-01-28Senate Hopper (Senado)

• Emanuel Jones (D, SD-010)Patrocinador principal
• 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)

• school safety
• student privacy
• education policy
• law enforcement coordination
• mental health services