Senate Rules Committee, February 5, 2026 Video: https://vimeo.com/1162189362 (a timestamp t plays at https://vimeo.com/1162189362#t=s) Page: https://georgiacommons.org/meetings/2026-02-05/senate-rules This is a machine transcript of the General Assembly's video, made by a speech-recognition model. It is not an official record and can mishear words, names, and numbers. Speakers are not identified. The video is the record: every timestamp links to the moment it plays. [0:06:43] My vice chairman's so anxious, I'm gonna let him do the prayer. [0:06:45] I knew that was coming. Thank you so much for allowing me to, to pray with you. Please bow your heads. Please, Lord, continue to look over us in our decisions, and please guide us in your will. And continue to look over us in our travels, and, um, may God speed us home. Uh, in Christ's name I pray, Amen. [0:07:03] Amen. All right, if you'll look in your folders on your rules consideration calendar, uh, we're gonna have a little theme tomorrow, a little children and family day. So, Senator Kirkpatrick, you're gonna be a busy lady. You take it away. You got three bills. Let's go ahead and cover them all. [0:07:25] Okay. Great. Senate Bill 383 is the first one. That is an agency bill from GBI, and it cleans up and updates the, um, child fatality review process. [0:07:41] All right. We got any questions for the author? No questions. [0:07:44] Okay. [0:07:44] All right, moving on. [0:07:46] Um, I'll skip down to Senate Bill 431, which has to do with immediate enrollment of foster students within two days of changing schools. As you know, they change placements in schools frequently, but some of our school districts are not immediately enrolling them, which causes them to get behind. Their credits don't transfer and, um, we even heard a story of somebody that had to repeat a grade. [0:08:12] Okay. [0:08:14] And then- [0:08:14] Any questions? No questions. All right. SR 622. [0:08:17] And then SR 622 is a joint study committee. Everyone's aware of the significant issues with the deficit at DHS that have shown up recently. That's not a new problem. The government shutdown didn't help with it, but we need to get to the bottom of it and try to make recommendations to try to address the rising costs of, uh, out-of-home care for the foster kids. [0:08:41] Okay. And then SB 402, I can cover that. There's, uh, currently a pilot program. I believe it's in District 12. Is that right, Madam Chair? And, uh, they're looking at autism in foster youth, and they're, they found in District 12 that a, that autism is, I believe, six times more prevalent in ul- in foster children than it is in, um, children outside of foster care. And so, uh, Senator Tillery wants to expand to two more districts the pilot program so that they can, um, uh, see if the numbers match up in those two districts. [0:09:20] And then we get to, uh, after that is done, then we'll try to figure out, you know, it'll prob- I would assume, be a two-pronged approach where we would look at resources to provide parents so that the child doesn't end up in foster care, but also making sure foster parents and homes have the resources they need when they are with those foster children, but that's just an assumption. But this bill simply expands the pilot program from one, one district to three. [0:09:51] Any questions? Are y'all impressed I knew that? [0:09:55] Very. [0:09:56] I am. [0:09:58] We're glad to have you- [0:09:59] Okay. Um- [0:09:59] ... glad to have you on the Children and Families Committee. [0:10:01] Yeah, I'm on there. That helps. All right. Let's pick a few. Uh, Senator Harbison, we left off with you. [0:10:09] SB 402. [0:10:11] SB 402. Senator Cowsert. [0:10:16] We'll go with, uh, SB 383. [0:10:22] SB 383. All right, Senator Robertson. [0:10:32] Has anybody picked up SR 622? [0:10:35] I have not. [0:10:36] I would love to have that. [0:10:37] All right. Okay, that's three. Let's do one more. Senator Jackson. [0:10:51] I believe, uh- Last but not least, SB 431. [0:10:54] S- SB 431. All right. I've got SB 383, SB 402, SB 431, and SR 622. [0:11:05] So moved. [0:11:06] I've got a motion from my vice chairman, a second from Senator Anderson. Any further discussion? All in favor say, "Aye." [0:11:14] Aye. [0:11:14] All opposed say, "Nay." Motion carries unanimous. And, uh, just so you know, if your bill was on the yellow sheet yesterday but not today, it will be back on tomorrow, so amongst a few others. So no fretting. All right. Meeting adjourned.