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Found 345 matching passages in 258 documents.
Bill or resolution · Georgia House of Representatives · February 6, 2025 · Passed
Distraction-Free Education Act; enact
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): Georgia House Bill 340 would require public schools to ban student use of personal electronic devices like phones and smartwatches from the first bell to the last bell for kindergarten through eighth grade, starting July 1, 2026.
SECTION 2. Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to elementary and secondary education, is amended in Part 15 of Article 6, relating to miscellaneous provisions under the "Quality Basic Education Act," by adding a new Code section to read as follows: "20-2-324.8. (a) As used in this Code section, the term: (1) 'Access'...
(c) By January 1, 2026, each local school system and public school shall adopt policies and procedures that, at a minimum: (1) Prohibit bell-to-bell access to personal electronic devices by students in kindergarten through grade eight, subject to exceptions provided for by law; (2) Establish appropriate methods for storing students' personal electronic...
Bill or resolution · Georgia House of Representatives · March 6, 2025 · Introduced
Education; policies prohibiting bullying and cyberbullying; add and revise definitions
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): House Bill 736 would expand Georgia's school anti-bullying law by broadening the definition of bullying, adding new terms like gender identity and progressive discipline, and requiring schools to track and report bullying incidents.
(2) 'Cyberbullying' means bullying that involves the use of electronic communication, including, but not limited to, communication devices and services, including, but not limited to, cellular telephones, cameras, computers, social media platforms, text messages, chat platforms, and internet sites. (3) 'Electronic communication' means, but is not limited...
(10) 'Sexual orientation' means heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality, whether actual or perceived. (7)(11) 'Transmit' means to send or broadcast an electronic communication. (b) No later than July 1, 2026: (1) Each local board of education shall adopt a policy that prohibits to prevent and prohibit bullying, including, without limitation,...
Bill or resolution · Georgia State Senate · January 15, 2025 · Engrossed
"Ricky and Alyssa's Law"; enact
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): Georgia's SB 17, called Ricky and Alyssa's Law, would require every public school to install a mobile panic alert system and provide detailed digital maps of school buildings to first responders by July 1, 2026.
The House Committee on Rules offers the following substitute to SB 17: A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT To amend Article 11 of Chapter 2 of Title 20 and Article 10 of Chapter 3 of Title 38 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to public school property and facilities and state-wide first responder building mapping information system, respectively,...
SECTION 1. This Act shall be known and may be cited as "Ricky and Alyssa's Law."
Bill or resolution · Georgia House of Representatives · February 4, 2025 · Passed
Education; safety, health, and well-being of students and school communities; provide
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): House Bill 268 requires Georgia public schools to install panic alert systems and mapping data for first responders, rewrites how student records move between schools and agencies, creates new school violence and suicide prevention programs, and adds new criminal offenses for threats against schools.
information regarding students with the students' assigned classroom teachers; to provide for such information to remain confidential; to provide for reports of law enforcement official encounters with school age youth; to prohibit policies which deny or effectively prevent parents and legal custodians from reviewing certain education records; to provide...
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA: PART I SECTION 1-1. Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to elementary and secondary education, is amended in Article 11, relating to public school property and facilities, by adding a new part to read as follows: "Part 4 20-2-590. This part shall be known and may be...
Bill or resolution · Georgia State Senate · January 13, 2025 · Passed
Senate Rules; adopt
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): Senate Resolution 3 adopts the Georgia Senate's operating rules for the 2025-2026 legislative term, carrying over the prior rules with a set of amendments covering staff office names, interim committees, floor conduct, and lobbyist restrictions.
SECTION 9. Said Rules of the Senate are further amended by revising Rule 9-1.13 as follows: "9-1.13 Smoking, Eating, Use of Cellular Phones Prohibited There shall be no smoking, or eating, use of cellular telephones, or reading of newspapers and other materials not pertinent to legislation in the Senate Chamber while the Senate is in session."
SECTION 10. Said Rules of the Senate are further amended by revising Rule 9-1.14 as follows: "9-1.14 Use of Computers, Cellular Phones, Reading Materials on the Senate Floor A Senator shall use his or her computer and cellular phone in the Senate Chamber only for legislative business, provided that this shall not prohibit the Senator from using the computer...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · February 18, 2025
Tucker v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Deangelo Tucker's murder conviction for a gang-related shooting, rejecting challenges to the evidence and jury instructions, but sent the case back for correction of a sentencing mix-up.
Tucker said that he only had one cell phone — the LG — at the time and took it with him to the studio. No other evidence was presented as to who, if anyone, was in possession of the LG phone at the time, and Tucker testified that he often let others use his cell phone. The shooting occurred around 6:50 p.m. Cell phone tower information placed Tucker’s LG...
Shaquitta Smith, Lowe’s stepmother, testified that Shameka Smith – her niece and the mother of two of Tucker’s children – told her that she had information about the murder. Specifically, Shaquitta testified that sometime after Lowe’s death, Shameka showed her text messages where Tucker had texted Shameka to “turn the GPS off” on her phone. Once she had,...
Bill or resolution · Georgia House of Representatives · March 25, 2025 · Introduced
Education, Department of; publish guidance relating to best practices for secure browsing and parental controls; require
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): A Georgia House bill would add lessons on harmful online material and age verification to school internet safety programs, require the Department of Education to publish parental control guidance, and require the Attorney General to issue an annual online safety enforcement report.
House Bill 829 By: Representatives Beckles of the 96th, Hugley of the 141st, Frye of the 122nd, Williams of the 168th, Flournoy of the 74th, and others A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT To amend Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to elementary and secondary education, so as to require the Department of Education to publish...
SECTION 1. Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to elementary and secondary education, is amended by revising Code Section 20-2-149, relating to programs for educating students regarding online internet safety, as follows: "20-2-149. (a)(1) The Department of Education shall develop model programs for educating students...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · August 26, 2025
Richardson v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a DeKalb County man's malice murder conviction, rejecting his arguments that the evidence was too weak and that a recorded witness statement should not have been played for the jury.
Richardson testified in his own defense at trial. He claimed that Holcombe had bought marijuana from Porter in the past and that the two of them had an argument that day. Richardson also claimed that, after stopping at the gas station with Porter and Hol- combe, he went to a high school football game. According to Richard- son, Porter and Holcombe dropped...
Bill or resolution · Georgia House of Representatives · January 13, 2025 · Introduced
State Board of Education; adopt rules to require all certified public school personnel to receive annual training in depression and suicide awareness and prevention
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): House Bill 20 would require Georgia's State Board of Education, rather than the Department of Education, to mandate annual depression and suicide prevention training for all certified school staff, and would create a new grant program for student mental health screenings.
(2) To assist local school systems in developing their own policies for student depression and suicide awareness and prevention, as required in subsection (c) of this Code section, the Department of Education, in consultation with the Suicide Prevention Program within the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, shall establish a...
(v) Measures necessary to protect the privacy of student data pursuant to Article 15 of this chapter and the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), 20 U.S.C. Section 1232g, and medical records pursuant to the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), P.L. 104-191; and (vi) Potential liability for public schools...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 13, 2025
McIver v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Benjamin McIver's murder conviction in a Chatham County killing but reversed his armed robbery conviction because the evidence showed the gun was used only after the victim's debit card was already taken.
The evidence presented at trial showed that, on April 16, 2020, McIver and co-indictee Antavius Wilcox, who was not tried with McIver, bound Smith with computer cords, kidnapped him in his vehicle, took and used his debit card, and executed him in a wooded area past the end of Pate Street, a dead-end street in Chatham County. Much of the evidence, as...
Cell phone data also showed that Wilcox spoke with McIver at least seven times between 8:40 a.m. and 11:52 a.m., with a few of their calls lasting longer than ten minutes. At 11:29 a.m., McIver texted Wilcox “Savannah Gardens off Pennsylvania Avenue” and then “Kall when you in route so I can B050.” At McIver’s trial, the State’s gang expert testified that...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 30, 2025
EVANS v. THE STATE (Two Cases)
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld the murder, armed robbery, and gang convictions of two Gwinnett County teenagers involved in a robbery-turned-killing, but ordered one sentence for Khalil Miller vacated because two counts should have merged.
Although Evans argues that the evidence obtained from his cell phone caused him prejudice for three reasons, he has failed to show a reasonable probability of a different result if that evidence had been suppressed. First, Evans contends that “[t]he only evidence that [he] was in a gang came from his phone (photos, texts, and videos) and from otherwise...
Because the trial evidence strongly supported Evans’s guilty verdicts, and because Evans has not established that evidence obtained from his cell phone played any significant role in producing the jury’s verdict, Evans has not shown a reasonable probability that the result of his trial would have been different if trial counsel had filed a successful motion...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · September 16, 2025
Ealey v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld Deanthony Ealey's malice murder convictions for the shooting deaths of two people in a Walmart parking lot, rejecting challenges to the evidence, prior-acts testimony, hearsay, and his trial lawyer's performance.
At trial, Detective Clint Patton of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office was qualified as an expert in forensic cell phone analysis, and he testified that he conducted a search of Woods’s cell phone pursuant to a search warrant. Woods’s cell phone records demonstrated that, at around 12:00 p.m. on January 13, Woods’s phone received a phone call lasting “a...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · May 6, 2025
Arnold v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Rockdale County man's murder conviction, rejecting arguments that the evidence was insufficient, that his fingerprint expert testimony was improperly admitted, and that his trial lawyers were ineffective.
While the evidence in this case was circumstantial, “circumstantial evidence alone can be constitutionally sufficient,” Hooks, 318 Ga. at 852 (2) (a), and the evidence here was sufficient as a matter of constitutional due process to authorize the jury to find Arnold guilty of Goolsby’s murder and the other offenses with which he was charged. See Ridley, 315...
————————————————————— 16 Arnold did not give the investigators much detail about this man other than to describe him as “heavyset” and “bald.” Arnold said he did not know the man or his name. 17 Arnold said that Ruley was not surprised Goolsby had kicked him out and thought Goolsby wanted “to have sex” with Arnold. Circle, he washed all his clothes, and his...
Bill or resolution · Georgia State Senate · March 31, 2025 · Passed
"Charter Schools Act of 1998"; completion charter schools; provide
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): A Georgia Senate bill would let virtual school students join their local public school's sports and clubs starting in 2027, create a new type of charter school for dropout recovery, and update rules for charter school incentive grants and record-keeping.
(3) The virtual school student abides by the same student code of conduct and disciplinary measures and transportation policies as students enrolled at the resident school who are participating in the same extracurricular or interscholastic activity as the virtual school student; (4) The virtual school student completes the tryout process or the equivalent...
(h) Home study students and virtual school students shall participate in extracurricular or interscholastic activities, as authorized under this Code section, on behalf of such home study student's resident school. (i) The specific assigned program of each home study student enrolled in a qualifying course shall be included for a one-sixth segment of the...
Bill or resolution · Georgia State Senate · February 24, 2025 · Introduced
Georgia Council on Library Materials Standards; establish and provide
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): A Georgia Senate bill would create a new state council to set standards for school library and instructional materials, restrict sex education before sixth grade, limit discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in schools, and expand parental notification and consent rights.
(2) Beginning December 1, 2025, and continuing thereafter, no local board of education shall permit restricted material to: (A) Include material that is harmful to minors; (B) Be accessible by or otherwise available or disseminated in any manner to any student in or below grade six; or (C) Be accessible by or otherwise available or disseminated in any...
Such standards shall include, but shall not be limited to, the following provisions: (A) Obscenity in any medium, including physical, electronic, visual, and audible, in public school primary or supplementary instructional materials is not protected under the Georgia Constitution or the First Amendment to the United States Constitution; (B) Each public...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · October 21, 2025
Burks v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed Rufus Burks's felony murder conviction for a Columbus home invasion that left three people dead, rejecting his claims about weak evidence, autopsy photos, jury instructions, pretrial publicity, and jury composition.
Gibson testified to the following. When the group arrived at the house, they walked up the driveway, and Gibson and Burks followed 3 Phone records also showed that, on the night of January 3, Burks’ cell phone had several incoming and outgoing phone calls with his father’s cell phone between 9:13 p.m. and 11:35 p.m. Tapley through the gate to the backyard...
A cell phone forensics analyst with the Columbus Police Department testified that Facebook messages extracted from Burks’s phone pursuant to a search warrant revealed a conversation between Burks’s account and another person that took place on January 4, 2016, where Burks asked if the person had a power cord for a PlayStation 4, and when the person replied...
Bill or resolution · Georgia State Senate · February 25, 2025 · Introduced
State Board of Education; establish a three-year pilot robotics program for eligible public schools; provide
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): A Georgia Senate bill would create a three-year pilot program funding robotics teams at up to ten public high schools, prioritizing lower-performing schools, starting with the 2026-2027 school year.
SECTION 1. Chapter 2 of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to elementary and secondary education, is amended in Article 7, relating to additional state aid, by designating Code Sections 20-2-330 through 20-2-334 as Part 1 and by adding a new part to read as follows: "Part 2 20-2-335. (a)(1) The State Board of Education shall...
(i) The school's statement of intent for the use of grant funds including plans for: (I) Employing qualified personnel to participate in the school robotics program either with pay or as volunteers; (II) Procuring equipment and supplies to be used as part of the school robotics program; (III) Use of facilities as part of the school robotics program; (IV)...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · March 4, 2025
Jones v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that police could use a 'geofence' warrant to obtain anonymized Google location data near a Sandy Springs murder scene, upholding the technique against Fourth Amendment challenges.
PINSON, Justice. James Christopher Jones was charged with murder after the police identified her using the location history from her cell phone. The police got that location history through search warrants that authorized the police to obtain from Google an anonymized list of devices that reported their locations within 100 meters of the vic- tim’s home...
This information, together with reasonable inferences and common sense, gave the magistrate a substantial basis for finding probable cause to issue the first warrant. Surveillance video showed that the person suspected of murdering the victim at her home that night was carrying a cell phone that was likely powered on around the time of the murder. And given...
Supreme Court opinion · Supreme Court of Georgia · June 10, 2025
Floyd v. State
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a Fulton County man's murder and armed robbery convictions, rejecting arguments that the evidence was too weak and that his trial lawyer and judge made critical errors.
Thomas testified that the men in the back seat told Thomas and Turner that they would give them directions. According to Thomas, once they had driven for some time, the men in the back seat said that the destination was nearby and that Turner could “pull off” on the road. Once Turner parked, Thomas testified, he and Turner “both felt guns come up to [their]...
First responders arrived at the scene, and Turner was taken to a hospital but died the next morning. A medical examiner testified that Turner’s cause of death was a gunshot wound to the abdomen. The medical examiner retrieved a projectile from Turner’s body, which a firearms examiner identified at trial as a “.380 metal jacket bullet.” The items that Turner...
Bill or resolution · Georgia House of Representatives · February 24, 2025 · Introduced
Georgia Gun Safe Act of 2025; enact
Summary by Georgia Commons (AI-written): House Bill 601, the Georgia Gun Safe Act of 2025, would rewrite large parts of Georgia's gun laws, adding new bans, storage rules, a firearms registry, waiting periods and license changes affecting gun owners, sellers, minors and peace officers statewide.
SECTION 7. Said article is further amended in said part in Code Section 16-11-127.1, relating to carrying weapons within school safety zones, at school functions, or on a bus or other transportation furnished by a school, by revising subsection (a), by reserving paragraph (6) of subsection (c), and by revising paragraph (20) of subsection (c) as follows:...
(i) Not apply to buildings or property used for athletic sporting events or student housing, including, but not limited to, fraternity and sorority houses; (ii) Not apply to any preschool or childcare space located within such buildings or real property; (iii) Not apply to any room or space being used for classes related to a college and career academy or...
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