by Ty Tagami | Mar 14, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A societal backlash against the dizzying distraction of smartphones has gained momentum in the General Assembly, where legislation to ban the devices in schools remains in play after last week’s deadline to move bills between chambers.
House Bill 340, which passed the state House of Representatives with broad bipartisan support, would prohibit student use of personal electronic devices from the first ring of the school bell in the morning to the last ring in the afternoon.
The “Distraction-Free Education Act” would only apply to elementary and middle schools, for now. Teenagers are so connected to their devices that lawmakers fear pushback from families if they try to include high schools.
That could change in the future if the legislation becomes law and loosens the grip of the devices on younger kids, said the bill’s chief sponsor, Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners. He predicted that a ban would increase academic performance, reduce bullying and improve student mental health, and he said he thinks people will wonder why cellphones were ever allowed in schools.
“Years from now, we’re going to look back and say, ‘I can’t believe we ever allowed ourselves to do it,’ ” Hilton said.
The backlash against cellphones in schools has been brewing for years, as public consciousness has grown about the addictive nature of smartphones and the pervasive social media usage they enable.
Documentaries such as “The Social Dilemma” have explored how social media companies target children and their attention. Books such as “Stolen Focus” by British journalist Johann Hari have described the impact of the resulting distraction on their ability to function.
It has been years since the Georgia legislature recognized the risk of smartphone distraction and made it illegal to hold one while driving. Now, experts are finding that the devices affect students by forcing constant shifts of focus, encouraging misbehavior and undermining socialization.
Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that reviews the age appropriateness of books and technology targeting children, reported last month that 97% of students aged 11-17 who have smartphones use them throughout the school day. In 2023, the organization published a study of smartphone use by kids in that same age group, using data from about 200 students. Half were receiving 237 or more notifications per day.
Adriana Harrington, who used to work for the Tennessee Department of Education and now directs policy for ExcelinEd, a Florida-based education think tank, drove home the impact of such statistics during a presentation for lawmakers in early February.
Hari, the author, spoke at a national summit last fall. He said it takes 23 minutes to regain the same level of focus after tending to a smartphone notification.
“If you do the math, there is no possible way to maintain focus throughout a school day with that much disruption occurring in your pocket,” Harrington told the lawmakers.
JAMA Pediatrics, published by the American Medical Association, reported last month that kids aged 13 to 18 spend an average of 8.5 hours a day using screen-based media.
“Smartphone use during school has become a concern, and school-based smartphone bans have been increasingly considered,” the report said. “Smartphones may distract from classroom learning and opportunities for real-world interactions.”
There will likely be resistance to a ban in Georgia, especially in middle school, where many kids already have a smartphone. Parents have grown accustomed to the technological tether to their children, and the increasing anxiety about school shootings is causing many to clutch tightly to that link.
During the House floor debate on HB 340 last week, Rep. Imani Barnes, D-Tucker, said her son had recently texted her from school during a lockdown.
“It terrified me,” she said. “He sent the information firsthand, quickly, from his phone. I don’t want him on his phone while he’s in class, but what are your suggestions in those situations?”
Hilton, a father of three, responded that he also worries about the safety of his own kids at school, but he said experts he heard from said cellphones escalate the danger during an emergency.
“All of them agree on one thing,” Hilton said. “In the case of an emergency, the last thing we want is a child to have a phone in their hand. They want the undivided attention of that student on the teacher, getting directions as to where to go.”
The legislation would require schools to develop policies that allow parents to reach their kids in school, for instance, by calling the principal’s office. It also would require exemptions from the ban for students with disabilities or medical conditions that require them to use a device for learning or for health uses, such as checking their glucose level.
Georgia would be following a half dozen states that already ban phones in classrooms. They’re reporting fewer disruptions and more interaction among students.
Harrington said teachers in schools that have eradicated phones have noticed a culture shift, with kids playing cards in the lunchroom instead of hunching over a device.
Grant Rivera, superintendent of Marietta City Schools, has seen this increased socialization firsthand. His school board backed a ban on cellphones in middle school that started this school year.
Rivera said at the legislative presentation last month that one in five of his middle school students surveyed said the ban had led to improved learning. Two thirds of teachers surveyed said they felt less stressed about managing their classrooms and about teaching their students due to the policy.
Disciplinary problems are down now that kids can’t start and promote fights on social media, Rivera said. And lunchrooms that were quiet are now abuzz with conversation.
“It impacts academics, it impacts their well-being, it impacts their relationships,” Rivera said.
Proponents say high school students experience the downsides of cellphone use, too. But a ban at that level would be trickier. Teens who testified at a House subcommittee hearing in late February said students have jobs and that employers may want to contact them during school hours. And they said students have club meetings to coordinate.
John Zauner, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association, predicted that if HB 340 passes and a ban takes hold in elementary and middle schools, the “culture” around smartphone use will lose its grip as younger kids rise to high school.
The former high school principal told lawmakers that he supported the proposed ban in K-8 schools, “knowing that we can build that culture, actually break that culture, and create a new one at (grades) 9-12 in a pretty short amount of time.”
HB 340 passed a House subcommittee unanimously, before passing the House Education Committee despite a couple of dissenters. It passed the full House 143-29 last week and awaits a hearing by the Senate Children and Families Committee.
If the legislation becomes law, school districts would have until January to write policies and procedures for locking up kids’ phones in elementary and middle schools, and they would have to implement those policies by the summer of 2026.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 13, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Bureau of Investigations would have expanded authority to compel telecommunications and internet companies to divulge subscriber information under legislation moving through the state legislature.
House Bill 161 could soon get the nod for a vote by the Senate, after the House of Representatives approved it by a wide bipartisan margin last week and after a Senate committee moved it forward this week.
The GBI, which requested the legislation, can already demand subscriber information from electronic service providers without going through the courts, if the attorney general agrees. But that authority only covers certain cases involving children, such as sexual exploitation.
HB 161, sponsored by Rep. Clint Crowe, R-Jackson, would expand the agency’s authority to include terroristic threats, identity theft, computer-related crimes, false reports to law enforcement, and harassing communications.
An action colloquially known as “swatting” would be covered. It became a big problem for the GBI a couple of years ago when false reports scrambled police to the addresses of public officials, with potentially dangerous consequences.
“We were requested back in 2023 and 2024 to conduct multiple investigations into swatting incidents across the state,” said Sara Lue, special agent in charge of cybercrime at GBI. She told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that the incidents included “cyber-enabled” threats.
“They pose a serious risk to public safety,” she said.
Lue said services such as Facebook and Instagram would be among those subject to demands for subscriber names, addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses and associated bank and credit account numbers. The agency would also be able to subpoena telephone records containing connections made, times they were made, and duration of conversations — but not the content of those conversations.
Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, an attorney who serves on the state Board of Homeland Security, said he was “sensitive” to granting subpoena power without judicial review. But his concerns about the proposed changes, including minor amendments to the version that passed the House, were ultimately allayed. Cowsert motioned to pass HB 161, and the Judiciary Committee then sent it to the Senate’s Rules Committee by a unanimous vote.
If the Rules Committee sends the legislation to the full Senate and the Senate approves it, the bill would have to return to the House for final approval of the latest changes.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 12, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Georgia Senate committee advanced legislation Wednesday that would double the amount of money that families of teachers and other public school employees would receive when their loved ones are killed at school.
House Bill 105 would double to $150,000 the compensation for victims of violence “in the line of duty,” putting it in parity with the indemnification for police officers killed on the job.
It is an acknowledgement of the increasing risk of death in schools, such as the mass shooting last fall at Apalachee High School in Barrow County, said Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, who presented the bill to the Senate Education and Youth Committee.
“Through this legislation, our state will be able to better support families who have lost loved ones in their service of our children. We live in a scarry world and unfortunately this is a necessity,” Hatchett said. “We hope and pray it’s never used, but if and when it’s needed, it’s there.”
The measure by Rep. Will Wade, R-Dawsonville, would increase the $75,000 indemnification established in 2000, a year after the mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, which at the time was seen as a shocking and extreme development.
The payout would cover any school employee killed while working at school.
The compensation to families of police officers was raised from $100,000 in 2017 to the current $150,000. The money comes from a trust fund of about $3 million.
HB 105 would not increase the $75,000 payout to school employees who are permanently disabled by a shooter or other assailant at school.
The measure passed the House of Representatives 168-0 last month and passed the Senate committee by a unanimous vote. It now goes to the Senate Rules Committee before a possible vote by the full Senate.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 11, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation that would regulate an alternative method for disposing of the dead is moving through the Georgia General Assembly, leaving astonished lawmakers in its wake.
“You’re blowing my mind here today because I didn’t know this was allowed,” said Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, chairman of a committee that heard Senate Bill 241 last month.
The measure seeks regulations for “organic human reduction facilities.”
It was brought to the legislature by Sen. Rick Williams, R-Milledgeville, who is in the funeral home business.
“It’s just human composting,” he said.
After testimony about how composting works, including technical details such as the proper temperature and duration to turn a body into soil, the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee unanimously approved SB 241.
“This committee never ceases to amaze me,” said Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, just before the vote. “Me either,” Cowsert said.
The bill then passed the full Senate 51-1 last week.
On Monday, it took a brief spin through a subcommittee in the House of Representatives, which sent it to the House Regulated Industries Committee in another unanimous vote.
The presentation Monday was brief after Rep. Jason Ridley, R-Chatsworth, who was leading the Regulatory Subcommittee, introduced Williams by quipping that he would be presenting his “Breaking Bad bill.” Ridley was referring to a television series from more than a decade ago in which a lot of characters die unnaturally.
Despite the wisecracks around SB 241, the bill is deadly serious. Operators would need to be licensed and inspected, and they would have to use the proper equipment, Williams said. Georgia has no rules around composting the dead, he said, adding that he wants to avoid a repeat of what happened in Noble, Ga.
That’s where authorities discovered a grisly scene in 2002: 339 bodies — or their parts — scattered around the grounds of the Tri-State Crematory in various stages of decomposition. A more recent example comes from Colorado, where nearly 200 bodies were found decaying at the Return to Nature Funeral Home last year, in a maggot-infested building with bodily fluids several inches deep.
The ghoulish nature of SB 241 troubled Sen. Frank Ginn at that February Senate committee hearing.
“It’s really scary,” the Republican from Danielsville said, adding, “I remember you brought the bill a year or two ago about dissolving people.”
Ginn wanted to know what happens to the composted remains, and Williams said the family can take possession of them, just like with the ashes that result from cremation.
As with cremains, relatives can have their loved one’s material mixed with paints used to create a portrait, Williams said, or they can have a company add the ashes or soil to shotgun shells, then scatter the remains across a dove field on opening day of dove season.
“You can send them to a pyrotechnics place and have them stuffed into fireworks, or you can scatter them, you can keep them, whatever you want to do with them,” Williams said.
The byproduct of properly composted bodies is perfectly sanitary and safe, he said. Testimony from one person who’d visited a proper composting facility said it smelled like a feed store.
The graphic detail prompted gallows humor.
“You all know how you get a song stuck in your head some days and it just won’t go out?” Cowsert asked. “I got dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones in my head.” (It was a reference to an early 20th century song by The Delta Rhythm Boys.)
“Well,” Williams shot back, “how about Randy Travis’ Diggin up Bones?”
by Ty Tagami | Mar 10, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Drivers in Georgia would be able to leave home without their wallet, so long as they bring their smartphone, if legislation that seeks to require police to accept a digital version of drivers’ licenses becomes law.
House Bill 296 passed the Georgia House of Representatives by a wide bipartisan majority last week, and on Monday a Senate committee hit the accelerator on the bill.
“I think it’s a great and smart use of technology,” said Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee, which voted unanimously to move HB 296 to the Senate Rules Committee to schedule a possible vote by the full Senate.
A similar measure passed the House last year with broad support but stalled in the Senate. A Senate committee passed the measure, but it never got a vote on the Senate floor.
Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, the chief sponsor of HB 296, said about 450,000 Georgians are already using an official Georgia drivers’ license in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. So far though, the identification is only accepted by the Transportation Security Administration at airports.
HB 296 wouldn’t expand the use beyond police officers in traffic stops. It doesn’t mention using digital identification at bars to confirm age, for instance, and it specifically excludes their use in polling places.
That last element about polling places was absent from last year’s version, House Bill 1001. The polling place exclusion in this year’s version may make lawmakers more comfortable with the idea, given the concerns about election security in recent years.
The only holdup at this point is ensuring that all police officers have a smartphone equipped to validate a digital license. The validation works by tapping phones, like in the supermarket checkout line. Officers don’t want to have to carry a driver’s phone back to their cruiser to verify identity, Gaines said, so a device they can carry to the driver’s side door is key.
The technology already exists.
“Any officer with an iPhone can now just scan a driver’s license and verify that information,” Gaines said.
The bill includes a requirement that law enforcement agencies equip their officers with the necessary devices by July 2027, though Gaines said that date could be pushed back if agencies encounter problems.
The legislation also says officers could not search a driver’s phone for other information simply because the driver handed it over for license verification. And it clarifies that drivers could still use a traditional analog license during a stop.
Gaines advised drivers to carry both even if this measure becomes law.
