by Ty Tagami | Mar 5, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Bryce Berry could not understand why his student was misbehaving.
The youth excelled on his assignments, but he disrupted the classroom. Eventually, the student explained that he could not see the board. Thus enlightened, Berry arranged an eye exam and a free pair of glasses.
Problem solved. A life changed.
“I think about how many other students across Georgia are being mislabeled or mis-disciplined or left behind simply because no one caught something as basic as vision or a hearing issue,” said Berry, a middle school math teacher who joined the Georgia House of Representatives last year.
Rep. Berry, D-Atlanta, told that story during a floor debate in the Georgia House of Representatives on Wednesday.
It was a rare moment of bipartisan solidarity, a meeting of the minds on a root cause of academic under-achievement.
Rep. Leesa Hagan, R-Lyons, had brought a bill to the House that would require annual vision and hearing screenings at school, from pre-kindergarten through third grade.
Currently, the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH) requires parents to submit a form when their child enters school for the first time, confirming that all the necessary screenings, including for eyes and ears, have occurred.
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, said there may not be universal compliance.
“I think part of the problem is, in some areas of our state, they may have a form, they may not have a form,” he said, “but children are not being screened.”
And eyes change over time, so children, especially little ones, may have worsening vision that goes unnoticed in the years after they enter a school.
Rep. Angie O’Steen, R-Ambrose, shared a story about her own daughter.
“Her vision problem didn’t show up until second grade,” the former school nurse said. “She could not see. She could not read. So thankfully, this bill will address that.”
House Bill 1402, which passed 172-1 on Wednesday, would both mandate the screenings and grant each school system $15,000 to acquire the necessary equipment.
“What we understand from DPH and from some of the schools that we’ve talked to is there’s a need to do it at the school to make sure every student is screened,” Hagan said. “It doesn’t take a lot of time, but it’s worth it if to identify any issues that are hindering their learning.”
The legislation would require that parents be informed ahead of the screenings, so they have an opportunity to opt out.
The measure also would require school systems to notify parents if their child is not reading on grade level by the end of third grade. In that way, it dovetails with a priority in the House and Senate to improve literacy rates.
Last month, the House passed House Bill 1193, sending it to the Senate. The vote was 170-2 — another display of bipartisanship. That legislation would give school districts the funding to hire about 1,300 literacy coaches, with the intent of sending each of them into schools with K-3 classrooms.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 5, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The Georgia House of Representatives passed legislation that would void any lawsuit settlements that seek to silence victims of childhood sexual abuse.
The bill, called Trey’s Law, is named for Trey Carlock, a child who was sexually abused at a Missouri camp. He settled a lawsuit against the camp, but a nondisclosure agreement prevented him from talking about what happened to him.
He died by suicide in 2019.
His sister, Elizabeth Phillips, testified last month at a hearing under the Gold Dome that the silence killed him. She said no one was held to account for her brother’s abuse.
Nondisclosure agreements force victims to choose between compensation and disclosure, said Rep. Soo Hong, R-Lawrenceville, explaining why she introduced House Bill 1187.
“This bill will free survivors to share their stories,” she said Wednesday, before lawmakers approved her bill 174-0, and sent it to the Senate.
HB 1187 would render any lawsuit settlement or employment agreement that requires secrecy about childhood sexual abuse unenforceable.
“This bill will free survivors to share their stories,” Hong said. “It will help uncover patterns of institutional silence and negligence, and it will deter future abuse by removing the tools used to hide misconduct.”
by Ty Tagami | Mar 4, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Accident victims who have insurance would be able to worry a little less about the cost of an ambulance ride under legislation approved by the Georgia House Wednesday.
House Bill 961 would require that insurers bill their customers the same whether or not the ambulance was in network.
“If I have a heart attack, I’m not going to negotiate,” said Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, the bill’s chief sponsor. “Get me to the hospital quick!”
He said he was moved to introduce the measure after a constituent complained about a $4,500 charge for a 10-mile ambulance ride.
Rep. Don Parsons, R-Marietta, said the Legislature ought to investigate the underlying costs. Powell said he understood why ambulances charge as much as they do. The vehicles are not cheap, and neither are the skilled medics, he said.
So, he focused on the insurance companies.
HB 961, should it pass the Senate, would also establish minimum reimbursement rates for out-of-network ambulance providers, either by contract or by setting them at 300% of Medicare reimbursement rates.
Powell was not the only House member concerned about surprise insurance bills for ambulance rides: the House voted 174-1 to send his legislation to the Senate.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 4, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — Protesters became a target of Georgia lawmakers this week as both the state House and Senate passed legislation to enhance punishment against people who get in the way of police or of drivers.
“The danger is real,” said Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, R-Powder Springs, explaining why she wanted to make it a felony to use a vehicle, whether moving or stationary, in a non-violent effort to block local, state or federal officers.
House Bill 1076 would impose a punishment of one to five years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 for anyone who uses a vehicle and “knowingly obstructs, hinders, blocks, or otherwise interferes” with officers enforcing the law.
It passed the House Tuesday night over objections by Democrats, who said the measure would add a redundant law to the books. Police already have a variety of charges they can use against such perpetrators, they said.
But they worried that the wording in this new one would give officers broad latitude to charge bystanders, such as a grandmother who couldn’t move her car.
HB 1076 would require that prosecutors prove intentional obstruction. But the legislation would raise the risk for everyone, one Democrat said, noting a felony “could ruin lives.”
During a committee hearing last month, Ehrhart cited statistics showing an increase in vehicle-related deaths of law enforcement officers as the reason for bringing her bill. But after a Democrat quizzed her about her numbers, she acknowledged they reflected all manner of vehicular incidents, including collisions while officers were driving their own vehicles.
On the House floor Tuesday, a couple Democrats suggested Ehrhart’s motive was a political reaction to the protests surrounding the killing of U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents.
Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, asked Ehrhart if her bill was “a political response to an American citizen, Renée Good, who was shot and murdered by law enforcement.”
Ehrhart responded that she was addressing a problem that predated Good’s death: “a dramatic escalation in motor vehicle-related incidents with police officers since 2020.”
HB 1076 passed the House 97-64 in a party-line vote.
The vote came hours after the Senate approved a measure to increase the fine for protesting in the streets.
Senate Bill 443 initially would have allowed felony charges against protesters who block roads, but the author, Sen. Carden Summers, R-Cordele, dialed it back. He reduced the charge to a high and aggravated misdemeanor, which brings up to a year in jail, the same amount of time as the misdemeanor charge in current law.
However, Summers’ legislation would raise the financial stakes. The maximum fine for a misdemeanor is $1,000. For a high and aggravated misdemeanor, it is $5,000.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 3, 2026 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA — The Georgia House of Representatives rejected a proposal to nearly eliminate homeowner property taxes.
The Republican-driven measure would have put a constitutional amendment to voters. To get on the ballot, it required support from some Democrats to win the necessary two-thirds majority.
Only one Democrat backed the resolution when it came to a vote Tuesday night.
Republicans said Georgia needs to redesign its tax system because property taxes are too high. Democrats countered that renters would suffer if the tax were nearly eliminated, and they observed that everyone would pay more for groceries and other essentials, since the proposal would have made up for lost revenue in part by raising sales taxes.
Rep. Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville, said the change would have opened a $5 billion hole in local government budgets. Cities and counties use property taxes to pay for basic services including police, roads and schools.
“If you care about public education, vote no,” Park said.
Republicans said homeowners need tax relief.
Rep. Shaw Blackmon, R-Bonaire, the lead author of the legislation, read a letter from a Georgia man whose adult daughter was stricken by illness.
The family ran though their savings after his wife quit working to care for her, and they decided not to pay their property taxes in case they needed the money for a funeral.
The daughter survived, but Blackmon used the story to illustrate the urgency.
“We can’t put property tax relief on hold for people like this,” he said.
The proposal had gone through many re-designs since lawmakers arrived in January, and it was still being amended this week, the deadline for the House to send bills to the Senate and vice versa.
It called for gradual reduction in the proportion of a primary residence’s value that is subject to property tax. Currently, 40% is taxable, but Blackmon proposed reducing that to 10% over a decade. His plan would have forced cities and counties to levy new sales taxes and assessments if they wanted to recoup enough revenue to preserve services.
Rep. Carolyn Hugley, D-Columbus, said the proposal was a political stunt that was never meant to pass.
House Resolution 1114 failed by a vote of 99-73.
“What we are seeing here today is an exercise in cold hard politics,” said Hugley, the House minority leader. “It’s simply about what voters do you want to drive out to the polls.”
But Rep. Trey Kelley, R-Cedartown, said Democrats were the ones playing politics by keeping the measure off the ballot.
“They want to deny your right to vote,” he said, “because they’re scared of the impact that it will have on the electoral turnout in November.”
House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, has said that property tax relief is a top priority during an election year when affordability is on voters’ minds. The Republican-led Senate has its own affordability strategy, having sent the House several bills that would sharply reduce income taxes.
Burns’ plan may not be dead yet. After HR 1114 failed, Blackmon moved for reconsideration. Burns said it would get another vote Wednesday.
