Title 20

(a) The General Assembly finds that: (1) Education in computer science is a critical need for the students of Georgia for the twenty-first century; (2) Less than 0.5 percent of high school graduates have taken a computer science course; (3) There are thousands of unfulfilled compute…

(a) Except as otherwise provided by subsection (b) of this Code section, all children and youth who have attained the age of five years by September 1 shall be eligible for enrollment in the appropriate general education programs authorized in this part unless they attain the age …

(a) The primary purpose for the general and career education programs is to provide the children and youth of Georgia with a quality opportunity to master uniformly sequenced content standards adopted by the State Board of Education. (b) The following general and career education…

(a) For the purpose of fulfilling the foreign language requirements for a college preparatory curriculum seal of endorsement on a high school diploma, a demonstrated proficiency in American Sign Language shall be accepted as a foreign language for any student by all local boards of…

For the purpose of earning Carnegie unit curriculum credits at the high school level, satisfactory completion, on or after January 1, 1999, of a driver education course in a driver training school and under the instruction of a driver training instructor licensed by the departmen…

(a) All children and youth who are eligible for a general and career education program under Code Section 20-2-151 and who have special educational needs shall also be eligible for special education services. Children from birth through four years of age, whose disabling conditio…

(a) As used in this Code section, the term “communication mode or language” means one or more of the following systems or methods of communication applicable to deaf and hard-of-hearing children: (1) American Sign Language; (2) English-based manual or sign systems; or (3) Oral, a…

(a) The General Assembly finds that foster care students are particularly vulnerable to exposure to traumatic events and situations. The General Assembly also finds that a foster care student’s exposure to trauma can be exacerbated by changing schools, particularly when the student…

(a) The State Board of Education shall create and each local board of education shall provide an early intervention program to serve students in kindergarten through grade five. The kindergarten early intervention program shall serve students enrolled in kindergarten. The primary …

(a) All children and youth who are eligible for a general and career education program under Code Section 20-2-151 and who are also eligible under the criteria specified in this Code section shall be provided, in accordance with policies adopted by the State Board of Education, th…

(a) It is the policy of this state that the alternative education program shall provide a learning environment that includes the objectives of the content standards and that the instruction in an alternative education program shall enable students to return to a general or career…

The agricultural education program provided in this state to students in grades six through 12 shall be based on the nationally recognized three-component model of school based agricultural education: daily instruction in an organized classroom and lab environment; hands-on, expe…

(a) The Department of Education, through its agricultural education program employees described in Code Section 20-2-154.2, is authorized to administer an agricultural education program that local school systems may offer in elementary schools. If a local board of education elect…

The State Board of Education shall establish a state-wide school climate management program to help local schools and systems requesting assistance in developing school climate improvement and management processes. Such projects will be designed to optimize local resources throug…

The State Board of Education shall create a program for limitedEnglish-proficient students whose native language is not English, subject to appropriation by the General Assembly. The purpose of this program is to assist such students to develop proficiency in the English language, …

(a) It is the intent of the General Assembly to establish a uniform reporting system to be used as one of the criteria to determine eligibility of students seeking educational scholarships, grants, or loan assistance administered by the Georgia Student Finance Commission pursuant…

A local unit of administration shall be authorized to contract for school psychology services with an individual certified by the Professional Standards Commission in school psychology. The certified individual shall be authorized to practice school psychology for the local unit of…

For the purposes of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C.A. Section 1400, et seq., students enrolled in home study programs meeting the requirements of Code Section 20-2-690 shall be deemed to be private school students and shall be provided with the same spe…

(a) The Department of Education shall develop, and the State Board of Education shall approve, state models and industry required content standards, after consultation with industries in Georgia and in collaboration with the Technical College System of Georgia and the University …

Stronger coordination between high schools and institutions of higher education is necessary to prepare students for more challenging postsecondary endeavors and to lessen the need for academic remediation in college, thereby reducing the costs of higher education for students, f…

(a) The content standards established for career, technical, and agricultural education courses pursuant to Code Section 20-2-140 shall include embedded standards in academic core subject areas, as appropriate. In establishing such content standards, the state board shall work to…

(a) The State Board of Education, in consultation with the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia and the State Board of the Technical College System of Georgia, shall adopt policies and establish guidelines for awarding units of high school credit to students based…

(a) There is established a Georgia Seal of Biliteracy to recognize high school graduates who have attained a high level of proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing one or more languages in addition to English. (b) The purposes of the Georgia Seal of Biliteracy are as follows:…

(a) As used in this Code section, the term: (1) “Aphasia” means a condition characterized by either partial or total loss of the ability to communicate verbally or through written words. A person with aphasia may have difficulty speaking, reading, writing, recognizing the names o…

(a) The State Board of Education shall designate the specific dates upon which two counts of students enrolled in each instructional program authorized under this article shall be made each school year and by which the counts shall be reported to the Department of Education. The i…

(3) The state board shall annually compute, based upon the initial allotment of funds to each local school system, the total funds needed system wide for staff development costs. In computing the total funds needed for these categories, the state board shall apply the percentage …

(a) The General Assembly finds that it would be beneficial to students, employers, and the economic health of the state to assist in providing highly trained, technologically sophisticated, and career oriented students which will aid in the development of a successful twenty-first c…

(a) This Code section shall be known and may be cited as the “Dual Enrollment Act.” (a.1) The purpose of the Dual Enrollment program is to promote and increase access to postsecondary educational opportunities for Georgia high school students while increasing high school graduati…

(a) The State Board of Education shall annually recalculate the total amount needed under the Quality Basic Education Formula for the midterm adjustment for the current fiscal year using the average of the first and the projected second full-time equivalent counts for the current fi…

(a) The State Board of Education shall calculate the amount of local five mill share funds that each local school system shall be required to spend each fiscal year to participate in the Quality Basic Education Program as follows: (1) Unless the combined local five mill share total …

(a) As used in this Code section, the term: (1) “Assessed valuation” is defined as 40 percent of the equalized adjusted property tax digest reduced by the amount calculated pursuant to subsection (g) of Code Section 20-2-164. (2) “Assessed valuation per weighted full-time equivale…

In addition to the amounts earned by a charter system or a local charter school pursuant to subsection (b) of Code Section 20-2-161, a charter system or a local charter school shall earn 3.785 percent of the base amount established pursuant to subsection (a) of Code Section 20-2-…

(a) The State Board of Education shall calculate the total amount of state funds to be allotted to a local school system by: (1) Adding the amount calculated for the local school system for grants authorized under the provisions of this article which do not expressly involve a lo…

(a)(1) The State Board of Education shall annually compute, based upon the initial allotment of funds to each local school system, the total funds needed for direct instructional costs for each program identified in Code Section 20-2-161, specifying the number of positions earned …

(a) As used in this Code section, the term: (1) “Governing body” means the local board of education, governing council, governing board, or other entity by whatever name responsible for creating and implementing the budget of a local education agency. (2) “Local education agency”…

(a) As used in this Code section, the term: (1) “Out-of-system student” means a student who is enrolled in a local school system and receives virtual instruction from a virtual school within the local school system, but who resides in another local school system. (2) “Virtual ins…

(a) All federal funds received by the State Board of Education for purposes contained within this article shall be apportioned and distributed by the state board in a manner consistent with this article as additional aid to local units of administration in defraying the cost of e…

The Department of Education is designated as the sole state agency to receive federal funds allotted to Georgia under acts of Congress appropriating federal funds for career, occupational, or technical education; provided, however, those funds appropriated for the operation and m…

If the State Board of Education has received the notification from any local school system or district described in Code Section 20-2-480 and if at any time the State Board of Education is notified by the sinking fund custodian, trustee, or paying agent for bonded indebtedness of s…

(a) For purposes of this Code section, the term: (1) “Direct classroom expenditures” means all expenditures by a local school system during a fiscal year for activities directly associated with the interaction between teachers and students, including, but not limited to, salaries …

The essential educational resources described in this part shall serve as the basis for computing the base amount and program weights used in the Quality Basic Education Formula pursuant to Code Section 20-2-161. Although the essential educational resources described in this part…

The calculation of all program weights shall reflect a base size local school system of 3,300 full-time equivalent students. The calculation of program weights for the kindergarten program, the kindergarten early intervention program, the primary grades (1-3) early intervention pr…

(a) The program weights, when multiplied by the base amount, shall reflect sufficient funds to pay at least the beginning salaries of all teachers needed to provide essential classroom instruction in order to ensure a Quality Basic Education Program for all enrolled students, subj…

All program weights, when multiplied by the base amount, shall reflect sufficient funds to provide for the maintenance and operation of facilities essential for housing instructional programs and essential supportive educational services, subject to appropriation by the General As…

All program weights, when multiplied by the base amount, shall reflect sufficient funds to pay the beginning salary for at least one media specialist for an appropriate base size school pursuant to Code Section 20-2-181 and to provide media center materials and equipment, includin…

The program weights for the kindergarten, kindergarten early intervention, primary, primary grades early intervention, upper elementary, upper elementary grades early intervention, middle school, and remedial programs and the program weights for the high school programs authorize…