The civic record
Read. Follow. Verify.Georgia tightens background check rules and license revocation for early care and Head Start programs
Last action · May 13, 2025: House Date Signed by GovernorSponsors: Todd Jones and 5 others
Track this bill to get notified when it advances a stage. One tap to stop, anytime.
What This Bill Does
Georgia requires early care, education, and Head Start programs to obtain satisfactory comprehensive background check determinations for all directors and employees before they may work or reside at a facility. Effective July 1, 2025, the state mandates license revocation or nonissuance for programs that fail to comply, and establishes misdemeanor penalties for allowing ineligible individuals to have contact with children.
Child care facilities face mandatory license revocation and cessation of state and federal funds if they employ individuals without a satisfactory background check, while center directors face misdemeanor charges for knowingly allowing ineligible staff on site.
- House Bill 175 was passed by the Georgia General Assembly during the 2025-2026 legislative session and signed into law by the Governor. context
- State early care and education programs in Georgia are regulated under Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. context
Who It Affects
Groups the bill's text affects, as described in the record. Being affected is not a position for or against it.
early care and education programs
Programs must ensure all staff obtain satisfactory background checks, maintain documentation on file, and face license revocation and loss of funding for noncompliance.
Head Start programs
Programs must comply with new statutory definitions and ensure all directors and employees complete comprehensive background checks.
child care facility directors and employees
Individuals must submit fingerprints and personal data for state and federal background checks, undergo periodic re-checks every five years, and are barred from facilities if found ineligible.
Key Facts
- Defines Head Start programs as any program authorized under the federal Head Start Act, 42 U.S.C. Section 9801, et seq.
- Expands comprehensive records check determinations to include FBI fingerprint checks, National Sex Offender Registry searches, state and national criminal history records, and state child abuse and sex offender registries for the applicant's current state and any state of residence in the preceding five years.
- Requires any individual current or potential director, employee, or affiliated person in programs receiving federal funds for child care to submit fingerprints and applications for a records check determination.
- Prohibits individuals with unsatisfactory records check determinations from being present at a child care facility or residing in it.
Show all 11 facts
- Requires the department to cease issuing funds to any individual or program that willfully and continually fails to comply with background check requirements.
- Requires potential employees to submit evidence of a satisfactory comprehensive records check determination no more than 12 months old, with an exception allowing students enrolled in an early education curriculum to submit determinations up to 24 months old.
- Mandates that the department revoke the license or commission of any early care and education program that fails to comply with comprehensive records check requirements.
- Requires all employees and directors to undergo additional background check determinations at intervals not exceeding five years.
- Permits the department to require additional background checks on any director or employee when there is reason to believe they have a disqualifying criminal record or during a child abuse investigation.
- Makes it a misdemeanor for a license holder, commission holder, permit holder, or director to knowingly allow an employee or director with an ineligible criminal record to be present at a facility while children are present.
- Establishes an effective date of July 1, 2025 for the Act.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is required to undergo a comprehensive background check under this law?
How frequently must employees and directors renew their background check determinations?
What happens to an early care facility if an employee receives an unsatisfactory background check?
What else do you want to know?
News Coverage
Follow the record
Votes, people, money & the original sourceWhere This Stands
Current status: Signed into law.
Procedural history
15 actions- Jul 1, 2025Georgia General AssemblyEffective Date
- May 13, 2025HouseEnrolledHouse Date Signed by Governor
- May 13, 2025GovernorEnrolledAct 175
- Apr 7, 2025HouseHouse Sent to Governor
- Mar 27, 2025SenateSenate Third Read
- Mar 27, 2025SenateFloorSenate Passed/Adopted
Show 9 earlier actions
- Mar 18, 2025SenateSenate Read Second Time
- Mar 13, 2025SenateCommitteeSenate Committee Favorably Reported
- Mar 6, 2025SenateIntroducedSenate Read and Referred
- Mar 4, 2025HouseHouse Third Readers
- Mar 4, 2025HouseFloorHouse Passed/Adopted
- Feb 28, 2025HouseCommitteeHouse Committee Favorably Reported
- Feb 3, 2025HouseHouse Second Readers
- Jan 30, 2025HouseIntroducedHouse First Readers
- Jan 29, 2025HouseIntroducedHouse Hopper
Version history & redline
2 versions on fileLobbying Activity
No state lobbying filings in our records match this bill. Federal lobbying reports (LDA) cover Congress, so they are not listed on state bills.
Full breakdown
Who this bill affects and the strongest case for and against it, written only from the bill’s own text.
Sponsors
Show 1 more sponsor
Connected Entities
Sources
www.legis.ga.gov
Analysis Score
0–100- Significance75How much this matters to a regular citizen
- Controversy15Intensity of disagreement among stakeholders
- Entertainment5Compellingness for a non-policy-wonk reader
- Buzz20Current news / social attention level
Publisher tools