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Committee approves bill requiring computer science credit for graduation, adds reporting and virtual options
Summary
The House Education Committee advanced Senate Bill 179, which would require a computer science credit or a CTAE course with embedded computer science for Georgia high school graduation beginning with future cohorts, and it passed an amendment to include private online-school reporting.
The House Education Committee voted to advance Senate Bill 179 as amended, approving a requirement that Georgia high school students earn a computer science credit or a Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE) course embedding computer science as a condition for graduation for future graduating classes.
Representative Ballard, carrying the bill on the House side, told the committee the mandate would be phased in with a long lead time — beginning at middle-school level credit eligibility and becoming a formal graduation requirement for a later cohort — to give districts and teacher-preparation systems time to recruit and train instructors. The bill also allows students to complete qualifying computer-science instruction virtually with a proctor on site and increases the state reimbursement rate for the Georgia Virtual School.
The bill’s sponsor and a Department of Education (DOE) representative said the timeline is intended to protect rural districts that may lack certified computer-science teachers by allowing a virtual instruction option and permitting the credit to be earned at the eighth-grade level.
Committee members asked whether state funds could accelerate the timeline and how other states implemented similar graduation requirements. Representative Ballard and witnesses pointed to examples in other states where a mandate increased participation — and cited one instance (South Carolina) where officials reported higher graduation rates and increased female participation in computer science after similar requirements were put in place.
An amendment (AM490270) offered during the hearing would require nonpublic online schools to report enrollment data to the county where a student lives so the state and districts can account for students in fully online private programs; proponents said the amendment captured thousands of current online students who otherwise are not reported in local student-record collections. The committee approved the amendment and then passed the bill as amended.
What’s next: The bill passed out of committee as amended and will proceed to the House floor for further consideration.
