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District staff outline obligations from 2025 education laws, warn of unfunded mandates
Summary
Mr. McGowan briefed the board on more than a dozen new or pending laws from the 2025 legislative session with local implementation duties: K'0 cell-phone ban (HB 340) with storage and off-site rules, absenteeism protocols (SB 123), an omnibus school safety bill with multiple staffing and reporting duties and deadlines, dyslexia reporting (HB 307), and two local bills (HB 771 and HB 845) that clarify a tax-exemption survivorship and create an internal-auditor function respectively.
Mr. McGowan presented a final summation of the 2025 legislative session and walked the board through laws that have direct implementation implications for the Cherokee County School District. He opened with the scope of the session (more than 1,300 bills filed; roughly 400 signed into law) and said the district tracked over 200 education-related measures.
He reviewed holdover requirements such as public hearings tied to HB 581 and then focused on new requirements with hard deadlines. Mr. McGowan described the Distraction-Free Education Act (House Bill 340) as a statewide ban on cell phones for K'08 with a number of exceptions (medical devices, district-provided devices, devices required by ADA/IEP/504) and said several implementation items remain: establishing storage methods for devices, procedures for off-site events, communication protocols and enforcement mechanisms; he noted many of those tasks will be unfunded mandates.
On absenteeism (Senate Bill 123), Mr. McGowan said the bill creates a school-climate committee headed by a chief superior court judge, requires districts to adopt attendance protocols by 06/01/2026 and to develop supports for students at risk of chronic absence. He said districts with chronic absenteeism above certain thresholds must convene review teams and draft intervention plans.
He summarized the Omnibus School Safety and Security bill's multiple requirements, including stricter student-record sharing at transfers, expanded mental-health resources, threat-assessment teams, and creation of a student-advocacy specialist position (state-funded in part by Department of Behavioral Health grants). McGowan said CCSD "will qualify for 3 such positions" pending allocation determinations and that safety-plan updates (behavioral threat assessment management) are due Jan. 1, 2027.
Mr. McGowan also outlined transfer/enrollment requirements (amended forms to capture disciplinary history, mandatory notifications and a 10-day provisional enrollment process with remote-learning or case management options if records are delayed) and the dyslexia law (HB 307) requiring districts to identify students with characteristics of dyslexia and report K-3 data to the Georgia DOE by Aug. 1 annually.
He concluded with miscellaneous items and two local bills: HB 771 (clarifying Cherokee County School senior property tax exemption survivorship; to appear on this year's ballot) and HB 845 (establishing an internal auditor position for the Cherokee County School District); for HB 845 he said staff are "awaiting clarity as to the scope of the work and compliance obligations" and the fiscal impact has not yet been provided.
Board members asked clarifying questions about implementation and how the district's approach compares with nearby counties; staff said they would continue coordination with the board chair, local law enforcement, and the school delegation and provide follow-up information.
