ATLANTA – More than 100 new Georgia laws take effect July 1, 2026, covering everything from education and public safety to health care, consumer protection and taxes.

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We’ve highlighted some of the most significant new laws that could affect Georgians. The list does not include every law taking effect July 1, but instead focuses on those with the broadest public impact.

Here’s a look at some of the new laws taking effect July 1:

State Budget

HB 974 – Fiscal Year 2027 state budget

• Funds Georgia state government and agencies for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026.

Animals

HB 668 – Service dog protections

• Increases penalties for harming or interfering with service dogs and makes it illegal to falsely claim an animal is a service dog.

Business

HB 1129 – Enterprise zone updates

• Revises rules governing local enterprise zones, including tax incentives and qualification requirements.

HB 1470 – Website accessibility litigation

• Creates legal remedies aimed at discouraging abusive lawsuits over website accessibility claims while encouraging businesses to correct accessibility issues.

SB 447 – Building permit transparency

• Requires local governments to provide real-time online updates on the status of building permit applications.

Children & families

SB 383 – Child fatality review updates

• Expands child fatality review committees and strengthens training, reporting and investigation requirements.

HB 350 – Safe Haven law expansion

• Expands Georgia’s Safe Haven law by allowing newborns to be safely surrendered at ambulances, public safety vehicles and approved newborn safety devices.

HB 1283 – Family Justice Centers

• Authorizes Family Justice Centers that provide coordinated services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, abuse and human trafficking, and extends evidence retention in sexual assault cases.

Consumer protection

HB 1112 – Cash rounding law

• Creates rules for cash transactions if the U.S. stops using pennies. Businesses must accept exact change if offered, and sales tax must be calculated before any rounding occurs. (This only applies if pennies are discontinued.)

HB 945 – Financial fraud and cryptocurrency protections

• Allows banks to freeze suspicious transactions involving elderly or disabled adults and adds new consumer protections for cryptocurrency kiosks.

Courts & Judicial System

HB 999 – Magistrate court updates

• Raises the maximum amount for civil cases in Georgia magistrate courts from $15,000 to $25,000 and updates court procedures. (One section takes effect Jan. 1, 2027.)

HB 1020 – Judicial Retirement System changes

• Updates retirement benefits and survivor benefit calculations for district attorneys participating in Georgia’s Judicial Retirement System.

Criminal & Public Safety

SB 470 – Emergency & Public Safety Signal Protection Act

• Bans the possession, sale, manufacture and use of signal jammers, with limited exceptions.

SB 542 – Clergy sexual misconduct law

• Creates new criminal offenses for improper sexual contact by clergy members and establishes a 15-year statute of limitations.

SB 587 – Abuse investigations and animal cruelty

• Allows courts to order the location of alleged child or elder abuse victims and creates a statewide animal cruelty database.

HB 1075 – Human trafficking penalties

• Increases penalties for people previously convicted of human trafficking who commit certain sexual offenses.

SB 570 – Georgia Human Trafficking Prevention Training Act

• Requires hotels, inns and short-term rental operators to provide human trafficking awareness training for employees.

HB 1097 – Caregiver background checks

• Requires criminal background and registry checks for caregivers and employees at facilities serving children, older adults and people with disabilities.

SB 547 – Pimping and pandering penalties

• Raises pimping and pandering offenses from misdemeanors to felonies, increasing criminal penalties.

HB 447 – Gift card fraud

• Creates new felony offenses for stealing, forging or fraudulently using gift cards.

Education

HB 340 – Distraction-Free Education Act

• Prohibits public school students in kindergarten through eighth grade from using personal electronic devices during the school day, with limited exceptions.

HB 651 – School-zone automated enforcement

• Updates how school-zone speed cameras are enforced and allows prosecutors to pursue unpaid civil penalties generated by camera citations.

HB 1164 – State Board of Education audit committee

• Requires the State Board of Education to establish an audit committee to improve oversight and accountability.

HB 1030 – Math Matters Act

• Expands access to advanced math courses and updates teacher preparation requirements for math instruction.

HB 1302 – Education and Workforce Strategy Act

• Reorganizes Georgia’s education and workforce planning offices to better align schools, apprenticeships and career training.

HB 1284 – Terminally ill students

• Allows Georgia high schools to award diplomas early to students with terminal illnesses who are receiving end-of-life care.

SB 589 – School enrollment age changes

• Changes the age cutoff for kindergarten and first-grade enrollment and expands some voluntary Pre-K options.

SB 552 – Student political expression

• Protects public school students’ rights to political expression and guarantees equal access to school political groups.

SB 369 – Education program updates

• Expands opportunities for virtual students, creates dropout recovery charter schools and sets new rules for nontraditional education programs.

SB 179 – Computer science education

• Requires computer science to become a high school graduation requirement beginning with the 2031-32 school year and classifies virtual-only nonpublic schools as private schools.

Employment

HB 1118 – Paid maternal leave

• Provides eligible state employees with 120 hours of paid maternity leave after childbirth and protects them from workplace retaliation for taking the leave.

HB 987 – Voluntary Portable Benefits Act

• Creates a voluntary system that allows independent contractors to receive benefits, such as health or retirement contributions, through portable benefit accounts without changing their employment status.

HB 483 – Code enforcement protections

• Creates stronger criminal penalties for assaults against code enforcement officers while performing their duties. The enhanced penalties apply specifically to offenses committed after July 1, 2026.

Entertainment & Gaming

HB 455 – Bingo law changes

• Expands where bingo games can be held, increases the amount of prize money that can be awarded and limits how many bingo sessions can be held each day and month.

Food, Drugs & Cosmetics

HB 117 – Imported shrimp labeling

• Requires restaurants to disclose when shrimp served is imported rather than wild-caught or domestic.

SB 551 – Egg law repeal

• Repeals Georgia’s laws governing egg grading, labeling and quality standards.

Homeowners

SB 406 – Georgia Property Owners’ Bill of Rights Act (section 7 only)

• Gives homeowners more HOA protections by requiring certified notice before collection actions, increasing transparency and creating a state complaint process for HOA disputes. Only Section 7, which deals with attorney’s fees, goes into effect on July 1.

Hunting

HB 946 – Feral hog control

• Allows people to trap feral hogs without a license and use drones to locate them. Captured hogs must be euthanized.

SB 148 – Hunting safety in schools

• Allows public schools to offer hunting safety courses for students in grades 6-12 and creates a pilot program for outdoor learning spaces.

Medical

HB 227 – Medical cannabis updates

• Renames Georgia’s “low THC oil” program to medical cannabis and updates state laws and criminal penalties related to medical cannabis use and regulation.

SB 195 – Pharmacist PrEP and PEP law

• Allows specially trained pharmacists to dispense HIV prevention medications without a traditional prescription under certain conditions.

Money & Finances

HB 945 – Financial fraud and cryptocurrency protections

• Allows banks to temporarily freeze accounts when elder financial exploitation is suspected and creates new regulations for cryptocurrency kiosks, including transaction limits, fee caps and fraud warnings.

Motor Vehicles & Traffic

HB 1161 – Traffic safety updates

• Updates Georgia’s laws on yielding to emergency vehicles, fleeing from police and traffic stops. (The window tint section takes effect July 1, 2027.)

HB 651 – School-zone speed cameras

• Updates rules for school-zone speed cameras, adds penalties for misuse and limits new camera programs after 2027 without voter approval. (Some provisions take effect July 1, 2027.)

SB 293 – Odometer fraud law

• Makes odometer tampering a felony and significantly increases penalties for vehicle mileage and title fraud.

Protecting the disabled

SB 433 – Autism awareness and training

• Creates autism awareness license plates and requires Georgia law enforcement officers to receive training on interacting with people with autism or developmental disabilities.

Religion

SB 591 – Disrupting religious services

• Increases penalties for intentionally disrupting religious services, funerals and memorial services. Penalties are even tougher for military funerals.

Senior citizen protection

SB 439 – Senior living referral transparency

• Requires senior living referral agencies to disclose key information to prospective residents and limits when they can collect referral fees.

BARTOW COUNTY, Ga. – Gov. Brian Kemp signed a new election bill into law Thursday, shifting key deadlines and rules for county election workers ahead of the upcoming midterms.

Election officials caught in limbo

What we know:

Long before Georgians head to the polls to cast their ballots, election officials are working hard behind the scenes to ensure a smooth and accurate process.

As a July 1 deadline approached to eliminate QR codes from ballots, those tasked with running local elections were caught in limbo in the middle of a big election year.

Clear path forward voting

What they’re saying:

Joseph Kirk, the Bartow County Elections Director and President of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials told FOX 5, “We had one law that would’ve gone into effect on July 1st that didn’t match the rest of our election code, and people like me can’t choose which laws to follow, which laws not to follow, so we were really stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

With the legislature approving a bill to extend that QR code deadline to January 2028, local officials finally have a clear path forward.

“I’m so grateful they came in. They gave us a clear path forward, and some new tools to go with it,” said Kirk.

The bill keeps QR codes in place until January 2028, while creating a special committee to choose the state’s next voting system.

Hand recounts, audits new limits

Dig deeper:

It also limits hand recounts strictly to governor and lieutenant governor races where the margin is within half a percent, while mandating extra post-election audits for certain statewide contests.

“I think what’s important for the voters to know is nothing is going to look different this year.” Kirk explained. “As folks come in to vote for the rest of the year, they will still, in person, use the same ballot marking device that prints the same ballot we are used to seeing.”