ATLANTA — The Georgia Senate Study Committee on Combating Chronic Absenteeism in Schools recommended taking away teen drivers’ licenses for being out of school too much.
Chronically absent, or truant, students are a big concern for state lawmakers and in the committee’s final report, senators made a series of recommendations to curb the problem.
Among them was preventing chronically absent students from participating in sports programs, as well as taking away their driver’s licenses.
“Our work over the last few months has the power to transform our schools, strengthen our communities and improve outcomes for children across Georgia,” Macon Sen. John F. Kennedy, who chairs the committee, said in a statement. “Across every meeting, experts emphasized that overcoming the barriers our students face will take innovative, data-driven solutions.”
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In a larger release on the committee’s report, state senators said their recommendations focus on modernizing how Georgia works to improve student attendance and have more decisive early intervention.
Recommendations also included updates for truancy notifications, having more consistent statewide definitions and a tiered attendance framework that focuses on prevention.
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Ahead of the 2026 legislative session, the senate committee provided the following nearly two dozen recommendations for how to combat chronic attendance issues in Georgia public schools:
- Direct the State Board of Education to review, revise, and modernize existing truancy-related notification requirements to ensure that communications to parents and guardians are clear, accessible, and focused on early engagement and intervention9 ;
- Upon a student reaching a designated threshold of chronic absenteeism as defined by state law or regulation, such student be deemed ineligible to participate in school-sponsored athletic programs or extracurricular activities until the student and their parent or guardian have appeared before the local attendance review team for the purpose of developing and entering into an approved attendance improvement plan;
- Statutory authority be granted to local attendance review teams to impose remedial measures, including the temporary suspension of a student’s instructional permit or driver’s license, upon a determination that the student has become chronically absent and has failed to comply with an established attendance improvement plan;
- Establish a clear statutory definition of chronic absenteeism and align a “day of attendance” definition statewide, as well as address ambiguities regarding the oversight of CHINS cases;
- Amend O.C.G.A. § 20-2-690.1 to ensure absence is never a reason for exclusionary discipline;
- Focus on real-time data publications and encourage school districts to share attendance data for all students moving districts under the requirements of HB 268;
- Provide vision and hearing screening at multiple grade levels;
- Review and revise Georgia’s therapist licensure requirements to reduce unnecessary administrative steps;
- Emphasize the importance of attendance as students enter kindergarten, rather than targeting only school-aged youth;
- Require public, disaggregated reporting of chronic-absence rates by school, grade, and subgroup;
- Require all districts and charter schools to adopt a three-tier attendance model: universal prevention (Tier 1), targeted supports (Tier 2), and individualized/intensive interventions (Tier 3);
- Ensure documentation that supports were attempted (especially at Tiers 1 & 2) before any referral to court or broader consequences;
- Mandate school or district-level attendance teams in schools exceeding a certain threshold with monthly reviews and home‐community outreach;
- Develop a statewide real-time attendance dashboard and early-warning system so districts can act when concerns first appear rather than wait until late in the year;
- Fund wraparound services directly tied to attendance outcomes (e.g., school nurses, counselors, social workers, mental-health telehealth, reliable transportation, after-school and mentorship programs);
- Establish a branded campaign as attendance-improvement investments and polices (e.g., a “Everyday Counts Act” initiative, similar to the Georgia Early Literacy Act);
- Implement structured communication thresholds and require parent-signed attendance-improvement plans when thresholds are met;
- Before court-referral, require documented home visits/case management, an attendance plan, and offer of supports, reserving court or civil sanctions after those supports are implemented or a parent refuses to engage;
- Create a standing cross-agency task force (education, juvenile justice, health, housing, transportation) to share data, coordinate supports, and jointly set a five-year goal similar to the Georgia Literacy Council (e.g., reduce chronic absenteeism by 50 percent and sunset after rates are back to pre-pandemic levels);
- Improve school climate;
- Expand teacher preparedness; and
- Prohibit cellphones in high schools.
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