Aug Chron/Capitol Beat: New GA law on addressing religious discrimination complaints in schools

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Georgia bill creates new discrimination complaint process in schools

Ty Tagami

Capitol Beat News Service

March 19, 2026, 4:04 a.m. ET

 

ATLANTA — Students in Georgia schools and colleges who face certain types of discrimination could soon have a path for redress that need not involve the federal government.

Both the state House and Senate have passed a measure that would establish a Georgia-based process for investigating complaints of discrimination involving race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion.

The version of Senate Bill 523 that passed the House unanimously on Wednesday had been stripped of language that would have required public schools to treat harassment or discrimination motivated by antisemitism the same as religious discrimination.

 

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Even so, Rep. Esther Panitch, D-Sandy Springs, praised the measure, citing instances of Jewish parents who felt powerless when their children were subjected to harassment.

"These families had no real recourse short of going to the media or filing a federal complaint," said Panitch, the only Jewish member of the Georgia General Assembly.

In its current form, the measure would require that the Georgia Department of Education employ a statewide coordinator of Title VI, the part of the federal Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin.

 

Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell, said he was moved to introduce the bill because of a family trip to Israel. They happened to be there the day Hamas attacked in 2023.

"There are extremes on both ends of the political spectrum that in today's climate condone antisemitism," he said at a House committee hearing on his measure last week. "History has shown us what happens when we allow antisemitism to take root in our society."

 

He referenced the slaughter of World War II unleashed by Nazi Germany and the Americans who died "before we got the genie back into the bottle."

He left that hearing before Rep. Deborah Silcox, R-Sandy Springs, presented the measure, saying that the language targeting antisemitism had been deleted.

 

Several public commenters, including one representing a Muslim civil rights advocacy organization, then praised the deletion. They said the bill now treated all faiths equally.

SB 523 would require public schools and colleges to establish policies for handling discrimination complaints or risk the withholding of their state funds.

The measure returns to the Senate, which can choose to accept or reject the House changes.