Georgia
Discussion
Georgia: New Criminal Background Check Requirements for Mental Health Facilities
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APPLIES TO Certain Mental Health Facilities Employers with Employees in GA |
EFFECTIVE JUL 1, 2026 |
QUESTIONS? Contact HR On-Call |
Quick Look
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Discussion
Effective July 1, 2026, HB 1097 requires the owners, applicants and employees of licensed community living facilities, drug abuse treatment and education programs, and adult residential mental health programs to submit to criminal background checks, license status check, and registry checks. This includes individuals who have direct access to individuals such as duties that involve routine personal contact with a patient, resident, or client, including, but not limited to, face-to-face contact, hands-on physical assistance, verbal cuing, reminding, standing by or monitoring or activities that require the person to be routinely alone with the patient’s, resident’s, or client’s property or access to such property or financial information, including, but not limited to, the patient’s, resident’s, or client’s checkbook, debit and credit cards, resident trust funds, banking records, stock accounts, or brokerage accounts.
A criminal records check means a search of the criminal records maintained by the Georgia Crime Information Center and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine whether an owner, applicant, or employee has a criminal record. A registry check means a review of the nurse aide registry, the national and state sexual offender registries, and the List of Excluded Individuals and Entities as authorized in Sections 1128 and 1156 of the federal Social Security Act, as it existed on February 1, 2018, or any other registry useful for the administration of background checks for applicable facilities.
Negatively affected applicants or employees can challenge the findings. A personnel file containing evidence of the required checks must be maintained by each facility. Facilities are required to terminate employees who do not pass such checks. A facility that does not terminate an employee who has been found to have an ineligible or failed a registry check shall be liable for a civil monetary penalty in the amount of $500.00 for each day that a violation occurs, not to exceed a total of $10,000.00.
Action Items
- Review and update policies and procedures for required background checks, as applicable.
- Obtain consent prior to conducting background checks.
- Maintain personnel files with the results of the required background checks.
- Have appropriate personnel trained on background screening requirements.
Georgia: Updates to Service Dog Requirements
Effective July 1, 2026, HB 668 amends several titles of the Official Code of Georgia to modernize and strengthen protections for service dogs and the individuals who rely on them. The bill replaces references to “assistance dogs” and “guide dogs” with the unified term “service dog,” which is broadly defined to include any dog individually trained to perform tasks directly assisting a physically or mentally impaired person. It also expands the protected class of persons from those with specific physical or sensory disabilities to any “physically or mentally impaired person,” a broader category that includes those with cognitive, psychological, developmental, or learning disabilities. New definitions are introduced for key terms including “activities of daily living,” “owner training,” and “trainer,” and the bill extends rights related to public accommodations, public transit, and housing to this wider group of individuals. The amended law also creates a tiered penalty structure for offenses involving service dogs such as interfering with a service dog (frightening, obstructing, or allowing one’s own dog to harass it) Additionally, the bill creates a misdemeanor penalty for individuals who deliberately misrepresent themselves as qualified to use or train a service dog to obtain accommodations under the law.
Georgia: Human Trafficking Prevention Training
Effective July 1, 2026, SB 570 amends the Georgia Human Trafficking Prevention Training Act to require all inn employees and third-party short-term rental property managers to complete annual human trafficking awareness training within 60 days of hire and by December 31 of their first full year, with exemptions for owner-managed properties, properties rented fewer than 15 days per year, and individuals who completed qualifying training within 12 months prior to July 1, 2026. Training content must cover trafficking identification, labor vs. sex trafficking distinctions, employee reporting roles, and hotline contact information. Covered employers must also adopt written reporting policies, maintain training acknowledgment records for the duration of employment plus one year post-separation, and produce those records to the Office of the Attorney General within ten business days of a written request.
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