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Georgia

Georgia, like all states, has a unique early childhood policy landscape that is shaped by economics, demographics, political history, coalitions, and other factors that create a state-specific environment for policy advocacy.

State early childhood policy progress is dependent both on the state’s environment and the numerous efforts—by the organizations listed on this page, parents, policymakers, practitioners, and many others—who work both independently and collaboratively to achieve wins for young children.

2025 State Early Childhood Policy Environment and Progress

Early Childhood Landscape:

Research shows that family economic security is foundational to children’s overall wellbeing. Research also shows that widespread disparities in opportunity (especially by race) drive wide disparities in outcomes. States with policies that offer strong support to young children and their families are more likely to see 1) declining numbers of children in low-income households and 2) low racial disparity among those children.

Young Children in Low-Income Households: Declining

Approximately 41% (475,000) of the state’s children 0-8 live in households below 200% FPL (2022). This number represents a decrease from 48% (591,000) in 2017.¹

Racial Disparity Among Young Children Living in Low-Income Households: High

Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Native children aged 0-8 are significantly more likely to be living in households below 200% FPL than are Asian and non-Hispanic White children.²

(NOTE: Selecting for age 0-8, state, and race can yield small cell sizes that can make percentages less accurate. Bars marked with S indicate data with extremely small cell sizes, which is not displayed. Bars marked with C should be interpreted with caution. Though the cell sizes are larger, they still fall below a threshold of reliability.)

Advocacy Landscape:

State General Fund Appropriations (2024 Appropriation Data): Growing

On May 7, 2024, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed the state’s fiscal 2025 budget after identifying language to disregard, with total appropriations from all funds of $66.8 billion. Total state funds are $36.1 billion, an increase of 11.3 percent compared to the original fiscal 2024 budget. State general fund appropriations total $31.3 billion, an increase of 12.5 percent from the original fiscal 2024 budget. The fiscal 2025 budget is set by a revised revenue estimate of $36.1 billion, an increase of $3.7 billion, or 11.4 percent, over the fiscal 2024 original budget.³

Key Revenue Sources (excluding federal transfers):⁴

- - Charges ($1,708 per capita)
  - Individual Income Taxes ($1,695 per capita)

Georgia uses all major state and local taxes. Charges are public payments connected with a specific government service, such as tuition paid to a state university, payments to a public hospital, or highway tolls.

State Budget Rules:⁴

Georgia uses an annual budget. The legislature must pass a balanced budget, but it can carry a deficit over into the following year. Georgia does not have any other tax and expenditure limits. However, there are limits on total authorized debt and debt service incurred by the state.

Permanent State Funding Stream Dedicated to Early Childhood: Yes

Georgia funds its preschool program with dedicated lottery allocations. The state’s mixed-delivery system was created alongside the passage of the education lottery. During the 2024 legislative session, the Georgia General Assembly invested an additional almost $100 million to make critical improvements to Georgia’s Pre-K, including increasing pay for Pre-K lead and assistant teachers’ salaries, reducing class size from 22 to 20 students/class, and increasing the amount of start-up grants for the first time since the program began in 1992.⁵

Political Alignment:Aligned Republican

During the 2025 session, the state’s Senate and House were both Republican controlled. The state’s Governor was also a Republican.⁶

Types of Ballot Measure Available: One

- Legislature-Initiated Constitutional Amendments – A constitutional amendment that appears on a state’s ballot as a ballot measure because the state legislature in that state voted to put it before the voters.⁷

Key state policy advocacy organizations include:

Early childhood policy advocacy multi-state initiatives present in the state include:⁸

2025 Policy Progress:

Highlights from the state’s early childhood policy advocacy community include:⁹

A new tax credit package:

1) establishes a $250 non-refundable child tax credit for children under age 6;

2) increases the state Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) from 30 percent to 50 percent of the federal credit;

3) provides tax benefits to employers who make direct payments to child care facilities to cover a portion of employees’ child care costs.

This tax credit package, which received bipartisan and bicameral support, is a direct outcome of the Senate Study Committee on Access to Affordable Childcare. This will impact ip to 1,115,000 children under 13 whose parent(s) are both employed and in need of child care.

An additional $3.9 million in state general funds was allocated to provide for an additional 500 child care scholarships through Georgia’s Childcare and Parent Services (CAPS) Program. This amount was included in the Governor’s budget proposal and maintained by the legislature. $1.5 million was also allocated to CAPS to support increasing reimbursement rates for CAPS providers to the 60th percentile of market rate. Although advocates worked for a higher investment, this increase signals a recognition of the importance of this program and an opportunity to build on this win in future years.

The Georgia legislature appropriated $2.9 million to expand a home visiting pilot program, Perinatal Health Partnership, to improve birth outcomes, reduce pre-term delivery, and decrease infant and maternal mortality in rural Georgia.The investment expands Perinatal Health Partnership home visiting to 25 additional counties for a total of 75 counties  This allocation was included in the Governor’s budget and maintained by the legislature.

Ongoing Grantee Areas of Advocacy:

Our key ally in Georgia, GEEARS: Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, is a statewide advocacy organization that rallies support for the healthy development and high-quality early learning of Georgia’s youngest children. At the local, state, and federal levels, GEEARS brings together families, businesses, and civic leaders with public and private partners. Together, they advance policies and build systems that poise all of Georgia’s children for success.

GEEARS is working to advance early childhood policies in several areas that align with the Alliance’s birth-through-eight policy framework:

Early Care and Education

Preschool and Pre-K

Child Care

Child Care Workforce

Child and
Maternal Health

Early Intervention (0-3)

Infant & Child Health

Maternal Health

Family
Supports

Home Visiting

Family Economic Security

Paid Family and Medical Leave

Early Childhood Infrastructure

Early Childhood Finanace

Click here for more information on advocates’ policy agenda.

RECENT ADVOCACY SNAPSHOT:

Georgia Advocates Use Alliance Responsive Support to Advance Child Welfare Innovation

September 16, 2024

When a baby or toddler is removed from their family due to alleged maltreatment or neglect, children are often placed in a child welfare system that has not developed policies and practices with the needs of infants and toddlers in mind. In Georgia, early childhood advocates have worked with Alliance responsive support providers to win a solution for this problem—the implementation of an evidence-based court team approach.

NOTES:

¹Kids Count Data Center, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Children Ages 0 to 8 Below 200 Percent Poverty, January, 2024.

²National Center for Children in Poverty, Children Ages 0 through 8 Below 200 Percent Poverty, October 2024, NCCP analysis of ACS 5-Year Estimates – Public Use Microdata Sample 2018-2022.

³National Association of State Budget Officers, Proposed and Enacted Budgets, FY 2026.

⁴Urban Institute, State Fiscal Briefs, April 2025.

⁵Alliance for Early Success, State Examples of Dedicated Funding Streams, 2025

⁶National Conference of State Legislatures, 2025 State & Legislative Partisan Composition, January 31, 2025.

⁷Ballotpedia, Ballot Measures by State, Kids Count Data Center, 2025.

⁸Alliance for Early Success, Multi-State Initiatives for Early Childhood Policy Advocacy, July, 2024.

⁹Alliance for Early Success, State-Wide Advocacy Highlights Survey, April-October, 2025.