O.C.G.A.
O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 20-2-204 (2019)

Paraprofessional and permitted personnel; classification of all certified or permitted personnel

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
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(a) As used in this Code section, the term:

(1) “Paraprofessional” is defined as a person who may have less than professional-level certification, who relates in role and function to a professional and does a portion of the professional’s job or tasks under the supervision of the professional, and whose decision-making authority is limited and regulated by the professional. Such a paraprofessional shall possess the minimum of a high school diploma or a state approved high school equivalency (HSE) diploma. If assigned to positions governed by federal regulations, the paraprofessional must meet specified federal hiring requirements.

(2) “Permitted personnel” is defined as persons who may not qualify for professional certificates, including retired teachers, but who function in the educational programs in the same manner as certificated personnel. Such personnel qualify for their positions on the basis of experience rather than formal education.

(b) The Professional Standards Commission shall provide for the classification of all certified and permitted personnel employed in the public schools of this state, and no such personnel shall be employed in the public schools of this state unless they meet such minimum criteria as developed by the commission; provided, however, that such classifications shall be based only upon academic, technical, and professional training and experience of such personnel. The commission is authorized to provide for revoking or denying a certificate or permit for good cause after an investigation is conducted and notice and hearing is provided the certificate or permit holder.

History

Code 1981, § 20-2-204, enacted by Ga. L. 1985, p. 1657, § 1; Ga. L. 1987, p. 1169, § 1; Ga. L. 1991, p. 1546, § 4; Ga. L. 2001, p. 4, § 20; Ga. L. 2003, p. 398, § 3; Ga. L. 2022, p. 168, § 2(3)/SB 397.

The 2022 amendment, effective July 1, 2022, substituted “state approved high school equivalency (HSE)” for “general educational development (GED)” in the second sentece of paragraph (a)(1).

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Equal protection of teachers and paraprofessionals. - Elementary school orchestra and band teachers’ equal protection claims failed because: (1) the school district had a rational basis for treating those teachers and Grades 1 through 3 paraprofessionals differently with regard to which employees would be retained since, inter alia, “teachers” and “paraprofessionals” were treated differently under

Georgia law; and (2) the district was not collaterally estopped from defending against the equal protection claims since the district was not subject to offensive, non-mutual collateral estoppel. Demaree v. Fulton County Sch. Dist., 515 Fed. Appx. 859, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 6994 (11th Cir. 2013), cert. denied, 571 U.S. 1126, 134 S. Ct. 901, 187 L. Ed. 2d 777, 2014 U.S. LEXIS 390 (2014).

ELEMENTARY & SECONDARY EDUC.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 4 cases, 2013–2016 · leading case: Hart v. State, 738 S.E.2d 331 (Ga. Ct. App. 2013).
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Hart v. State, 738 S.E.2d 331 (Ga. Ct. App. 2013). · cites it 2× “” See OCGA § 20-2-204 (a) (1) (defining “paraprofessional” as “a person who may have less than professional-level certification, who relates in role and function to a professional and does a portion of the professional’s job or tasks under the supervision of the professional,…”
State v. Morrow, 794 S.E.2d 37 (Ga. 2016). · cites it 2× “, OCGA §§ 20-2-204 (a) (1); 20-2-211.1 (a) (2); 20-2-942 (a) (4).”
Denise Demaree v. Fulton Cnty. Sch. Dist., 515 F. App'x 859 (11th Cir. 2013). “” O.C.G.A. § 20-2-204(a)(l). Paraprofessionals are not required to be issued an annual employment agreement, have no state-mandated salary scale, and have no Fair Dismissal Act rights.”
Travis Hart v. State (Ga. Ct. App. 2013). · cites it 2× “” See OCGA § 20-2-204 (a) (1) (defining “paraprofessional” as “a person who may have less than professional-level certification, who relates in role and function to a professional and does a portion of the professional’s job or tasks under the supervision of the professional,…”
— 20-2-204(a)(l) — 1 case
Denise Demaree v. Fulton Cnty. Sch. Dist., 515 F. App'x 859 (11th Cir. 2013). “” O.C.G.A. § 20-2-204(a)(l). Paraprofessionals are not required to be issued an annual employment agreement, have no state-mandated salary scale, and have no Fair Dismissal Act rights.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.