(Georgia Recorder) — The 2025 legislative session got off to a busy start Monday after a morning filled with the usual first-day pomp and circumstance, with the governor unveiling his campus safety plans and the Senate GOP majority firing off their proposal to ban transgender athletes in girls’ sports.

Gov. Brian Kemp held a press conference Monday afternoon to outline his school safety agenda, calling for $50 million in one-time school safety grants. Including previously approved funding, the state is poised to spend $158.9 million on school security this year, totaling $68,760 per school in Georgia.

Lawmakers will also consider measures to support mental health in schools.

“We will also be looking into how we can best improve the student-to-school-psychologist ratio and provide funding for crisis counseling training, further building on the progress we made in prior budgets on this issue,” Kemp said. “All of these investments we’re planning with the goal of making our schools even safer, strengthening mental health support for our students, teachers, and faculty, and developing the best and brightest minds right here in Georgia.”

In September, two students and two teachers were killed in a shooting at Apalachee High School. Nine others were injured. The accused 14-year-old gunman had allegedly been interviewed by the FBI in connection with shooting threats at a different school more than a year before the attack, leading to calls for more communication between school districts.

House Speaker Jon Burns, a Newington Republican, said the House will work on a bill requiring schools and other government agencies to share information on students.

“We know there was a significant breakdown in communication between school districts, law enforcement agencies and other agencies leading up to the tragedy at Apalachee High School,” Burns said.

“The House will take action to require our schools’ participation in a statewide information sharing and gathering network assessment model. This model will aim to provide school officials and law enforcement agencies with the information they need to keep our students safe while maintaining the highest possible privacy standards for students and families,” he added.

House Democrats say they support improving school security but are also pressing for gun safety measures, such as a proposal to penalize gun owners who fail to secure firearms that fall into the hands of children.

“We really haven’t seen all of (the GOP) proposals, but in order to have safe schools, you’ve got to have an environment where students feel protected and safe, and you have to address internal threats as opposed to external threats,” House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, a Columbus Democrat, said before the governor’s announcement Monday. “So, we’ve got to do more than just harden our buildings, harden our facilities.”

Hugley said Democrats continue to support a GOP-backed bill from last year that stalled that would have created a tax credit that incentivized gun owners to purchase storage equipment, like a safe. But she argued that more is needed.

“We are smart enough to protect the Second Amendment and protect our children at school. I truly believe that, and I truly believe that there are people on the other side of the aisle who want to do the same thing,” Hugley said.  

In the Senate, a GOP-backed bill that would expand on previous efforts to block transgender athletes from playing on a girls’ team was the first bill filed in that chamber and immediately received Lt. Gov. Burt Jones’ endorsement. Jones, a Republican, is seen as a likely candidate for governor in 2026.

The bill defines a student’s sex as what is on their birth certificate and forbids schools from allowing a student who was assigned male at birth from playing on a team designated for females. Girls could still play on boys’ teams, and either gender could play on teams designated as co-ed.

Under the bill, schools must also designate separate changing, restroom and sleeping facilities for males and females. The bill also sets up a process for people aggrieved under the law to seek relief from the county superior court. Schools that do not comply could lose their state funding.

Burns has said he is receptive to a measure targeting transgender athletes in girls’ sports, but it remains to be seen whether the typically more moderate House will go along with the Senate’s plan as proposed.

That bill’s filing came on the heels of another controversial issue: the proposed renewal of a special committee that has been looking into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

The investigative panel met several times last year after it became public that Willis had a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired in the 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump and his allies.

“Distractions will come,” said Senate President John Kennedy, a Macon Republican and second signer on the transgender sports bill. “Emotions will run high on important issues, whether it’s emotionally charged issues or thoughts of future campaigns. Whatever the distraction may be, I would encourage us to keep our focus on why we are here.”

Mostly, Monday was for swearing in new and returning lawmakers, taking up procedural issues like setting a calendar for the 40-day formal session that will wrap up on April 4, and getting organized for the new two-year session.

Advocates from all corners also showed that they are eager to be heard. Gun safety advocates awaited lawmakers as they filed into the Capitol, supporters of LGBTQ rights held a rally across from the Capitol, and ultra conservative activists championing paper ballots called on state leaders to abandon Georgia’s electronic ballot-marking machines.

“Let’s get to work. It’s time,” Burns said after being reelected speaker with a 153-21 vote.

Georgia Recorder reporter Stanley Dunlap contributed to this story.