ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Georgia lawmakers will meet on Jan. 13 to begin their 40-day legislative session.

There are new faces and new leaders among House Democrats, while Republicans hold onto a large majority in the House and Senate.

Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns met with reporters on Wednesday ahead of the start of the 2025-2026 legislative session to discuss what his priorities will be going into the start of the session.

“We’re going to hit the ground running,” Burns said. “We all know no more important issue affecting Georgians and our quality of life than the education of our young people. We want every child in this state to have an opportunity for a good, quality education. We want to provide that opportunity to receive that education for every parent, every teacher that’s employed, and certainly those students, but we want to make sure we do one thing so you can focus on getting that education. We want you to feel safe when you go to school.”

In September, a student at Apalachee High School brought an AR-15 to school and killed two teachers and two students, and injured many more.

Burns stressed a need to further invest in mental health programs.

“We want to be proactive when it comes to mental health issues, not reactive, when a mental health issue comes on in our schools,” Burns said. “We’ll make sure that that’s part of the process that we put in place.”

The focus on school safety is just one of many issues Burns plans to take on this session. Burns’ full list includes:

• Income tax rebates
• Improvements to the state’s health offerings
• School safety measures, but no safe storage requirements
• Mental health funding for Georgia schools
• Restrictions to transgender participation in girls’ sports
• Strengthening the healthcare workforce
• Codifying protections for IVF
• Additional funding for Georgia’s prison system
• Limits for school zone cameras
• Tort reform
• Developing a statewide plan on how to use energy and water resources
• Limits to attendance zones suggested by the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement

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