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Lawmakers in the Georgia House embraced a plan to send literacy coaches to elementary schools while also sending a high school cell phone ban to the Senate, as part of a package of eight educational bills approved Tuesday.

Georgia lawmakers’ years-long focus on literacy instruction started with mandates for use of the “science of reading,” a method based in phonics. Initially, they focused on teacher training and tests to identify children with dyslexia. House Bill 1193 seeks to expand on that strategy by sending state funding to school districts to hire an estimated 1,300 literacy experts in schools with K-3 classrooms.

The legislation, which Senate leaders have praised, also would bring new requirements for curriculum, teacher training and testing. And it would establish a more rigorous process for promoting students to the next grade.

“It’s something that I think will be game-changing for this state,” said Rep. Chris Erwin, R-Homer, chairman of the House Education committee and the main author of the bill. It passed the House by an enthusiastic 170-2 vote, moving to the Senate.

State representatives had more mixed opinions about House Bill 1009, which seeks to expand the state’s already-approved ban on cell phones and other personal devices in elementary in middle schools. That lower-grades mandate was signed into law last year, but it does not take effect until next fall. Even so, many schools have implemented it ahead of schedule, and it has proven popular among teachers, parents and even students.

That emboldened the author of last year’s law, Rep. Scott Hilton, R-Peachtree Corners, to expand the ban to high schools starting in the fall of 2027.

He said Tuesday that Georgia was an outlier among states that have banned phones in schools while excluding high schools.

Some lawmakers said a high school ban would reduce fights and other disruptions, while others were concerned about communication between parents and their children during a crisis. Both views reflect the opinions reported in surveys by academics and education organizations last year.

But Rep. Jason Ridley, R-Chatsworth, said during Tuesday’s debate that he thought it was too soon to include high schools in a “big government” ban.

“We ought to let it play out longer than a year,” he said.

Hilton responded with the same arguments he has been using for months.

“I want to let teachers do what they do best and that’s teach,” he said. “By getting cell phones out of the classroom, they no longer have to manage all that.”

Most House members saw it Hilton’s way, voting 145-20 to pass the phone ban.

The House also took up safety, passing a bill that would mandate weapons detection systems at every entry in every school building, emergency exits excluded.

Democrats criticized House Bill 1023 as a bandage rather than a cure because it does not restrict access to guns.

“We’ve allowed guns and weapons of war to become more available than a pack of gum,” said Rep. Bryce Berry, D-Atlanta. “We are installing metal detectors in our schools because guns keep ending up in our schools, because we have normalized the unthinkable.”

Other Democrats agreed with him but said they had no choice but to vote for the measure, with one referring to the mass shooting that killed four at Apalachee High School in fall of 2024.

HB 1023 passed by a vote of 151-11.

Two measures addressed college affordability.

House Bill 310 focused on future teachers, establishing a program running from next July through 2028 that would give 500 student teachers who qualify for federal need-based aid up to $5,000 to pay their bills.

Rep. Phil Olaleye, D-Atlanta, said he brought the legislation because the state is short at least 5,000 teachers, and this ready supply of future teachers is hamstrung by cost. Many must work two or more jobs while attending college and lack the time to teach as students, he said. HB 310 would also give former student teachers a $2,500 signing bonus if they work at least 30 days under a state public school contract.

HB 310 passed 151-6.

The other college affordability measure, by Rep. Scott Holcomb, D-Atlanta, would extend HOPE scholarships to high-achieving students if they attend an eligible Georgia graduate school within 18 months of earning a degree. His measure, House Bill 385, passed 160-2.

Three bills passed unanimously.

House Bill 971, by Rep. Rick Townsend, R-Brunswick, would let school systems enroll homeschool and private school students in their college and career academies even if the students do not live in the same district. They would have to live in the same region though.

House Bill 372, by Rep. Bethany Ballard, R-Warner Robins, another teacher workforce measure, would add four years to a program expiring in June that allows retired teaches to return to the classroom full time while collecting their pension.

Finally, House Bill 1123, by Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, R-Milton, would require more elementary schools to offer after-school programs to their pre-kindergarten students. Most already do, she said, but the measure would give parents in nearly two dozen more school districts the option.