2021 Georgia Code
Title 20 - Education
Chapter 2 - Elementary and Secondary Education
Article 6 - Quality Basic Education
Part 11 - Regional Educational Service Agencies
§ 20-2-270. Establishment of State-Wide Network
- The State Board of Education shall establish a state-wide network of regional educational service agencies for the purposes of: providing shared services designed to improve the effectiveness of educational programs and services to local school systems and state charter schools; providing instructional programs directly to selected public school students in the state; and providing Georgia Learning Resources System services. The regional educational service agencies established by the state board may legally be referred to as "RESA" or "RESA's."
- The State Board of Education shall establish the service area of each regional educational service agency as a geographically defined area of the state. All local school systems, state charter schools, Technical College System of Georgia facilities and institutions, and University System of Georgia facilities and institutions that are located in the designated geographical area shall be members of that regional educational service agency.
- Every state supported postsecondary institution shall be an active member of a regional educational service agency.
- Each regional educational service agency and its employees shall be subject to or exempt from taxation in the same manner as are school systems and school system employees.
- All employees and volunteers of a regional educational service agency shall be immune from liability to the same extent as are employees and volunteers of a school system.
- Regional educational service agencies are not state agencies but shall be considered local units of administration for purposes of this chapter.
(Code 1981, §20-2-270, enacted by Ga. L. 1985, p. 1657, § 1; Ga. L. 1987, p. 1169, § 1; Ga. L. 1990, p. 1972, § 4; Ga. L. 1995, p. 1302, § 17; Ga. L. 1995, p. 1340, § 2; Ga. L. 1996, p. 1062, § 1; Ga. L. 2000, p. 618, § 44; Ga. L. 2008, p. 335, § 2/SB 435; Ga. L. 2012, p. 358, § 20/HB 706; Ga. L. 2018, p. 650, § 1/HB 787.)
The 2018 amendment, effective July 1, 2018, inserted "and state charter schools" in the middle of the first sentence of subsection (a); and inserted "state charter schools," in the middle of the second sentence of subsection (b).
Editor's notes.- Ga. L. 2000, p. 618, § 1, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: "This Act shall be known and may be cited as the 'A Plus Education Reform Act of 2000.'"
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Regional agencies not state agencies.
- Regional educational service agencies are not state agencies and, therefore, are not public employers under O.C.G.A. § 45-1-4, the whistleblower statute. North Ga. Reg'l Educ. Serv. Agency v. Weaver, 272 Ga. 289, 527 S.E.2d 864 (2000).