The Work We Did Together: A 2025–2026 Legislative Recap

When you first sent me to the Gold Dome, I made you a promise — to show up, to stand up, and to never forget who sent me. Two sessions later, I want to sit down with you, neighbor to neighbor, and tell you what that promise turned into.

Because this work was never about headlines. It's about the grandmother in Fulton County who can stay in the home where she raised her children. It's about the foster child whose services were cut off — and then restored. It's about the kindergartner in South Fulton who is going to learn to read this year because there is finally a literacy coach down the hall.

Here is the work we did together.

For our children and our schools

Every child in Georgia deserves a teacher who has the time to teach and the tools to do it well. This session, we passed the Early Literacy Act, putting $10 million toward reading coaches in every Georgia school for grades K–3 — because a child who can read by third grade is a child with a future. We expanded Pre-K with $9.7 million in new funding, and we launched the $350 million Dream Scholarship to put a college education within reach for students who earned it but couldn't afford it.

We didn't stop at this year. The session before, we secured a pay raise for our public school teachers, passed high-demand apprenticeship programs so our young people can build real careers, and — for the first time ever — wrote a poverty grant for education directly into the state budget. When you fund a child living in poverty the way you fund every other child, you tell that child they matter.

For our families and our health

A budget is a moral document. When I learned that more than 11,000 Georgia children had lost their child-welfare services because of an $85.7 million shortfall, I could not stay silent. Alongside Rep. Oliver, I pressed to fund that deficit — and services for our foster children were restored. Those are children who already have two strikes against them; the least we can do is make sure the state does not become the third.

We also delivered a $300 million increase in mental health services, expanded disability services through $4.8 million in additional funding for COMP/NOW waivers, and grew the Maternal Home Visiting Program by $3.7 million so it now reaches 33 more counties — meeting new mothers where they are. The session before, we increased Medicaid funding to cover more low-income Georgians and established a permanent Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, so working families keep more of what they earn.

For our homeowners and our seniors

The cost of living is the kitchen-table issue of our time. Statewide, we delivered $850 million in homestead tax relief — lowering the average property tax bill by about $500 — capped annual property tax valuations at 3% so no family gets priced out by a paper increase, and returned a one-time income tax rebate of up to $500 to Georgia families.

And right here at home, I authored and passed homestead exemptions that lower school property taxes for our seniors in both Fulton and Coweta Counties. Our elders should never be taxed out of the homes they built. We also secured $50 million in housing grants to combat homelessness, including $5 million dedicated to housing for our veterans, who should never have to wonder where they will sleep.

What I've learned

You don't always have to introduce a brand-new law to change someone's life. One of the most powerful moves is an amendment — a line added to the budget, a program finally funded, a protection placed where there was none before. That is where the quiet, life-changing work happens, and that is the work I will keep doing.

There is more left to do. The bills I'm carrying for rent protections for our seniors, for teacher retention, for safe and habitable housing, and for a fair minimum wage are still moving — and I am not letting go of them.

Thank you for the honor of this work. I'll keep showing up for you.

Show up. Stand up.

— Representative Lydia Glaize, House District 67