What training do my caregivers need before they can work in Georgia?
For licensed private home care, Georgia’s rule lets a personal care assistant qualify by finishing a 40-hour program: 20 hours before serving clients and the rest within six months. After year one, staff need at least 8 hours of training a year. Waiver agencies also train every year on abuse, neglect and exploitation.
Georgia’s private home care rule has these key points:
- New personal care assistants need to meet one of several qualifications. One is a 40-hour training program. Twenty hours must be done before serving clients. The other twenty must be done within six months of starting the training.
- No assistant may be given a task before training is complete and competency is checked.
- All staff need orientation before working with clients. It covers your policies, assigned duties, how to report client problems, medical emergencies, and reporting TB and hepatitis exposure.
- After the first year, employees need at least eight clock hours of training each year on subjects related to their duties.
- All staff need a written competency evaluation.
Georgia’s Medicaid waiver manual adds:
- Training at least once a year for all employees, subcontractors and volunteers on spotting abuse, neglect and exploitation
- Direct care staff observed at least once a year
Keep a sign-in sheet, a date and the topic for each class in the caregiver’s file. If it is not written down, an auditor will treat it as not done.
Check whether another training rule applies to your specific waiver service.
Sources
- Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 111-8-65-.09 Administration and Organization (private home care providers) · Cornell Legal Information Institute (Georgia rules)
- Part I: EDWP (CCSP and SOURCE) General Services Policies and Procedures, Q3 July 2026 · Georgia Medicaid (GAMMIS)
Reviewed by Beth Bledsoe, Care Business Advisor®, 28 Oct 2026. Rules change. Confirm with your state Medicaid agency before you act.
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