Georgia DSP Training Requirements: DBHDD Core Curriculum & Annual Hours

Georgia's training requirements for direct support professionals (DSPs) come from one place: the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) and its provider manual for community developmental disability providers. DBHDD updates that manual every quarter, and the current edition took effect October 1, 2026.

The structure is simple to describe and easy to fall behind on: an orientation before any contact with individuals, a core curriculum within 60 days of hire, and at least 16 hours of training every year after that. This guide breaks down each layer, who's exempt, how medication support works, and what your training files need to show.

Where Georgia's DSP training rules come from

DBHDD publishes its standards for community providers in its provider manuals, which it updates quarterly and posts a month before they take effect. The training rules for I/DD providers are in the "Organizational Practices" section of the FY27 Provider Manual for Community Developmental Disability Providers.

The manual applies to DBHDD's community developmental disability providers, including those serving people on the NOW and COMP Medicaid waivers, and it says all of this training must be competency-based.

Step 1: Orientation before direct contact

Every staff member, direct support volunteer and direct support consultant must complete orientation before they have direct contact with individuals. It must cover:

• the purpose and scope of the services, supports, care and treatment the organization offers, including related policies and procedures
• HIPAA and confidentiality of individual information, both written and spoken
• the rights and responsibilities of individuals
• how to recognize suspected abuse, neglect or exploitation, and the mandatory reporting requirements: to DBHDD, within the organization, to the appropriate licensing agency (Healthcare Facility Regulation, or Adult Protective Services for in-home services) and to law enforcement
• training on the federal Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) Settings Rule

Step 2: The 60-day training for non-designated staff

Within 60 days of hire, all "non-designated" staff who have direct contact with individuals must receive further training. Non-designated staff means everyone with direct contact except licensed professionals (registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, occupational, physical and speech therapists, licensed dietitians and assistive technology providers) and designated Level 1 and Level 2 behavior support services providers. In other words, it covers DSPs.

The 60-day training must include, but isn't limited to:

1. Person-centered values, principles and approaches
2. A holistic approach to care, supports and services
3. The medical, physical, behavioral and social needs and characteristics of the people served
4. Human rights and responsibilities (\*)
5. Promoting positive, appropriate and responsive relationships with people served, their families and stakeholders
6. Communication skills (\*)
7. Nationally benchmarked behavioral support and crisis intervention techniques for safe use of emergency interventions of last resort, excluding prone manual or mechanical restraint (\*)
8. Using the Georgia Crisis Response System (GCRS) to access crisis services
9. Cultural competency policies
10. Fire safety (\*)
11. Emergency and disaster plans and procedures (\*)
12. Standard precautions, including infection prevention, personal protective equipment, sharps safety, cleaning and disinfecting, handwashing and spills, and respiratory hygiene
13. First aid and safety
14. Basic cardiac life support (BCLS) or basic life support (BLS), including CPR and AED, with both written and hands-on competency training
15. Each individual's specific medications and side effects (\*)
16. Suicide prevention skills training
17. Ethics and corporate compliance
18. Working with people who are dually diagnosed, as appropriate
19. Proper body mechanics for lifting, transferring and positioning

The manual also says that before working with each individual, staff should be trained on that person's specific conditions as written in their care plan protocol, where that applies (\*).

Two exemptions apply to support coordinators: intensive support coordinators and support coordinators don't need the behavioral support and crisis intervention training or the BCLS/BLS, CPR and AED training.

Note the hands-on requirement for CPR and AED. An online-only CPR course won't satisfy it.

Step 3: At least 16 hours every year

For ongoing training, the manual sets a floor: "A minimum of 16 hours of training must be completed annually from date of hire." Those hours must include every topic marked with an asterisk above:

• human rights and responsibilities
• communication skills
• behavioral support and crisis intervention
• fire safety
• emergency and disaster plans and procedures
• individual medications and side effects
• individual-specific conditions from each person's care plan

The training year runs from each employee's date of hire, not the calendar year, so each DSP has their own deadline, and it pays to track those dates person by person.

What your training policy must spell out

The manual also requires each organization to put its training program in writing. Your policy must describe, by job classification:

• which competency-based trainings must be refreshed every year from date of hire
• how you validate staff competency during orientation and every year after, with all competency validation documents kept in the staff file
• additional training required for professional staff
• additional training or recertification required for all other staff

Staff performance must also be reviewed and documented at least once a year by managers qualified to evaluate the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to deliver person-centered services.

Training for nurses and other licensed staff

Licensed and certified professional staff follow different rules. Providers must keep proof that at least 25% of each professional's required licensing board continuing education units (CEUs) are in intellectual and developmental disabilities or behavioral supports. RNs and LPNs must also complete at least six hours of CEUs in IDD health care as orientation training.

Medications and proxy caregivers

Medication support is one of the topics where Georgia's rules go furthest beyond the classroom. On top of the 60-day training on each person's medications and side effects, the manual says licensed DD providers that use proxy caregivers, meaning unlicensed staff trained to perform "health maintenance activities," must follow the Department of Community Health's rules for proxy caregivers. Among other things, providers must:

• have a written informed consent in the individual's record designating the proxy caregiver
• document that the proxy caregiver has the knowledge and skills for each health maintenance activity, with a separate competency-based skills checklist for each one
• define in the written care plan how often the proxy caregiver is trained, which must be at least once a year, plus any extra training when the plan changes
• for licensed facilities that use proxy caregivers to give medications, document that they were trained using the Department of Community Health's medication administration training curriculum

What your training files should show

The manual says competency validations belong in the staff file, and dated records make it easy to show that each layer happened on time. For each staff member, keep:

• orientation completion dated before their first direct contact
• each 60-day topic, dated within 60 days of hire
• CPR and AED cards showing the hands-on component
• a running annual total of at least 16 hours from date of hire, including every asterisked topic
• individual-specific training for each person they support
• competency validations and annual performance reviews
• proxy caregiver consents, skills checklists and training records, where they apply

How TES helps Georgia providers

Our Georgia DBHDD compliance pathway maps the orientation topics, the 60-day topics and the 16-hour annual minimum to training, and it tracks hands-on CPR, crisis intervention certificates and proxy caregiver records as external evidence. For more on keeping those records organized, see our guide to tracking employee training in a care agency. Courses in the pathway include Human Rights and Recognizing Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation, Person Centered Planning for DSPs, Embracing Diversity: Cultural Competency in the Workplace, Fire Safety for Direct Support Professionals and NADSP Code of Ethics.

For a full summary of Georgia's rules, see our Georgia DSP requirements page, or contact us to set up the pathway for your team.

This article summarizes DBHDD's FY27 Provider Manual for Community Developmental Disability Providers (effective October 1, 2026). It is not legal advice. DBHDD updates the manual quarterly, so check the current edition before making compliance decisions.