ATLANTA – Some working parents will no longer have to conjure up a convincing cough so they can stay home with a sick kid.

That’s because Georgia employers, with a few exceptions, now have to let their employees use their paid sick days to tend to close family members under a new law that took effect this month.

The bipartisan measure sparked one of the more memorable floor debates of this year’s legislative session, with Republican lawmakers making impassioned pleas to their conservative colleagues.

“You can call this is a feel-good bill if you want to because it don’t do a whole lot,” Rep. Jason Shaw, R-Lakeland, said from the House floor in March. “But if it’s a feel-good bill, I’m going to press green and I’m going to feel good about it.”

Shaw, who is also an employer, said the proposal was simply the right thing to do. But others saw it as massive government overreach.

“What’s next? Are we going to start writing vacation policies, attendance policies for businesses?” said Rep. Tom Kirby, R-Loganville.

Several legislators expressed concern that the measure would actually hurt employees and that employers might do away with sick leave altogether or take other steps to avoid the mandate.

The change doesn’t force employers to offer paid sick days, but for those who do, they now have to let employees use that time to care for their child, spouse, parent, grandchild, grandparent or any dependent claimed on their most recent tax return.

There are a few exceptions. The law only applies to employers with at least 25 people on their payroll, and it exempts companies that offer an employee stock ownership plan. It also only covers five days of earned sick leave per year.

As of a few years ago, there were believed to be more than 800,000 workers in Georgia who did not have access to what is called family care days, according to the Georgia Job/Family Collaborative.

It’s unclear right now, though, how many people may benefit from the law.

Nathan Humphrey, who is the state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, which has about 7,600 members in Georgia, said the new law likely will not have much impact on the state’s small businesses.

Most employers who offer sick leave, he said, probably already let employees to use that paid time off to care for loved ones. It just may not be an official policy.

“It was pretty innocuous,” Humphrey said of the legislation. “This bill does not really do a whole lot, really.”

Rather, Humphrey said he is more concerned that, in the long run, the law could serve as a “placeholder” for greater government intervention on an issue that he says is best left to business owners and their employees to work out.

Advocates say they do hope the new law is just a starting point. Setting minimum standards, as government already does with wages and child employment, is good for everyone, said Cindia Cameron with 9to5 in Georgia, which advocates for working women.

For example, a mom who can take her son to the doctor during work hours is less likely to rely on the emergency room.

Businesses benefit too, Cameron said, because their employees can focus on their work when they are there. Those workers also tend to be more loyal, she said.

“We can tell it’s good business policy because the enlightened employers are heading that way,” Cameron said.

“However, no parent who has a child with developmental disabilities should suffer because they’re unlucky enough to live in a part of the state where they cannot find an employer that is doing that,” she added. “Nobody should be vulnerable in that way. We’re a better society than that.”

Cameron’s organization led a broad coalition representing children, the elderly and Georgians with serious illnesses, such as kidney disease, and developmental disabilities. Advocates have pushed six years for the change.

Sen. Butch Miller, R- Gainesville, sponsored the bill, which took effect July 1. The law will expire in 2020 unless legislators choose to renew it.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.