As used in this chapter, the term:

(1) "Agency" means each state board, bureau, commission, department, activity, or officer authorized by law expressly to make rules and regulations or to determine contested cases, except the General Assembly; the judiciary; the Governor; the State Board of Pardons and Paroles; the State Financing and Investment Commission; the State Properties Commission; the Board of Bar Examiners; the Board of Corrections and its penal institutions; the State Board of Workers' Compensation; all public authorities; the State Personnel Board (Merit System); the Department of Administrative Services or commissioner of administrative services; the Department of Technical and Adult Education; the Department of Revenue when conducting hearings relating to alcoholic beverages; the Georgia Tobacco Community Development Board; the Georgia Higher Education Savings Plan; any school, college, hospital, or other such educational, eleemosynary, or charitable institution; or any agency when its action is concerned with the military or naval affairs of this state. The term "agency" shall include the State Board of Education and Department of Education, subject to the following qualifications:

(A) Subject to the limitations of subparagraph (B) of this paragraph, all otherwise valid rules adopted by the State Board of Education and Department of Education prior to January 1, 1990, are ratified and validated and shall be effective until January 1, 1991, whether or not such rules were adopted in compliance with the requirements of this chapter; and

(B) Effective January 1, 1991, any rule of the State Board of Education or Department of Education which has not been proposed, submitted, and adopted in accordance with the requirements of this chapter shall be void and of no effect.

(2) "Contested case" means a proceeding, including, but not restricted to, rate making, price fixing, and licensing, in which the legal rights, duties, or privileges of a party are required by law to be determined by an agency after an opportunity for hearing.

(2.1) "Electronic" means, without limitation, analog, digital, electronic, magnetic, mechanical, optical, chemical, electromagnetic, electromechanical, electrochemical, or other similar means.

(3) "License" means the whole or part of any agency permit, certificate, approval, registration, charter, or similar form of permission required by law, but it does not include a license required solely for revenue purposes. "Licensing" includes the agency process respecting the grant, denial, renewal, revocation, suspension, annulment, withdrawal, or amendment of a license.

(3.1) "Mailed" includes electronic means of communication.

(3.2) "Mailing list" includes electronic means of distribution.

(4) "Party" means each person or agency named or admitted as a party or properly seeking and entitled as of right to be admitted as a party.

(5) "Person" means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, governmental subdivision, or public or private organization of any character other than an agency.

(5.1) "Record" means information created, transmitted, received, or stored either in human perceivable form or in a form that is retrievable in human perceivable form.

(6) "Rule" means each agency regulation, standard, or statement of general applicability that implements, interprets, or prescribes law or policy or describes the organization, procedure, or practice requirements of any agency. The term includes the amendment or repeal of a prior rule but does not include the following:

(A) Statements concerning only the internal management of an agency and not affecting private rights or procedures available to the public;

(B) Declaratory rulings issued pursuant to Code Section 50-13-11;

(C) Intra-agency memoranda;

(D) Statements of policy or interpretations that are made in the decision of a contested case;

(E) Rules concerning the use or creation of public roads or facilities, which rules are communicated to the public by use of signs or symbols;

(F) Rules which relate to the acquiring, sale, development, and management of the property, both real and personal, of the state or of an agency;

(G) Rules which relate to contracts for the purchases and sales of goods and services by the state or of an agency;

(H) Rules which relate to the employment, compensation, tenure, terms, retirement, or regulation of the employees of the state or of an agency;

(I) Rules relating to loans, grants, and benefits by the state or of an agency; or

(J) The approval or prescription for the future of rates or prices.