Tennessee Education Bills

Sunset Laws - As enacted, extends the department of children's services to June 30, 2028; requires the department to report back to the government operations committee by December 31, 2026, to update the committee on its progress in addressing the findings and observations set forth in the December 2025 performance audit report. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 37, Chapter 5.

Education - As enacted, revises the assessment testing requirements for students who participate in the education savings account (ESA) program. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 9; Title 12; Title 48; Title 49 and Title 67.

Local Education Agencies - As introduced, requires an LEA or public charter school to allow a private pay provider for a student with autism spectrum disorder or developmental delays access to the student during the school day to provide the student with private pay services in educational settings, including classroom settings, as determined by the student's IEP or service agreement. - Amends TCA Title 49; Title 68 and Title 71.

Bristol - Subject to local approval, revises election provisions for city council and the board of education to comply with changes to general election law; reduces the time after final passage for an ordinance to take effect from 17 days to seven days; changes the due dates for property taxes; creates a department of education. - Amends Chapter 84 of the Private Acts of 1991; as amended.

Bristol - Subject to local approval, revises election provisions for city council and the board of education to comply with changes to general election law; reduces the time after final passage for an ordinance to take effect from 17 days to seven days; changes the due dates for property taxes; creates a department of education. - Amends Chapter 84 of the Private Acts of 1991; as amended.

Education - As enacted, requires an educational oversight board to be created for an LEA that meets certain criteria and is established to annually conduct a comprehensive needs assessment of the LEA to determine the factors that may be contributing to the LEA meeting such criteria; requires the oversight board to develop a transformation plan that identifies performance and operational goals for the LEA and benchmarks for assessing the LEA's progress toward meeting such goals; makes other re...

Children - As enacted, enacts the "Tennessee Child Care Red Tape Reduction Act." - Amends TCA Title 13, Chapter 7 and Title 71, Chapter 3.

Students - As introduced, creates a criminal offense for a school employee who intentionally engages in bullying or cyberbullying of a student; clarifies that a teacher or school employee of a local education agency who is found to have committed an act of harassment, intimidation, bullying, or cyberbullying is subject to dismissal or suspension. - Amends TCA Title 37; Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 3; Title 40; Title 49 and Title 55, Chapter 10, Part 7.

Education - As enacted, makes various revisions to education law, including, but not limited to, requiring each public school to annually submit to the department of education a list of all local assessments administered to students, requiring the department to publish the percentage of students who attain proficiency for the English language arts portion of the TCAP, and establishing the assessment review board to annually review the TCAP tests administered to students in the most recent sch...

Lottery, Corporation - As introduced, vacates and reconstitutes the board of directors of the Tennessee education lottery corporation; requires certain information maintained by the corporation to be subject to a public records request; terminates the lottery corporation on June 30, 2030. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 10 and Title 49.

Education, Curriculum - As enacted, establishes a pilot program that provides grants to local education agencies to advance substance abuse and violence prevention programs. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Municipal Government - As enacted, creates a process for continuing funding for a municipal LEA when the municipal legislative body and the governing body for the LEA cannot agree on a budget; provides a process for continuing funding of municipal operations when a municipal legislative body has not adopted a budget by the first day of a fiscal year. - Amends TCA Title 6, Chapter 56, Part 1 and Title 6, Chapter 56, Part 2.

Education - As introduced, deletes an obsolete pilot program that awarded grant funds to five local education agencies to implement innovative and high-quality preschool programs in the 2023-2024 school year; deletes a Tennessee preschool task force that was created to develop a strategic plan for preschool education by June 1, 2024. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 49.

Education - As enacted, requires the department of education to implement a pilot program to evaluate whether administering fewer district- and state-mandated assessments results in students achieving greater academic success; adds an additional method by which a student who is not proficient in ELA, as determined by the student's achieving a performance level rating of “approaching” on the ELA portion of the student's most recent TCAP test, may be promoted. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) - As enacted, requires the TISA review committee to study and include in its annual report recommendations for how this state may revise the ways in which it identifies economically disadvantaged students to ensure this state is accurately identifying the students in need of additional resources and recommendations for how this state may better support economically disadvantaged students through the TISA. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 1 and ...

Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As enacted, clarifies that certain individuals who have not completed the amount of clinical practice required by the educator preparation provider in which the individual is enrolled may receive a temporary clinical permit if all other requirements for the permit are satisfied; allows such an individual who is issued a temporary clinical permit to meet the clinical practice requirements of the EPP in which the individual is enrolled by combining th...

Schools, Charter - As introduced, allows private postsecondary institutions, including those that are religiously affiliated, to operate a public charter school; allows such institutions to apply to the local board of education or directly to the Tennessee public charter school commission to open a public charter school and to give an enrollment preference to children of the institution's employees or members of its governing body in the same manner afforded to public institutions of higher e...

Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) - As enacted, requires the TISA review committee to study and include in its annual report recommendations for how this state may revise the ways in which it identifies economically disadvantaged students to ensure this state is accurately identifying the students in need of additional resources and recommendations for how this state may better support economically disadvantaged students through the TISA. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 1 and ...

Students - As introduced, creates a criminal offense for a school employee who intentionally engages in bullying or cyberbullying of a student; clarifies that a teacher or school employee of a local education agency who is found to have committed an act of harassment, intimidation, bullying, or cyberbullying is subject to dismissal or suspension. - Amends TCA Title 37; Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 3; Title 40; Title 49 and Title 55, Chapter 10, Part 7.

Education, Dept. of - As introduced, changes from September 1 to December 1 the date by which the department must compile and publish to its website a directory of the name and contact information for the apprenticeship training program contact for each public high school. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 49.