Tennessee House Bills

Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As enacted, clarifies that tenure and the process for dismissing a nontenured, licensed employee by a director of schools does not apply to individuals who hold a temporary academic permit or temporary clinical permit. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, creates the Class C misdemeanor offense of knowingly using an unmanned aircraft over the grounds of a school. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 49.

Veterans Services, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department to conduct a study that includes an evaluation of county veterans service office resources; the identification of underserved areas; operational capacity; local outreach efforts, community outreach events, partnerships, and other entities providing, or sources of, assistance for veterans at the local level; and the identification of potential funding mechanisms to support local veterans service offices; requires the department to compile a report of the study by December 31, 2026. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 25 and Title 58, Chapter 3.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, makes various changes to the law relative to fraudulent freight theft. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 16; Title 17; Title 18; Title 20; Title 22; Title 24; Title 25; Title 26; Title 27; Title 28; Title 37; Title 38; Title 39; Title 40; Title 43; Title 54 and Title 55.

Courts - As enacted, enacts the "Parental Rights Protection Act." - Amends TCA Title 36, Chapter 8 and Title 40, Chapter 11.

Courts, Municipal - As enacted, prohibits a municipality from remediating a property maintenance violation if the cost may negatively impact the municipality's financial position, or if the cost is budgetarily prohibitive; specifies that, in addition to assessing remediation costs against a property owner in the form of a lien, a municipality may recover remediation costs through all other legal means. - Amends TCA Title 6; Title 7; Title 13; Title 16, Chapter 18 and Title 29, Chapter 3.

Consumer Protection - As enacted, authorizes a small business that believes an online search engine has blacklisted the small business to contact the online search engine and request a response concerning the action; authorizes a small business affected by an online search engine's failure to comply with the response requirement to bring a civil action. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 29; Title 47 and Title 65.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, requires that, in situations where an order of protection is issued to protect a student who is enrolled in a public school from another student in the same school, the school principal and, when reasonably practicable and appropriate, the building-level school safety team with input from the parent or legal guardian of the student who is named as the petitioner in the order of protection, to develop and implement a student safety plan that includes certain protocols; requires such parent or legal guardian to notify the school within 48 hours of any changes to the order of protection. - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 49.

Insurance Companies, Agents, Brokers, Policies - As enacted, increases from $100,000 to $250,000 the retained risk limit for a single risk covered by a policy of insurance issued by a county mutual insurance company. - Amends TCA Title 56, Chapter 22.

Real Property - As enacted, enacts the "Sen. Frank Niceley National Security and Economic Protection Act." - Amends TCA Title 66, Chapter 2, Part 3.

Highways, Roads and Bridges - As enacted, makes various revisions to law relative to the naming of certain roads and bridges. - Amends TCA Title 54.

Special License Plates - As enacted, makes various revisions to law relative to license plates, including, but not limited to, creating new specialty earmarked license plates and cultural license plates, granting extensions to certain license plates, and making other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 4.

Flags - As enacted, authorizes a county mayor and the chief executive officer of a municipality to order the flags flown on county or municipal property to be lowered to half-staff to honor the death of a prominent citizen of that county or municipality. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6 and Title 7.

Courts, Juvenile - As enacted, expands the disposition allowed when a person under 21 is found to have unlawfully purchased, possessed, accepted receipt of, or presented fraudulent proof of age to purchase tobacco, smoking hemp, a vapor product, or a smokeless nicotine product to include requiring community service work, the successful completion of a prescribed court program, or placing the person on an informal adjustment for a period of 90 days for a first violation, and, for a second or subsequent violation, placing the person on probation for up to six months in addition to requiring community service and the successful completion of a prescribed court program focusing on the dangers of tobacco and vapor products. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 15.

Public Records - As enacted, generally makes the addresses on a nominating petition for the office of judge, chancellor, district attorney general, and public defender confidential; clarifies that such addresses may be made open to public inspection upon the request of a candidate or law enforcement authority in anticipation of, or as part of, a contest of candidacy or contest of election. - Amends TCA Title 2 and Title 10, Chapter 7.

Taxes, Severance - As enacted, extends from 30 to 90 days, the time following the end of a county's fiscal year within which a county must submit an annual report to the commissioner of transportation and the chairs of the house and senate transportation committees regarding mineral severance tax revenue the county deposits into its county road fund; removes the comptroller of the treasury as a recipient of the report; subjects the report to audit by the comptroller. - Amends TCA Section 67-7-207.

Flags - As enacted, requires any flag flown over the state capitol building to be flown at half-staff from sunrise to sunset in observance of Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day each December 7. - Amends TCA Section 4-1-406.

Motor Vehicles - As enacted, authorizes, effective January 1, 2027, temporary placards to be issued to a female who has a pregnancy certified to be high risk by her physician. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 21.

Memorials, Recognition - Leadership Franklin, 30th anniversary -

Memorials, Recognition - Friends of Franklin Parks, 15th anniversary -

Memorials, Interns - Andrea Medina -

Memorials, Recognition - Sarah Elizabeth Vincion Lewis, perfect attendance -

Memorials, Professional Achievement - Anna Cat Shepard, Mountain Education Foundation High School Educator of the Year -

Memorials, Professional Achievement - Shannon Roddy, Mountain Education Foundation Middle School Educator of the Year -

Memorials, Sports - Bella Warner, TSSAA Division I girls' individual bowling state champion -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Leah Calcutt, perfect score on ACT -

Memorials, Sports - Kenneth Walker III, Super Bowl LX MVP -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Allie Melton, Top Ten Senior, DeKalb County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Isabelle Hendrixson, Top Ten Senior, DeKalb County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Ava Pack, Top Ten Senior, DeKalb County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Lilly Fox, Top Ten Senior, DeKalb County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Michael Gutierrez, Top Ten Senior, DeKalb County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - David Wheeler, Top Ten Senior, DeKalb County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Emily Anderson, Top Ten Senior, DeKalb County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Jaxon Kleparek, Top Ten Senior, DeKalb County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Kyle Zdancewicz, Salutatorian, DeKalb County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Ethan Spears, Valedictorian, DeKalb County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Amelia Gay, Valedictorian, Cannon County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Laila Underwood, Salutatorian, Cannon County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Abi Alexander, Top Ten Senior, Cannon County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Emma Barrett, Top Ten Senior, Cannon County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Holly Robinson, Top Ten Senior, Cannon County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Aaron Yates, Top Ten Senior, Cannon County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Caitlin Dodd, Top Ten Senior, Cannon County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Preston Hamby, Top Ten Senior, Cannon County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Emily Manus, Top Ten Senior, Cannon County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Sierra Tatman, Top Ten Senior, Cannon County High School -

Memorials, Academic Achievement - Alex Whiteside, Top Ten Senior, Forrest School -

Memorials, Recognition - Kori Atkins, 2026 Boys & Girls Club of Chattanooga Youth of the Year -

Memorials, Death - Gary Odom Roach -

Memorials, Recognition - Top Ladies of Distinction, Inc., National President Lady Eddie Lee Marsh -

Memorials, Recognition - Representative Harold M. Love, Jr., induction into the Board of Preachers at the 41st Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. College of Ministers and Laity at Morehouse College -

Memorials, Retirement - Bobby Trotter, Chief Sergeant-at-Arms -

Memorials, Recognition - Tennessee Pollinator Week -

Memorials, Recognition - Run for the Wall Week -

Memorials, Recognition - Asthma and allergy awareness -

Memorials, Recognition - National Pencil Day -

Memorials, Congratulations - Governor Lee's deployment of the National Guard to Memphis -

White Bluff - Subject to local approval, authorizes persons who reside outside the boundaries of White Bluff but within the boundaries of Dickson County, and who own real property located within the boundaries of White Bluff, to vote in all White Bluff municipal elections; non-resident real property owners must own at least one-half interest in such real property, and such real property must be at least 5,000 square feet. - Amends Chapter 257 of the Private Acts of 1923; as amended and rewritten.

Ashland City - Subject to local approval, requires the position of mayor to be voted on by electors from the town at large; requires the position of councilman to be voted on by electors in their ward; requires elections to be nonpartisan; makes various other changes. - Amends Chapter 121 of the Private Acts of 2004; as amended.