Tennessee Bills

Contracts - As enacted, requires a court to apply rebuttable presumptions when determining the reasonableness in time of a restrictive covenant sought to be enforced after the termination of an employment or business relationship; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 50; Title 63 and Title 68.

Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As enacted, extends present law concerning compensated unused leave for teachers to all employees of LEAs and public charter schools. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 49.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, increases from a Class E felony to a Class D felony the offense of burglary of a conveyance. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

District Attorneys - As enacted, authorizes the attorney general to conduct a study of a district attorney general's disposition of charges and other ancillary matters within the 30th judicial district; authorizes the attorney general to petition the supreme court for appointment of a district attorney general pro tem if a district attorney general in this state has peremptorily and categorically refused to prosecute criminal offenses based on an unjustifiable and unconstitutional standard, without regard to facts or circumstances or taken other official action that constitutes a failure or refusal to prosecute according to the law. - Amends TCA Title 8.

Insurance, Health, Accident - As enacted, requires a health insurer that issues, amends, delivers, or renews a contract or agreement for a health benefit plan to take effect on or after January 1, 2027, to include coverage for biomarker testing; requires a TennCare health benefit plan that is issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2027, to provide coverage for biomarker testing when medically necessary. - Amends TCA Title 56 and Title 71.

State Government - As enacted, authorizes the commissioner of environment and conservation, notwithstanding agreements authorized by the commissioner of general services and with approval of the state building commission, to enter into agreements contemplated for the private development, redevelopment, construction, and operation of facilities on lands with Cumberland Mountain State Park, and the department of environment and conservation may supervise the construction. - Amends TCA Title 3; Title 4; Title 8; Title 9; Title 10; Title 12; Title 13; Title 14; Title 15; Title 41; Title 50 and Title 57.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation - As enacted, grants the bureau discretion to investigate reports of suspected elder financial exploitation. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 38; Title 39; Title 45; Title 68 and Title 71.

Education - As enacted, authorizes local boards of education and public charter school governing bodies to allow schools in the LEA or the public charter school, as applicable, to display the Ten Commandments, the first sentence of the second paragraph of the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, and the preamble to the United States Constitution in a prominent location in a school building. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Chiropractors - As enacted, requires certain insurers to reimburse chiropractic physicians at the same rate as physicians for the same services. - Amends TCA Title 56, Chapter 7 and Title 63.

Taxes, Sales - As enacted, authorizes an entity designated to operate a stadium designed to host games of an intercollegiate football team that competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to receive a special allocation of state and local sales tax revenue derived from the sale of admission to events occurring within the stadium and from all sales of food, drinks, merchandise, and parking sold on the premises of the stadium to fund capital and operation expenses for the stadium. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 6.

Municipal Government - As enacted, extends from June 30, 2028 to June 30, 2038, the deadline by which a municipality that continues to receive an allocation of state sales tax revenue pursuant to the now-repealed Courthouse Square Revitalization Pilot Project Act of 2005, will continue to receive the allocation of the revenue. - Amends TCA Title 6 and Title 67, Chapter 6.

Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As enacted, extends present law concerning compensated unused leave for teachers to all employees of LEAs and public charter schools. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 49.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, increases from a Class E felony to a Class D felony the offense of burglary of a conveyance. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

Insurance, Health, Accident - As enacted, requires a health insurer that issues, amends, delivers, or renews a contract or agreement for a health benefit plan to take effect on or after January 1, 2027, to include coverage for biomarker testing; requires a TennCare health benefit plan that is issued, amended, or renewed on or after January 1, 2027, to provide coverage for biomarker testing when medically necessary. - Amends TCA Title 56 and Title 71.

District Attorneys - As enacted, authorizes the attorney general to conduct a study of a district attorney general's disposition of charges and other ancillary matters within the 30th judicial district; authorizes the attorney general to petition the supreme court for appointment of a district attorney general pro tem if a district attorney general in this state has peremptorily and categorically refused to prosecute criminal offenses based on an unjustifiable and unconstitutional standard, without regard to facts or circumstances or taken other official action that constitutes a failure or refusal to prosecute according to the law. - Amends TCA Title 8.

Education - As enacted, authorizes local boards of education and public charter school governing bodies to allow schools in the LEA or the public charter school, as applicable, to display the Ten Commandments, the first sentence of the second paragraph of the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, and the preamble to the United States Constitution in a prominent location in a school building. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Taxes, Sales - As enacted, authorizes an entity designated to operate a stadium designed to host games of an intercollegiate football team that competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to receive a special allocation of state and local sales tax revenue derived from the sale of admission to events occurring within the stadium and from all sales of food, drinks, merchandise, and parking sold on the premises of the stadium to fund capital and operation expenses for the stadium. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 6.

Municipal Government - As enacted, extends from June 30, 2028 to June 30, 2038, the deadline by which a municipality that continues to receive an allocation of state sales tax revenue pursuant to the now-repealed Courthouse Square Revitalization Pilot Project Act of 2005, will continue to receive the allocation of the revenue. - Amends TCA Title 6 and Title 67, Chapter 6.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation - As enacted, grants the bureau discretion to investigate reports of suspected elder financial exploitation. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 38; Title 39; Title 45; Title 68 and Title 71.

State Government - As enacted, authorizes the commissioner of environment and conservation, notwithstanding agreements authorized by the commissioner of general services and with approval of the state building commission, to enter into agreements contemplated for the private development, redevelopment, construction, and operation of facilities on lands with Cumberland Mountain State Park, and the department of environment and conservation may supervise the construction. - Amends TCA Title 3; Title 4; Title 8; Title 9; Title 10; Title 12; Title 13; Title 14; Title 15; Title 41; Title 50 and Title 57.

Chiropractors - As enacted, requires certain insurers to reimburse chiropractic physicians at the same rate as physicians for the same services. - Amends TCA Title 56, Chapter 7 and Title 63.

Comptroller, State - As enacted, prohibits an LEA or public charter school from using public funds to initiate or maintain any civil action or proceeding against this state or an agency or officer of this state to challenge a school or district accountability measure established under state law. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Sewage - As enacted, makes revision to present law concerning sewerage systems using land application; exempts Hamilton County from the provisions requiring the developer of a subdivision or neighborhood that proposes to construct a treatment works to submit an application to the utility serving the area in which the system is located. - Amends TCA Title 7; Title 8; Title 9; Title 62, Chapter 2; Title 65; Title 68, Chapter 221 and Title 69.

Health Care - As enacted, increases the number of members on the medical cannabis commission from nine to 10, and provides that the additional member must be a member who is a specialist in the area of substance abuse prevention and serve as a nonvoting member. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 68, Chapter 7.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, defines "seriously bodily injury" for the purposes of the present law offense of vehicular assault, which occurs when a person who, as the proximate result of the person's intoxication, recklessly causes serious bodily injury to another person by the operation of a motor vehicle or vessel subject to registration; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 55.

Medical Occupations - As enacted, changes references to marital and family therapists to marriage and family therapists throughout the code, and makes other changes relative to marriage and family therapists. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29; Title 8, Chapter 50; Title 33; Title 36; Title 52; Title 56; Title 63 and Title 68.

Education, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department to collaborate with the department of safety to develop guidelines for LEAs and public charter schools providing a driver education and training course that include certain criteria. - Amends TCA Title 49 and Title 55.

Children - As enacted, allows a high school student who is older than 16 but younger than 19 to work in a child care center outside of school hours or during school hours through a work-based learning program if the student meets certain criteria. - Amends TCA Title 37; Title 49; Title 50, Chapter 5 and Title 71.

Professions and Occupations - As enacted, authorizes graduates of certain accredited engineering technology curriculums to apply for and become registered as engineers, provided, that such persons have prior engineering experience and meet certain examination requirements. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 62, Chapter 2, Part 4.

Drugs, Over the Counter - As enacted, increases the amount of products containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine a person may purchase in a one-year period from 43.2 grams to 61.2 grams; changes references to the "National Precursor Log Exchange" to the "electronic sales tracking system"; requires any manufacturer of an ephedrine or pseudoephedrine product that is sold in or into this state to, on a monthly basis, pay fees to the administrator of the electronic sales tracking system. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 4.

Boards and Commissions - As enacted, requires at least one hour of the board of medical examiners' required continuing education hours to be completed on topics related to nutrition; requires the same of the board of osteopathic examination. - Amends TCA Title 63, Chapter 6 and Title 63, Chapter 9.

Game and Fish Laws - As enacted, enacts the "Hunting for Heroes Act"; creates the Tennessee national guard sportsman license. - Amends TCA Title 70, Chapter 2.

Public Funds and Financing - As enacted, specifies the conditions that must be satisfied for monies from the governor's response and recovery fund to be provided to eligible local governmental entities and to eligible individuals in qualifying counties following an emergency or disaster. - Amends TCA Section 9-4-216.

Gas, Petroleum Products, Volatile Oils - As enacted, makes various changes concerning oil and gas drilling operations; specifies procedural requirements for review of certain administrative actions. - Amends TCA Title 59; Title 60 and Title 68.

Regional Authorities and Special Districts - As enacted, authorizes the Megasite Authority of West Tennessee to issue bonds for the sole purpose of financing, in whole or in part, the cost of acquisition, purchase, construction, reconstruction, improvement, betterment, or extension of the water system or wastewater system operated by the authority; grants certain additional authority to the board of directors; limits liability of the state on bonds of the authority. - Amends TCA Title 64, Chapter 9.

Child Abuse - As enacted, requires, rather than permits, the child protective team for a case involving a human trafficking offense to include a representative from a non-governmental agency specialized in combatting the commercial sexual exploitation of minors; extends the time within which the department or child protective team must determine whether reported abuse was indicated or unfounded from 60 days to 90 days or, in cases involving a child fatality, 180 days. - Amends TCA Title 37, Chapter 1.

Firefighters - As enacted, extends the period for the estate of an emergency responder killed in the line of duty from three years from the date of death to the later of such date or the date of a final order of a court, administrative law judge, or authorized state or local official designating the death as being in the line of duty; extends the period for an estate to file an appeal of a denial from 90 days to one year; adds a mechanism of appeal of a denial of a claim for the estates of firefighters, volunteer rescue squad workers, and emergency medical technicians. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 24; Title 7, Chapter 51, Part 2; Title 38, Chapter 8 and Title 68, Chapter 140.

Courts - As enacted, requires the clerks of the criminal courts to provide the Tennessee sheriffs' association with all court data necessary for the administration of the criminal proceedings notification system. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 16; Title 18; Title 40 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 6.

Federal Aid - As enacted, enacts the "Federal Tax Credit Scholarship Act." - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 9 and Title 49.

Mass Transit - As enacted, enacts the "Subterranean Transportation Infrastructure Coordination Act." -

Juvenile Offenders - As enacted, specifies that if a student is referred to juvenile court for being unlawfully absent from school and is ultimately adjudicated to be unruly, that the disposition made by the juvenile judge or magistrate may include the suspension of the student's driving privileges or ability to obtain a driver license for a period of up to one year. - Amends TCA Title 37; Title 49, Chapter 6, Part 30 and Title 55, Chapter 10.

Expunction - As enacted, permits a court to expunge certain violent offenses for which a person has been pardoned; requires the court to consider, in weighing the best interests of justice and public safety, whether the offense sought to be expunged was violent and any other relevant factors presented by the petitioner and the district attorney general. - Amends TCA Title 40.

Hospitals and Health Care Facilities - As enacted, requires the attorney general, in making a decision as to whether to object to a public benefit hospital conveyance transaction, to consider whether the proceeds will be controlled as funds independently of the acquiring or related entities; makes certain exemptions. - Amends TCA Title 48, Chapter 68 and Title 68, Chapter 11.

Estates - As enacted, states that the Uniform Partition Heirs Property Act does not apply to sales of land to pay the debts of an estate; revises the method for determining a decedent’s gross estate for purposes of calculating a surviving spouse's elective share. - Amends TCA Title 29; Title 31 and Title 34.

Boards and Commissions - As enacted, integrates the bureau of TennCare into the statewide planning and policy council’s structure and mission by adding the director of long-term care services and a managed care organization representative to its membership; expands the council’s advisory and reporting duties to include TennCare’s director, services, and waiver implementation alongside existing department programs. - Amends TCA Title 52, Chapter 5, Part 6 and Title 71, Chapter 5.

Foster Care - As enacted, requires the department of children's services to provide a copy of a petition to terminate parental rights for a child in the custody of the department to the child's foster parent, if the foster parent has served as the physical placement for the child for a period of nine or more consecutive months; requires the department to provide the required copy within seven days of the filing or being served with the petition. - Amends TCA Section 36-1-113 and Section 37-2-415.

Education - As enacted, revises the requirements for electronic participation in school board meetings under certain circumstances. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, requires a person convicted of vehicular homicide proximately resulting from the person's intoxication to be punished as no lower than a Range II offender if the person, as a result of the same course of conduct, is also convicted of leaving the scene of the accident. - Amends TCA Title 39; Title 40 and Title 55.

Administrative Procedure (UAPA) - As enacted, generally establishes that permanent rules filed in the office of the secretary of state on or after January 1, 2025, that are in effect on the effective date of this act, and that are scheduled for expiration on June 30, 2026, do not expire on June 30, 2026, but remain in effect until repealed or amended by subsequent rule of the appropriate rulemaking agency or until otherwise superseded by legislative enactment. -

Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As enacted, requires the principal or the principal's designee provide notification to the parent or legal guardian of each student who was in the classroom or instructional area at the time that a classroom evacuation occurred by the end of the day in which the classroom evacuation occurred unless the event that prompted the classroom evacuation is an ongoing emergency or is otherwise under investigation by a state or local law enforcement agency, in which case the notification must not be provided to parents and legal guardians until the emergency event is resolved or the principal or the principal's designee determines that providing the notification does not impede an ongoing investigation, as applicable. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Optometry - As enacted, redefines the practice of optometry. - Amends TCA Title 63, Chapter 8.

Employees, Employers - As enacted, requires a public safety employer to provide an employee or prospective employee with reasonable access to the employee's or prospective employee's full employment record, including the results of any mental health evaluation or screening; makes certain other changes relative to employment by a public safety employer. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 38; Title 50; Title 62 and Title 68.

Nurses, Nursing - As enacted, enacts the "Tennessee Nursing Education Integrity and Oversight Act." - Amends TCA Title 49 and Title 63.

Fire Prevention and Investigation - As enacted, requires certification from the peace officer standards and training commission and certain other criteria to be met in order for the commissioner of commerce and insurance, the commissioner's deputies, a municipal fire investigator, or a salaried county fire investigator to exercise police powers, including the power to arrest, relative to cases of arson or suspected arson. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 38 and Title 68.

Children - As enacted, specifies that a parent's or legal guardian's action of raising, guiding, or instructing the parent's or legal guardian's child in a manner consistent with the child's biological sex is not a basis for certain findings or actions by the court, does not constitute the criminal offense of child abuse, child neglect, or child endangerment, and must not be considered as a negative factor by a court in determining a custody arrangement in the best interest of the child. - Amends TCA Title 36, Chapter 6; Title 37, Chapter 1 and Title 39, Chapter 15.

Workers Compensation - As enacted, adds a requirement that an award of attorneys' fees and costs incurred when an employer unreasonably denies a workers' compensation claim or unreasonably fails to timely initiate any of the benefits associated with the claim must be based on a finding by the workers' compensation judge that the employer's conduct was unreasonable; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 50, Chapter 6.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, requires a director of schools to refer to juvenile court certain students who were formerly enrolled in the LEA, who were receiving certain truancy interventions, who withdrew from the LEA, and who did not transfer to another LEA; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 37, Chapter 1, Part 1; Title 49, Chapter 1; Title 49, Chapter 2 and Title 49, Chapter 6.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, enacts the "Tennessee Religious Freedom Act," which authorizes a local board of education to open a meeting of the board with a prayer led by a member of the board as long as the prayer does not require participation of any person in attendance at the meeting and no person is harassed or coerced to participate in the prayer. - Amends TCA Title 49.

State Government - As enacted, prohibits a state agency from issuing or renewing a certification, registration, license, or permit to a corporate entity if an officer, director, or employee of the entity provides material support or resources, meeting spaces, or other forums to certain terrorist groups or organizations for the purpose of soliciting material support or recruiting new members; requires a state agency to deny, revoke, or refuse or renew a certification, registration, license, or permit issued to such entities upon receipt of satisfactory proof of such activity. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 48 and Title 67.

Holidays and Days of Special Observance - As enacted, designates January 22 of each year as "Sanctity of Life Day." - Amends TCA Title 15, Chapter 2.