Tennessee House Bills

Memorials, Recognition - Stratton Bone Made in Tennessee Building -

Victims' Rights - As enacted, requires a notification of a restorative justice option, which is a voluntary, victim-centered process that may include facilitated communication, conferencing, community repair agreements, or other structured accountability and repair practices, to be provided through a program for victims in Davidson and Shelby counties. - Amends TCA Title 29; Title 36; Title 37; Title 39 and Title 40.

Real Property - As enacted, makes changes to law regarding restrictions on land purchases by sanctioned aliens or foreign entities. - Amends TCA Title 66, Chapter 2, Part 3.

Solid Waste Disposal - As enacted, makes various changes to law relative to solid waste disposal, including, but limited to, declaring that it is the policy of this state to plan for sufficient landfill capacity to dispose of solid waste that is not recovered or recycled; requiring each solid waste region to develop a plan that includes a narrative identifying where waste will be disposed and managed for the next 10 years; and requiring each solid waste region to submit a new or revised plan by July 1, 2028. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7 and Title 68, Chapter 211.

Tennessee Fish & Wildlife Commission - As enacted, authorizes a person to possess a raccoon without the payment of the $150 personal possession permit fee if the raccoon is obtained from a legal source and has been vaccinated; the raccoon is non-native and was not captured from the wild; and a possession permit for the raccoon has been issued by TWRA. - Amends TCA Title 39; Title 44 and Title 70.

District Attorneys - As enacted, authorizes the district attorneys general conference to pay the licensing fees for software applications used by the office of the district attorney general within a judicial district, regardless of whether the district attorney general office staff member using the application has a position funded by the state or another entity. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 9; Title 16 and Title 40.

Statutes of Limitations and Repose - As enacted, requires prosecution for vehicular homicide committed on or after July 1, 2026, to commence within 10 years from the date the offense occurs. - Amends TCA Title 28; Title 39 and Title 40.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, requires each LEA and public charter school serving students in any of the grades K–5 to adopt a policy governing the age-appropriate and instructional use of digital devices by students to minimize unnecessary screen time while preserving instructional effectiveness. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Court Rules - As enacted, requires each juvenile court, through the juvenile court clerk or juvenile court staff, each month within the statewide juvenile case management system prescribed by the administrative office of the courts, to report to the administrative office of the courts each new dependency and neglect case, including for each child named in the petition, certain information. - Amends TCA Title 37, Chapter 1.

Nurses, Nursing - As enacted, revises various provisions regarding medication aides, including allowing for a student in good standing enrolled in an approved school of nursing to be eligible to receive a medication aide certificate. - Amends TCA Title 63, Chapter 7.

Education - As enacted, creates a safe school design advisory board to recommend to the commissioner of commerce and insurance safe school design guidelines for LEAs and public charter schools to consider when constructing or remodeling K-12 public school facilities. - Amends TCA Title 10, Chapter 7; Title 49; Title 62, Chapter 35 and Title 68.

Water - As enacted, requires the department of environment and conservation to add water system projects located in counties having a population of less than 57,000 according to the 2020 census, or a subsequent census, to the priority list for consideration for loans from the water system revolving loan fund. - Amends TCA Title 68, Chapter 221.

Children's Services, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department and the department of disability and aging to collaborate to ensure that children with an intellectual or developmental disability who are in the custody of the department of children's services or at risk of entering the custody of the department receive appropriate services and supports for individuals with a disability; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 9; Title 33; Title 37 and Title 52.

Courts, Juvenile - As enacted, generally requires a guardian ad litem appointed by the court to complete training appropriate to that role, including training in early childhood, child, and adolescent development. - Amends TCA Title 16; Title 20; Title 33; Title 34; Title 36 and Title 37.

Education, Dept. of - As enacted, authorizes LEAs with a voluntary pre-K program to enroll children who are not at-risk, but who live in the LEA's geographic area, are three on or before August 15 and who have a parent employed by the LEA, and certain children who are five on or before August 15 to be eligible for IEP and who have not previously been enrolled in an LEA's voluntary pre-K program, if certain criteria is met. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Public Contracts - As enacted, enacts the "Higher Education Purchasing Act." - Amends TCA Title 12 and Title 49.

Drugs, Synthetic or Analogue - As enacted, enacts the "Nitrous Oxide Abuse Prevention and Retail Sale Prohibition Act"; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 39; Title 57, Chapter 7; Title 63 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 10.

Safety, Dept. of - As enacted, creates the office of homeland security within the department of safety. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29; Title 4, Chapter 3, Part 20 and Section 38-3-114.

Statutes and Codification - As enacted, clarifies that a "person," as used in Tennessee Code Annotated, does not include artificial intelligence, a computer algorithm, a software program, computer hardware, or any type of machine. - Amends TCA Title 1.

Correction, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department to conduct a study concerning subjects related to access of family members to incarcerated persons for visitation; requires the department to report its findings to each member of the general assembly and to provide a copy of the report to the legislative librarian by no later than January 31, 2027. - Amends TCA Title 41, Chapter 51.

Education, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department to develop guidance for Tennessee accelerating literacy and learning corps (TALLC) members on how to align tutoring services for students with the remediation the student needs and with the academic standards adopted by the state board of education for the student's grade level; requires the department to provide LEAs with a list of secure data management systems that utilize platforms capable of tracking the effectiveness of intervention methods, resource allocation, and student progress in real time across all schools in the LEA; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Employees, Employers - As enacted, allows for eligible employees to be absent 4 weeks from work following a living organ donation surgery; requires the department of health to create living organ donor informational material and make such material available on the department's website. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 50; Title 56 and Title 68.

Safety - As enacted, enacts the "Rescue Squad Recognition Act." - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8 and Title 68.

Remedies and Special Proceedings - As enacted, creates a civil action for individuals who are the subject of an intimate image that is intentionally disclosed without the individual's consent under certain circumstances. - Amends TCA Title 28 and Title 39, Chapter 17.

Education - As enacted, changes, from the department of education to the state board of education upon the recommendation of the department, the party responsible for selecting the intervention option for priority schools receiving tier three interventions through the progressive tiered intervention system. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Healthcare Liability - As enacted, authorizes a person to bring a civil action against a healthcare professional for an injury that is a result of a medical procedure, if the procedure was for enabling the person to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the person's sex or treating purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the person's sex and asserted identity, and the person consented; or if the person was a minor at the time of the procedure, the person's parent, guardian, or representative consented due to an act of coercion by the professional. - Amends TCA Title 29; Title 63 and Title 68.

Education - As enacted, enacts the "Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act." - Amends TCA Title 49.

Open Meetings - As enacted, adds the governing body of a local education agency and certain other local governing bodies of a public body with the authority to make binding decisions or the ability to appropriate funds to the list of governing bodies that are required to make meeting agendas available to the public in advance of such meetings. - Amends TCA Section 8-44-110.

Boats, Boating - As enacted, creates the Class C misdemeanor offense of mooring a recreational vessel for more than 14 consecutive days at any one place along the water's edge of a reservoir or at any place within one mile of the water's edge; makes other related revisions. - Amends TCA Title 69, Chapter 9.

Health Care - As enacted, adds clinical informatics, lifestyle medicine, and medical virtualist to the list of words or abbreviations that a person may attach to a name to indicate or induce another person to believe that the person is engaged in the practice of medicine or osteopathic medicine. - Amends TCA Title 63, Chapter 6 and Title 63, Chapter 9.

Commerce and Insurance, Dept. of - As enacted, directs the commissioner to use existing resources to study recent innovations by neighboring states to address substance use disorder through new health insurance coverage and reimbursement methods, strategies, or models; requires the commissioner to compile the findings and any recommendations from the study into a report for transmission to the general assembly no later than December 31, 2026. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 33; Title 56 and Title 71.

Education - As enacted, requires public high schools to provide students who are enrolled in a United States government and civics course the opportunity to participate in three civic engagement field days and similar opportunities, one for each branch of government, to observe each branch of government. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) - As enacted, makes various changes to the TISA review committee, including, but not limited to, clarifying that the committee may convene a meeting with a majority of all members present, including one or more designees, but a quorum of all voting members of the committee is required to transact any business requiring a formal vote of the committee. - Amends TCA Section 49-3-113.

Medical Occupations - As enacted, enacts the "Tennessee K-9 Emergency Medical Care and Transport Act." - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 14, Part 2; Title 44, Chapter 17; Title 63, Chapter 12 and Title 68, Chapter 140.

Fairs - As enacted, enacts the "Tennessee Agricultural Fair and Livestock Show Act" and the "Tennessee State Fair Act." - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 57; Title 43, Chapter 21 and Section 48-101-502.

Tourist Development, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department to annually confirm the nonprofit, membership-based organizations or tax-exempt public agencies to act as regional tourism organizations for each of the nine development districts; requires department approval of regional tourism organization's planned marketing initiatives prior to the organization receiving matching state funds; provides definitions related to tourism. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3, Part 22.

Sunset Laws - As enacted, extends the department of education to June 30, 2030. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3; Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 49.

Sunset Laws - As enacted, extends the Tennessee State University, board of trustees to June 30, 2029. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 49, Chapter 8.

Sunset Laws - As enacted, extends the department of human services to June 30, 2030. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 4, Chapter 3.

Naming and Designating - As enacted, designates the facility providing water and wastewater services to the Megasite of West Tennessee as the "Michael Banks Water Treatment Facility." - Amends TCA Title 64, Chapter 9.

Holidays and Days of Special Observance - As enacted, designates May 1 of each year as "Law Day." - Amends TCA Title 15, Chapter 2.

Agriculture - As enacted, makes various changes relative to the regulation of hemp-derived cannabinoid products. - Amends TCA Title 1, Chapter 3; Title 39; Title 43, Chapter 27; Title 53; Title 57, Chapter 7 and Title 67, Chapter 6.

Constitutional Conventions - As enacted, revises faithful delegate laws pertaining to Article V conventions. - Amends TCA Title 3, Chapter 18.

Welfare - As enacted, makes various changes to law relative to respite care services, including, but not limited to, increasing the number of hours an adult may attend a limited respite care services program from 12 to 16 hours in any one week, and authorizing such a program to provide care services for up to 20 adults at the same time, rather than 15. - Amends TCA Title 71, Chapter 2.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, clarifies, for purposes of criminal offenses relative to threats of mass violence on school property or at a school-related activity or failing to report such threats, that a threat of mass violence is credible if the threat causes another to reasonably expect the commission of an act of mass violence. - Amends TCA Title 39.

Taxes, Privilege - As enacted, clarifies that all privilege taxes on litigation that clerks of certain courts fail to collect and pay to the department of revenue are debts of the clerks; adds certain reporting requirements. - Amends TCA Title 40 and Title 67.

Insurance Companies, Agents, Brokers, Policies - As enacted, requires title insurance agencies that separately represent the buyer and seller in a real estate transaction and agree to an arrangement to share the title insurance premiums, commissions, or other fees paid by the buyer and seller, to provide written notice to the buyer and seller of such sharing arrangement and to receive signed, written acknowledgement from the buyer and seller confirming that they were so notified in writing; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 56, Chapter 35 and Title 66.

Purchasing and Procurement - As enacted, enacts the "Tennessee Procurement Protection Act." - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 56.

Public Records - As enacted, requires each state governmental entity and official to maintain certain information relative to the operational enforcement of federal and state immigration laws as confidential, and provides that such information is not subject to public inspection. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8; Title 10; Title 38; Title 39; Title 40; Title 41 and Chapter 253 of the Public Acts of 2021.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, enacts the "Crush Transnational Repression in Tennessee Act." - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 38 and Title 39.

State Government - As enacted, makes various changes to certain boards, authorities, and task forces, including, but not limited to, requiring all vacancies on the state capitol commission, the Tennessee local development authority, and the advisory task force on state reimbursement to be filled for the balance of the unexpired term. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 13; Title 16; Title 38; Title 43; Title 49; Title 50; Title 54; Title 58; Title 63; Title 64; Title 65; Title 68; Title 69; Title 70 and Title 71.

Education, Higher - As enacted, requires the board of regents, state university boards, and the board of trustees for the University of Tennessee system to adopt and implement policies that clearly distinguish between tenure decisions and disciplinary actions for faculty members. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 7; Title 49, Chapter 8 and Title 49, Chapter 9.

Election Laws - As enacted, authorizes the electronic portal to be created by the coordinator of elections prior to January 1, 2028, to access data from the systematic alien verification for entitlements (SAVE) program if the United States department of homeland security, United States citizenship and immigration services makes such data available via a secure web service. - Amends TCA Title 2.

Game and Fish Laws - As enacted, repeals statutory requirements related to raccoon hunting, thereby permitting the Tennessee fish and wildlife commission to regulate such activities through proclamations and rules. - Amends TCA Title 70, Chapter 4.

State Symbols - As enacted, designates Lake County as the "Eagle Capital of Tennessee." - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 1, Part 3.

Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services, Dept. of - As enacted, clarifies that if marijuana is rescheduled or deleted as a controlled substance under federal law, the commissioner is prohibited from rescheduling or deleting marijuana under state law, unless the general assembly has established a regulatory framework for marijuana and authorized the commissioner to reschedule or delete marijuana as a controlled substance. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 9; Title 24; Title 29; Title 33; Title 38; Title 39; Title 40; Title 41; Title 43; Title 45; Title 50; Title 53; Title 57; Title 63; Title 67; Title 68 and Title 71.

Tort Liability and Reform - As enacted, enacts the "Tennessee Child Care Hosting Safe Harbor Act." - Amends TCA Title 29 and Title 71, Chapter 3.

DNA and Genetic Testing - As enacted, directs the department of health to test for the presence of sickle cell trait in each newborn and, if the test results are positive for sickle cell trait, to notify the parent or legal guardian of the newborn tested as soon as practicable. - Amends TCA Title 68, Chapter 5.

Judicial Districts - As enacted, extends the date by which the advisory task force to review composition of judicial districts has to complete its findings and publish a proposed statewide judicial redistricting plan; extends the date by which the general assembly must reapportion the judicial districts in accordance with such plan. - Amends TCA Title 16, Chapter 2.

Vital Records - As enacted, enacts "April's Law of 2026," which authorizes a surviving parent, in addition to another next of kin, to formally disagree with the county medical examiner's determination that the manner of death for the parent's child was suicide and request reconsideration from the state chief medical examiner; allows the other parent of a child of the decedent to request a copy of the decedent's death certificate if the child is under 18. - Amends TCA Title 38 and Title 68.