Tennessee House Bills

Public Records - As enacted, designates records of the office of homeland security related to critical infrastructure as confidential and exempts such records from public records requests; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 10, Chapter 7, Part 5.

Local Government, General - As enacted, prohibits local governmental entities from relocating homeless individuals unless the relocation meets certain criteria; authorizes the receiving jurisdiction to seek damages and injunctive relief for violations. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7 and Title 71, Chapter 5.

Adoption - As enacted, clarifies that a court may waive the requirement for a home study in an adoption when the prospective adoptive parent or parents are not related to the child if certain requirements are met. - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 37.

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.

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.

Homestead Exemptions - As enacted, adds a child who is 18 or older and has a developmental or intellectual disability to whom the homestead exemption extends upon the death of the head of the household. - Amends TCA Title 26; Title 30; Title 33 and Title 52.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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, requires a third-party booking site that includes information about ancillary hotel services available at a hotel to disclose that there are additional fees required to access the services and which services require payment of additional fees by the consumer if access to the services requires payment of such fees; establishes violations of the requirement as violations of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act of 1977; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 47, Chapter 18.

Agriculture, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department to promulgate rules to implement and administer a voluntary program for the promotion of meat and byproducts from livestock raised in Tennessee, which may be labeled with an appropriate statement that indicates the meat or byproduct is a Tennessee meat or byproduct. - Amends TCA Title 43; Title 44 and Title 53.

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.

State Employees - As enacted, removes the requirement for waivers to be used only one course at a time for academic courses that full-time state employees are eligible to take without paying tuition charges, maintenance fees, student activity fees, registration fees, or online course fees; authorizes the waiver to be used for more than one course at a time. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 8.

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.

Naming and Designating - As enacted, designates the annual winner of the Old Time Bluegrass and Fiddlers' Jamboree as the state champion fiddler in this state. - Amends TCA Title 3; Title 4 and Title 15.

Traffic Safety - As enacted, establishes process regarding traffic violations committed by autonomous vehicles, including mailing the notice of violation or citation to the registered owner of the vehicle. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 30 and Title 55, Chapter 8.

Children's Services, Dept. of - As enacted, generally prohibits the department from requesting information regarding the number or type of firearms or ammunition or identifying information about such firearms or ammunition that a foster parent or prospective foster parent owns or possesses, or requesting a foster parent or prospective foster parent to display or provide access to a firearm or ammunition owned or possessed by the parent. - Amends TCA Title 37.

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.

Holidays and Days of Special Observance - As enacted, designates November 9 of each year as "Gold Star Father's Day," to honor and recognize fathers who have lost children in service to the United States as members of the United States armed forces. - Amends TCA Title 15, Chapter 2.

Health Care - As enacted, requires the department of health to make available to the public on its website all inspection criteria required for compliance by pain management clinics; makes other changes relative to pain management. - Amends TCA Title 63 and Title 68.

Child Custody and Support - As enacted, specifies that a parent's obligation for the support of a child does not continue after the child reaches 19 unless the child is handicapped or disabled. - Amends TCA Title 34, Chapter 1; Title 36, Chapter 5 and Title 37, Chapter 1.

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

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.

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

Children - As enacted, revises various provisions regarding children, including requiring a parent educational seminar in certain juvenile cases. - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 37.

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.

Registers of Deeds - As enacted, authorizes all bonds for the conveyance of real or personal estate to be registered only if the bond contains the signatures of all parties subject to the bond and the expiration date of the bond; authorizes all agreements for the conveyance of real property or contracts, memoranda, abstracts, or affidavits for the sale of real property, or similar documents by whatever similar or other name, to be registered if such documents contain the signature of the owner of the property or the owner's attorney-in-fact or court-appointed representative, the signature of the proposed purchaser, and the expiration date of the agreement. - Amends TCA Section 66-24-101.