Tennessee Senate Bills

State Government - As enacted, removes obsolete statutory references to the defunct joint select committee on veterans services of the general assembly; makes revisions to entities listed in the Tennessee Governmental Entity Review Law; revises present law provisions relative to the retirement incentive bonus for public service commission employees; removes an expired report. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8, Chapter 34, Part 2; Title 52; Title 58, Chapter 7; Title 63, Chapter 6, Part 4; Title 68, Chapter 142, Part 1; Title 68, Chapter 11, Part 2 and Title 69, Chapter 10.

Administrative Procedure (UAPA) - As enacted, generally establishes that permanent rules filed in the office of the secretary of state on or after January 1, 2024, that are in effect on the effective date of this act, and that are scheduled for expiration on June 30, 2025, do not expire on June 30, 2025, but remain in effect until repealed or amended by subsequent rule of the appropriate rulemaking agency or until otherwise superseded by legislative enactment. -

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, requires each board of education for an LEA that operates at least one high school to adopt and implement a policy to authorize a high school student to serve as an advisory, nonvoting representative on the board during meetings that are open to the public. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 2.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, increases, from 130 minutes per full school week to 40 minutes per school day, the minimum amount of physical activity required for elementary school students; establishes additional requirements for the minimum amount of physical activity required for elementary school students. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Education - As enacted, requires each local board of education and public charter school governing body to develop and implement a policy to provide, with each K-8 student's report card, the student's score on the universal reading screener if administered to the student in the current school year, and the results of the dyslexia screener most recently administered to the student, if applicable. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Insurance, Health, Accident - As enacted, revises present law relative to 340B entities. - Amends TCA Title 47, Chapter 18 and Title 56.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, revises present law concerning driving under the influence. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 55.

Human Services, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department to establish a process by which management of a public property may submit formal complaints regarding the conduct or performance of a blind individual who has been licensed to operate a vending facility on such public property through the business enterprise program for the blind; makes other changes relative to such programs for disabled individuals. - Amends TCA Title 71, Chapter 4.

Remedies and Special Proceedings - As enacted, removes the ability to bring a civil liability action for negligence per se against a seller of a qualified product; expands "qualified products" to include knives, body armor, pepper spray, silencers, and other certain products; requires physical injury for a negligent entrustment action rather than an unreasonable risk of physical injury; specifies that a person who will be subject to an ordinance in the future or reasonably intends to be physically present in the political subdivision is an adversely affected party for purposes of filing certain actions; makes various other changes regarding civil actions against arms dealers, manufacturers, and sellers and the preemption of local regulation of firearms. - Amends TCA Title 29, Chapter 42 and Title 39.

Education, Dept. of - As enacted, enacts the "The Learning Pod Protection Act." - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 49.

Education - As enacted, prohibits excusing a student from school to attend a released time course in religious moral instruction during the school year unless certain criteria are met. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 2; Title 49, Chapter 5 and Title 49, Chapter 6.

Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As enacted, makes various changes to certain teacher licensure requirements. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 5 and Title 49, Chapter 6.

Food and Food Products - As enacted, deletes present laws pertaining to rented premises unfit for habitation and quick fast food establishment delivery vehicles; removes the statutorily set permit fees to operate food service establishments and requires such permit fees to be set by rule; makes other revisions to present laws pertaining to food service and safety. - Amends TCA Section 53-8-103; Title 68, Chapter 110; Title 68, Chapter 111; Title 68, Chapter 14 and Title 68, Chapter 15.

Professions and Occupations - As enacted, makes various changes relative to the practice of chiropractors, including animal chiropractic practice. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 63.

Environment and Conservation, Department of - As enacted, makes various changes related to fees set by the department for environmental regulatory programs; makes changes to the regulation of coal combustion residuals disposal units. - Amends TCA Title 68, Chapter 203, Part 1 and Title 68, Chapter 211, Part 1.

Child Abuse - As enacted, expands the definition of child abuse to include a person under the age of 18 witnessing either the abuse of another child in the person's immediate family or household or domestic abuse of a member of the person's immediate family or household; specifies that reunification between a parent and a child placed in foster care due to abuse must not occur unless the parent has complied with the parent's statement of responsibilities in the permanency plan and the child has received mental health counseling. - Amends TCA Title 36; Title 37 and Title 39.

Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services, Dept. of - As enacted, revises present law relative to recovery residences and alcohol and drug prevention or treatment facilities under certification by the department. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 13; Title 33; Title 47; Title 63 and Title 68.

Children - As enacted, enacts the "End Childhood Hunger Act." - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 37.

Bail, Bail Bonds - As enacted, requires every bondsman licensed in this state to file a quarterly report with the department of revenue detailing the total number of bonds issued by the bondsman in the preceding quarter, the number of bonds issued in each county in which the bondsman operated, and the total amount of the bondsman's liability in each county; requires each clerk of a court that admits defendants to bail to file a quarterly report with the department detailing the total number of bonds accepted from bondsmen and the total amount of the bonds accepted from bondsmen in the preceding quarter; authorizes the department to use the reports to complete audits on the bail bonding tax. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3, Part 13; Title 39; Title 40; Title 41; Title 56; Title 62 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 8.

Bonding, Surety and Professional - As enacted, authorizes the surety on a bail bond to petition the court for release from their obligations as surety if the principal forfeits. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3, Part 13; Title 39; Title 40; Title 41; Title 56; Title 62 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 8.

DUI Offenses - As enacted, requires the Tennessee bureau of investigation to provide a report to the speakers of the senate and the house of representatives on or before January 1 each year, until July 1, 2029, detailing the instances in the most recent year for which complete data is available in which a person was arrested for driving under the influence but where no alcohol or other intoxicants are detected in the person's blood or breath. - Amends TCA Title 6; Title 7; Title 8 and Title 38.

Election Laws - As enacted, requires the coordinator of elections to include, in the coordinator's minimum standards for educating election officials, training on temporary forms of identification issued to non-United States citizens that may not be used as evidence of identification on an application for ballot. - Amends TCA Title 2.

Vital Records - As enacted, requires certain records or papers for a person relating to the adoption or attempted adoption of a person in the possession of the office of the clerk of the adoption court; the offices of the department of health; the office of any child-placing agency, whether or not it is chartered or licensed; or any other information source, to be made available to the department of children's services for the purpose of searching for a kinship foster care placement. - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 68.

Public Records - As enacted, deletes the automatic repeal on July 1, 2025, of a provision that authorizes records custodians to seek an injunction against a person who makes requests to view or copy public records with the intent to disrupt government operations. - Amends TCA Title 10, Chapter 7, Part 5.

Alcoholic Beverages - As enacted, authorizes a licensee that holds more than a 50 percent ownership interest in a manufacturer and a winery that are located on the same deeded property to offer product tastings and make retail sales for consumption on or off of such premises of its wine or spirits manufactured on such deeded property at a location on the overlapping premises other than on the bonded premises of the manufacturer or winery. - Amends TCA Title 57.

Disabled Persons - As enacted, authorizes a residential facility for persons with disabilities to operate in the eastern grand division of this state under an existing residential pilot program authorizing such facilities to operate in the western and middle grand divisions of this state that is administered by the department of disability and aging. - Amends TCA Title 33 and Title 52.

Law Enforcement - As enacted, authorizes uniformed law enforcement officers to wear decorations, medals, service medals, and badges awarded to the officers by the armed forces of the United States, the Tennessee national guard, or the state guard during the week prior to Veterans Day and Memorial Day, the day of Veterans Day and Memorial Day, and the day immediately following Veterans Day and Memorial Day. - Amends TCA Title 38 and Title 58.

Children - As enacted, specifies that a biological father or alleged biological father who makes token financial support to or for the benefit of a child or the child's mother during the pregnancy or when the mother had physical custody of the child is not a putative father; makes various other changes regarding final orders of adoption. - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 63.

Historical Sites and Preservation - As enacted, includes in the definition of a "memorial", for purposes of Tennessee heritage protection, an official governmental seal of a city or county government that contains imagery representative of any historic conflict, historic entity, historic event, historic figure, or historic organization. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 1, Part 4.

Schools, Charter - As enacted, prohibits a county LEA or public charter school authorized to operate in a county LEA from charging registration fees, enrollment fees, or tuition for a student who resides in the county and who transfers to a public charter school authorized to operate in the county LEA from another LEA located in the same county. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 13 and Title 49, Chapter 6.

Foster Care - As enacted, requires the department of children's services, to the extent not otherwise prohibited by state or federal law, to promulgate rules to implement certain rights for any foster child in the custody of the department or an agency that contracts with the department to place children in foster care. - Amends TCA Title 36; Title 37; Title 49 and Title 71.

Adoption - As enacted, allows petitioners to include all children in one adoption petition if the petitioners are seeking to adopt more than one child at the same time, unless the court issues a written order finding that it is in the best interest of the children that separate petitions be filed; specifies that the clerk of court must charge only one filing fee for such a petition. - Amends TCA Title 18; Title 36 and Title 37.

Education - As enacted, requires, if an approved universal reading screener is administered to pre-k students at an LEA or public charter school, the LEA or public charter school to allow the pre-k teacher whose students were administered the screener to use the results as an approved alternative student growth model or the pre-k/kindergarten portfolio growth model to generate individual growth scores for teachers pursuant to the evaluation guidelines developed by the department of education. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Children - As enacted, makes various changes and additions to the Families' Rights and Responsibilities Act, and to present law concerning parental consent for the treatment of minors. - Amends TCA Title 33; Title 36; Title 37; Title 49; Title 63 and Title 68.

Drugs, Prescription - As enacted, authorizes a healthcare practitioner to prescribe and a pharmacist to dispense a prescribed, bronchodilator rescue inhaler to an authorized entity to be administered to a person believed to be experiencing asthma symptoms or respiratory distress in an emergency situation, under a standing protocol from the healthcare practitioner; encourages schools in LEAs and public charter schools to keep bronchodilator rescue inhalers to be administered to students believed to be having asthma symptoms or in respiratory distress in an emergency situation. - Amends TCA Title 49; Title 53; Title 63 and Title 68.

Pensions and Retirement Benefits - As enacted, enacts the "Fairness in Benefits Act." - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 27; Title 8, Chapter 34; Title 8, Chapter 35; Title 8, Chapter 36 and Title 8, Chapter 37.

Regional Authorities and Special Districts - As enacted, adds the MidSouth development district to the list of development districts to which this state intends to assist financially; specifies an overall state funding level for the nine development districts; changes the calculation for how much funding each development district will receive. - Amends TCA Title 13, Chapter 14, Part 1.

Water Pollution - As enacted, expands from wetlands to all areas that an aquatic resource alteration permit may apply to the areas for which the department of environment and conservation is required to exempt from compensatory mitigation an amount of area equal in size to the area for which mitigation would not be required if the permit applicant qualified for coverage under a general permit, if the only factor that disqualifies an applicant for an aquatic resource alteration permit from having the activities for which a permit is sought covered under a general permit is the size of the area that the permit will apply to. - Amends TCA Title 69, Chapter 3.

Hospitals and Health Care Facilities - As enacted, rewrites the fee limits for a party requesting a patient's medical record in either paper or electronic format from a provider or the provider's third-party release of information provider. - Amends TCA Title 63 and Title 68.

TennCare - As enacted, extends the nursing home annual assessment fee to June 30, 2026. - Amends TCA Title 71, Chapter 5.

Treasurer, State - As enacted, removes the restriction that earnings in an achieving a better life experience account may only be expended for a student's education expenses; redefines "disability certification" and "eligible individual" to have the same meaning as in the Internal Revenue Code and all rules and regulations released by the United States treasury. - Amends TCA Section 71-4-803 and Section 71-4-806.

Taxes, Excise - As enacted, authorizes, subject to certain provisions, a taxpayer, at the taxpayer's discretion, to add back to net earnings certain deductions and to subtract certain amounts. - Amends TCA Section 67-4-2006.

Military - As enacted, specifies that the state guard is a separate entity within the military department for budgetary purposes. - Amends TCA Title 9, Chapter 4 and Title 58.

Wilson County - Subject to local approval, transfers control and governance of the Tenth Special School District of Wilson County from a board of directors and commissioners composed of three members to a Board of Education composed of five members; divides the Tenth Special School district into five districts of proportionate population; establishes staggered terms for the members of the Board of Education of four years. - Amends Chapter 330 of the Acts of 1901; as amended.

Chester County - Subject to local approval, implements new motor vehicle privilege tax. - Amends amend Chapter 234 of the Private Acts of 1972; as amended.

Fayette County - Subject to local approval, requires the county clerk rather than the county court clerk to collect the county wheel tax and keep the administrative fee associated with the issuance of the motor vehicle license upon payment of the tax; rather than using the tax revenue to pay down debt from school construction projects, requires 100 percent of the tax collected, excluding fees, to be placed in the county general fund for general fund use or transfer to the county capital projects fund to pay for capital costs for school construction and county facilities, or transfer to the county debt service fund to pay down debt issues for school construction and county facilities as determined during the county's annual budget process. - Amends Chapter 116 of the Private Acts of 2000.

Private Protective Services - As enacted, creates the enhanced armed guard registration that may be obtained upon completion of certain training and other requirements by an armed security guard/officer who has at least five years of full-time experience as a law enforcement officer or four years of active duty military experience in a combat arms military occupational specialty; directs the commissioner of commerce and insurance to approve an enhanced armed guard training course. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 39 and Title 62, Chapter 35.

Handgun Permits - As enacted, clarifies that an applicant who has a DUI conviction that occurred within five years from the date of application or renewal is not eligible for an enhanced handgun carry permit; lowers the age for an applicant for an enhanced handgun carry permit from 21 to 18 if other eligibility requirements for issuance of the permit are met. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

Revenue, Dept. of - As enacted, reduces from 1.125 percent to 0.75 percent the administrative fee percentage the department takes from the proceeds of the business tax, short-term rental unit occupancy tax, local tax surcharge, coal severance tax, and local option sales tax to assist in defraying the expenses of administration and collection, before remitting proceeds to the appropriate county, city, or town. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 4; Title 67, Chapter 6 and Title 67, Chapter 7.

Criminal Procedure - As enacted, establishes a permanent criminal proceedings notification system, rather than a pilot project; removes the July 1, 2025, termination date for the criminal proceedings notification system. - Amends TCA Section 40-38-507.

Taxes, Sales - As enacted, extends indefinitely the authority of the commissioner of revenue to require persons selling food, candy, or nonalcoholic beverages, including bottled soft drinks, to retailers to file an information report of such net sales with the department by deleting the July 1, 2025, termination date. - Amends TCA Section 67-6-410.

Scholarships and Financial Aid - As enacted, makes various changes to the Tennessee Support, Training, and Renewing Opportunity for National Guardsmen (STRONG) Act. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 4, Part 10.

Tennessee Housing Development Agency - As enacted, increases, from $4 billion to $5 billion, the maximum aggregate principal amount for which the agency may issue bonds and notes at any one time. - Amends TCA Section 13-23-121.

Parks, Natural Areas Preservation - As enacted, requires a county or municipal government that receives a grant from the local parks land acquisition fund for a project located within a county designated as distressed or at-risk by the Appalachian Regional Commission at the time of the grant application to match the grant with an amount of money equal to 25 percent of the project, instead of requiring a match with an amount of money equal to the grant. - Amends TCA Section 67-4-409.

Economic and Community Development - As enacted, clarifies that certain definitions concerning housing facilities and developments with regard to industrial development corporations include affordable and workforce housing; authorizes a municipality or county to approve amendments to an economic impact plan when approving the plan. - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 53; Title 9, Chapter 21 and Title 9, Chapter 23.

Foster Care - As enacted, expands the provision of voluntary extended foster care services by the department of children's services to include young adults between 20 and 23 who were in the custody of the department at the time of the young adult's eighteenth birthday and young adults who were adopted from, or approved for subsidized permanent guardianship by, the department of children's services at 16 or older. - Amends TCA Title 37; Title 49 and Title 55.

Correction, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the department to study the issues associated with constructing and operating a reentry facility that would house eligible inmates who are working toward return from incarceration into the community. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 40 and Title 41.

Planning, Public - As enacted, revises the present law provision requiring all multi-family facilities, buildings, and structures constructed under a voluntary attainable housing incentive program to be deed-restricted to ensure that the attainable housing continues for at least 30 years, instead of in perpetuity. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8; Title 9; Title 10; Title 13 and Title 67.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, revises provisions of present law relative to placing certain defendants on a fugitives list for failure to appear. - Amends TCA Title 8; Title 10; Title 33; Title 36; Title 37; Title 38; Title 39; Title 40; Title 41; Title 49; Title 50; Title 55 and Title 70.

Election Laws - As enacted, revises the definition of "contribution," for purposes of financial disclosures under the state's campaign finance laws, to include an activity done independently of or in coordination with a candidate, candidate's political campaign committee, or agent, related to the development, production, and use of canvassing literature and scripts to be used in a door-knocking campaign for a candidate's election. - Amends TCA Title 2.