Tennessee House Bills

Education - As enacted, requires the department of education to implement a pilot program to evaluate whether administering fewer district- and state-mandated assessments results in students achieving greater academic success; adds an additional method by which a student who is not proficient in ELA, as determined by the student's achieving a performance level rating of “approaching” on the ELA portion of the student's most recent TCAP test may be promoted. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Children - As enacted, enacts the "Tennessee Child Care Red Tape Reduction Act." - Amends TCA Title 13, Chapter 7 and Title 71, Chapter 3.

Utilities, Utility Districts - As enacted, authorizes, during a state of emergency that is based on a natural emergency, an emergency utility worker to travel upon public roads and enter areas subject to curfew or restricted access orders when such access is necessary to perform emergency utilities restoration activities; provides that an emergency utility worker, and the emergency utility worker's employer, are immune from civil liability for injury, death, or property damage resulting from an act or omission of the emergency utility worker committed in good faith while engaged in emergency utilities restoration activities during a state of emergency declared that is based on a natural emergency. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 29; Title 39 and Title 58.

Sewage - As enacted, clarifies that a utility system providing waste water service must provide a connection if certain criteria is met. - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 35; Title 7, Chapter 82 and Title 68, Chapter 221.

Public Utilities - As enacted, requires a utility to provide material that is required for construction of utility infrastructure for the customer's or approved contractor's use at the same price as the utility paid for the material, if such material is available only from the utility; authorizes a customer or approved contractor installing utility infrastructure to install street lights; prohibits a utility from requiring a customer or approved contractor from installing street lights; prohibits certain fees for inspections and review of plans and designs from exceeding a combined total of 10% of the proposed cost of the project. - Amends TCA Title 7; Title 13, Chapter 7; Title 65 and Title 68.

Tobacco, Tobacco Products - As enacted, expands the definition of "consumable material" to include natural and synthetic liquid nicotine solutions and liquid nicotine analogues for purposes of the taxation of vapor products containing such material; requires the alcoholic beverage commission to issue the fines for the offense of selling or offering for sale a vapor product for retail sale in this state to anyone under 21. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17; Title 43; Title 57 and Title 67, Chapter 4, Part 10.

Alcoholic Beverages - As enacted, authorizes the consumption of alcoholic beverages and beer on the premises of a temporary special event zone located in Davidson County, subject to certain requirements. - Amends TCA Title 7 and Title 57.

County Government - As enacted, applies the "Neighborhood Preservation Act" to Tipton County; authorizes Montgomery County and Tipton County to participate in the Tennessee Local Land Bank Program. - Amends TCA Title 5 and Title 13.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, requires LEAs and public charter schools to allow a private pay provider who is under contract with a parent or legal guardian of a student with autism spectrum disorder or developmental delays who is enrolled in the LEA or public charter school, access to the student during the school day to provide the student with private pay services in educational settings as long as the educational settings in which private pay services are provided do not conflict with the student's educational placement; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 49; Title 68 and Title 71.

Regional Authorities and Special Districts - As enacted, revises the "Convention Center Authorities Act of 2009" as the "Convention Center and Agricultural Exposition Authorities Act." - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 89.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, makes revisions to law relative to offenses occurring at a house of worship. - Amends TCA Title 29 and Title 39.

Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As enacted, clarifies that certain individuals who have not completed the amount of clinical practice required by the educator preparation provider in which the individual is enrolled may receive a temporary clinical permit if all other requirements for the permit are satisfied; allows such an individual who is issued a temporary clinical permit to meet the clinical practice requirements of the EPP in which the individual is enrolled by combining the amount of clinical practice the individual completed before being issued a temporary clinical permit with the amount of time the individual taught under the temporary clinical permit. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 5.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, makes revisions to the offense of adulteration of food, liquids, or pharmaceuticals. - Amends TCA Title 39; Title 40 and Title 57.

Hospitals and Health Care Facilities - As enacted, requires each fertility clinic operating in this state to obtain a certificate from the department of health to perform assisted reproductive technology services. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 29; Title 36; Title 63 and Title 68.

Education - As enacted, makes various revisions to education law, including, but not limited to, requiring each public school to annually submit to the department of education a list of all local assessments administered to students, requiring the department to publish the percentage of students who attain proficiency for the English language arts portion of the TCAP, and establishing the assessment review board to annually review the TCAP tests administered to students in the most recent school year. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 49.

Children - As enacted, establishes the children's digital protection fund within the state treasury. - Amends TCA Title 9, Chapter 4, Part 2.

Fireworks - As enacted, requires a person who offers sparkling devices for sale and who does not hold a fireworks permit to register each location at which the person offers such devices for sale with the state fire marshal; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 68.

Tennessee Arts Commission - As enacted, reconstitutes the commission. - Amends TCA Title 4.

Natural Disasters - As enacted, enacts the "Local Disaster Displacement Tax Relief Act." - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 4; Title 58 and Title 67, Chapter 4.

Taxes - As enacted, provides that an application for an exemption from property taxation for property owned by a religious, charitable, scientific, or nonprofit educational organization that is filed within 180 days after the exempt use of the property began will be effective as of the date the exempt use began, if the application is made after May 20th of the year for which the exemption is sought, but prior to the end of the year; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 67.

Law Enforcement - As enacted, requires TACIR to conduct a study of the salaries and other benefits paid to state and local law enforcement officers in this state; authorizes the commissioner of safety to establish a hazardous duty designation for members of the highway patrol that may be used to authorize additional compensation for designated members. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 8; Title 9 and Title 38.

Local Government, General - As enacted, authorizes Putnam County and incorporated cities within the county to regulate sober living homes for recovery from alcohol, drug, and substance abuse to the extent such regulation complies with the "Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act." - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 51, Part 26.

Firearms and Ammunition - As enacted, revises the exemption for judges to the offense of carrying weapons during judicial proceedings. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.

Alcoholic Beverage Commission - As enacted, imposes an additional 10% tax on a hemp-derived cannabinoid product's wholesale cost if the product is inhalable in cartridge form. - Amends TCA Title 57 and Title 67.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, makes various changes relative to the offense of organized retail crime. - Amends TCA Title 18; Title 38, Chapter 6, Part 1 and Title 39.

Tourism - As enacted, requires revenue that is received by a municipality and that is used to fund a destination marketing entity engaged in tourism promotion on behalf of the municipality be released to the destination marketing entity no later than 120 days after the municipality approves its final budget. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7 and Title 67.

Newspapers and Publications - As enacted, requires the Tennessee advisory commission on intergovernmental relations (TACIR) to conduct a study to determine if newspapers of general circulation remain the most efficient and effective manner for governments to provide the public with transparent and accessible information. - Amends TCA Title 1, Chapter 3 and Title 8, Chapter 44.

Health Care - As enacted, makes various changes to health-related laws, including, but not limited to, requiring the commissioner of health to prescribe conditions under which processed and verified claims data found on the UB-92 form are made available to the public; revising law relative to critical access hospitals, and revising law relative to certificates of need. - Amends TCA Title 33; Title 63 and Title 68.

County Government - As enacted, authorizes a county legislative body operating under the County Purchasing Law of 1957 to set the compensation for the director of accounts and budgets. - Amends TCA Title 5 and Title 8.

TennCare - As enacted, extends the ground ambulance service annual assessment to June 30, 2027; changes the penalty imposed by the bureau on an ambulance provider for each day an assessment remains unpaid from $50 per calendar day to 5 percent of the principal amount owed per month for each month. - Amends TCA Title 71, Chapter 5, Part 15.

Tennessee Fish & Wildlife Commission - As enacted, establishes a statutory schedule of permit fees for the operation of off highway vehicles at North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area. - Amends TCA Title 70, Chapter 9.

Public Funds and Financing - As enacted, creates the joint capital tourism board; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8; Title 9 and Title 67.

Lottery, Corporation - As enacted, vacates and reconstitutes the board of directors of the Tennessee education lottery corporation; requires certain information maintained by the corporation to be subject to a public records request; terminates the lottery corporation on June 30, 2030. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 10 and Title 49.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, creates a Class E felony offense when a person, for the purpose of deriving a pecuniary benefit, engages in conduct intended to influence the occurrence or nonoccurrence of an event while the person, or another acting in active concert with the person, is a party to a contract traded on a prediction-market by which the person will derive such pecuniary benefit directly from the settlement of that contract based on the occurrence or a nonoccurrence of the event. - Amends TCA Title 39.

Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services, Dept. of - As enacted, enacts the "HOPE Treatment Act." - Amends TCA Title 9; Title 33; Title 53; Title 63 and Title 68.

Campaigns and Campaign Finance - As enacted, clarifies that expenditures of campaign funds to enhance security for an officeholder's personal residence are not deemed for personal use and that such expenditures are limited to home security consultation, home security equipment, home security monitoring services, safe rooms, and the use of security guards at an officeholder's personal residence for non-campaign purposes; clarifies that such expenditures must not exceed $12,000 per calendar year and must be disclosed as "residential security." - Amends TCA Title 2, Chapter 10.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, creates a Class A misdemeanor offense of intentionally moving, altering, destroying, or removing a monument the person knows, or reasonably should know, is a property corner monument, historic land surveying monument, or geodetic control monument. - Amends TCA Title 39; Title 62, Chapter 18 and Title 66.

Victims' Rights - As enacted, authorizes a court clerk to increase the victims assistance assessment from $45 to $125, with the first $15 of each assessment being paid to the court clerk for processing and handling and the remaining amount being transmitted to the county in which the offense occurred for the exclusive use of the victims assistance program previously designated by the county legislative body. - Amends TCA Section 40-24-109.

Schools, Charter - As enacted, allows private postsecondary institutions, including those that are religiously affiliated, to operate a public charter school; allows such institutions to apply to the local board of education or directly to the Tennessee public charter school commission to open a public charter school and to give an enrollment preference to children of the institution's employees or members of its governing body in the same manner afforded to public institutions of higher education. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Dentists and Dentistry - As enacted, requires a dental hygienist to be working under the direct supervision of a dentist seeing a new patient before completing diagnostic radiographs; assessing and recording existing hard and soft tissue data; performing prophylaxis; and applying fluoride agents. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 63, Chapter 5.

Sentencing - As enacted, enacts the "James Bardsley, Jr. Life Protection Act." - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 13 and Title 55, Chapter 10.

Children's Services, Dept. of - As enacted, requires the commissioner of children's services to develop a statewide quality assurance program to ensure quality control through monitoring, evaluation, and feedback on the performance of the best practices in the service delivery system and utilizing both qualitative and quantitative data in outcomes-based approaches at the regional level. - Amends TCA Title 37, Chapter 5.

Pharmacy, Pharmacists - As enacted, enacts the "Freedom, Access, and Integrity in Registered Pharmacy (FAIR Rx) Act." - Amends TCA Title 63.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, enacts the "Grace Anne Sparks Coercive Suicide Prevention Law of 2026." - Amends TCA Title 39.

Consumer Protection - As enacted, requires the Tennessee advisory commission on intergovernmental relations (TACIR) to conduct a study of the potential regulation of artificial intelligence systems and generative artificial intelligence chatbots in this state. - Amends TCA Title 29; Title 37 and Title 47.

Hospitals and Health Care Facilities - As enacted, prohibits a hospital emergency department, including a satellite emergency department, from denying to a woman who presents at such facility and purports or, if incapacitated, appears to be pregnant and experiencing active labor, other symptoms associated with active labor, or an emergency medical condition, an appropriate medical screening examination within the capability of the emergency department, including ancillary services routinely available to the emergency department, to determine whether or not an emergency medical condition or active labor exists; makes other related changes. - Amends TCA Title 63 and Title 68.

Fireworks - As enacted, expands the length of the existing Independence Day and New Year sales periods and adds new Memorial Day and Labor Day sales periods for seasonal retailers of fireworks for the 2026 retail period; increases the seasonal retailer permit fee from $100 to $150 for calendar year 2026; and authorizes the state fire marshal to promulgate rules to effectuate the act. - Amends TCA Title 68, Chapter 104.

Real Estate Agents and Brokers - As enacted, exempts an affiliate broker or broker licensed under the "Tennessee Real Estate Broker License Act" from the additional licensure and classroom hours in training programs requirements for a vacation lodging service firm's designated agent; requires that vacation lodging services be under the supervision of the principal broker of an affiliate broker, broker, or firm. - Amends TCA Title 62, Chapter 13.

Pensions and Retirement Benefits - As enacted, requires retirement credit established for a period of disability for a commissioned member of the department of safety or agent of the Tennessee bureau of investigation to be at no cost to that member; authorizes political subdivisions that pass a resolution to establish retirement credit for its employees to allow the credit for a period of disability for any member who is subject to mandatory retirements to be at no cost to such person. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 34, Part 6.

Orders of Protection - As enacted, allows a person to file a petition for a lifetime order of protection against a person who was convicted of certain offenses in another jurisdiction; provides that venue for such a petition is in the county where the respondent resides or, if the respondent is not a resident of this state, the county where the petitioner resides. - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 39.

Gambling - As enacted, clarifies that gambling, the operation or possession of gambling devices, and the operation, conducting, or commercial promoting of online sweepstakes games and other forms of online or app-based gambling are unlawful and a violation of the "Tennessee Consumer Protection Act"; expands the authority of the sports wagering council to investigate illegal gambling and gaming activity; expands the investigative authority of the attorney general to investigate unlawful activity within the purview of the attorney general. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 4, Chapter 49; Title 8, Chapter 6, Part 4; Title 40, Chapter 2 and Title 47.

Education - As enacted, revises the assessment testing requirements for students who participate in the education savings account (ESA) program. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 9; Title 12; Title 48; Title 49 and Title 67.

Industrial Development - As enacted, revises law relative to industrial development corporations. - Amends TCA Title 7 and Title 48.

Children - As enacted, revises various provisions governing surrendering custody of unwanted infants. - Amends TCA Title 36, Chapter 1, Part 1 and Title 68, Chapter 11, Part 2.

Firearms and Ammunition - As enacted, lowers the standard for the use of deadly force to protect property. - Amends TCA Title 39.

Local Government, General - As enacted, enacts the "Essential Governmental Employee Housing Act of 2026"; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 8; Title 9; Title 12 and Title 67.

Open Meetings - As enacted, authorizes emergency communications district boards of directors to participate in board meetings electronically under the open meetings law. - Amends TCA Title 7, Chapter 86, Part 3 and Title 8, Chapter 44, Part 1.

Military - As enacted, designates the national guard armory in McNairy County as the "Brigadier General Donald F. Hawkins Army National Guard Armory." - Amends TCA Title 58, Chapter 1.

Schools, Charter - As enacted, authorizes the establishment of adult public charter schools, which are defined as public charter schools that exclusively serve students who are 18 or older by providing instruction to such students in accordance with the rules for adult high schools promulgated by the state board of education to assist such students in obtaining course credit leading to the attainment of a high school diploma. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 49.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, creates an offense of recklessly discharging a firearm into the air, ground, a body of water, or an object in close proximity to the person if the firearm is discharged at a place of public gathering or at a public event where there are at least 25 people in attendance at the time of the discharge; punishes the offense as a Class A misdemeanor; specifies certain exceptions to the offense. - Amends TCA Title 39.