Tennessee Senate Bills

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.

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.

Schools, Charter - As enacted, requires the department of education to annually collect and report certain data for opportunity public charter schools on the department's website; requires a director of schools, juvenile court judge, or department of children's services caseworker who has knowledge that a student is an at-risk student and is eligible to attend an opportunity public charter school to provide the student and the student's parent or legal guardian with information regarding the student's eligibility to enroll in an opportunity public charter school and the location of any opportunity public charter schools that are located in or adjacent to the student's county of residence. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Correction, Dept. of - As enacted, prohibits the department from removing a state inmate from a local jail facility for the purpose of relocating the inmate to a state facility if the inmate is participating in a work release or re-entry program unless the inmate has failed to meet the work release or in-house duty requirements, or the inmate's disciplinary records warrant the inmate's removal from participation in the work release or re-entry program. - Amends TCA Title 40 and Title 41.

Professions and Occupations - As enacted, decreases from 18 to 16, the minimum age an individual must be to apply for a license to be a bid caller auctioneer. - Amends TCA Title 62, Chapter 19.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, requires, beginning with the next adoption of academic standards in the subject of social studies, the standards recommendation committee to include in their final recommendations of academic standards in the subject of social studies to the state board of education, and the state board, to adopt, grade-appropriate academic standards on the history of communism. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Cemeteries - As enacted, clarifies eligibility and required documentation for interment in state veterans' cemeteries for military service members and veterans, including certain members of a reserve component of the armed forces of the United States, the army national guard, or the air national guard, and spouses and children of such service members and veterans. - Amends TCA Title 46, Chapter 6.

Administrative Procedure (UAPA) - As enacted, precludes certain boards administratively attached to the department of environment and conservation from voting to review the initial order of an administrative law judge in an administrative proceeding, but preserves the right of a party to appeal an initial order directly to the board; reduces from 180 to 90 days the period of time from the completion of the record of a contested case hearing within which an administrative law judge must issue an initial order in a hearing involving such boards. - Amends TCA Title 60; Title 68 and Title 69.

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.

Private Protective Services - As enacted, adds stalking to the crimes for which an individual who has been convicted must have completed serving the individual's sentence or court-ordered probation at least five years prior to applying for a registration card to perform the duties of a security guard or officer; makes other changes related to security guards and officers. - Amends TCA Title 62, Chapter 35.

Workers Compensation - As enacted, authorizes the chief administrative officer of the bureau of workers' compensation of the department of labor and workforce development to disburse funds from the subsequent injury and vocational recovery fund for costs associated with implementing and maintaining a computer system for the bureau of workers' compensation; makes other changes related to workers' compensation. - Amends TCA Title 50, Chapter 6, Part 2.

Civil Procedure - As enacted, increases minimum time from 15 to 90 days that a court must give the general assembly to remedy any defects in a redistricting plan; makes related changes. - Amends TCA Title 20, Chapter 18.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, revises law relative to LEAs providing enrollment and services to certain students who are the dependent children of service members. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Alcoholic Beverages - As enacted, adds the bottling of distilled spirits to the definition of "manufacture" for purposes of licensing and regulation of the manufacturing of alcoholic beverages. - Amends TCA Title 57, Chapter 3.

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.

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

State Government - As enacted, enacts the "Recognizing Judea and Samaria Act." - Amends TCA Title 3; Title 4 and Title 8.

Taxes, Real Property - As enacted, limits the authority of a special purpose corporation to negotiate and enter into PILOT agreements with the corporation's lessees, as delegated to it by a municipality, if certain written notice is not provided to certain chief executive officers of taxing jurisdictions; voids PILOT agreements entered into by the special purpose corporation if such notice is not provided. - Amends TCA Title 48 and Title 67.

Safety, Dept. of - As enacted, removes present law that requires an offender sentenced to a period of incarceration for a DUI to begin their sentence within 30 days of conviction or, if space is not immediately available in the appropriate municipal or county jail or workhouse within such time, as soon as such space is available; requires, instead, the sentencing court to determine when such an offender is required to commence service of their sentence. - Amends TCA Title 55 and Title 65.

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.

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.

Tennessee Fish & Wildlife Commission - As enacted, authorizes the executive director of the wildlife resources agency to enter into agreements with local law enforcement agencies for the purpose of enforcing wildlife management laws and rules; creates a criminal offense for feeding black bears under certain circumstances. - Amends TCA Title 70.

Agriculture, Dept. of - As enacted, restricts the authority of the commissioner to order tests or vaccinations of animals within the state or that are imported into the state to those for purposes of detecting or treating a notifiable disease or monitored disease, rather than for purposes of protecting the health of animals in Tennessee generally; allows the commissioner to recommend tests or vaccinations of animals within the state or that are imported into the state for purposes of protecting the health of animals. - Amends TCA Title 44.

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.

Criminal Offenses - As enacted, makes various changes to the law relative to fraudulent freight theft. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 16; Title 17; Title 18; Title 20; Title 22; Title 24; Title 25; Title 26; Title 27; Title 28; Title 37; Title 38; Title 39; Title 40; Title 43; Title 54 and Title 55.

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.

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.

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.

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

Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As enacted, clarifies that tenure and the process for dismissing a nontenured, licensed employee by a director of schools does not apply to individuals who hold a temporary academic permit or temporary clinical permit. - Amends TCA Title 49.

Courts - As enacted, enacts the "Parental Rights Protection Act." - Amends TCA Title 36, Chapter 8 and Title 40, Chapter 11.

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.

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.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, requires the state board of education, in consultation with the department of education, to qualify an advanced degree in media and technology as an advanced degree that leads to a library information specialist endorsement; establishes certain staffing requirements for libraries in public schools that serve students in any combination of grades nine through 12 based on current student enrollment; requires a public school that serves any of the grades 9-12 to employ a full-time library information specialist with an endorsement as a library information specialist if certain criteria is met. - Amends TCA Title 10 and Title 49.

Local Government, General - As enacted, authorizes a local government to use any project delivery method that the local government determines most effectively meets the needs of the local government for the construction of qualified local projects, if the local government meets certain requirements. - Amends TCA Title 12, Chapter 3, Part 12.

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.

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.

Nurses, Nursing - As enacted, requires the commissioner of health to use existing resources to conduct a study of neighboring states to examine the varying levels of practice independence that may or may not be granted to certified nurse midwives in such states; requires the commissioner to compile the findings of the study and any recommendations in a report and transmit the report to the general assembly no later than December 31, 2026. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29; Title 56, Chapter 32, Part 1; Title 56, Chapter 7, Part 24; Title 63; Title 68 and Title 71, Chapter 5.

Local Education Agencies - As enacted, requires that, in situations where an order of protection is issued to protect a student who is enrolled in a public school from another student in the same school, the school principal and, when reasonably practicable and appropriate, the building-level school safety team with input from the parent or legal guardian of the student who is named as the petitioner in the order of protection, to develop and implement a student safety plan that includes certain protocols; requires such parent or legal guardian to notify the school within 48 hours of any changes to the order of protection. - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 49.

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.

County Government - As enacted, prohibits the director of accounts and budgets for Overton County from being terminated or discharged without the approval of the county legislative body if such prohibition is approval by a 2/3 vote of the Overton County legislative body. - Amends TCA Title 5.