Nashville, TN - As Tennessee’s new fiscal year begins on July 1, laws focused on education and school safety passed in the second session of the 113th General Assembly will go into effect. Highlights include a continued focus on improving school safety, efforts to combat viewpoint discrimination and continuing the commitment to raise Tennessee teachers’ starting salary.
Last year, the General Assembly passed a law committing to raise the starting salary for every Tennessee teacher to $50,000 by 2026. This year’s budget includes $125 million to keep this commitment.
In addition to raising salaries, a new law was passed that will require all public and charter schools to pay employees their full salary or average salary and full benefits if physically assaulted and unable to work as a result. There were 1,918 cases of assault and 71 cases of aggravated assault against teachers and staff during the 2022-23 school year, according to the 2024 Tennessee Safe Schools Report.
Last year, the General Assembly passed funding to assign a School Resource Officer (SRO) in every school. Unfortunately, around 500 schools still do not have a SRO despite being allocated funding. This year, a new law allows the local law enforcement agency to assign a law enforcement officer to serve as the SRO to a school. Another new law allows retired law enforcement officers to be reemployed as a full-time SRO at a Tennessee public school without loss or suspension of the officer’s retirement benefits.
Enhancements for threatening to commit mass violence were also passed this year. Under a new law, it is a Class E felony to threaten to commit mass violence on school property or at a school-related activity in Tennessee. Another law gives law enforcement another tool to stop students from threatening violence on school property. The new law clarifies the definition of school property and adds that students are held criminally liable for threats of violence communicated to another student. The offense would result in a Class B Misdemeanor.
Other laws aimed at improving school safety and education include:
- A law passed this year ensures that public charter school students have access to the same quality facilities as other public school students. It requires school districts to regularly provide a list of vacant and underutilized properties and make them available to public charter schools at a fair market value.
- Under a new law, schools that provide electronic textbooks and instructional materials to students must also provide a physical copy if the child’s parent requests it. The law ensures students have reasonable access to necessary classroom materials.
- Higher education institutions will be required to comply with the Supreme Court’s decision to prohibit affirmative action admission practices. The law states that any audit of a higher education institution by the Tennessee Comptroller must ensure that no Tennessee higher education institutions are using race as an admissions factor.
- To continue efforts to combat viewpoint discrimination in higher education, lawmakers passed legislation this year that requires public colleges and universities to investigate alleged violations of the state’s divisive concepts law and report the findings within 10 days.
