114 session

Public Funds and Financing - As enacted, redefines "local government" to include a water, wastewater, or energy authority for purposes of the present law applicable to bonds and notes issued by local governments; makes other related revisions. - Amends TCA Section 9-21-133 and Title 9, Chapter 21, Part 4.

2025-04-29 — Effective date(s) 07/01/2025

Taxes, Exemption and Credits - As introduced, exempts certain school supplies and instructional materials from the sales and use tax if sold to a teacher employed by a local education agency or public charter school. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 6.

2026-04-20 — Placed on Senate Finance, Ways, and Means Committee calendar for 4/21/2026

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, increases the penalty for assault against a firefighter, emergency services personnel, or other person who responds to calls for emergency assistance from a Class A misdemeanor with a mandatory minimum 30-day sentence and $5,000 fine to a Class E felony with a mandatory minimum 60-day sentence and $10,000 fine. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

2026-02-02 — Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate Judiciary Committee

Notary Public - As introduced, requires the secretary of state to appoint notaries public to commissions in this state; prescribes additional requirements to be commissioned as a notary public in this state. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 16 and Title 23.

2026-03-24 — Assigned to General Subcommittee of Senate Judiciary Committee

Autopsies - As introduced, requires a county medical examiner to report certain instances of the natural death of an infant or young person under 20 to the federal Sudden Unexpected Infant Death and Sudden Death in the Young Case Registry; requires the county medical examiner to review the deceased infant's or young person's immunization and medical records; authorizes civil penalties and license sanctions for violations. - Amends TCA Title 38; Title 63 and Title 68.

2026-02-02 — Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate Health and Welfare Committee

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.

2026-05-05 — Effective date(s) 07/01/2026

Environment and Conservation, Department of - As introduced, enacts the "Climate Resiliency Fund Act." - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 3, Part 5; Title 9; Title 60; Title 67 and Title 68.

2026-02-05 — Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate Energy, Ag., and Nat. Resources Committee

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

2026-05-27 — Effective date(s) 05/22/2026

County Government - As introduced, requires a local legislative body to approve the location of any quarry or digital asset mining facility in a public meeting. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 13 and Title 68.

2026-04-21 — Re-refer to S. Cal Comm

Motor Vehicles - As introduced, creates a Class B misdemeanor offense for a motor vehicle dealer or salesperson to knowingly retain a copy, in an electronic or other format, of a person's identification. - Amends TCA Title 39; Title 47 and Title 55.

2026-02-05 — Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate Transportation and Safety Committee

Human Resources, Department of - As introduced, excludes a child care agency that provides child care services through a child development program and is accredited by the United States department of defense from being subject to licensure as long as such child care agency provides child care services only to an eligible patron. - Amends TCA Title 71, Chapter 3.

2026-02-05 — Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate Health and Welfare Committee

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, expands the offense of adulteration of food, liquids, or pharmaceuticals to include adulteration for the purpose of making the user of the food, liquid, or pharmaceutical involuntarily intoxicated; classifies the offense as a Class D felony. - Amends TCA Title 39 and Title 40.

2026-02-05 — Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate Judiciary Committee

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.

2026-05-27 — Pub. Ch. 1119

Court Rules - As enacted, requires each juvenile court, through the juvenile court clerk or juvenile court staff, each month within the statewide juvenile case management system prescribed by the administrative office of the courts to report to the administrative office of the courts each new dependency and neglect case, including for each child named in the petition, certain information. - Amends TCA Title 37, Chapter 1.

2026-04-29 — Pub. Ch. 805

Education, Dept. of - As introduced, changes from September 1 to November 1 the day by which the department is required to compile and publish to its website a directory of the name and contact information for the apprenticeship training program contact for each public high school. - Amends TCA Title 49.

2026-03-11 — Assigned to General Subcommittee of Senate Education Committee

Veterans Services, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the department to submit a report on the total number of state and federal benefits, and a synopsis of each benefit, available to a veteran and the veteran's surviving spouse to the speaker of the senate and the speaker of the house of representatives on or before January 1, 2027. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 52; Title 68 and Title 71.

2026-03-25 — Assigned to General Subcommittee of Senate State and Local Government Committee

Taxes, Sales - As introduced, exempts from the state sales and use tax the retail sale of food and food ingredients. - Amends TCA Title 57, Chapter 3 and Title 67.

2026-04-20 — Placed on Senate Finance, Ways, and Means Committee calendar for 4/21/2026

Election Laws - As enacted, authorizes the county election commission to designate restroom facilities in each building in which the election is held that are for the use of workers or volunteers working for a campaign with certain limitations on access. - Amends TCA Title 2, Chapter 7.

2026-05-27 — Effective date(s) 07/01/2026

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.

2026-05-27 — Pub. Ch. 1130

Expunction - As introduced, extends the time period within which a court ordering the expunction of a person's public records of a criminal offense must send a copy of the expunction order to the Tennessee bureau of investigation from 30 days to 45 days. - Amends TCA Section 8-21-401 and Title 40.

2026-03-23 — Assigned to General Subcommittee of Senate Judiciary Committee

Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) - As enacted, requires the TISA review committee to study and include in its annual report recommendations for how this state may revise the ways in which it identifies economically disadvantaged students to ensure this state is accurately identifying the students in need of additional resources and recommendations for how this state may better support economically disadvantaged students through the TISA. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 1 and Title 49, Chapter 3.

2026-05-27 — Comp. became Pub. Ch. 1032

Children's Services, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the department to release certain information regarding providers that department contracts with to the public by January 1, 2027, and to publish monthly reports on its website on short-term or interim placements. - Amends TCA Title 37.

2026-02-05 — Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate Judiciary Committee

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.

2026-05-04 — Effective date(s) 04/27/2026

Safety - As introduced, requires newly installed storm drains and culverts constructed after July 1, 2026, to be equipped with a safety cover or grate if the opening is large enough that a child could reasonably fall into or become trapped within the structure. - Amends TCA Title 12 and Title 68.

2026-03-24 — Assigned to General Subcommittee of Senate State and Local Government Committee

Food and Food Products - As introduced, specifies that meat may be labeled as being free of mRNA vaccine if the animals from which the meat was derived were not administered an mRNA vaccine. - Amends TCA Title 44; Title 47, Chapter 18 and Title 53.

2025-02-10 — Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate Health and Welfare Committee

Professions and Occupations - As introduced, decreases from 30 to 21 days the time in which a licensed polygraph examiner or company must notify the commissioner of commerce and insurance of a change in business address. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 62 and Title 63.

2026-02-02 — Refer to Senate Delayed Bills Committee

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, prohibits a person who is convicted of a felony from running for public office, regardless of whether the person receives a presidential pardon; prohibits a public employee from receiving retirement benefits from the Tennessee consolidated retirement system, any superseded retirement system, or any other public pension system, if such employee or official is convicted of a felony. - Amends TCA Title 2; Title 8; Title 39 and Title 40.

2026-03-03 — Withdrawn.

Taxes - As introduced, requires TennCare to certify an eligible healthcare provider's unreimbursed costs in a calendar year as charitable contributions made exclusively for public purposes to TennCare; requires eligible healthcare providers to pay TennCare $25 annually to receive such certification. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 4.

2025-03-19 — Action deferred in Senate Health & Welfare Committee to first calendar of 2026

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, adds to the criminal offense of aggravated assault, an assault that involves brandishing a deadly weapon; defines brandish to mean waving or exhibiting a weapon in a manner that would be found by a reasonable person to indicate a threat to use the weapon. - Amends TCA Title 39.

2026-03-25 — Assigned to General Subcommittee of Senate Judiciary Committee

Military - As introduced, enacts the "Bring Our National Guard Home Act," which requires, no later than five business days after the effective date of this bill, the governor to rescind each order of deployment of members of the Tennessee national guard outside of this state and recall all members of the Tennessee national guard who are deployed outside of this state. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 58.

2026-02-05 — Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate State and Local Government Committee

Education, Higher - As introduced, extends to the dependent children and spouses of veterans who sustained a permanent and total service-connected disability during a qualifying period of armed conflict the same waiver of all tuition and fees at public institutions of higher education being provided to the dependent children and spouses of veterans who were killed, died due to injuries received, or reported as prisoners of war or missing in action during a qualifying period of armed conflict. - Amends TCA Title 49.

2025-03-26 — Assigned to General Subcommittee of Senate Education Committee

Boards and Commissions - As enacted, changes the qualifications for membership on the medical cannabis commission to include a patient caregiver and a subject matter expert with knowledge of how cannabis is cultivated, processed, shipped, distributed, or prescribed for medical use; specifies that the recommendations made by the commission to the general assembly may include policy recommendations. - Amends TCA Title 4 and Title 68, Chapter 7.

2025-04-29 — Effective date(s) 04/15/2025

Children's Services, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the department to conserve any federal funds a child in the department's care is eligible for or may receive for the child's reasonable, foreseeable future needs or use for special needs services not currently being provided by the department. - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 37.

2026-04-20 — Placed on Senate Finance, Ways, and Means Committee calendar for 4/21/2026

Education, Curriculum - As enacted, adds instruction for public high school students on this state's safe haven law to the required components of a family life curriculum. - Amends TCA Title 49.

2025-05-02 — Effective date(s) 04/11/2025

Zoning - As introduced, prohibits the construction of correctional facilities, hospitals, and nursing homes in areas designated as 100-year flood plains; applies to all applications for construction permits submitted on or after July 1, 2025. - Amends TCA Title 5; Title 6; Title 7 and Title 13.

2025-02-12 — Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate State and Local Government Committee

Employees, Employers - As introduced, requires a person who employs an unemancipated minor and who knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that the minor has been subjected to child sexual abuse or attempted child sexual abuse in the course of the minor’s employment or on the premises of the employer to report such knowledge or suspicion to the minor’s parent within 24 hours of discovering the abuse or attempted abuse; imposes a penalty of $1,000 for a first violation or $2,000 for a second or subsequent violation, to be paid to the commissioner of labor and workforce development. - Amends TCA Title 37 and Title 50.

2025-05-16 — Sponsor(s) Added.

Consumer Protection - As introduced, prohibits healthcare providers from reporting a patient's medical debt to a consumer reporting agency; prohibits consumer reporting agencies from including on a consumer report a record of a medical debt. - Amends TCA Title 9, Chapter 8; Title 16; Title 18; Title 20; Title 21; Title 27; Title 28; Title 29; Title 45; Title 47; Title 63 and Title 68.

2026-01-20 — Assigned to General Subcommittee of Senate Commerce and Labor Committee

Zoning - As introduced, prescribes a process by which a local zoning authority may notify a state department, agency, or officer of a local zoning violation by a business resulting in the revocation or suspension of a license, permit, or certificate of a business in violation of a local zoning ordinance, resolution, or law; prescribes the process for reinstatement or appeal, including the assessment of a reinstatement fee. - Amends TCA Title 4; Title 5; Title 6; Title 7; Title 13, Chapter 7; Title 62 and Title 68.

2025-02-12 — Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate State and Local Government Committee

Remedies and Special Proceedings - As introduced, increases the amount of compensation an injured plaintiff in a civil action may receive for noneconomic damages from $750,000 to $1.5 million; increases the amount of compensation an injured plaintiff in a civil action may receive for noneconomic damages, if the injury or loss is catastrophic in nature, from $1 million to $2 million. - Amends TCA Section 29-39-102.

2026-04-23 — Held on desk.

Education, Curriculum - As enacted, establishes that family life curriculum must include age-appropriate instruction and evidence regarding the positive personal and societal outcomes associated with the method by which a person completes the following in sequential order: obtains a high school diploma or high school equivalency credential; enters into the workforce or pursues a postsecondary degree or credential; enters into marriage; and has children. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 6, Part 13.

2025-04-29 — Effective date(s) 07/01/2026

Charitable Solicitations - As enacted, corrects a reference in the charitable solicitations law that requires educational institutions be approved as such by the Tennessee public charter school commission rather than the state board of education to be exempt from registration requirements. - Amends TCA Title 48, Chapter 101, Part 5.

2025-04-29 — Effective date(s) 04/24/2025

Child Custody and Support - As enacted, requires a court to consider the extent to which a parenting schedule provides each parent a meaningful opportunity to participate in the child's life, consistent with the child's best interest, in addition to the other relevant factors, when making a child custody determination. - Amends TCA Title 36 and Title 37.

2026-04-24 — Effective date(s) 07/01/2026

Public Records - As enacted, requires the office of open records counsel to facilitate the convening of meetings of the advisory committee on open government, including selecting a date for the required annual meeting in the absence of co-chairs. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 4, Part 6.

2025-05-13 — Effective date(s) 05/05/2025

Education, Dept. of - As introduced, requires the department to submit a request to the United States department of education to amend this state's Every Student Succeeds Act plan to remove all end-of-course assessment requirements for students in grades nine through 12 and to allow the ACT, SAT, or another postsecondary readiness assessment approved by the commissioner to be annually administered to students in such grades and for student performance on such assessments to be used for student, school, and district accountability purposes. - Amends TCA Title 49.

2025-03-26 — Assigned to General Subcommittee of Senate Education Committee

Sunset Laws - As enacted, extends the department of mental health and substance abuse services to June 30, 2029. - Amends TCA Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 4, Chapter 3.

2025-04-29 — Effective date(s) 04/24/2025

TennCare - As introduced, enacts the "TennCare Network Reporting Reform Act." - Amends TCA Title 71.

2026-04-20 — Placed on Senate Finance, Ways, and Means Committee calendar for 4/21/2026