Attention subscribers - we have launched a new website! Click here to create your website account for free access.

New Bills Introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly Jan. 29

Posted

The Tennessee General Assembly lawmakers introduced a slew of new bill proposals today. These range from education, voting, healthcare, religion, child custody, law enforcement, Tennessee Constitution, Veterans and more. These bills, if passed, would be become law and affect every single Tennessean.

The proposals are organized by category below.

VOTING:

HB520: increases the time a person may be absent from work to vote, from three hours to four hours.

EDUCATION:

HB531: requires local education agencies and public charter schools to provide age-appropriate instruction to students on how to access, utilize, and critically evaluate various artificial intelligence tools within the curriculum taught by the educator; requires the department of education to issue guidance on how to implement the required instruction; requires the department to provide a professional development program in artificial intelligence education for educators, subject to available funding.

SB494: enacts the "Family Right to Educational Emancipation (FREE) Act," which creates a new category of independent home schools that are not subject to the data collection, reporting, or assessment requirements applicable to existing independent home school programs and that exempts such home school students and parents from compulsory school attendance requirements; prohibits the department of safety from conditioning the issuance of a driver license or learner's permit on a school-aged applicant's attendance record or enrollment status. 

SB471: 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.

SB472: requires all residential educational programs in this state, regardless of type or duration, that allow minors to participate or to access residential facilities to segregate all restrooms, changing areas, and showers by immutable biological sex. 

SB470: enacts the "Protecting Tennessee Schools and Events Act." By July 1, 2025, the department of education shall establish a pilot program to award protecting Tennessee schools and events assistance grants to LEAs located in counties identified as distressed or at-risk by the economic and community development's performance metrics for the fiscal year 2025, using funds appropriated by the general appropriations act for such purpose. The primary purpose of the grants is to assist LEAs located in counties identified as distressed or at-risk in purchasing portable walk-through metal detectors.

HB503: exempts an LEA or public charter school from having to assign a third-grade student who is not proficient in English language arts a tutor through the Tennessee accelerating literacy and learning corps if the state does not appropriate sufficient funds to allow each LEA and public charter school to provide the required tutoring; conditions the requirement that LEAs participate in the learning loss remediation and student acceleration program on the availability of state appropriations for the program. 

HB505: converts the school safety alert grant pilot program to a statewide two-year school safety alert grant program; removes the limit on the number of grants that may be awarded in a fiscal year. 

HB522: enacts the "Early Behavioral Intervention and Reporting Act"; clarifies that public charter schools are required to have a threat assessment team in the same manner as required of local education agencies. 

HEALTHCARE:

HB533: enacts the "Fertility Treatment and Contraceptive Protection Act." Notwithstanding another law, an individual has a right to engage in activities associated with fertility treatment and contraception. The laws of this state do not prohibit an activity associated with fertility treatment or contraception. The law of this state clearly and unambiguously acknowledges the right of an individual to perform, and the right of an individual to receive or use, fertility treatment and contraceptives in this state.

RELIGIOUS:

HJR51: Designates the period of July 1, 2025, through July 31, 2025, as a time of prayer and fasting in Tennessee and seeks God’s hand of mercy healing on Tennessee.

CHILD CUSTODY:

HB492: requires the court to consider any failure to pay child support, rather than failure for a period of three years or more, when making a child custody determination; clarifies that the court may preclude or limit any provisions of a parenting plan if the court finds that a parent has failed to pay child support.

LAW ENFORCEMENT/COURTS:

HB537: enacts the "Law Enforcement’s Safer Tennessee Electronic Registration (LESTER) Act," which clarifies that law enforcement is required to accept a digital copy of vehicle registration as proof of registration.

SB456: adds the offense of robbery to the definition of crime of violence.

SB465: removes the limitation that a person who is experiencing a drug overdose only has immunity from being arrested, charged, or prosecuted on the first drug overdose.

HJR49: Proposes an amendment to Article I, Section 15 of the Constitution of Tennessee to remove the right to bail for the following offenses when the proof is evident or the presumption great: act of terrorism; second degree murder; aggravated rape of a child; aggravated rape; grave torture; and any other offense, as of November 3, 2026, for which a defendant, if convicted, could not be released prior to the expiration of at least 85 percent of the entire sentence imposed.

SB490: permits the expunction of a Class E felony conviction for official misconduct.

HB540: expands the definition of "racketeering activity" to include committing, conspiring to commit, aiding, attempting to aid, soliciting, coercing, facilitating, or intimidating another person to commit the criminal offense of animal fighting. 

SB451: requires sexual and violent sexual offenders to disclose the name, address, and phone number of any church, temple, or other religious group or organization in this state where the offender is a registered member; specifies that this information is considered public information; requires the TBI to provide all public information about an offender to any church, temple, or other religious group or organization in this state where the offender is a registered member when an offender registers as a sexual or violent sexual offender or updates a registration.

SB491: specifies that for purposes of carrying out a sentence of death, lethal injection protocol may include the use of pharmaceutical fentanyl.

SB475: reduces the percentage of sentence that a person convicted of first degree murder on or after July 1, 1995, and sentenced to life imprisonment is required to serve before becoming eligible for release from 100 percent of 60 years less sentence credits earned and retained to 60 percent of 60 years less sentence credits earned and retained; prohibits a defendant becoming eligible for parole before serving 25 years of the sentence, if the defendant was 25 years of age or younger at the time of the offense, or 30 years of the sentence, if the defendant was 26 years of age or older at the time of the offense. 

SB468: enacts the "Women's Safety and Protection Act." Notwithstanding another law to the contrary, a governmental agency shall not prohibit distinctions between the sexes with respect to athletics, correctional facilities, juvenile detention facilities, domestic violence shelters, or other accommodations where biology, safety, or privacy is implied and that result in separate accommodations that are substantially related to the important government interest of protecting the health, safety, and privacy of individuals in such circumstances.

CONSTITUTION OF TENNESSEE:

HJR7: Proposes an amendment to Article I of the Constitution of Tennessee to declare that a person shall not be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall a person be denied equal protection of the law; defines "person" to include every human being from fertilization to natural death.

VETERANS:

SB473: enacts the "Veterans Assistance for Livelihood, Opportunity, and Relief (VALOR) Act," which exempts disabled veterans who have 100 percent permanent and total disability from a service-connected cause from the payment of certain taxes and fees. 

OTHER:

SR6: Affirms that the American Dream belongs to all of us.

Please be sure to follow us on social media as we track these bills, and others, as they move through the General Assembly this session.