Title 49, Education

The department of education shall provide all state board of education approved teacher training programs access to annual evaluation data for teachers and principals graduating from the programs for a minimum of five (5) years following the completion of the program. Data made a…

State-approved teacher preparation programs shall require all teacher candidates to complete training on the teacher code of ethics found in part 10 of this chapter as part of the program.

(a) Each state-board-of-education approved teacher preparation program shall report for each school year:(1) The number of its program completers who, in the completer's first year of service as a teacher of record, received a score of “below expectations” or “significantly below…

All courses taken toward meeting the requirement for a teacher endorsement shall be selected from those courses required for an academic major in the various fields of the arts and sciences or from colleges of business or engineering, if applicable. This requirement shall not app…

(a) All full-time educator preparation program faculty members, including academic deans or executive leaders of such educator preparation programs, who are involved in the preparation of teachers, shall further their professional development through direct personal involvement i…

(a) By July 31, 2021:(1) The department shall develop and submit to the state board for approval, foundational literacy skills standards for use by all educator preparation providers for the instruction of candidates seeking a license to teach students in kindergarten through gra…

(a) The department of education, in coordination with the Tennessee higher education commission, shall annually convene a meeting of all approved educator preparation providers responsible for managing, operating, or coordinating programs for the preparation and licensure of teac…

(a) There is created the Tennessee principal-administrator academy under the auspices of the department of education. The academy is not a single institution, but an organizational framework for a wide array of educational and training programs for school leaders, conducted at se…

(a) Training opportunities for principals and appropriate supervisory and administrative staff shall be made available through the academy within the limits of the approved budget of the department of education. The purpose of the academy is to instill and reinforce instructional…

(a) Each principal and administrator shall be required to attend the principal-administrator academy for instruction at least once every five (5) years; provided, that the commissioner may, at the commissioner's discretion, grant an extension not to exceed one (1) additional year…

The institutes shall be provided without cost to those attending; however, participant travel, living and incidental costs may be at the expense of the participant; or if the LEA so determines, it may reimburse from school funds its participants for their reasonable expenses, not…

(a) This part shall be known and may be cited as the “Professional Educators Collaborative Conferencing Act of 2011.” (b) (1) Local boards of education and their professional employees have an obligation to the public to exert their full and continuing efforts to achieve the high…

(1) As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:(1) “Board of education” or “local board of education” has the same meaning as the term is defined in § 49-1-103;(2) “Collaborative conferencing” means the process by which the chair of a board of education and the b…

Professional employees have the right to self-organization, to form, join or be assisted by organizations, to participate in collaborative conferencing with local boards of education through representatives of their own choosing and to engage in other concerted activities for the…

(a) Those rights and responsibilities of boards of education, directors of schools and professional employees as contained in this title are not statutorily modified or repealed by this part. (b) This part shall not operate so as to annul or modify any recognition heretofore ente…

(a) Experience has shown that efforts to confer, consult, discuss, and to exchange information, opinions, and proposals on terms and conditions of professional service are most efficient and effective when conducted by participants who are selected and authorized to represent ind…

(a) It is unlawful for a board of education or its management personnel to:(1) Impose or threaten to impose reprisals on professional employees or discriminate against professional employees by reason of their exercise of rights guaranteed by this part;(2) Interfere with, restrai…

(a) (1) If a strike occurs, the board of education may apply to the chancery court in the county to enjoin the strike. The application shall set forth the facts constituting the strike.(2) If the court finds, after a hearing, that a strike has occurred, the court shall enjoin the…

(a) A local board of education shall be required to participate in collaborative conferencing with professional employees, or their designated representatives, if any, with respect to only those terms and conditions of employment that are specified in this section. Such terms and…

(a) The scope of a memorandum shall extend to those matters of mutual agreement between the board of education and the professional employees; provided, that its scope shall not include proposals contrary to:(1) Federal or state law or applicable municipal charter;(2) Professiona…

(a) The state board of education shall adopt rules and regulations setting up sick leave and personal and professional leave for the teachers in the public schools of this state, and for payment of substitute teachers. Every LEA shall participate in the state leave plan as establ…

(a) Any person holding a position that requires a teacher's license shall be granted leave for military service, legislative service, maternity, adoption, recuperation of health or visitation of a spouse, child or parent deployed for military duty out of the country who has been …

Each request for leave must be acted upon in accordance with board policy, any negotiated contract or applicable state or federal law by the director of schools within fifteen (15) days. Each applicant shall be notified in writing of the action of the director of schools, and the…

All leaves, except military leave, shall be from a date certain to a date certain; however, any leave may be extended to a later specified date upon written request from the teacher. The procedure for extending a leave and the conditions under which a leave may be extended are th…

Positions vacated for less than twelve (12) months by teachers on leave shall be filled with an interim teacher for such time as the teacher is on leave. Upon return of the teacher within the twelve (12) months, the interim teacher shall relinquish the position, and the teacher s…

Any teacher on leave shall, at least thirty (30) days prior to the date of return, notify the director of schools in writing if the teacher does not intend to return to the position from which the teacher is on leave. Failure to render such notice may be considered breach of cont…

The regularly employed teacher who is on leave authorized by § 49-5-701, § 49-5-710 or § 49-5-711 shall receive the pay prescribed by the teacher's contract during such absence, but the right to receive such pay shall be subject to all the conditions set forth in §§ 49-5-701, 49-…

Any teacher on leave shall retain any accumulated tenure, salary or fringe benefit credits; and the leave shall not be construed to work a forfeiture of any accumulated tenure, salary or fringe benefit credits.

Substitute teachers are those teachers used to replace teachers on leave authorized by § 49-5-701, § 49-5-710 or § 49-5-711, or to fill temporary vacancies as defined by the state board of education and granted under written local school board policies. Substitute teachers may be…

(a) (1) The time allowed for sick leave within the meaning of this section for any teacher is one (1) day for each month employed up to eight (8) days per year for employees with ten-month contracts, up to nine (9) days per year for employees with eleven-month contracts, and up t…

(a) Under policies adopted by the local board of education, a teacher must be allowed personal and professional leave earned at the rate of two (2) days for each one-half (½) year employed. A teacher may take not more than two (2) days of personal or professional leave prior to h…

Part-time leaves may be granted upon written request with the conditions prevailing as recorded in the minutes of the board of education.

Leave to hold legislative office shall not be granted for more than any portion of four (4) calendar years without the consent of the local board of education. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to require the board or school system to pay the teacher during the…

(a) (1) (A) If a salaried employee of an LEA or public charter school is absent from the employee's assigned duties as a result of personal injury caused by a physical assault or other violent criminal act committed against the employee while the employee was acting in the course…

(a) Leave to hold statewide office as an officer, director, trustee or agent of a professional employees' association may be granted if the local board approves the leave after the person requesting the leave provides the director of schools with proof of election and proof of th…

(a) A teacher, including a teacher on preapproved leave or other type of leave, shall not be charged with a day of leave for any day on which the teacher's school or the school district is closed due to natural disaster, inclement weather, serious outbreak of contagious illness, …

(a) An LEA or public charter school may compensate the estate of an employee who died on or after September 1, 2024, while employed by the LEA or public charter school, for the employee's unused and accrued annual and sick leave in the same manner estates of deceased state employ…

This part shall be known and may be cited as the “Tennessee Teachers' Sick Leave Bank Act.”

(1) As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:(1) “Employee organization” means any organization with membership open to teachers in which the teachers participate and that exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of representing teachers' interest to boards…

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision to the contrary, a sick leave bank may be established in any local school system. (b) Sick leave accumulated under § 49-5-710 may be donated to the bank. (c) Only one (1) bank shall be allowed per system. (d) To form a sick leave bank in a …

(1) When permission to establish a sick leave bank in a local school system has been granted, the sick leave bank trustees shall be established as follows:(1) No later than thirty (30) days following the adoption of operating guidelines, the local board of education and the emplo…

(a) The trustees shall provide for rules and regulations not inconsistent with this part. (b) These rules and regulations shall be filed with the local school system within sixty (60) days of authorized establishment of the bank pursuant to § 49-5-803 and shall be available for p…

(a) All persons employed in the school system who are entitled to sick leave under § 49-5-710 are eligible to participate in the sick leave bank of that school system. (b) Upon the establishment of a sick leave bank and the selection of the trustees for the sick leave bank, the t…

(a) Any teacher who elects to participate in the bank shall initially have a maximum of three (3) days of sick leave deducted from such teacher's personal accumulation and donated to the sick leave bank. (b) Donations of sick leave to the bank are nonrefundable and nontransferabl…

(a) The sick leave bank trustees shall administer the sick leave bank and approve or reject each request for additional sick leave. All actions of the trustees will require three (3) affirmative votes. (b) The form and manner of application for use of leave from the bank shall be…

(1) A member shall lose the right to obtain the benefits of the sick leave bank by:(1) Resignation or termination of employment with the local school system;(2) Cancellation of participation that is effective only on June 30 next;(3) Refusal to honor such assessment as may be req…