AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 37, Chapter 1, Part 1; Title 49, Chapter 1; Title 49, Chapter 2 and Title 49, Chapter 6, relative to attendance.
- Introduced
- Passed Senate
- Passed House
- To Governor
- Became Law
Overview
This bill requires school directors to report students who were formally truant and then enroll in homeschool to juvenile court, and tracks unexcused absences when students transfer schools to identify habitual truancy and educational neglect.
Why it matters: Homeschooling families could be affected if a child previously attended public school with truancy issues—the state may intervene through juvenile court when that child moves to homeschool, potentially creating legal scrutiny of the homeschool enrollment decision.
Topic: compulsory_attendance · classifier confidence 85%
What this changes
Amends existing law
Law today: Tennessee currently has truancy laws that track student absences and allow schools to report cases of habitual truancy and educational neglect to juvenile court. Schools may implement progressive truancy plans to address excessive unexcused absences.
If passed: The bill requires school directors to report students who were formally truant and then enroll in homeschool to juvenile court. It also makes unexcused absences from a student's previous school count toward habitual truancy determinations and educational neglect findings at their new school or district. For homeschooling families, this means a child with a prior truancy record could trigger a juvenile court report simply by switching to homeschool, potentially subjecting the family to state oversight or legal involvement.
AI-generated from the bill text — verify against the official text.
Likely supporters & opponents
Likely support
No clear supporters identified.
Likely opposition
- Homeschool advocacy organizations — The bill creates a burden on homeschooling families by allowing truancy records from public school to follow students into homeschool and trigger juvenile court involvement, which infringes on parental rights and educational choice.
- Parents switching to homeschool — Families leaving public school should have a fresh start in homeschooling without prior attendance records automatically triggering state intervention or court involvement.
- Homeschool freedom advocates — The requirement to report homeschooling students to juvenile court based on prior public-school truancy inappropriately subjects private family education to the same attendance enforcement as public school.
AI-inferred typical positions based on the bill’s substance — general stakeholder categories, not confirmed endorsements.
Should I support this?
Likely harmful for Christian families
This bill expands state oversight of homeschooling families by mandating juvenile court reports for students with prior truancy who move to homeschool, and allows old public-school absences to follow students and trigger truancy determinations in their new setting. For families choosing homeschool partly to escape institutional attendance rules, this creates a direct legal burden and state intrusion into their educational decisions.
An AI assessment from a Christian-family perspective — religious freedom, parental rights, and freedom in education — not legal or voting advice.
Official summary
As introduced, requires director of schools to report a student who was formally truant and now enrolled in a home school to juvenile court; establishes that unexcused absences accumulated by a transfer student at their former school or LEA during the school year in which they transfer follow the student to the receiving school or LEA to determine habitual truancy, to implement a progressive truancy plan, and to identify cases of educational neglect. - Amends TCA Title 37, Chapter 1, Part 1; Title 49, Chapter 1; Title 49, Chapter 2 and Title 49, Chapter 6.
Sponsors
- Adam Lowe (R)
Status timeline
- 2026-01-20Withdrawn.S
- 2026-01-15Filed for introductionS
H = House · S = Senate · A = Assembly