A bill that would change the age cutoff date for children enrolling in enrolling in kindergarten failed to advance out of the House K-12 Subcommittee Tuesday.Representative Jody Barrett, R-Dickson, says he initially sponsored the bill following a request from a director of schools in his district who wanted to change the cutoff date for when a child must be five years old to start kindergarten.

Proposed legislation that requires firearm safety to be taught in schools advanced from the House Education Instruction Committee Tuesday morning.Representative Chris Todd, R-Madison County, says he created the bill with the hope that it would save lives by teaching kids what to do when they encounter a firearm.“It’s certainly not about how to handle a firearm or proper techniques or anything like that. This is literally going to be more on the lines of ‘if you see a gun, tell an adult.’ And that’s the general concept that I think all of these type courses are going to have,” said Todd. “I think this is definitely going to save some lives.”

Tennessee State Representative Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, logged on to social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, at 10 PM Friday night to produce a multi tweet attack on proposed legislation designed to improve the school facilities economically disadvantaged and students of color attend.Her followers received a host of misleading information about not only the bill but also public charter schools in general.

Tennessee Department of Education Assistant Commissioner David Laird told the State Board of Education Friday that school districts may not know until July 1 what fourth-grade students will need to be retained under new state reading requirements.The state’s new Third-Grade Retention law allows third-graders who fail to show reading proficiency on state tests in the spring of their third-grade year to advance to the fourth grade through summer school and/or tutoring in their fourth-grade year.  Those children who receive tutoring still need to show “adequate growth” on spring testing to advance to the fifth-grade.Laird said the complex adequate growth determination that will need to be made for each impacted student likely won’t be finished in time to provide districts with the results until more than a month after school is over.

Abby McLean’s children are among those who survived last March’s Covenant school shooting that claimed the lives of three children and three staff members.McLean read a letter from Erin Kinney, the mother of Covenant victim William Kinney, to members of the Senate Education Committee in support of Senator Ferrell Haile’s, R-Gallatin, bill to change fire alarm policies in schools.The bill would require each school district, public charter school, private school, and church-related school to create a policy for how students, teachers, faulty, staff, and substitute faculty should respond when a fire alarm is activated outside of scheduled drills.

Tennessee’s comprehensive pandemic-era literacy law, which last year provided several interventions to help struggling third grade readers advance to the fourth grade, offers no such escape hatches for those same students to avoid retention this year if they don’t show “adequate growth” under the 2021 law.Now, as the State Board of Education prepares to vote Friday on what constitutes enough improvement for fourth graders who are at risk, state lawmakers are getting pushback from families whose students could be held back if they score poorly on state tests this spring, even after taking advantage of state-funded tutoring and summer learning programs.

School nurses may be one solution to the growing problem of chronic absenteeism in Tennessee.Chronic absenteeism has been an ongoing issue nationwide that only increased following the pandemic.During the 2022-2023 school year, more than 20 percent of Tennessee students were chronically absent and those rates are higher with high school and economically disadvantaged students.

Paige Hodge admitted to being a little nervous before speaking to the Tennessee Senate Education Committee Wednesday, but the topic was one the Nashville School of the Arts senior feels passionately about.Hodge serves as a youth assembly leader for the Southern Movement Committee, an organization that fights the school to prison pipeline. She told senators that she and hundreds of fellow students she’s worked with all believe conflict resolution needs to be taught in schools.

Members of the House Education Administration Committee advanced proposed legislation Wednesday to help public charter schools access school buildings that are sitting unused by local districts.The legislation would require local school districts that have public charter schools in them to provide a list of vacant and underutilized buildings on an annual basis. Under the bill, school districts would additionally be required to make those properties available to public charter schools at a fair market value and give charters a first right of refusal for either purchase or lease.

Representative Gino Bulso’s, R-Brentwood, bill that would prohibit pride flags in classrooms advanced from a House Subcommittee Tuesday, but not without vocal opposition from Representative Sam McKenzie, D-Knoxville.That bill would only allow the Tennessee State Flag, the United States Flag, and other flags representing a country or political subdivision to be displayed. Representative McKenzie called the bill dangerous.

Knox County School Board members are split over Governor Bill Lee’s proposal to let families across the state use taxpayer dollars to attend private school.Governor Lee unveiled the Education Freedom Scholarship Act earlier this year to expand upon the framework of the existing Education Savings Account (ESA) pilot program and offer families a $7,075 scholarship to cover private school tuition and other fees such as uniforms and textbooks.

Representative Ed Butler, R-Rickman, is proposing a change to help keep high schoolers enrolled in technical college courses on track after they graduate.Butler presented a bill to the House Higher Education Subcommittee Monday afternoon that would give students taking dual enrollment in high school priority if there’s a waitlist for slots at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) they want to attend after graduation.Representative Butler told the subcommittee that he got the idea for this bill from his daughter.

Tennessee House members are holding off making the first vote on a controversial bill that would only allow classrooms to display the Tennessee state flag and United States of America flag. The bill would also give parents the ability to sue school districts that violate the prohibition.Representative Gino Bulso, R-Brentwood, agreed to roll voting on the bill in the House K-12 Subcommittee for a week to add an amendment that requires parents to notify the school district before filing suit for a violation.The bill has faced criticism from LBGTQ+ activists because it would effectively ban all pride flags in public schools.

The House K-12 Subcommittee advanced legislation that aims to help public charter schools access vacant and underutilized buildings.If passed the bill would require local school districts that have public charter schools in them to provide a list of vacant and underutilized buildings on an annual basis. Under the bill, school districts would additionally be required to make those properties available to public charter schools at a fair market value and give charters a first right of refusal for either purchase or lease.

Members of the House Democratic Caucus held a press conference Tuesday to release what they’re calling a “family-first” agenda for the new legislative session.Members of the Democratic caucus also criticized the Freedom Education Scholarship Act that’s a key priority for Governor Bill Lee and some members of the Republican Supermajority. The act would allow Tennessee families the ability to use public dollars to send their children to private school.

Even under a best-case scenario, hundreds of Metro-Nashville Public School (MNPS) students will have to repeat the fourth-grade next year under a new state law.That’s according to district Executive Director of the Department of Research, Assessment, and Evaluation Christine Stenson, who updated members of the MNPS Board of Education Tuesday night on the potential impact Tennessee’s new Third-Grade Retention Law will have on district fourth-graders.

Five Tennessee House members who served on last year’s panel that looked into the possibility of rejecting federal education funding are not recommending doing so.The House report released this week did go further than a Senate report from earlier this month by providing the Tennessee General Assembly with five recommendations

Mental health has been declining for Tennessee high schoolers since 2011 and the concern is especially high for girls.Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs Kylie Graves told members on the House Education Administration Committee Wednesday that high school girls are suffering the effects of declining mental health more than boys.