Tennessee Education Code For Homeschooling
This is not intended to be legal advice and is distributed
for information purposes only. Check for updates at your public
library or on the Department
of Education website. The state website has not yet been updated, so to confirm, look at the Tennessee Secretary of State's bill House Bill 1631 legislation.
Compulsory attendance - Between 6 and 17
years of age.
Educational requirements for parents. (See below.)
Standardized testing required in some grades. (See below.)
Attendance records must be kept.
Four (4) hours a day of instruction for 180 days as district
or Church school requires.
Requirements
for Homeschools in Tennessee
Pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. §49-6-3050, parents in Tennessee
may conduct a home school for their own children.
Effective July 1, 2011.
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-6-3050(a), is amended by
deleting the subsection in its entirety and substituting instead the following:
Parents also have the option of having their children attend
a church-related school. This is not home schooling, because
the church-related school is not being conducted by parents or
legal guardians for their own children. This school is being
operated by a denominational, parochial, or other bona fide church
organization as required by Section 49-50-801. Under this option
there is no need to comply with any of the home school provisions
of Section 49-6-3050.
Category III schooling
This option allows parents to enroll their child in a State of Tennessee School Board designated Category III school and comply with the compulsory attendance laws. Home education using a Category III school is categorized as private schooling by the state and is not included in the state's definition of "homeschooling." Catagory III schools include many familiar accredited distance learning programs. Tennessee has been slow to adopt on-line school and heretofore parents wishing to utilize an on-line or correspondence school outside of the state had to also register with either their LEA or a Tennessee church-related school in order to comply with the compulsory attendance laws. That is now, no longer the case saving lots of parents that extra step and/or registration fee.
Tennessee Home School
Statute (Effective July 1, 2011)
Tennessee Code Annotated Section
49-6-3050. Home Schools.
(a)
(1)
A "home school" is a school conducted or directed by a parent or
parents or legal guardian or guardians for their own children. Public school
facilities may be used by home school participants with the approval of the
principal of the school, but this permissive authority shall not be construed to
confer any right upon the participants to use public school facilities. If approved,
use shall be in accordance with rules established by the local board of education.
(2)
(A) Home schools that teach kindergarten through grade twelve
(K-12), where the parents are associated with and where students are
enrolled with a church-related school, as defined by § 49-50-801, that are
supervised by the church-related school's director and that administer or
offer standardized achievement tests, are exempt from this section.
(B) Parent-teachers who register with an organization, as defined
by § 49-50-801, for conducting a home school for students in grades nine
through twelve (9-12) shall possess at least a high school diploma or
general education development certificate (GED).
(3)
A parent-teacher may enroll the parent's home school student or students in a church-related school, as defined in § 49-50-801, and participate as a teacher in that church-related school. Such parent-teacher shall be subject to the requirements established by the church-related school for home school teachers and exempt from the rest of the provisions of this section.
(b) Except for home schools operated under subdivision (a)(2) or (a)(3), a parent-teacher conducting a home school shall comply with the following requirements:
(1)
Provide annual notice to the local director of schools prior to each school year of he parent-teacher's intent to conduct a home school and, for the purpose of reporting only, submission to the director of schools of the names, number, ages and grade levels of the children to be home schooled, the location of the school, the proposed curriculum to be offered, the proposed hours of instruction and the qualifications of the parent-teacher relative to subdivision (b)(4). Information contained in the reports may be used only for record keeping and other purposes for which similar information on public school students may be used in accordance with guidelines, rules and regulations of the state board of education. The director of schools or the director's designee shall ensure that attendance teachers are informed of parents' rights to conduct a home school pursuant to § 49-6-3001(c)(4), subsection (a) of this section and § 49-50-801 upon employment of the attendance teachers and at the beginning of each school year;
(2)
Maintenance of attendance records, subject to inspection by the local director of schools, and submission of these records to the director of schools at the end of each school year;
(3) Instruction for at least four (4) hours per day for the same number of instructional days as are required by state law for public schools;
(4)
Possession of a high school diploma or GED by the parent-teacher;
(8)
In the event of the illness of a parent-teacher, or at the discretion of the parent-teacher, a tutor, having the same qualifications that would be required of a parent-teacher teaching the grade level or course, may be employed by the parent-teacher.
(9)
This act shall take effect July 1, 2011, the public welfare requiring it.
Tennessee Church-Related Schools Statute
Tennessee Code Annotated Section
49-50-801.
Church-related Schools.
(a)
As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires,
"church-related school" means a school operated
by denominational, parochial or other bona fide church organizations,
which are required to meet the standards of accreditation or
membership of the Tennessee Association of Christian Schools,
the Association of Christian Schools International, the Tennessee
Association of Independent Schools, the Southern Association
of Colleges and Schools, the Tennessee Association of Non-Public
Academic Schools, or a school affiliated with Accelerated Christian
Education, Inc.
(b)
The state board of education and local boards of education are
prohibited from regulating the selection of faculty or
textbooks or the establishment of a curriculum in church-related
schools.
(c) The
state board of education and local boards of education shall
not prohibit or impede the transfer of a student from a church-related
school to a public school of this state. Local boards may,
however, place students transferring from a church-related school
to a public school in a grade level based upon the student's
performance on a test administered by the board for that purpose.
In local school systems where the local board of education requires
tests for students transferring to that system from another public
school system, the same test shall be administered to students
transferring to such system from church-related schools. Church-related
schools shall be conducted for the same length of term as public
schools.
(d) Nothing
in this section shall be interpreted as prohibiting church-related
schools from voluntarily seeking approval by the state board
of education, nor prohibiting the state board of education from
extending such approval when it is voluntarily sought.
Tennessee's Compulsory
Attendance Statute
Tennessee Code Annotated Section
49-6-3001.
School age-Entrance-Attendance-Withdrawal.
(a)
The public schools shall be free to all persons above the age
of six (6) years, or who will become six (6) years of age on
or before September 30, residing within the state.
(b)
(1)
Any child residing within the state who is six (6) years of age
or who will become six (6) years of age on or before September
30 may enter at the beginning of the term the public school
designated by the local board of education having appropriate
jurisdiction; provided, that such child enters within thirty
(30) days after the opening day of the term.
(2)
Any child who will not become six (6) years of age until after
December 31 shall not enter school during that school year; provided,
that school systems having semiannual promotions may admit at
the beginning of any semester children who will become six (6)
years of age within sixty (60) days following the opening of
the semester.
(3)
Where a pupil meets the requirements of the state board of education
for transfer and/or admission purposes, as determined by the
commissioner of education, such pupil may be admitted by a local
board of education, notwithstanding any provision or act to the
contrary.
(c)
(1)
Every parent, guardian or other person residing within this state
having control or charge of any child or children between the
ages of seven (7) and seventeen (17) years, both inclusive,
shall cause such child or children to attend public or non-public
school, and in the event of failure to do so, shall be subject
to the penalties hereinafter provided.
(2) The
provisions of (c)(1) do not apply to any child who:
(A) Has received a diploma or other
certificate of graduation issued to the person from a secondary
high school of this state or any other state;
(B) Is enrolled and is making satisfactory
progress in a course leading to a general educational development
certificate (GED) from a state-approved institution or organization,
or has obtained such certificate. Any institution or organization
which enrolls a child who is under eighteen (18) years of age
shall provide a report to the local board of education at least
three (3) times each year relative to the progress of all such
persons under eighteen (18) years of age. If the local board
of education determines any child under eighteen (18) years of
age is not making satisfactory progress, then such child shall
be subject to the provisions of subdivision (c)(1); or
(C) A student enrolled in a home school
who has reached seventeen (17) years of age.
(3)
For the purposes of this part, public school and non-public school
are defined as follows:
(A) "Non-public school" means
a church related school, home school or private school;
(i) "Church related school"
means a school as defined in Section 49-50-801;
(ii) "Home school" means a
school as defined in Section 49-6-3050; and
(iii) "Private school" means
a school accredited by, or a member of, an organization or association
approved by the state board of education as an organization accrediting
or setting academic requirements in schools, or which has been
approved by the state, or is in the future approved by the commissioner
of education in accordance with rules promulgated by the state
board of education; and
(B) "Public school" means
any school operated by a local education agency or by the state
with public funds.
(4)
A parent or guardian with any good and substantial reason as
determined by such parent or other person having legal custody
of a child and agreed to by the respective local board of education,
may withdraw such parent or other person's child from a public
school; provided that within thirty (30) days the parent or person
having legal custody of the child places the child in a public
school designated by such local board of education, or in a non-public
school, as herein defined.
Homeschool
Law, Legislation, Legal Help
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Non-Lawyer
Version of the Law
© Copyright Kay Brooks
Sometimes it helps to read a lay English version of the law as
an aid to understanding the actual law itself.
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