Tennessee

Tennessee law does not place any caps on charter school growth.

Tennessee law allows new start-ups and public school conversions.

Tennessee law allows local school boards to authorize charter schools. The law also allows the achievement school district to authorize charter schools within a local educational agency (LEA) for the purpose of providing opportunities for students within the LEA who are zoned to attend or enrolled in a chronically low-performing school that is eligible to be placed in the achievement school district. It also allows the state public charter school commission to authorize charter school applications sponsored by local school boards or upon appeal from a denial of approval of a charter school application by an LEA.

The law requires each authorizing authority to submit an annual authorizing report to the state department of education that covers the operating status of the charter schools approved by that authorizer, the oversight and any contracted services, and a performance report for each of its charter schools.In order to evaluate authorizer quality, the state board of education is authorized to conduct periodic evaluations of authorizers to determine authorizer compliance with the requirements of the state charter school law and with the rules and regulations of the state board of education and to ensure alignment with the state board of education’s quality authorizing standards.
If the state board of education finds that an authorizer is not in compliance with the requirements of the state charter school law, the rules and regulations of the state board of education, or the state board of education’s quality authorizing standards, then the state board of education shall provide the authorizer with written notification of the authorizer’s noncompliance.
The authorizer shall respond to the written notification no later than 10 business days after the date of the written notification and shall remedy the authorizer’s noncompliance within the timeframe determined by the state board of education. An authorizer’s failure to remedy the authorizer’s noncompliance may result in a reduction of the authorizer fee, as determined by the state board of education.
Tennessee law requires the state commissioner of education to prepare and submit an annual report on charter schools to the joint oversight committee on education based upon the information provided in charter school annual reports.

Tennessee law authorizers to receive an annual authorizer fee that is the lesser of 3% of the annual per student state and local allocations or $35,000 per school. The authorizer must only use the authorizer fee for fulfilling authorizing obligations and must submit an annual report to the state department of education regarding the fee amount and actual usage. Any fee collected in excess of obligation costs must be refunded to the school.
Tennessee law allows LEAs to charge applicants an application fee in an amount approved by the local board of education, not to exceed $2,500 per application.

The law prohibits authorizers from charging any other fees beyond the authorizer and application fees, unless there is an annual service contract for any agreed upon services from the authorizer.

Tennessee law contains application elements for all schools and additional application elements specific to conversion schools. The law provides that a chartering authority may take into consideration the past and current performance, or lack thereof, of any charter school operated by the sponsor. State law requires the state department of education to provide a standard application format and sample scoring criteria addressing the elements of the charter school application specified in the Tennessee Public Charter Schools Act of 2002.
Tennessee law requires all charter approval or denial decisions to be made in a public meeting, with authorizers stating reasons for denials in writing.

Tennessee law requires the approval of a written agreement signed by the school and the authorizer. While the law requires the agreement to include school roles, powers, and responsibilities, it does not require it to include authorizer roles, powers, and responsibilities.
Tennessee law requires that the term of a charter agreement be 10 years.

Tennessee law includes a small number of the model law’s provisions for comprehensive charter school monitoring and data collection processes. The law requires a charter school to make at least an annual progress report to its authorizer and the state commissioner of education. The law requires the report to contain at least the following information: the progress of the school towards achieving the goals outlined in its charter; the same information required in the reports prepared by local boards of education pursuant to state laws, rules and regulations; and financial records of the school, including revenues and expenditures.
The law requires each charter school to provide in its annual report a detailed accounting, including the amounts and sources, of funds other than those received from its authorizer.

Tennessee law requires a charter school to conduct an annual audit of its accounts and records, including internal school activity and cafeteria funds.

Tennessee law requires a public charter school to maintain its accounts and records in accordance with generally-accepted accounting principles and in conformance with the uniform chart of accounts and accounting requirements prescribed by the comptroller of the treasury. A school must prepare and publish an annual financial report that encompasses all funds and includes the audited financial statements of the charter school.

Tennessee law allows the state comptroller of the treasury to audit any books and records, including internal school activity and cafeteria funds, of any charter school created under this chapter and when the audit is deemed necessary or appropriate by the comptroller of the treasury. The state comptroller of the treasury must have the full cooperation of officials of the charter school in the performance of the audit or audits.

Tennessee law requires schools seeking renewal to apply for it. One year prior to the date on which a charter school is required to submit a renewal application, the law requires the authorizer to submit to the charter school a performance report that directly reflects the renewal application.
Tennessee law provides that a charter agreement shall be revoked or denied renewal if the school receives identification as a priority school as defined by the state’s accountability system on two occassions, with such revocation effective immediately following the close of the school year in which a school is identified as a priority school. This provision does not apply to schools authorized by the achievement school district or a conversion charter school, unless they have been identified as a priority school for two consecutive cycles. Tennessee law also provides that a charter agreement may be revoked or denied renewal if the chartering authority determines that the charter school committed a material violation of any of the standards, conditions or procedures set forth in law, failed to meet generally-accepted standards of fiscal management.

At least 30 days prior to any decision by an LEA to revoke or non-renew a charter, the LEA must notify the school in writing of the possibility and the reasons for such possible revocation. Such decisions may be appealed to the state board of education, except those related to being a priority school.

Tennessee law requires that the term of a charter agreement is 10 years. It also provides that an interim review of a charter school must be conducted by its authorizer under guidelines developed by the state department of education in the fifth year of a charter school's initial period of operation and also in the fifth year following any renewal of a charter agreement. Such guidelines must require a charter school to submit to the authorizer a report on the progress of the school in achieving the goals, objectives, pupil performance standards, content standards and other terms of the approved charter agreement.

Tennessee law requires all renewal, nonrenewal, and revocation decisions be made in a public meeting, with authorizers stating reasons for their decisions in writing.

Tennessee law contains closure protocols to address student transitions, asset disposition, and debt responsibility.

Tennessee law includes a small number of the model law’s provisions for educational service providers.
Tennessee law allows a charter school governing board to enter into contracts, but statute contains no provisions regarding the details of any ESP arrangements. In addition, statute specifically prohibits charter governing boards from contracting for the management or operation of the charter school with a for-profit entity.

The law provides that a chartering authority may take into consideration the past and current performance, or lack thereof, of any charter school operated by the sponsor.

Tennessee law provides requirements for fiscally and legally autonomous schools with independent charter school boards. Statute specifically states that a charter school can buy, sell or lease property, borrow funds as needed, pledge assets as security, and sue and be sued.
A governing body must be established for each charter school to oversee matters, including, but not limited to, budgeting, curriculum and other operating procedures.

A public charter school is subject to all federal and state laws and constitutional provisions prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability, race, creed, color, national origin, religion, ancestry or need for special education services.According to Tennessee law, if applications exceed the planned capacity of the public charter school, the charter school shall select students through a lottery. The law requires schools to give the following preferences in the following order: students that attended the charter school the year before, students enrolled in a pre-K program operated by the charter school, students attending a charter school that has an approved articulation agreement with the enrolling public charter school, siblings of enrolled students, students from a group of focus if the school is an approved focus school, students residing within the LEA in which the public charter school is located who were enrolled in another public school during the previous year, and students residing outside the LEA in which the public charter school is located. For conversion schools, preference must be given to students who reside within the former attendance area of that public school.
The law allows charters to give preference to the children of a teacher, sponsor or member of the governing body of the charter school, not to exceed 10% of total enrollment or 25 students, whichever is less.

Instead of providing charters with automatic exemptions from most state and district laws and regulations, Tennessee law provides that charters may apply to either the school district or the state commissioner of education for waivers of regulations and statutes.
Tennessee law requires charter teachers to be certified.

In Tennessee, collective bargaining is permitted (but not required) for public school teachers. Teachers currently engage in bargaining via what is termed “collaborative conferencing.” Wages, insurance or fringe benefits, terms and conditions of employment, leave, management rights, and grievance procedures may be bargained. Bargaining pension and retirement benefits, transfers and reassignments, layoffs, and evaluations is expressly prohibited by state law.The law does not require a charter school to participate in a collective bargaining agreement. However, a charter school’s employees may form a bargaining unit that may elect to represent themselves in negotiations with the charter school’s governing body, or they may elect to be represented by any qualified person or organization, including the local bargaining unit within the school district. A charter school’s bargaining unit can bargain only with the governing board of the charter school and not with the local school board.
Tennessee’s state law prohibited unions from charging agency fees to non-union members prior to the Janus v. AFSCME decision, so the Supreme Court’s decision has no effect on unions in the state.
Tennessee law permits exclusive representation for teachers, but the current “collaborative conferencing” mechanism permits multiple employee representatives to engage in this conferencing according to their proportion of votes received in the most recent election. If 15 percent or more employees petition to conference, the board of education shall appoint a committee of employees and board members to conduct a confidential poll of eligible employees. This two-part poll first asks a yes or no question (whether an employee wants to engage in collaborative conference), then a second question as to which organization the employees wish to represent them. The ballot shall list “the professional employees’ organizations having a presence in the LEA.” Multiple representatives are selected based on proportional representation for any organization with more than 15 percent of the vote, and there must be three years between polls.The law does not require a charter school to participate in a collective bargaining agreement. However, a charter school's employees may form a bargaining unit, which may elect to represent themselves in negotiations with the charter school's governing body or they may elect to be represented by any qualified person or organization, including the local bargaining unit within the school district. A charter school's bargaining unit can bargain only with the governing board of the charter school, and not with the local school board.

Tennessee law is silent regarding multi-school charter contracts and multi-charter contract boards. In practice, some independent public charter school boards are overseeing multiple charter contracts.

Tennessee law is silent about charter eligibility and access.

Tennessee law provides clarity regarding which entity is the LEA responsible for providing special education services and regarding funding for low-incident, high-cost services.

Tennessee law includes a small number of the model law’s provisions regarding special education responsibilities. Tennessee law requires charter schools to provide special education services for students.

For charter schools authorized by local school boards and the achievement school district, Tennessee law requires a local board of education to allocate to a charter school an amount equal to the per student state and local funds received by the district and all appropriate allocations under federal law or regulation, including, but not limited to, Title I and ESEA funds. The law requires the state department of education to promulgate rules and regulations that provide for the determination of the allocation of state and local funds.
A charter school, like an LEA, is generally not required to provide transportation to students. If the charter school decides to provide transportation and does so in compliance with Tennessee statutes on transportation, the transportation funds would flow to the charter school.

In a recent national study of charter school funding (University of Arkansas, Charter School Funding: Inequity Expands, 2014), Tennessee charter schools were receiving on average $9,087 per pupil in public funds, while traditional public schools would have received $10,583 for those students. As a result, the state's charter schools were receiving $1,496 per pupil - or 16.5% - less than what the traditional public schools would have received for those students. This figure includes all sources of funding, and analysis reveals significant inequities for both operational and capital funding (see component #19 for information on capital issues).

Tennessee law requires the state department of education to annually calculate and reserve from payments to districts with one or more charter schools the amount of state funding required under the basic education program (BEP) for capital outlay as a non-classroom component and to distribute that amount directly to each charter school its per pupil share as determined by its prior year average daily membership, except that the per-pupil share of any charter school in its first year of operation must be based on the anticipated enrollment in the charter agreement. The law further provides that a district must include in the local share of funds paid to a charter school the required district match for the state funds generated under the BEP for capital outlay as a non-classroom component. The amount of these allotments vary by the district in which a charter school is located. Currently, the allotment is between approximately $215 and $315 per pupil.
In 2017, a public charter school facilities program was created to award grants and loans for qualifying capital projects. $18 million was initially appropriated for this fund, $6 million each year for three years. For Fiscal Year 2022, the state appropriated $6 million in recurring funding and $18 million in non-recurring funds to this program.

The law requires an LEA having underutilized and vacant properties to make the properties available for use by charter schools operating in the LEA. The law provides that a charter school may not be required to pay a base rent for the use of any underutilized and vacant property owned or operated by the LEA and may only be required to remit payment for the maintenance and operational costs associated with the occupancy of the property or space.

Furthermore, by October 1 of each year, the law requires any LEA in which one or more charter schools operates to annually catalog all vacant properties owned or operated by the LEA and all vacant space within any educational facility owned or operated by the LEA. The law requires the LEA to submit a comprehensive listing of all such properties and space to the state department of education, which must make an LEA's list available to any charter school operating in the LEA or to any sponsor seeking to establish a public charter school in the LEA.

Charter school advocates in the state have negotiated directly with Shelby County Schools to provide free facilities to high-quality charter schools and at or below market rates for those high-quality charter schools that want to purchase buildings.

The law provides that charter schools that have the support of their local taxing authority are eligible to access tax-exempt financing through the Tennessee Local Development Authority.

Public charter schools may seek their own bond funding for facilities (with the chartering authority’s approval) or may have their request included with an LEA’s bond request.
According to charter school advocates in the state, it would be unconstitutional for the state to pledge the moral obligation of the state to help charter schools obtain more favorable bond financing terms.
The Tennessee Charter School Center secured credit enhancement support for the state’s charter schools via a grant through the federal Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities Program. This grant will allow the state to leverage $8 million for up to $50 million in support for public charter school facilities in the state.

Tennessee law requires charter schools to participate in the relevant employee retirement systems.

Tennessee law does not allow full-time virtual charter schools.