2018 LEGISLATION
House Bill 2009/Senate Bill 2011
Grants the State Board of Education authority
to reprimand school directors for not reporting
instances of misconduct and clarifies the board’s
authority to reprimand educators for violating the
Teacher Code of Ethics.
Office of Research and Education Accountability
J USTIN P . W ILSON, C OMPTROLLER
Educator Sexual Misconduct
Involving Students in
Tennessee Schools
Enacted as Public Chapter No. 935
House Bill 2099/Senate Bill 2012
Calls for the State Board of Education to post all
final teacher disciplinary action on its website to
allow school districts, as well as out-of-state entities
responsible for the licensing and hiring of Tennessee
educators, to access information regarding the final
disciplinary action of an individual’s license case.
It also requires final licensure action be reported
to the National Association of State Directors of
Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC)
database for the same purpose.
In addition, committee members support an
appropriation in the budget presented by Governor
Bill Haslam for an additional staff attorney in
the State Board of Education to review educator
misconduct investigations and outstanding cases,
and determine what licensure action, if any, should
be taken.
Kim Potts
Principal Legislative Research Analyst
Tara Bergfeld
Principal Legislative Research Analyst
January 2018
READ THE FULL OREA REPORT
House Bill 2433/Senate Bill 2015
House Bill 2165/Senate Bill 2013 Prohibits a Local Education Agency (LEA) from
entering into a non-disclosure agreement with a
teacher that would prevent other school districts
from knowing about sexual misconduct. It also
allows districts to access information about the
previous employment of a teacher with another
school district.
Enacted as Public Chapter No. 937 2018 Appropriations Act (PC 1061)
Enacted as Public Chapter No. 936
Updates the state’s Teacher Code of Ethics regarding
inappropriate
teacher-student
relationships,
including engaging in sexual behavior with students
or furnishing them with alcohol or drugs.
House Bill 1997/Senate Bill 2014
Ensures that background checks are conducted to
identify sexual predators before a teacher license
is issued and that reports are done on an ongoing
basis for those who work with children. Presently,
school districts require an initial background check
before hiring.
Enacted as Public Chapter No. 1006
Enacted as Public Chapter No. 938
The 2018 Appropriations Act includes funding for
one additional staff attorney within the SBE to
review cases of educator misconduct. Since spring
2017, SBE has reviewed approximately 200 cases
from previous years, and as of fall 2017, SBE had
a backlog of approximately six to eight months of
outstanding cases from 2016-17 to review.
NDUCT IN THE CLASSROOM