Alleviating school staffing challenges / Public Chapter 821- To address ongoing staffing challenges in schools, a new law allows retired members of the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (TCRS) to be reemployed as a K-12 teacher, K-12 substitute teacher, or as a K-12 bus driver without the loss or suspension of the retired member’s TCRS benefits. Currently, retired members of TCRS may return to work, but only for a maximum of 120 days. This bill removes that limit and extends service to one year renewable annually, provided there are no other qualified applicants. During the reemployment, retirement benefits would be reduced to 70 percent of the retirement allowance the member is otherwise entitled to receive, and the existing salary cap would be removed. Effective from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2025.

Expanding eligibility for CTE teachers in high schools / Public Chapter 1141 – Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses have become an important aspect of preparing Tennessee’s high school students for quality, high-paying jobs upon graduating. A new law makes it easier for local schools to find CTE teachers, of which there has been a shortage. The measure lowers the requirement for a person to qualify to teach CTE courses. The law lessens the amount of work experience a person must have from five years of relevant work experience in the last ten years, to three years of relevant experience within the last five years. It also allows a person to qualify to teach with an out-of-state industry certification. Effective June 2022 to July 2023.

Encouraging high-performing teachers at low-performing schools /Public chapter 1096 — The negative incentive is removed for high performing teachers to teach at low performing schools. The law allows teachers to rely more heavily on observation for the Level of Overall Effectiveness scores during adoption years, helping to reduce the negative incentive. It shifts the policy to instead encourage, rather than harm, high performing teachers to teach at struggling schools. Effective May 2022.

Establishing a 10-point grading scale for Tennessee schools/ Public chapter 1080 — To align with neighboring states, the General Assembly approved legislation to establish a 10-point grading scale for grades nine through 12 in schools statewide. Tennessee is currently on a seven-point grading scale. Starting with the 2022-2023 school year and thereafter, the “A” letter grade corresponds to scoring a percentage between 90 and 100, the “B” grade is between 80 and 89, the “C” grade is between 70 and 79, the “D” grade is between 60 and 69, and the “F” grade is within the range of zero and 59. The move will also generate additional scholarship recipients by lowering the threshold for an “A” grade from 93 to 90. Effective July 1, 2022.

As always, I am truly humbled and honored to be your voice on Capitol Hill. If there is ever any issue I can assist with, please reach out to my office by calling 615-741-2190 or emailing me at [email protected]