SB 2351

This bill makes various changes and additions to present law concerning public education, as follows: (1) Present law provides that one member of the state board of education be a public high school student who is appointed to a one-year term by the governor and selected from nominees chosen by the local board of education in each school system. This b ill authorizes the Tennessee public charter school commission to nominate a student for the governor's consideration and clarifies that local boards may nominate charter school students; (2) Present law requires a local board of education to cause an annual audit to be made of the accounts and records of all schools under its jurisdiction that receive and disburse funds. The audit must include student activity funds. This bill adds th at, if a school, including a public charter school, has less than $50,000 in combined total funds from the internal school fund and student activity fund then the school is not required to conduct a separate audit for each of those funds and may include t he audit of all such funds in the general audit for each school; (3) Present law concerning the system of financial accounting and reporting for LEAs establishes a process for LEAs to report various financial information to the commissioner of education. If the LEA does not make the required reports, no distribution of state funds is made to that LEA for the current or the preceding school year. This bill revises and adds to the reporting requirements, most significantly by including local legislative bodies in the process and specifying that the per-pupil funding al located to a charter school will not be reduced because the LEA for the geographic area where the charter school is located does not submit financial reports to the commissioner as required by law; (4) This bill authorizes the public charter school commission to require an LEA to contract with the commission to provide school support or student support services for any public charter school authorized by the commission that is located in the geogr aphic boundaries of the LEA for special education services and educational placements, alternative schools, or student assessment for special education eligibility that are compliant with all laws and regulations governing such services; (5) Under present law, the fifth level of priority for a public charter school enrollment lottery is students residing within the geographic boundaries of the LEA in which the public charter school is located who were enrolled in another public school d uring the previous school year. If the public charter school is authorized in a county LEA, then this preference includes students who reside in the county and who were enrolled in the previous school year in another LEA located in the same county. This b ill removes the provision applicable to students enrolled in another LEA in the same county; (6) This bill adds that, if a public charter school has met or exceeded standards on at least 75% of the indicators in each section of the school performance framework in each of the three immediately preceding school years; has attained a school compos ite level of "above expectations"" or ""significantly above expectations"" as represented by the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System in each of the three immediately preceding schools years; and has had no significant audit findings during the term of th e current charter agreement, then the public charter school is deemed as a high-performing public charter school and must automatically be renewed by the school's authorizer; (7) This bill requires charter school authorizes to develop renewal policies; and (8) This bill increases from one to three the number of years that a public charter school must be in operation before a governing body may apply for replication of the charter school. The full text of this bill specifies various technical changes to t he replication application process. ON APRIL 21, 2026, THE HOUSE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 2177, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 replaces this bill's requirement that, if an LEA fails to submit the financial report of receipts and expenditures for the immediately preceding school year by December 1 of the following fiscal year, then the per-pupil funding allocated to charter schools located in the LEAs geographic boundaries shall not decrease. This amendment instead provides that any submission of, or revision to, such financial report made after December 1 must not decrease the per-pupil funding allocated to public ch arter schools located in the LEA's geographic boundaries. This amendment specifies that a charter school governing body that has at least one public charter school authorized by a local board of education or the commission that has been in operation for at least three full school years may submit a replication application to a local board of education and a governing body that has at least one public charter school authorized by the commission that has been in operation for at least three full school years may apply for replication in the LEA in which the gover ni ng body is currently operating as a commission-authorized public charter school directly to the commission. This amendment also corrects a cross reference. ON APRIL 22, 2026, THE SENATE SUBSTITUTED HOUSE BILL 2177 FOR SENATE BILL 2351, ADOPTED AMENDMENT #2, AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 2177, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #2 requires the Tennessee public charter schools commission to receive an annual authorizer fee of the lesser of 3% of the public charter school's per pupil state and local funding or $463, 000, if the commission authorizes a public charter school. Present law requires the commission to receive 3% of the public charter school's per pupil state and local funding, without regard to a maximum limit."