SB 705

Present law requires the state board of education to direct the department of education to manage and control the Tennessee School for the Blind, Tennessee School for the Deaf, West Tennessee School for the Deaf, and Alvin C. York Agricultural Institute. These schools are ge n erally referred to as state special schools. In directing the state special schools, present law authorizes the department to determine the salary and terms of employment for employees of state special schools. This bill limits the department's discreti on when exercising such authority by requiring the department to provide the teachers of state special schools eligibility to accumulate and use leave in the same manner as public school teachers, and eligibility for six weeks of paid family leave for the birth or adoption of a child in the same manner as state employees. This bill requires that any percentage increase to the salary schedule of an LEA where a state special school is located also results in an equivalent percentage increase to the salary s chedule for that state special school. Finally, this bill specifies that, when the general assembly appropriates monies in the budget for salaries, raises, bonuses, or other incentives for public school teachers and other licensed personnel employed in a n LEA or public charter school in this state, the department of education must also obligate and expend appropriations in an equivalent amount for salaries, raises, bonuses, or other incentives for the teachers and other licensed personnel employed in the state special schools. ON APRIL 7, 2025, THE HOUSE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 676, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 makes the following revisions:  Defines, for purposes of present law relative to special schools, a "teacher"" as, unless the context requires otherwise, a person licensed by the state board of education and employed at a state special school. This amendment clarifies that ""teacher"" does not include (i) the chief administrative officer of a state special school and (ii) those who are considered state employees for leave purposes.  Revises the present law provision requiring the salary schedules of professional personnel, other than teachers, in the state special schools to be reasonably comparable to those currently in effect in the LEAs where the respective institution is located to, instead, apply such provision only to licensed personnel, instead of professional personnel."