Senate Bill To Limit Parents’ Right To Withdraw Children From TN Public Schools Stalled For This Session
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The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
A Senate bill aimed at limiting parental rights to withdraw their children from public schools in Tennessee has been assigned to the General Subcommittee of the Senate Education Committee. Meanwhile, the House version of the bill (HB0455) remains a caption bill and has not moved forward.
Due to being “General Subbed”, the legislation will likely not be considered again during the current legislative session.
Senate Bill 0417 (SB0417) was sponsored by State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga-District 10) while the companion House bill was sponsored by Representative Mark White (R-Memphis-District 83).
The current law allows parents or guardians to withdraw their student from public school with no stipulations.
The new legislation, however, aimed to amend the law to stipulate that any student with five or more days of unexcused absences can only be withdrawn for the following reasons:
1 – The student’s place of residence changes;
2- The student is seeking to withdraw to transfer to another school in the LEA or another LEA pursuant to a local board of education’s open enrollment policy or out-of-district transfer policy; or
3 – The student enrolls in a non-public school.
Those who oppose the bill feel it is “another assault on parent’s rights” and they fear that, if passed, the bill may begin to include even more regulations to limit parents’ options for their child’s schooling in the future.
The companion bill, House Bill 0455 (HB0455), did not make it past the position of a caption bill, so no amendments were made to ‘make the bill’.
This legislation was an odd contrast to another piece of legislation, sponsored by Gardenhire and White, that is currently making its way through the Tennessee legislature.
That legislation would expand the Tennessee’s school voucher program to Hamilton County and possibly into Knox County. Senate Bill 0012 (SB0012), sponsored by Senator Gardenhire, passed the Senate on February 16th. House Bill 0433 (HB0433), sponsored by State Representative Mark White (R-Memphis-District 83), is set to be heard by the House Education Administration Committee on March 29th.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
U all would really be stupid to pass such a bill, especially since U know other dimwitts would attach ammendments that will restrict a guardians options
Personally I’d like to see more home schooling & expanded private academies
it’s section c-3 which provides for homeschooling. this proposal seems to suggest that if a parent isn’t on point with the paperwork they can’t make any changes to their child’s schooling. hard to know the intent really, but it should definitely be stopped.
It needs to be stalled forever.