Major Victories for Homeschool Freedom in Tennessee this Year!

What a legislative year it was! With the recent adjournment of the Tennessee legislature, and Governor Bill Lee’s actions on legislation, it’s time for a recap.

HSLDA’s legal team stayed busy. We reviewed dozens of bills to make sure they did not affect homeschool freedom. We were in constant communication with Claiborne Thornton and our friends at THEA. I and other members of our team flew down to Nashville to meet with legislators, testify on bills, and speak at THEA’s Capitol Day.

As a result, not one bill that could harm homeschool freedom passed the Tennessee legislature!

In addition to this important accomplishment, we compiled several major wins.

Major victory—passage of the Learning Pod Protection Act!

The most significant win was passage of the Learning Pod Protection Act. This powerful legislation, modeled on laws in states such as Georgia and West Virginia, would not have been possible without the advocacy of Claiborne Thornton and THEA, and the leadership of Senator Jack Johnson.

The Learning Pod Protection Act overwhelmingly passed both the House and Senate and was signed into law by Governor Bill Lee on May 2, 2025. It went into effect immediately and is now the law of the land in Tennessee. The act provides significant protection to learning pods, microschools, tutorial programs, co-ops, and other programs that serve homeschooling families. We encourage you to review the text of this new law here.

It is important to note that the Learning Pod Protection Act does not change the requirement that homeschooling families ensure that they are in compliance with Tennessee’s homeschool laws, either as an independent homeschool, through enrollment in a church-related school, or through enrollment in a Category III school that offers distance learning. If you are unsure about the legal requirements for homeschooling families in Tennessee (which were unchanged by any legislation this year), we encourage you to review our summary here.

If you operate a program for homeschool students, are a member of HSLDA, and have specific questions about how the Learning Pod Protection Act may apply to your program, please contact HSLDA to discuss this new law.

We also encourage you to review a helpful video summary about the Learning Pod Protection Act from Claiborne Thornton with THEA here.

Major victory—protection of homeschool freedom in childcare regulation bill

This year, Tennessee legislators decided to update the laws governing childcare programs. The bills that were introduced, S.B. 1288 and H.B. 106, were initially drafted in such a way that homeschool co-ops, tutorial programs, and even church-related schools would have been impacted.

We immediately worked with Claiborne Thornton and THEA and Angela McKee with HomeLife Academy to draft an amendment to these bills. I flew down to Nashville to join Claiborne for meetings with legislators, and we were gratified to see that legislators were genuinely unaware of how this bill would have impacted homeschool students, and were eager to work with us to protect homeschooling families and programs. We worked with Governor Lee’s staff, and legislators and their staffs, to draft an amendment to the bill. Our amendment was included in the final law that passed, fully exempting homeschools, church-related schools, and “any educational or tutorial program designed to support or enhance the education of home school students” from being impacted by the updated laws governing childcare programs.

This new language, combined with the Learning Pod Protection Act, provides even more protection to homeschool programs. And, as discussed previously, it was Senator Jack Johnson’s leadership—along with Governor Lee’s support—which played a major role in ensuring that this amendment was included in the final bill that passed into law.

You can review the final version of S.B. 1288 and H.B. 106 that was signed into law—along with our amendment—here.

Good bills that unfortunately did not pass

Despite our best efforts, and the leadership and dedication of our friends at Free Your Children and THEA, we were disappointed that the FREE Act, S.B. 494/H.B. 552, did not pass into law.

This bill, drafted by Tiffany Boyd with Free Your Children, introduced by Senator Janice Bowling and Representative Todd Warner, and supported by THEA and HSLDA, would have expanded parental rights and homeschool freedom by adding a fourth option for families to use for homeschooling that was completely FREE (hence the name!) from government regulation. I’m grateful to those of you who made phone calls, sent emails, or came to Nashville to testify in support of the FREE Act. We look forward to working with Free Your Children, THEA, and Tennessee’s homeschooling families to advance the FREE Act next year.

We were also disappointed that House Joint Resolution 92, a proposed constitutional amendment to protect parental rights and homeschool freedom, did not pass into law. We look forward to working with our allies in Tennessee to enshrine parental rights in the text of the Tennessee Constitution next year.

Conclusion

As this legislative year—and ongoing battles across the nation—vividly illustrated, defending homeschool freedom is not a spectator sport! We could not do what we do without your support, and especially without the leadership and hard work of Claiborne Thornton and THEA. We encourage you to stay connected and look for updates in the coming months about our work in Tennessee and the nation.