Latest Updates
April 14 | H.B. 1729 Passes the Tennessee Legislature
H.B. 1729 has passed the Tennessee Senate in a 24-8 vote!
The bill now heads to Governor Bill Lee’s desk for his signature into law. We encourage you to send a short note to Governor Lee, mentioning in your own words that you are a homeschool family, and asking him to sign H.B. 1729 into law when it is presented to him.
You can reach Governor Lee on this online form.
Mar. 30 | H.B. 1729 passed by House
This excellent bill was passed by the House on a 67-20 vote!
Mar. 17 | H.B. 1729 passed out of the House Education Committee
HSLDA Senior Counsel Will Estrada testified in support of H.B. 1729 as amended on March 17. The bill passed out of the House Education Committee by a 10-8 vote and is now on the House floor.
Mar. 4 | H.B. 1729 amended in the House K-12 Subcommittee
Will Estrada testified in support of H.B. 1729 as amended in the House K-12 Education Subcommittee on Tuesday morning joined by Claiborne Thornton, president of THEA. The amended version passed and is in the House Education Committee.
You can watch a video of the subcommittee hearing on H.B. 1729, including excellent pro-homeschool freedom remarks by the sponsor, Representative William Slater and Will's testimony, starting at the 1:30:00 mark. You can also watch a brief video update from Will and Claiborne before the hearing.
Mar. 3 | Bills introduced
S.B. 2636 was introduced on February 2 by Senator Kerry Roberts and referred to the Senate Education Committee. H.B. was introduced on January 20 by Representative William Slater and referred to the House Education Committee.
Summary of S.B. 2636 / H.B. 1729
If enacted, these bills will expand freedom for independent homeschooling families, also called Option 1 families.
They will not affect families using a church-related school or Category III distance learning schools. The bills will remove antiquated provisions in the Tennessee homeschool law dealing with penalties for homeschool families, and will also expand testing options, for example, allowing families to choose the Classic Learning Test.