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HB0583 • 2026

Evidence

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 24, Chapter 7, relative to child forensic interviews.

Children Labor
Enacted

This bill passed the Legislature and reached final enactment based on the latest official action.

Sponsor
Doggett, Haile
Last action
2025-05-02
Official status
Comp. became Pub. Ch. 162
Effective date
Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Checked against official source text during the last sync.

Allowing Video Evidence for Child Interviews

This bill changes Tennessee laws to allow video recordings of child interviews about sexual or violent abuse to be used in court if the interviewer confirms their accuracy and the child is available for cross-examination.

What This Bill Does

  • Allows a video recording of an interview with a child who has been sexually or physically abused to be shown as evidence in court.
  • Requires that the forensic interviewer must confirm under oath that the video is accurate and true.
  • Needs the child to be available for questioning by both sides during the trial.

Who It Names or Affects

  • Children who have experienced sexual or physical abuse
  • Forensic interviewers working with children in such cases

Terms To Know

forensic interviewer
A professional trained to talk to child victims of crimes and record their statements.
cross examination
When a lawyer asks questions to someone who gave evidence, usually from the other side in a trial.

Limits and Unknowns

  • The bill does not specify what happens if the child is unavailable for cross-examination.
  • It only applies to cases involving sexual or physical abuse of children.

Amendments

These notes stay tied to the official amendment files and metadata from the legislature.

Amendment 1-0 to HB0583

Plain English: The amendment changes requirements for child forensic interviews to allow certain types of centers and federal agency employees to conduct these interviews without making them inadmissible.

  • Changes the criteria for who can conduct a child forensic interview, allowing interviews conducted by employees of accredited non-profit or supervised executive director-led child advocacy centers to be admissible in court.
  • Adds that an interview is not automatically inadmissible if there's no memorandum of understanding among all local law enforcement agencies, as long as other key stakeholders have signed such agreements.
  • The amendment text does not specify the exact consequences or requirements for situations where criteria are not met.
  • Some technical legal language may be hard to understand without additional context.
Amendment 1-0 to SB0304

Plain English: The amendment changes requirements for child forensic interviews to allow more types of centers and interviewers to conduct these interviews.

  • Changes the criteria for who can testify about the accuracy of video recordings from a child forensic interview, allowing them to be under oath and subject to cross-examination.
  • Updates the qualifications for interviewers at child advocacy centers, making it clear that certain conditions do not automatically make an interview inadmissible.
  • The amendment text does not specify all details about how these changes will affect current practices or enforcement.

Bill History

  1. 2025-05-02 Tennessee General Assembly

    Comp. became Pub. Ch. 162

  2. 2025-05-02 Tennessee General Assembly

    Effective date(s) 04/11/2025

  3. 2025-05-02 Tennessee General Assembly

    Pub. Ch. 162

  4. 2025-04-11 Tennessee General Assembly

    Signed by Governor.

  5. 2025-04-03 Tennessee General Assembly

    Transmitted to Governor for action.

  6. 2025-04-02 Tennessee General Assembly

    Signed by H. Speaker

  7. 2025-04-02 Tennessee General Assembly

    Signed by Senate Speaker

  8. 2025-04-01 Tennessee General Assembly

    Enrolled and ready for signatures

  9. 2025-03-31 Tennessee General Assembly

    Comp. SB subst.

  10. 2025-03-31 Tennessee General Assembly

    Sponsor(s) Added.

  11. 2025-03-31 Tennessee General Assembly

    Passed H., Ayes 94, Nays 0, PNV 0

  12. 2025-03-31 Tennessee General Assembly

    Am. withdrawn. (Amendment 1 - HA0196)

  13. 2025-03-31 Tennessee General Assembly

    Subst. for comp. HB.

  14. 2025-03-27 Tennessee General Assembly

    H. Placed on Regular Calendar for 3/31/2025

  15. 2025-03-26 Tennessee General Assembly

    Placed on cal. Calendar & Rules Committee for 3/27/2025

  16. 2025-03-26 Tennessee General Assembly

    Rec. for pass. if am., ref. to Calendar & Rules Committee

  17. 2025-03-19 Tennessee General Assembly

    Placed on cal. Judiciary Committee for 3/26/2025

  18. 2025-03-19 Tennessee General Assembly

    Action def. in Judiciary Committee to 3/26/2025

  19. 2025-03-12 Tennessee General Assembly

    Placed on cal. Judiciary Committee for 3/19/2025

  20. 2025-03-12 Tennessee General Assembly

    Action def. in Judiciary Committee to 3/19/2025

  21. 2025-03-06 Tennessee General Assembly

    Rcvd. from S., held on H. desk.

  22. 2025-03-05 Tennessee General Assembly

    Placed on cal. Judiciary Committee for 3/12/2025

  23. 2025-03-05 Tennessee General Assembly

    Rec for pass if am by s/c ref. to Judiciary Committee

  24. 2025-03-03 Tennessee General Assembly

    Sponsor(s) Added.

  25. 2025-03-03 Tennessee General Assembly

    Engrossed; ready for transmission to House

  26. 2025-03-03 Tennessee General Assembly

    Passed Senate as amended, Ayes 32, Nays 0

  27. 2025-03-03 Tennessee General Assembly

    Senate adopted Amendment (Amendment 1 - SA0015)

  28. 2025-02-27 Tennessee General Assembly

    Placed on Senate Regular Calendar for 3/3/2025

  29. 2025-02-26 Tennessee General Assembly

    Placed on s/c cal Criminal Justice Subcommittee for 3/5/2025

  30. 2025-02-26 Tennessee General Assembly

    Action Def. in s/c Criminal Justice Subcommittee to 3/5/25

  31. 2025-02-26 Tennessee General Assembly

    Sponsor(s) Added.

  32. 2025-02-25 Tennessee General Assembly

    Recommended for passage with amendment/s, refer to Senate Calendar Committee Ayes 9, Nays 0, PNV 0

  33. 2025-02-19 Tennessee General Assembly

    Placed on s/c cal Criminal Justice Subcommittee for 2/26/2025

  34. 2025-02-19 Tennessee General Assembly

    Meeting Canceled

  35. 2025-02-19 Tennessee General Assembly

    Placed on Senate Judiciary Committee calendar for 2/25/2025

  36. 2025-02-12 Tennessee General Assembly

    Placed on s/c cal Criminal Justice Subcommittee for 2/19/2025

  37. 2025-02-12 Tennessee General Assembly

    Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate Judiciary Committee

  38. 2025-02-10 Tennessee General Assembly

    Introduced, Passed on First Consideration

  39. 2025-02-05 Tennessee General Assembly

    Assigned to s/c Criminal Justice Subcommittee

  40. 2025-02-05 Tennessee General Assembly

    P2C, ref. to Judiciary Committee

  41. 2025-02-03 Tennessee General Assembly

    Intro., P1C.

  42. 2025-01-29 Tennessee General Assembly

    Filed for introduction

  43. 2025-01-27 Tennessee General Assembly

    Filed for introduction

Official Summary Text

Abstract summarizes the bill.

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text 
SENATE BILL 304
By Haile

HOUSE BILL 583
By Doggett

HB0583
002234
- 1 -

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 24,
Chapter 7, relative to child forensic interviews.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 24-7-123(b)(1), is amended by
deleting the subdivision and substituting:
(1) The child or the forensic interviewer who conducted the interview testifies,
under oath, that the offered video recording is a true and correct recording of the events
contained in the video recording and the child is available for cross examination;
SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 24-7-123(b)(3)(A), is amended by
deleting the subdivision and substituting:
(i) Was employed by a child advocacy center that meets the requirements of § 9-
4-213(a) or (b); provided, however, that an interview shall not be inadmissible solely
because the interviewer is employed by a child advocacy center that:
(a) Is not a nonprofit corporation, if the child advocacy center is
accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency; or
(b) Employs an executive director who does not meet the criteria of § 9-
4-213(a)(2), if the executive director is supervised by a publicly elected official; or
(ii) Was employed by a federal agency and conducted the forensic interview in
the course of an investigation of a federal crime;
SECTION 3. This act takes effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.