HB1889 • 2026

School Vouchers

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4, Chapter 29; Title 8, Chapter 44; Title 10, Chapter 7 and Title 49, Chapter 6, relative to education freedom scholarships.

Education

Did Not Pass

The latest official action shows that this bill did not move forward in that session.

Sponsor: Hemmer, Akbari
Last action: 2026-03-17
Official status: Failed in s/c K-12 Subcommittee of Education Committee
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

The candidate explanation included claims about limiting scholarship eligibility and requiring specific standardized testing that were not supported by the official source material.

Education Freedom Scholarship Program Audit and Reporting Requirements

This bill establishes audit requirements for the education freedom scholarship program and reporting obligations for private schools accepting scholarship students.

What This Bill Does

Requires the comptroller of the treasury to conduct audits on the education freedom scholarship program and make them available to the general assembly.
Private schools that accept scholarship recipients must be audited by the comptroller, pay for these audits, and cooperate with them.
Private schools must provide regular reports on student progress, tuition rates, admissions criteria, admittance rates, and test outcomes.
The department of education must prepare annual reports about the program's performance and submit them to lawmakers.

Who It Names or Affects

Private schools that accept scholarship students
The department of education

Terms To Know

Education Freedom Scholarship Program: A program providing financial aid to help pay for private school tuition.
Comptroller of the Treasury: An official who manages government finances and conducts audits.

Limits and Unknowns

The bill did not pass in its current session.
Some details about how private schools must report information are technical and might be hard to understand without more context.
The program will end on July 1, 2030, according to the bill.

Bill History

2026-03-18 Tennessee General Assembly
Assigned to General Subcommittee of Senate Education Committee
2026-03-17 Tennessee General Assembly
Failed in s/c K-12 Subcommittee of Education Committee
2026-03-12 Tennessee General Assembly
Placed on Senate Education Committee calendar for 3/18/2026
2026-03-11 Tennessee General Assembly
Placed on s/c cal K-12 Subcommittee for 3/17/2026
2026-03-11 Tennessee General Assembly
Action deferred in Senate Education Committee to 3/18/2026
2026-03-10 Tennessee General Assembly
Action Def. in s/c K-12 Subcommittee to 3/17/2026
2026-03-05 Tennessee General Assembly
Placed on Senate Education Committee calendar for 3/11/2026
2026-03-04 Tennessee General Assembly
Placed on s/c cal K-12 Subcommittee for 3/10/2026
2026-02-05 Tennessee General Assembly
Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate Education Committee
2026-02-04 Tennessee General Assembly
Assigned to s/c K-12 Subcommittee
2026-02-04 Tennessee General Assembly
P2C, ref. to Education Committee
2026-02-02 Tennessee General Assembly
Intro., P1C.
2026-02-02 Tennessee General Assembly
Introduced, Passed on First Consideration
2026-01-22 Tennessee General Assembly
Filed for introduction
2026-01-22 Tennessee General Assembly
Filed for introduction

Official Summary Text

This bill makes the education freedom scholarship program

subject to audit by the comptroller of the treasury.
This bill authorizes the audit to utilize sampling and to include an analysis of the program monitoring and fraud prevention processes for the program.
The audit must be made available to the members of the general assembly.

This bill requires
private school
s
that enroll
freedom scholarship
recipients
to:

(1) Be
subject to audit by the comptroller of the treasury
, pay the costs of such audits, and cooperate in the performance of the audits;

(2)
Voluntarily comply with the open meetings laws
a
nd open records laws;

(
3
) Provide a written report to the parent or legal guardian of a recipient of the recipient's educational progress at least twice each school year;

(
4
) Not increase tuition for a recipient by more than 10%
year-over-year
;

(
5
) Annually disclose the admissions criteria, tuition rates, and demographics of the school on the school's website;

(
6
) Annually disclose the admittance rate for the school for the respective school year;

(
7
) Publish the outcomes of the
mandatory assessments
administered to recipients on the school's website
; and

(8) Contract with a CPA to audit the private school. The full text of this bill specifies components that must be included in the audits.

This bill requires the
department
to do the following:

(1) R
equire an eligible student to disclose the name of the school in which the eligible student was enrolled in the immediately preceding school year on the scholarship application in order to receive a scholarship
; and

(2) P
repare an annual report for the
scholarship
program
. The full text of this bill specifies various components that must be included in the report.

This bill requires the co
mptroller of the treasury
to
evaluate the
scholarship
program and submit a report to the general assembly by December 31, 2029
.

All of the above-described provisions will be
repealed on July 1, 2030.

Present law establishes a five-tiered schedule or priority for awarding education freedom scholarships. The last two tiers are:

(1)
An eligible student who, at the time of
submitting a completed application, is currently enrolled in a public school, or who is eligible to enroll in kindergarten in a public school for the respective school year, in the order in which the department receives completed scholarship applications;
and

(
2
) An eligible student, in the order in which the department receives completed scholarship applications.

This bill replaces the last two tiers with a single fourth tier consisting of
member
s
of household
s
with an annual household income for the previous year that does not exceed 300% of the amount required for the student to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch
under federal guidelines
.

Present law requires that scholarship recipients in grades 3-11 must be annually administered a
nationally standardized achievement test that is aligned to the respective private school's instructional plan
or the TCAP test for math and English. This bill requires that the all recipients be administered the TCAP tests administered to public school students of the same grade, which must be administered uniformly to all students not requiring an accommodatio
n.

This bill deletes a provision of present law that specifies t
he creation of the education freedom scholarship program does not expand the regulatory authority of this state, the officers of this state, or the authority of any LEA to impose any additional rules, regulations, or requirements on private schools that e
nroll recipients beyond the rules narrowly tailored to enforce the requirements of the program.

This bill requires that scholarship recipients be assigned a personal identification number in the same manner as public school students.

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

SENATE BILL 1978
By Akbari

HOUSE BILL 1889
By Hemmer
HB1889
011277
- 1 -

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4,
Chapter 29; Title 8, Chapter 44; Title 10, Chapter
7 and Title 49, Chapter 6, relative to education
freedom scholarships.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 6, Part 35, is amended by
adding the following as new sections:
49-6-3513.
(a)
(1) In compliance with all state and federal student privacy laws, the
program is subject to audit by the comptroller of the treasury or the comptroller's
designee. The audit may include a sample of scholarships to evaluate the
eligibility of the participating students, the funds deposited in the scholarship
accounts, and whether scholarship funds are being used for authorized
expenditures. The audit may also include an analysis of the department's
program monitoring process and the sufficiency of the department's fraud
protection measures. The department shall cooperate fully with the comptroller
of the treasury or the comptroller's designee in the performance of the audit. The
audit must be made available to the members of the general assembly.
(2) A private school that enrolls recipients is subject to audit by the
comptroller of the treasury or the comptroller's designee. A private school shall
pay for the cost of the audit and cooperate fully with the comptroller of the
treasury or the comptroller's designee in the performance of an audit conducted

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pursuant to this subdivision (a)(2). The audit must be made available to the
members of the general assembly and to the public on the comptroller's website.
(b) A private school that enrolls recipients shall:
(1) Voluntarily comply with the open meetings laws, compiled in title 8,
chapter 44, part 1, and open records laws, compiled in title 10, chapter 7;
(2) Provide a written report to the parent or legal guardian of a recipient
of the recipient's educational progress at least twice each school year;
(3) Not increase tuition for a recipient by more than ten percent (10%) as
compared to the tuition charged to the recipient by the private school in the
immediately preceding school year;
(4) Annually disclose the admissions criteria, tuition rates, and
demographics of the school on the school's website;
(5) Annually disclose the admittance rate for the school for the respective
school year; and
(6) Publish the outcomes of the tests administered to recipients pursuant
to § 49-6-3507 on the school's website.
(c) The department shall require an eligible student to disclose the name of the
school in which the eligible student was enrolled in the immediately preceding school
year on the scholarship application in order to receive a scholarship.
49-6-3514.
(a)
(1) The department shall prepare an annual report for the program that:
(A) Identifies each private school that enrolls recipients in the
current school year;

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(B) Includes the number of recipients enrolled at each private
school in the current school year;
(C) Includes the outcomes of the tests administered to recipients
pursuant to § 49-6-3507;
(D) Identifies the county of residences for each parent or guardian
who applied for a scholarship and whose student received a scholarship
in the current school year;
(E) Identifies the amount of scholarship funds each recipient
spent in the immediately preceding school year and identify the types of
allowable expenditures for which those funds were used by a recipient;
(F) Reports the number of known violations of this part; and
(G) Includes the annual reports submitted by each private school
pursuant to subsection (b) for the immediately preceding school year.
(2) The department shall submit the report to the general assembly and
publish the report on the department's website by October 1 of each year.
(b) Each private school that enrolls recipients shall:
(1) Contract with a certified public accountant for the certified public
accountant to prepare an audit of the private school for each school year for
which the school enrolls recipients. The audit must examine and report:
(A) The total amount of scholarship funds received by the school
from enrolled recipients;
(B) All expenditures made by the school that exceed twenty-five
thousand dollars ($25,000); and
(C) The name, title, and salary of each of the five (5) highest-paid
employees of the school; and

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(2) Submit the audit prepared pursuant to subdivision (b)(1) to the
department by August 1 of each year.
49-6-3515.
The comptroller of the treasury shall evaluate the program and submit a report to
the general assembly by December 31, 2029, that includes the following information for
the program based on data from the entirety of the program's existence for:
(1) The educational outcomes of recipients;
(2) The cost of administering the program; and
(3) The effect of the program on LEAs, if any.
49-6-3516.
This part is repealed on July 1, 2030.
SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-6-3504, is amended by deleting
subdivisions (c)(4) and (c)(5) and adding the following as a new subdivision (d)(4):
(4) Be a member of a household with an annual household income for the
previous year that does not exceed three hundred percent (300%) of the amount
required for the student to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, as provided in the
income eligibility guidelines published by the United States department of agriculture's
food and nutrition service.
SECTION 3. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-6-3507(a)(1), is amended by
deleting the subdivision and substituting:
(1) As a condition of receiving a scholarship pursuant to this part, a recipient
must be annually administered the same Tennessee comprehensive assessment
program (TCAP) tests, or successor tests authorized by the state board of education,
administered to a public school student who is enrolled in the same grade or in the same
course subject as the recipient.

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SECTION 4. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-6-3507(a)(2), is amended by
adding the following at the end of the subdivision:
A test administered to comply with subdivision (a)(1) must be uniformly
administered to all recipients in the same grade level at the private school unless
the recipient has an accommodation under the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.), or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
(29 U.S.C. § 794).
SECTION 5. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-6-3508, is amended by deleting
subsection (b).
SECTION 6. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-6-5101(a), is amended by adding
"and recipients, as defined in § 49-6-3502," after "all students" and adding "or the education
freedom scholarship program" after "Tennessee public school".
SECTION 7. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 49-6-5101(c), is amended by adding
"and private school that enrolls recipients as defined in § 49-6-3502" after "each LEA" wherever
it appears in the subsection.
SECTION 8. This act takes effect July 1, 2026, the public welfare requiring it.