ON APRIL 18, 2023, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #2 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 300, AS AMENDED.
AMENDMENT #2 rewrites this bill to revise various provisions of present law pertaining to the promotion of students from third grade, as described below.
PROMOTION TO NEXT GRADE LEVEL
Under present law, beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, a student in the third grade must not be promoted to the next grade level unless the student is determined to be proficient in English language arts (ELA) based on the student's achieving a performance level rating of “on track” or “mastered” on the ELA portion of the student's most recent Tennessee comprehensive assessment program (TCAP) test. However:
(1) A student who is not proficient in ELA, as determined by the student's achieving a performance level rating of “approaching” on the ELA portion of the student's most recent TCAP test may be promoted if:
(A) The student is an English language learner and has received less than two years of ELA instruction;
(B) The student was previously retained in any of the grades K-3;
(C) The student is retested before the beginning the next school year and scores proficient in ELA;
(D) The student attends a learning loss bridge camp before the beginning of the upcoming school year, maintains a 90 percent attendance rate at the camp, and the student's performance on the post-test administered to the student at the end of the learning loss bridge camp demonstrates adequate growth, as determined by the department; or
(E) The student is assigned a tutor through the Tennessee accelerating literacy and learning corps (TALLC) to provide the student with tutoring services for the entirety of the upcoming school year based on tutoring requirements established by the department; and
(2) A student who is not proficient in ELA, as determined by the student's achieving a performance level rating of “below” on the ELA portion of the student's most recent TCAP test may be promoted if:
(A) The student is an English language learner and has received less than two years of ELA instruction;
(B) The student was previously retained in any of the grades K-3;
(C) The student retested before the beginning the next school year and scores proficient in ELA; or
(D) The student attends a learning loss bridge camp before the beginning of the upcoming school year and maintains a 90 percent attendance rate at the camp, and is assigned a tutor through the TALLC to provide the student with tutoring services for the entirety of the upcoming school year based on tutoring requirements established by the department.
This amendment adds another option under (1), providing that, beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, a student may be promoted if the student demonstrates proficiency in ELA standards based on the student's scoring within the 50th percentile on the most recently administered state-provided benchmark assessment, if the benchmark assessment is administered to the student in a test environment, as determined by the department, and the student's LEA or public charter school agrees to provide tutoring services to the student for the entirety of the student's fourth-grade year based on tutoring requirements established by the department. If a student is promoted to the fourth grade pursuant to this, then the student's LEA or public charter school must notify the student's parent or guardian, in writing, of the benefits of enrolling their student in a learning loss bridge camp and encouraging the parent or guardian to do so.
RULES BY STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION
Under present law, the state board of education must promulgate rules to establish an appeal process, to be administered by the department, for a student who is identified for retention in third grade based on the student's achieving a performance level rating of “approaching” on the ELA portion of the student's most recent TCAP test. The rules must provide that if an appeal is filed, the filing must be made by the student's parent or guardian.
This amendment revises this present law provision to require that the rules provide, for the 2023-2024 school year and every school year thereafter:
(1) That if an appeal is filed, the filing must be made by the student's parent or guardian unless the student's parent or guardian consents, in writing, to a principal, guidance counselor, teacher, or other administrator of the student's school filing the appeal, in which case the appeal may be filed by such individual; and
(2) The process by which a principal, guidance counselor, teacher, or other administrator of the student's school must obtain the written consent of a student's parent or guardian for purposes of filing an appeal on behalf of the student's parent or guardian.
REPORT BY DEPARTMENT
This amendment requires that the department must report, to the education committees of the senate and house of representatives, for each LEA:
(1) The number of students identified for mandatory retention who were promoted to the fourth grade pursuant to the new option for promotion under (1);
(2) The provider, format, and frequency of tutoring services provided to students in the fourth grade who were promoted pursuant the new option for promotion under (1);
(3) The percentage of students promoted pursuant to the new option under (1) that demonstrated growth or proficiency in ELA after receiving tutoring services in the fourth grade;
(4) The number of students promoted pursuant to the new option under (1) that enrolled in a learning loss bridge camp; and
(5) The percentage of students promoted pursuant to the new option under (1) and who enrolled in a learning loss bridge camp, that demonstrated growth or proficiency in ELA at the conclusion of the camp.
The information in (1) must be reported no later than December 1, 2024, and each December 1 thereafter. The other information must be provided no later than December 1, 2025, and then each December 1 thereafter.
TUTORING SERVICES
This amendment requires that, beginning with the 2023-2024 school year, a student who is retained in any of the grades K-3 must be assigned a tutor to provide the student with tutoring services for the entirety of the upcoming school year based on tutoring requirements established by the department. The department may procure up to three online tutoring providers for LEAs and public charter schools to use to provide online tutoring services to students. The chief procurement officer is authorized to approve an emergency purchase of online tutoring providers using procurement methods authorized by law and the rules of the department of general services' central procurement office.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 49-6-3115(d), 49-6-3115
Amended with SA0456 -- 04/18/2023: 49-6-3115(d), 49-6-3115, 49-6-3115(a)(2)(A)