House Bill 148 amends various sections of the Tennessee Code Annotated related to the Tennessee Promise scholarship program. Key changes include the establishment of a new "Tennessee Promise completion grant special account" to be administered by the commission, which will be used exclusively for awarding completion grants. The bill specifies that any unexpended balance in this account at the end of a fiscal year will carry forward into the next year, and interest accrued will also remain in the account. Additionally, the bill removes references to a "four-year pilot" program and restructures existing subsections for clarity.

The bill also outlines the funding mechanisms for the completion grants, stating that the commission cannot use state lottery proceeds for these grants but may utilize funds from the newly created account and the unexpended balance of the qualified work-based learning grant fund. It mandates that the commission maintain a minimum balance of $250,000 in available funds each fiscal year and limits the amount awarded in completion grants to this same amount annually. Furthermore, starting in the 2025-2026 fiscal year, the bill requires that each college coaching initiative student be assigned a coach and have access to completion grants of up to $1,000 per semester if they qualify for federal Pell grants.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 49-7-178