Category: Monitoring and Accountability
Subcategory: Data Collection, Review, and Reporting of Discipline Policies and Actions
State: Tennessee
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49-1-211. Annual report by commissioner.
(a) The commissioner of education shall publish an annual report as of each November 1, which shall include, but not be limited to:
(7)(A) Overall student suspension and expulsion rates organized by schools and local school systems; and
(B) Student suspension and expulsion rates also organized by schools and local school systems, but subdivided by gender and race.
49-6-2701. Threat assessment team.
(d) The threat assessment team shall document all behaviors and incidents deemed to pose a risk to school safety or that result in intervention and shall provide the information to the LEA. All information shall be documented in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)(20 U.S.C. 1232g), § 10-7-504, and all other relevant state and federal privacy laws. The LEA must consider the information when reviewing and developing a building-level school safety plan.
(e) The threat assessment team shall report threat assessment team activities to the local board of education, the director of schools, the department of safety, the Tennessee school safety center, and the members of the state-level safety team established pursuant to §49-6-802(a) on a regular basis. The report must include quantitative data on threat assessment team activities, including post-incident assessments, and must provide information on the effectiveness of the team's response to incidents deemed to pose a risk to school safety. The report must comply with the FERPA, § 10-7-504, and all other relevant state and federal privacy laws.
[...] The director of schools, or the director's designee, must review the LEA's or school's discipline policies, practices, and data annually and recommend any necessary revisions to discipline policies to the local board of education or the public charter school governing body, as applicable, for adoption.
(h) To assist local boards of education and public charter school governing bodies in determining the effectiveness of student discipline policies and classroom supports provided to teachers to help address student behavior, each school shall annually report to the director of schools or to the head of the public charter school, as applicable, by July 1, 2022, and by each July 1 thereafter, the number of requests submitted by the school's teachers during the immediately preceding school year to remove a student from the teacher's classroom pursuant to subsection (a). The report must document the actions taken by the teacher's principal, or the principal's designee, in response to each request for a student's removal. Each director of schools must compile the data provided in each school's report and issue a district-wide report to the local board of education by August 1 immediately following the July 1 deadline for school reports.
(i) The commissioner of education may review the school and district-wide reports required under
subsection (h) and provide training and other resources to schools and LEAs to address any needs identified through the commissioner's review.
(j) On or before February 1, 2023, and on or before February 1 of each year thereafter, the commissioner shall report to the governor and the general assembly on the implementation of, and compliance with, this part.
49-6-3024. Review of laws and policies related to exclusionary discipline of students in pre-kindergarten through kindergarten.
(a) The department of education, in consultation with juvenile court officials, shall review all current laws and policies related to exclusionary discipline practices in public schools for students in pre-kindergarten through kindergarten (pre-K-K). For purposes of this section, "exclusionary discipline" means any type of school disciplinary action that removes or excludes a student from the student's traditional educational setting.
(b) The review shall:
(1) Examine the number of exclusionary discipline actions issued by an LEA and the length of each respective disciplinary action;
(2) Detail the type of offenses committed by the students that led to the exclusionary discipline action;
(3) Review the impact exclusionary discipline has on students.
49-6-3401. Suspension of students–Expulsion of students–Exception for self-defense.
(h) The commissioner of education shall report on an annual basis to the education committee of the senate and the education administration committee of the house of representatives regarding disciplinary actions in Tennessee schools. The reports must include the reason for the disciplinary action, the number of students suspended or expelled, the number of students who committed zero tolerance offenses pursuant to subsection (g), the number of students who have been placed in an alternative educational setting, and the number of students suspended, expelled, or otherwise dismissed from an alternative school. Data must be sorted by school as well as by various demographic factors, including grade, race, and sex.
49-6-3405. Alternative school success.
(a)(1) Each LEA shall track the operation and performance of alternative school programs operated by the LEA or contractually operated for the LEA. LEAs shall measure and report to the department of education alternative school success through academic indicators and behavior indicators.
(2) Academic indicators shall include, but not be limited to, grade point averages or other student academic performance measures, performance on the Tennessee comprehensive assessment program (TCAP), performance on the end-of-course assessments, attendance, dropout rates and graduation rates, for students in alternative schools or who have been in alternative schools.
(3) Behavioral indicators shall include, but not be limited to, disciplinary reports and subsequent remands to alternative schools.
(4) The department of education shall provide guidance in the reporting of the required data.
(b) The state board of education shall seek to improve performance of alternative school programs by promulgating or revising rules and regulations requiring greater accountability by the department of education and LEAs for outcomes of students served by alternative schools.
49-6-4108. Report detailing use of corporal punishment required.
(a) Beginning with the 2018-2019 school year, each LEA shall submit, at least annually, a report to the department of education detailing the LEA's use of corporal punishment. The report shall include, at a minimum:
(1) The school at which each instance of corporal punishment occurred;
(2) Information regarding the reason for each instance of corporal punishment;
(3) Whether an instance of corporal punishment involved a student with an active individualized education program, and if so, the primary disability category for which the student has an individualized education program; and
(4) Whether an instance of corporal punishment involved a student with an active 504 plan under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. § 794), and if so, the reason for which the student has a 504 plan.
(b) The report submitted pursuant to this section shall exclude any personally identifiable information and shall be created in accordance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)(20 U.S.C. § 1232g), § 10-7-504, and any other relevant state or federal privacy law.
(c) The department shall report on its website the number of instances of corporal punishment in each LEA and the number of instances involving a student with an active individualized education program or an active 504 plan under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
49-6-4301. School officials to report student offenses.
(e) Annually on or before February 1 of each year, the commissioner shall report to the governor and the general assembly concerning the prevalence of violent and disruptive incidents in the public schools and the effectiveness of school programs undertaken to reduce violence and assure the safety and security of students and school personnel. The report shall summarize the information available from the incident reporting system and identify specifically the schools and school districts with the least and greatest incidence of violent incidents and the least and most improvement since the previous year or years.
49-6-4302. Tennessee school safety center.
(b) The Tennessee school safety center is responsible for the collection and analysis of data related to school safety, including alleged violent or assaultive acts against school employees and students. The center shall make periodic reports to the education committee of the senate and the education committee of the house of representatives on the status of school safety efforts.
49-6-4503. Adoption of policy prohibiting harassment, intimidation, bullying or cyber-bullying by the school district.
(c)(2) Each LEA shall also:
(B) Beginning August 1, 2016, and annually thereafter, complete and submit a report to the department of education. The report shall be in a format provided by the department and shall include:
(i) The number of harassment, intimidation, bullying, or cyber-bullying cases brought to the attention of school officials during the preceding year;
(ii) The number of harassment, intimidation, bullying, or cyber-bullying cases where the investigation supported a finding that bullying had taken place;
(iii) The number of harassment, intimidation, bullying, or cyber-bullying case investigations not initiated within forty-eight (48) hours of the receipt of the report and the reason the investigation was not initiated within forty-eight (48) hours;
(iv) The number of harassment, intimidation, bullying, or cyber-bullying cases where an appropriate intervention was not initiated within twenty (20) calendar days of receipt of the report and the reason the intervention took longer than twenty (20) calendar days to initiate; and
(v) The type of harassment, intimidation, bullying, or cyber-bullying identified and manner in which the harassment, intimidation, bullying, or cyber-bullying cases were resolved, including any disciplinary action against the student who was harassing, intimidating, bullying, or cyber-bullying.
(3) The department shall annually submit a report to the education committee of the house of representatives and the education committee of the senate updating membership on the number of harassment, intimidation, bullying, or cyber-bullying cases reported statewide, the number of LEAs implementing this part, the status of any investigations, including disciplinary actions against students, and any other information relating to the subjects of harassment, intimidation, bullying, or cyber-bullying as will be helpful to the committees in establishing policy in this area.
No relevant regulations found.