Image Credit: TN General Assembly
The Senate Education Committee voted unanimously to advance a truancy bill that the sponsor says was brought to him “by several juvenile court judges.” However, the House version of the bill is still up for debate next week.
Sponsored by Senator Adam Lowe (R-Calhoun-District 1), Senate Bill 1968 (SB1968) is opposed both by Tennessee Homeschool families and national homeschool advocacy group Home School Legal Defense Association.
SB1968 is the second attempt by Lowe to run legislation dealing with truancy after his previous, and very similar, bill received pushback from homeschool families.
The now withdrawn bill stated, “As introduced, requires director of schools to report a student who was formally truant and now enrolled in a home school to juvenile court; establishes that unexcused absences accumulated by a transfer student at their former school or LEA during the school year in which they transfer follow the student to the receiving school or LEA to determine habitual truancy, to implement a progressive truancy plan, and to identify cases of educational neglect.”
While SB1968 does not include “home school” in the bill’s language, the proposed legislation remains virtually unchanged.
Public school students who are found truant move through several tiers. While Lowe states that his bill is aimed at parents with drug abuse problems who just don’t bother to send their kids to school, many Tennessee parents find themselves having to deal with truancy interventions after their children have missed school due to sickness despite having notes from a medical provider.
According to Lowe, his now amended bill “simply says that if a public school student that reaches Tier 3 or beyond, which starts to move into educational neglect, disenrolls from the public school, should they reenroll in that public school, that record continues.”
“The amended language of the bill makes it very very clear that this has nothing to do with homeschooling,” stated Lowe to committee members while acknowledging that homeschool families have been writing to lawmakers to make their concerns known. “This doesn’t prevent students from being removed from an LEA to homeschool. It doesn’t require anything additional of homeschool.”
Lowe has insisted that families in the middle of truancy proceedings can choose to homeschool, but some parents choosing this option have been bullied by rogue judges into returning their children to the very schools that are failing them.
When this was brought to Lowe’s attention, he stated that such judges could be voted out but this is easier said than done as most incumbent judges tend to retain their positions.
The Home Legal Defense Association has issued this urgent call to action:
“We need your help to defeat House Bill 1823 and Senate Bill 1968, two companion bills ostensibly introduced to address the issue of chronic truancy in Tennessee public schools.
However, as written, the bills will:
• change how Tennessee authorities handle truancy,
• insert juvenile courts into truancy proceedings far earlier than under current law,
• allow juvenile court judges to apply “best interests of the child” before any formal court determination has been made,
• and affect families with children who were struggling in public schools and who are now thriving in a homeschool setting.
CALLS NEEDED NOW
Please call your Tennessee state representative and Tennessee state senator TODAY and politely ask them to oppose these bills. Time is of the essence…
Your message can be as simple as the following:
“As you constituent, I respectfully ask you to oppose H.B. 1823 and S.B. 1968. While these bills are intended to help address chronic public school truancy issues, they will put more families into the juvenile justice system, allow juvenile court judges to substitute best interests of the child over parental rights, and may even keep some families from being able to withdraw their children from public school and put them into a homeschool or private school program. There are better ways to address truancy concerns than dumping families and kids into the juvenile court system.”
HSLDA opposes these bills, and we encourage you to call your Tennessee state representative and Tennessee state senator and ask them to oppose these bills, too.“
The corresponding House bill, sponsored by Representative Kevin Raper (R-Cleveland-District 24) is scheduled to be heard in the House Education Administration Subcommittee on March 3rd, 2026.
Contact information for members of the subcommittee may be found below.
Rep.william.slater@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.scott.cepicky@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.ronnie.glynn@capitol.tn.gov
Rep.william.slater@capitol.tn.gov; rep.scott.cepicky@capitol.tn.gov; rep.ronnie.glynn@capitol.tn.gov; rep.chris.hurt@capitol.tn.gov; rep.jay.reedy@capitol.tn.gov; rep.mark.white@capitol.tn.gov
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
