HB 793/SB 836 and HB 1711/SB 2108 won’t make Tennessee’s classrooms safer or stronger. They will inject fear into school communities and pull educators away from their central mission.
oday, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed HB 793, which would require schools to collect and report information about students’ citizenship, immigration status, or lawful presence.
Introduced in 2025, this bill was openly discussed by both sponsors as a vehicle to overturn the Plyler v. Doe precedent, which guarantees all children living in the United States access to free public education regardless of immigration status. Advocacy by thousands of Tennesseans halted the bill’s progress in 2025, but sponsors are bringing it back in 2026. The version passed by the Senate and the version debated in the House differ from one another in significant ways, and the two chambers will have to agree on one version of the bill for it to pass. The bill must also be signed into law by Governor Lee.
The Tennessee General Assembly is considering multiple bills that [...]
Two bills that could challenge Plyler v. Doe, the landmark Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing every child’s right to a free public education, are advancing in the Tennessee legislature. The Education for All-Tennessee coalition continues to call on legislators to reject these bills.
In the 114th General Assembly, Tennessee lawmakers have filed two bills designed to challenge a constitutional and long-standing legal precedent that guarantees all children living in the United States access to free public school, regardless of documentation status.
As we reflect on the 2025 legislative session, the first year of the two-year 114th General Assembly, we want to uplift specific policies and budget priorities, aligned to our agenda, that advocates need to know about.
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