HB 91 – SB 636
FISCAL NOTE
Fiscal Review Committee
Tennessee General Assembly
March 13, 2025
Fiscal Analyst: Alan Hampton | Email: alan.hampton@capitol.tn.gov | Phone: 615-741-2564
HB 91 – SB 636
SUMMARY OF BILL: Requires the Department of Education (DOE), by January 1, 2026,
to submit a request to the United States Department of Education (U.S. DOE) to amend the state’s
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan to remove all end-of-course assessment requirements for
students in grades nine through twelve (9-12) and to allow the ACT, SAT, or another postsecondary
readiness assessment to be annually administered to students in grades 9-12 and for student
performance on such assessments to be used for student, school, and district accountability
purposes.
FISCAL IMPACT:
NOT SIGNIFICANT
Assumptions:
• The proposed legislation would impact federal school and district accountability that is
specified in the state’s ESSA plan.
• ESSA is the federal education accountability system that requires states to establish
education plans for their schools. Each state’s plan must include a description of: academic
standards, annual testing, school accountability, goals for academic achievement, plans for
supporting and improving struggling schools, and state and local report cards.
• Pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-1-228, student performance on the Tennessee
Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) tests and end-of-course assessments are
among the indicators used by the DOE to assign a letter grade to a school as part of the
school grading system.
• If the request to amend the state’s ESSA plan is successful, then the DOE will need to
update the federal school and district accountability rules and use ACT scores in the
achievement indicator for high schools instead of end-of-course assessment scores.
• The DOE will be able to submit a request to the U.S. DOE to amend the state’s ESSA
plan, and if the request is approved, update the accountability rules within existing
resources.
• In the event DOE’s request is denied, the state’s current ESSA plan will be unaffected and,
therefore, any fiscal impact is estimated to be not significant.
HB 91 – SB 636 2
CERTIFICATION:
The information contained herein is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.
Bojan Savic, Executive Director