SENATE BILL 644
By Crowe
HOUSE BILL 865
By Hicks T
HB0865
001716
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AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49
and Title 63, relative to schools of nursing.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 63, Chapter 7, Part 2, is amended by
adding the following as a new section:
Notwithstanding § 63-7-207(7), for practical nursing programs offered by a public
institution of higher education, the board shall require:
(1) That students enrolled in a practical nursing program meet the
qualifications for a high school diploma or the equivalent; and
(2) That practical nursing program students have access to pre-practical
nursing or practical nursing program curricula starting as early as the freshman
year of high school, or as allowable by the dual enrollment grant as described in
§ 49-4-930.
SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 63-7-207, is amended by deleting
subdivision (7) and substituting the following:
(7) Prescribe the minimum curricula and minimum standards for schools
of nursing and for courses of training preparing persons for licensure under this
chapter and provide for surveys of such schools or an affiliation of schools and
courses. For practical nursing programs offered by a public institution of higher
education, the board shall:
(A) Require a minimum of one thousand two hundred ninety-six
(1,296) clock hours or an equivalent number of credit hours; and
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(B) Permit a student of the practical nursing program to sit for the
national council licensure exam for practical nurses (NCLEX-PN) upon
completion of the practical nursing program, as long as the student meets
the NCLEX-PN minimum age requirements as set by the national council
of state boards of nursing;
SECTION 3. This act takes effect July 1, 2025, the public welfare requiring it.