Tennessee legislation · 114th General Assembly

Tennessee HB2426: AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4 and Title 49, relative to early education.

Status: Chaptered, May 27, 2026

Fiscal Summary NOT SIGNIFICANT Bill Summary ON MARCH 16, 2026, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 2404, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 rewrites this bill to: (1) Create an early educator workforce development resource task force to assess the existing state workforce, education, and training resources available to support early educators or aspiring early educators and to identify gaps and opportunities to strengthen workforce pathways for early educators, in a manner consistent with the state's workforce development priorities; and (2) Allow, under certain circumstances, privately operated child care programs and child care agencies that serve children from birth until kindergarten enrollment to be eligible to be approved as a clinical practice site for an educator preparation program. The task force will be composed of: (1) The commissioner of labor and workforce development who serves as chair of the task force; (2) The commissioner of education, or the commissioner's designee; (3) The commissioner of human services, or the commissioner's designee; (4) The commissioner of economic and community development, or the commissioner's designee; (5) The chancellor of the board of regents, or the chancellor's designee; (6) The executive director of the Tennessee higher education commission, or the executive director's designee; (7) The executive director of the state workforce development board, or the executive director's designee, who serves as a nonvoting, advisory member; (8) One member from the private sector who is an early childhood advocate, who is appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives and who serves as co-chair of the task force; (9) One member who is an early childhood education leader from a community college, who is appoint