Tennessee — school discipline

A note on this state's sourcing: Tennessee is the one state in this layer where the underlying statute itself, T.C.A. § 49-6-3401, has no free first-party host: the Tennessee Code Commission's exclusive contract runs the official code through LexisNexis Advance, a login-gated commercial platform, and the state publishes no plain-text mirror of its own. In its place, this page uses the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission's own adopted policies for the charter schools it directly authorizes — LEA Policy 6316 (Suspension/Expulsion/Remand) and LEA Policy 6317 (Required Remands and Student Disciplinary Hearing Authority) — because the Commission is itself a state agency, not a district, and every substantive provision in both policies is footnoted to a T.C.A. pinpoint cite. An ordinary public-school student attends under their local school district's own policy, not the Commission's; the district's policy is required to track the same statute but may differ in particulars this page does not carry.

Governing authority stated in the sources

T.C.A. § 49-6-3401, as reflected in Tennessee Public Charter School Commission LEA Policy 6316 (Suspension/Expulsion/Remand, revised July 24, 2026) and LEA Policy 6317 (Required Remands and Student Disciplinary Hearing Authority, revised July 24, 2026). Policy 6316 defines suspension as being "Dismissed from attendance at school for any reason for not more than ten consecutive school days." It defines expulsion as "Removal from attendance for more than ten (10) consecutive school days or more than fifteen school days in a month of school attendance." (Policy 6316, definitions, T.C.A. § 49-6-3007(h))

The lines the state draws

A suspension or expulsion of more than ten days carries a stated notice and appeal right: "The school leader shall immediately give notice to the parent or guardian of the student of the right to appeal the decision to suspend/expel/remand for more than ten days to a Disciplinary Hearing Authority as set forth in Commission LEA Policy 6317 – Required Remands and Student Disciplinary Hearing Authority." (Policy 6316, T.C.A. § 49-6-3401(c)(1)-(4)) Before any suspension, expulsion, or remand, the policy states a hearing-adjacent floor: "Unless the student's continued presence in the school, class, or school-related activity presents an immediate danger to the student or other persons or property, no school leader shall suspend/expel/remand any student until that student has been advised of the nature of his/her misconduct, questioned about it, and allowed to give an explanation." (Policy 6316, T.C.A. § 49-6-3401(c)(1)-(4)) Certain offenses carry a mandatory floor stated separately: "Certain zero tolerance offenses require a mandatory one calendar-year expulsion unless modified by the head of the charter school." (Policy 6317, T.C.A. § 49-6-3401(g))

Offices and appeal bodies in these sources

The appeal chain runs through three stated bodies. First, each authorized charter school "shall establish" a body the policy calls the Disciplinary Hearing Authority, "which shall conduct appeals for students who have been suspended/expelled/remanded for more than ten (10) school days." (Policy 6317, T.C.A. § 49-6-3401(c)(5)) For a zero-tolerance expulsion specifically, "the student, parent or guardian shall have the right to appeal from the DHA to the Director of Schools to seek modification of the mandatory one calendar year expulsion." "The Director of Schools shall render a decision within seven calendar days." (Policy 6317) From there, "the student, parent or guardian shall have the right to appeal to the governing board of the authorized charter school regarding guilt or innocence of the zero tolerance infraction, and whether the student was provided with proper due process." "The decision of the charter school's governing board shall be final." (Policy 6317)
No address, phone number, or email for the Commission or any Disciplinary Hearing Authority appears in the captured sources; that absence is a finding.

Sources last checked

Sep 1, 2026

Reproduced from the state's own policy record quoted below: potentially relevant official sources, not a determination of which one governs any situation.

This page assembles what Tennessee's own record states about K-12 school discipline, working from the closest first-party source available given the statute's paywalled host. This is a baseline docket page: the governing sections, the lines the state draws, and the decision-makers and appeal route, quoted with dates. The full sections (the framework route by route, the four hoisted process rows, every stated timeline, the district delegation map, and records access) follow as the discipline layer deepens behind its breadth sprint; the change log states exactly what is not yet captured. Policy 6316 lists fourteen numbered grounds for suspension, expulsion, or remand, including "Willful and persistent violation of the rules of the school;" "Possession of a pistol, gun, or firearm on school property;" and off campus criminal behavior "that results in the student being legally charged with an offense that would be classified as a felony if the student was charged as an adult" or adjudicated delinquent for a comparable offense. (Policy 6316, T.C.A. § 49-6-3401(a)-(b)) It also states a self-defense exception: "If, as a result of an investigation, a school leader or his/her designee finds that a student acted in self-defense under a reasonable belief that the student or another to whom the student was coming to the defense may have been facing the threat of imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury, then the student may not face any disciplinary action." (Policy 6316) A parent-contact timeline is stated: "the school leader shall contact the parent or guardian within twenty-four hours of the decision to inform him/her of the suspension/expulsion/remand, the cause for it, and the conditions for readmission, which may include, at the request of either party, a meeting of the parent or guardian, student, and school leader." (Policy 6316) That delegation will anchor the full page's delegation map. For grades seven through twelve, state law is described as requiring alternative-school placement for the period of a suspension, where space allows: "state law holds that an authorized charter school shall remand students in grades seven through twelve to alternative school for the period of the suspension, where space is available, absent special circumstances." (Policy 6317, T.C.A. §§ 49-6-3402(c); 49-6-3001) For a student with an IEP or Section 504 plan, that layer lives on this site's Tennessee special education page. District codes of conduct add procedural detail this page does not carry, and this page describes the Commission's charter-school policy specifically, not every district's own version. Confirm applicability with the school and the agencies. All dates on this page are quoted from the sources, not a deadline calculation performed for you.