Statutes | Tenn. Code Ann. ยง 49-3-310 | 2025
Funding for textbooks and other instructional materials shall be provided through the BEP, subject to the following minimum amounts and conditions:
(1) (A) It is the legislative intent that the board shall purchase the necessary textbooks, instructional materials and kindergarten materials early enough that the students shall have the textbooks, instructional materials and kindergarten materials available to them when the schools open. The board shall furnish the textbooks and instructional materials that are listed by the state textbook and instructional materials quality commission for adoption and that have been adopted by the board as are required for the use of students by the board. The director of schools and the chair of the board of each LEA shall certify to the commissioner on or before October 15 of the current school year that all children enrolled in that LEA have been furnished all required textbooks and instructional materials, as determined by the commissioner.
(B) All textbooks and instructional materials purchased with state school funds under this section are, and shall remain, the property of the board purchasing them. The board shall establish policies it deems necessary for the care and protection of its textbooks and instructional materials. The policies may include any of the following sanctions against a pupil who fails or refuses to pay for a lost or damaged textbook and instructional materials at the replacement cost less reasonable depreciation:
(i) Refusal to issue any additional textbooks and instructional materials until restitution is made
(ii) Withholding of all grade cards, diplomas, certificates of progress or transcripts until restitution is made
(iii) Not allowing the pupil to take interim or final examinations or to earn course credit in the course for which the textbook and instructional materials are prescribed until restitution is made or
(iv) Reducing the pupils grade in the course for which the textbook and instructional materials are prescribed by one (1) letter grade or ten (10) percentage points until restitution is made.
(C) No board of education of any public school system shall require any pupil or parent to purchase any textbook or instructional materials except in cases where the pupil or parent damages, loses or defaces the textbook or instructional materials either through willful intent or neglect. Nothing in this section shall prohibit any pupil or parent from voluntarily purchasing textbooks and instructional materials. The commissioner may collect from LEAs the data needed to administer this section effectively.
(2) For the purpose of this part or chapter 6, part 22 of this title, "textbook and instructional materials" mean any medium or manual of instruction that contains a systematic presentation of the principles of a subject and that constitutes a major instructional vehicle for that subject.