Amends TCA Title 49.

This bill creates a pilot program for Tennessee Promise students with financial hardships. The Tennessee Promise Program is a scholarship program through which a person may attend community college or technical college free of tuition and fees. The bill requires the Tennessee higher education commission (THEC) to establish a four-year pilot program that awards grants to Tennessee Promise scholarship students who are eligible for and are receiving services as part of the college coaching initiative delivered by partnering organizations and who have an immediate financial need or who are experiencing financial hardships that may prevent the student from completing a postsecondary degree or credential. This bill delegates the responsibility of identifying eligible students for the pilot program to Tennessee Promise partnering organizations. The pilot program will begin with the 2021-2022 academic year. This bill authorizes THEC to contract with one or more entities to administer some or all portions of the pilot program. This bill requires THEC to collect and analyze the following during the course of the pilot program: (1) The number and percentage of college coaching initiative students who; (A) Applied for a completion grant; (B) Received a completion grant; (C) Remained enrolled and made progress toward postsecondary degree or credential after receiving a completion grant; and (D) Completed postsecondary degree or credential after receiving a completion grant; (2) The total amount of completion grants awarded and the average amount of completion grants awarded; (3) The financial needs or hardships reported by college coaching initiative students who did not receive but applied for completion grants; (4) The financial needs or hardships reported by college coaching initiative students who applied for and received completion grants; and (5) Information the commission will find useful in evaluating the effectiveness of the pilot program. THEC may only use funds appropriated from the general fund to award completion grants. This bill prohibits THEC from using net proceeds of the state lottery to fund completion grants and from awarding more than $250,000 in grants in any year of the pilot program. Funds appropriated from the general fund for each fiscal year must provide enough funds to ensure the minimum balance available on July 1 of that fiscal year is not less than $250,000, including carried forward funds from preceding years. This bill directs that unexpended funds at the conclusion of the pilot program revert to the general fund at the end of the fiscal year. This bill requires THEC to submit an annual report on the outcomes of the program to both the education committees of the house and senate by December 31, 2022, for the first year and December 31 of the remaining years. The program will be repealed on January 1, 2026. ON MAY 4, 2021, THE HOUSE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 6, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 revises the provisions governing funds used by the THEC, as discussed above in the bill summary, to instead provide that: (1) THEC may only use funds available from the unexpended balance of the qualified work-based learning grant fund to award completion grants; (2) All funds allocated from the funds available in the qualified work-based learning grant fund for the purposes of this bill that remain unexpended at the end of a fiscal year must be carried forward into subsequent years to effectuate the purpose of this bill; and (3) All funds allocated from the qualified work-based learning grant for each fiscal year must provide enough funds to ensure the minimum balance available on July 1 of that fiscal year is not less than $250,000, including carried forward funds from preceding years.