Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 6.

This bill: (1) Requires the department of education to create and administer the Tennessee learning loss remediation and student acceleration program (the program); (2) Authorizes participation in after-school learning mini-camps, learning loss bridge camps, and summer learning camps; (3) Requires the department to establish, fund, and implement an innovative benchmark assessment pilot program; (4) Establishes the Tennessee accelerating literacy and learning corps (TALLC); and (5) Revises present law provisions governing the promotion of students. TENNESSEE LEARNING LOSS REMEDIATION AND STUDENT ACCELERATION PROGRAM This bill requires the department to establish the program to aid LEAs and public charter schools in remediating learning loss by facilitating the provision of in-person educational services to students outside the regular school day. The department will: (1) Determine program requirements and procedures for allocating funding to each LEA and participating public charter school for conducting mini-camps and summer camps. LEAs and participating public charter schools are only required to conduct summer camps in the summers, following the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years; (2) Determine program requirements and a procedure for allocating funding to each LEA and participating public charter school for conducting bridge camps, which LEAs and public charter schools must conduct annually beginning in the summer of 2021; (3) Provide training, technical assistance, and guidance to LEAs and participating public charter schools conducting the camps; (4) Implement a preparation course for the program to train and certify without a teaching license to provide educational instruction as part of the camps; and (5) Implement a two-week summer professional development program on reading instruction for educators teaching English language arts or reading at no cost to LEAs or public charter schools. This bill requires LEAs to provide all priority students, including priority students enrolled in a public charter school located within the geographic boundaries of the LEA, with the opportunity to enroll in the camps, subject to available funding. Also, subject to the availability of additional seats after the initial enrollment period, LEAs must provide non-priority students, including students enrolled in a public charter school located within the geographic boundaries of the LEA, with the opportunity to enroll in the camps. A "priority student" for the purposes of this bill depends on the type of camp, as discussed below. This bill requires that funding for the program come from the temporary assistance for needy families (TANF) program, the LEAP grant fund, and any other funds appropriated by the general assembly. This bill sets out in detail how the funds may be expended. This bill also provides that funding for the camps must supplement, and not replace, existing funding for other educational programs conducted by the LEA or public charter school outside of the regular school day. This bill provides that a public charter school may conduct camps for its students rather than enrolling its students in the camps conducted by the LEA within the boundaries of which the public charter school is located. This bill further provides that, upon approval by the department, LEAs and public charter schools may collaborate with public or non-profit community partners to implement and conduct the camps. For purposes of eligibility for the program, this bill provides that priority students may participate in the camps, but are not required to participate unless the local board of education or governing body of a participating public charter school adopts a policy requiring participation. Each LEA and public charter school must conduct an initial enrollment period of at least 30 days during which time the parent or guardian of a priority student may enroll the parent's or guardian's student in the mini-camp, bridge camp, or summer camp. If there are additional seats available in the camps at the end of the enrollment period, then non-priority students may enroll in the LEA's or participating public charter school's mini-camp, bridge camp, or summer camp appropriate for that student's grade level, but only if permitted sources of funding are used to fund the enrollment of such students. CAMPS This bill provides for the following camps: (1) Learning loss bridge camp; (2) After school learning mini-camp; and (3) Summer learning camp. Bridge Camp A learning loss bridge camp (bridge camp) is a four-week educational program conducted each year before the beginning of the school year, designed to support student academic needs and remediate student learning loss. It must provide: (1) Four combined hours of in-person daily instruction, intervention, and supplemental supports in reading and math, five days a week; (2) One hour of response to instruction and intervention (RTI2) services per day, provided in-person five days a week pursuant to the RTI2 manual; (3) One hour of physical activity a day, five days a week; (4) Lunch and at least one snack or breakfast a day, five days a week; (5) Stipends to teachers, tutors, and staff providing services in the bridge camp; and (6) A state-adopted benchmark assessment administered to students, in-person, as a pre-test and a post-test at the beginning and end of the bridge camp school year. The results must be submitted to the department. For the purposes of a bridge camp, a priority student is a student who: (1) Will be entering sixth, seventh, or eighth grade in the 2021-2022 or 2022-2023 school year who scored below proficient in math or English language arts on the student's most recent Tennessee comprehensive assessment program (TCAP) or state-adopted benchmark assessment; or (2) Will be entering the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth grade in the 2023-2024 school year, or in a subsequent school year, who scored below proficient in math or English language arts on the student's most recent TCAP or state-adopted benchmark assessment. Mini-camp An after school learning mini-camp (mini-camp) is an after-school educational program designed to remediate student learning loss and support student academic needs using an educational approach to learning that uses science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics (STEAM) as access points. It must provide: (1) One hour of in-person educational instruction at least four days a week by a licensed teacher or Tennessee accelerating literacy and learning corps member and must be designed to engage students in STEAM learning and activities; (2) At least one snack per student a day; (3) Stipends to teachers, tutors, and staff providing services to students in the mini-camp; and (4) State-adopted benchmark assessment administered to students, in-person, as a pre-test and post-test at the beginning and end of the mini-camp school year. The results must be submitted to the department. For the purposes of the mini-camp, a priority student is a student who: (1) Completed third or fourth grade in the immediately preceding school year and scored below proficient in math or English language arts on the student's most recent TCAP; (2) Completed kindergarten, first, or second grade in the immediately preceding school year and attends a school in which fewer than 50 percent of the students in grades three through five scored proficient in math or English language arts on the most recent TCAP; (3) Completed kindergarten, first, second, third, or fourth grade in the immediately preceding school year and is eligible for TANF; or (4) Completed kindergarten, first, second, or third grade in the immediately preceding school year and scored below proficient in math or English language arts on the student's most recent state-adopted benchmark assessment, Tennessee universal math screener, Tennessee universal reading screener, universal reading screener, or, for after-school learning mini-camps conducted in the 2021-2022 school year, RTI2 screener. Summer Camp A summer learning camp (summer camp) is a six-week summer educational program, designed to support student academic needs and remediate student learning loss. It must provide: (1) Four combined hours of in-person daily instruction, intervention, and supplemental supports in reading and math, five days a week; (2) One hour of RTI2 services per day, provided in-person five days a week pursuant to the RTI2 manual; (3) One hour of physical activity a day, five days a week; (4) Lunch and at least one snack or breakfast a day for each student, five days a week; (5) Stipends to teachers, tutors, and staff providing services at the summer camp; and (6) State-adopted benchmark assessment administered to students, in-person, as a pre-test and post-test at the beginning and end of the summer camp each year. The results must be submitted to the department. For the purposes of the summer camp, a priority student is a student who: (1) Completed third or fourth grade in the immediately preceding school year and scored below proficient in math or English language arts on the students most recent TCAP; (2) Completed kindergarten, first, or second grade in the immediately preceding school year and attends a public school or public charter school in which fewer than 50 percent of students in grades three through five scored proficient in math or English language arts on the most recent TCAP; (3) Completed kindergarten, first, second, third, or fourth grade in the immediately preceding school year and is eligible for TANF; or (4) Completed kindergarten, first, second, or third grade in the immediately preceding school year and scored below proficient in math or English language arts on the student's most recent state-adopted benchmark assessment, Tennessee universal math screener, Tennessee universal reading screener, universal reading screener, or, for summer learning camps conducted in the summer immediately following the 2020-2021 school year, RTI2 screener. INNOVATIVE BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT PILOT PROGRAM This bill requires the department to establish, fund, and implement the innovative benchmark assessment pilot program to provide: (1) The Tennessee universal math screener; (2) The Tennessee universal reading screener; and (3) A series of state-adopted benchmark assessments to LEAs and public charter schools to allow teachers to more frequently measure student learning and address student learning loss. The results of the pilot program may be used to determine ways to utilize real-time data to measure student proficiency and inform instructional practices. Under this bill, LEAs and public charter schools must use the state-adopted benchmark assessments, the Tennessee math screener, the Tennessee universal reading screener, or a universal reading screener approved by the state board of education to measure the academic proficiency of students and to identify priority students for the camps. The assessments established under the pilot program must be administered as the pre-tests and post-tests required as part of the camps. This bill provides that, beginning with the 2021-2022 school year, LEAs and public charter schools may authorize teachers in the non-tested grades pre-kindergarten through two to use the results of the Tennessee universal math screener, the Tennessee universal reading screener, or an approved universal reading screener as an alternative growth model for purposes of teacher evaluations to generate individual growth scores for teachers pursuant to the department's evaluation guidelines. This bill prohibits the department from basing the Tennessee universal math screener, the Tennessee universal reading screener, or a universal reading screener approved by the state board used to evaluate teachers pursuant to these provisions on the pre-k/kindergarten portfolio growth model. TENNESSEE ACCELERATING LITERACY AND LEARNING CORPS (TALLC) This bill creates the TALLC to develop and support a statewide network of high-quality tutors to assist LEAs, public charter schools, community partners, and parents in accelerating student learning and remediating student learning loss. The department must administer the TALLC by developing: (1) A state-wide initiative to recruit high-quality tutors to become certified TALLC members; (2) A program providing training, certification, and ongoing professional development for members, including online options for the training and ongoing professional development; and (3) Content for providing services to students that may be used by members. This bill authorizes the department to provide TALLC grants, subject to available funding, to LEAs and public charter schools to increase the number of TALLC members available in a community to provide high-quality tutoring services. STUDENT PROMOTION Under present law: (1) A student in the third grade is not promoted to the next grade level unless the student has shown a basic understanding of curriculum and ability to perform the skills required in the subject of reading as demonstrated by the student's grades or standardized test results. However, such student may be promoted if the student participates in an LEA approved research-based intervention prior to the beginning of the next school year. This provision does not apply to students who have individualized education programs (IEPs); and (2) Charter schools may promote or retain students based upon the students’ demonstrated skills on the TCAP tests or upon their grades. This bill rewrites the above provisions to instead provide the following: (1) Beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, a student in the third grade will not be promoted to the next grade level unless the student is determined to be proficient in English language arts (ELA) based on the student's achieving a performance level rating of "on track" or "mastered" on the ELA portion of the student's most recent TCAP test; (2) Notwithstanding item (1): (A) A student who is not proficient in ELA, as determined by the student's achieving a performance level rating of "approaching" on the ELA portion of the student's most recent TCAP test may be promoted if: the student is an English language learner and has received less than two years of ELA instruction; the student was previously retained in any of the grades K-3; the student is retested before the beginning of the next school year and scores proficient in ELA; the student attends a learning loss bridge camp before the beginning of the upcoming school year, maintains a 90 percent attendance rate at the camp, and the student's performance on the post-test administered to the student at the end of the learning loss bridge camp demonstrates adequate growth, as determined by the department; or the student is assigned a tutor through the TALLC to provide the student with tutoring services for the entirety of the upcoming school year based on tutoring requirements established by the department; and (B) A student who is not proficient in ELA, as determined by the student's achieving a performance level rating of "below" on the ELA portion of the student's most recent TCAP test may be promoted if: the student is an English language learner and has received less than two (2) years of ELA instruction; the student was previously retained in any of the grades K-3; the student retested before the beginning of the next school year and scores proficient in ELA; or the student attends a learning loss bridge camp before the beginning of the upcoming school year and maintains a 90 percent attendance rate at the camp, and is assigned a tutor through the TALLC to provide the student with tutoring services for the entirety of the upcoming school year based on tutoring requirements established by the department; (3) A student who is promoted to the fourth grade pursuant to the provisions in (2)(A) above regarding tutoring through TALLC or (2)(B) regarding bridge camp tutoring must show adequate growth on the fourth grade ELA portion of the TCAP test, as determined by the department, before the student may be promoted to the fifth grade; (4) A student may not be retained in the fourth grade more than once; (5) Subject to available funding, and to the extent authorized by federal law, LEAs and public charter schools may use TANF program funds to cover up to 50 percent of the costs associated with providing tutoring services for students pursuant to the tutoring provision described in item (2)(A) above; and (6) Items (1) and (2) above do not supersede an LEA's or public charter school's obligation to comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS This bill requires: (1) LEAs and participating public charter schools, by September 1, 2021, and each September following, to submit the results of all pre-tests and post-tests administered to students as part of the camps to the department. The department is prohibited from using the results of tests to assign accountability determinations for any school district; (2) The department to develop a program progress report to provide information about the effectiveness of the learning loss remediation and student acceleration program. The report must include a statewide summary and interpretation of the information provided by LEAs and public charter schools pursuant to item (1) above and other information as set out in detail in this bill. The report must be submitted to the governor, the speaker of the senate, the speaker of the house, and the chairs of the education committees of the senate and the house by November 1, 2021 and each November 1 following; and (3) The department to procure any good or service selected or approved to effectuate this bill competitively and in compliance with all state laws and administrative rules regarding the procurement of goods and services by state agencies, pursuant to present law regarding public purchases. The department must submit all contracts for the procurement of goods and services selected or approved to effectuate this bill to the fiscal review committee of the general assembly for review. The student promotion provisions of this bill will take effect July 1, 2022. All other provisions of this bill will take effect upon becoming law. ON JANUARY 21, 2021, THE HOUSE ADOPTED AMENDMENTS #1 AND #3 AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 7004, AS AMENDED. AMENDMENT #1 redefines "stipend" for purposes of this bill to specify that the differentiated stipend plan developed by the department of education that provides teachers with at least $1,000 per week in compensation, but no more than 25 percent above the weekly compensation rate of the highest salary step for teachers in the LEA's salary schedule, will be available to compensate teachers for providing educational services to students in learning loss bridge camps or summer learning camps, but not after-school learning mini-camps. The method of compensation based on factors such as the teacher's level of overall effectiveness score or other performance data, ability to support student populations with unique needs, or license or endorsement to teach a hard-to staff-subject area will be available to compensate teachers for providing educational services to students in after-school learning mini-camps, learning loss bridge camps, or summer learning camps. This amendment clarifies that LEAs and participating public charter schools will only be required to conduct after-school learning mini-camps in the summers immediately following the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years, which is the same as this bill's requirement with regard to summer learning camps. This amendment adds a prohibition against LEAs and public charter schools retaining a student at the third or fourth grade under this bill's provisions concerning English language arts (ELA) proficiency, if such retention is based on the student's disability of suspected disability. This amendment adds to this bill's requirement that the state board of education promulgate emergency rules to authorize the issuance of permits for individuals to teach subjects for which a Tennessee