(The Center Square) – Six months after questions were raised about Tennessee’s virtual schools, the General Assembly is considering a bill that could shutter some of with low performances.
Senate Bill 2441 would require the closure of virtual schools on the Department of Education’s “priority list,” which comprises schools that are performing in the bottom 5% or that have a graduation rate of less than 67%. Four virtual schools are listed on the department’s “priority list.” Current law says virtual schools “may be closed” for performance issues.
Senate Bill 2441 requires their closure.
The bill would also close schools that perform “significantly below expectations” on the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System for three consecutive years. It is unclear how many of those schools would be forced to close, according to the bill’s fiscal note.
The Senate Education Committee recommended the bill move to the full Senate last week. The House Education K-12 subcommittee deferred the bill to March 17 at Tuesday’s meeting, but took up another bill that included a similar provision.
Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, introduced a large omnibus bill that would require closure of virtual schools on the priority list for two consecutive cycles, which are three years each. House Bill 2553 also requires an enrollment cap freeze if the virtual school is on the priority list.
White said about five bills addressing the performance of virtual schools are under consideration.
“At this point, we are in the process of working all the differences out,” White said.
Kristen Tyagi, executive director of Parents for School Options, said relying solely on test scores is challenging for virtual schools. Students often test at remote sites, which are outside of their normal learning environment and could affect their performance, she said.
“It’s also important to note that no other schools in Tennessee face closures based solely on TVAAS performance,” Tyagi said. “Singling out virtual school in this way creates an uneven accountability framework.”
Lamakers scrutinized virtual schools at two meetings of the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in 2025. The commission delayed a vote that could have required the Tennessee Department of Education to track the residency of students enrolled in virtual schools.
Virtual school students are counted in the county where the school is located, not in the county where the student resides, which can skew the state’s education funding allocation to counties.
Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville, said the state should have a way to know where virtual students reside.
“It’s strange to me that we’re calculating it this way when every other student is calculated based on where they reside,” Campbell said.
