NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Governor Bill Lee signed a set of bills into law Wednesday, meant to help students succeed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
He called a special session to create education policies meant to help students struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic. The legislature passed a $160 million education package aimed at addressing issues such as low reading levels, teacher training and educator salaries.
"It's a historic piece of legislation that I think is going to change the course of children's lives in Tennessee," Lee said during a conference Wednesday. "We've had a tremendous challenge through this pandemic, and kids have borne the brunt of that."
One of the bills, Intervening to Stop Learning Loss, requires educators to intervene with struggling students through after-school learning programs and summer learning camps. It will go into effect in summer 2021. The bill also creates the "Tennessee Accelerated Literacy and Learning Corps."
The corps will provide tutoring throughout the school year. The bill also strengthens laws around the third-grade reading gate, preventing students who are not prepared for later grades from advancing.
Another bill, Building Better Readers with Phonics, requires educators to use a phonics-based approach for reading lessons in Kindergarten through the third grade. It also establishes a way for parents and teachers to identify when students need reading help before third-grade.
The bill will provide educators with training so they can teach phonics-based reading.
The third bill, "Accountability to Inform," will extend regulations from the last school year so that students, teachers and schools do not face negative consequences due to student assessments. Lawmakers previously said teachers should not be held to normal standards and assessments since it has been an abnormal year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This is going to be hard, this is bold, these are steps that will not be easy for any of you to implement," Lee said. "But the implementations is how we take the intent and turn it into success."