Another Legislative Session, More Attempted Government Overreach in Education and Homeschooling

Our legislature never fails to disappoint. Right out of the gate this year, multiple bad bills were filed. The only thing slowing down the globalists so far has been the ice storm that hit Tennessee, which sent our legislators home for the week. Since they couldn’t be at the state capitol selling our freedoms to the highest bidder, social media seemed to become their outlet. Go ahead and pour yourself a cup of coffee as we delve into a few of Tennessee’s bad bills of 2026.

Sen. Adam Lowe and Rep. Kevin Raper filed SB 1705/HB 1700 targeting both the home-school community and parents in general with an unconstitutional bill that could allow a judge to legally deny parents their constitutional right to withdraw their children from public school and enroll them in a legal educational alternative, such as a home school.

This bill strikes a nerve with Free Your Children because this is already happening in Coffee County, Tennessee, and it is unconstitutional. I reported on this in 2023 when we traveled to the Coffee County Juvenile Justice Center and watched in disbelief as the constitutional rights of parents were being infringed upon.

Currently in Tennessee, there is no law that prevents a parent from removing a child from public school and enrolling them in another legal educational option, yet it is happening. This bill, according to statements made on the Free YOUR Children Facebook page, sought to do just that. According to Sen. Lowe’s Facebook comment, this bill would ensure there was “no hijacking your homeschool label to avoid neglect charges.” Subsequently, Lowe is also the legislator that feels he has the right to “codify” home-school rights and referred to the home-school community as “tribal” in a recent social media post.

After Free YOUR Children issued a call to action against the bill, the bill was withdrawn; however, he wasn’t finished with his gestapo mentality of government overreach. Lowe immediately filed another bill with Rep. Raper sponsoring SB 1968/HB 1823, that omitted the “homeschool verbiage” but still affords judges the same legal authority to direct a child’s educational path and deny a parent the right to remove their child from public school and enroll them in another legal educational option if they so choose.

According to Judge Andrew Morgan, who took credit for bringing the bill to Lowe and Raper, “We are committed to battling truancy issues in schools.” You can read the rest of Judge Morgan’s comments in the screenshot provided where he outlines how battling truancy will “help ensure appropriate state funding for schools.” That folks, is the real reason for the push for “battling truancy” in Tennessee and across the nation. It is about money, power and control.

Remember when we warned about at-risk boarding charters (“Opportunity Boarding Charters”) in Tennessee? Now they have officially opened in Tennessee with one of the criteria being “chronic absenteeism.”

Parents need to understand that if Lowe’s bill passes, you will have no other educational option than public school and your child could potentially be enrolled in an at-risk boarding charter.

The state and globalist legislators like Lowe want complete control over your children, to be used as vehicles for profit.

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Another equally alarming bill is SB 1470, sponsored by Sen. Paige Walley, Tort Liability and Reform, another avenue of gross governmental conduct. This bill states “Tort Liability and Reform – As introduced, states that certain nonprofit entities that contract with the Department of Children’s Services to provide community-based care or child welfare services shall not be held liable for damages resulting from an act or omission of the entity’s employee or volunteer or a caregiver providing services on behalf of the entity if certain requirements are met. – Amends TCA Title 9; Title 29; Title 36 and Title 37.”

Sen. Walley’s background is also interesting in relation to this bill. “In addition to his roles as Commissioner of Children’s Services in Tennessee and Commissioner of Human Resources in Alabama . . . Walley is a licensed clinical psychologist.”

Why is our Tennessee legislature focusing on giving immunity to entities that contract with DCS to provide services to children?

Our legislature seems to be focused on criminalizing law-abiding citizens, yet carving out protections for entities in which damages to children have already resulted! This is egregious and completely unacceptable. Where is the outrage? Who is protecting the children in Tennessee?

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Free YOUR Children is also staunchly opposed to Rep Slater’s bill, HB 1729. This bill is being sold by Slater as “an opportunity for homeschool families,” yet is another attempt at an unconstitutional law potentially benefiting a for-profit company.

As a home-school parent you should be extremely cautious of the government school system offering any type of “help” to the home-schooling community. The home-school community doesn’t need the government supplying them with AP classes. We also do not need any additional unconstitutional home-school laws in Tennessee. All rules and laws currently regulating home schools and private schools in Tennessee are unconstitutional. We don’t need more. We need the current ones repealed.

Independent home-school parent Myryea Ivey weighs in on Slater’s bill: “This bill adds new requirements for recorded third-party-proctored testing in lieu of TCAP. The changes establish state oversight that goes beyond current law and mirrors the accountability framework used in ESA and future voucher programs.”

It is worth noting that Tennessee Home Education Association President Claiborne Thornton recently released a video referring to Slater as “home-school friendly.” That statement is an insult to home-school families in Tennessee in light of the fact that Slater killed The FREE Act in the Education Committee last legislative session, which would have given home-school parents in Tennessee true educational choice. Not only did he kill the bill, he read a letter from the Tennessee Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges which claimed if parents were given true educational autonomy in Tennessee they could potentially abuse their children.

These are the same juvenile judges that are eager to trap families and children up into the juvenile justice pipeline via truancy and chronic absenteeism.

Are you seeing a pattern yet?

All of the above bills should be killed, and you should be contacting your legislators today. Our children in Tennessee are not government property, and it is time we let these legislators know who they work for.