Rachel Soupey, general counsel for the State Board of Education, summarized a package of proposed charter school rule changes at the Oct. 9 rulemaking hearing.

Soupey said the revisions reflect Public Acts enacted in 2025 and stakeholder engagement. Among the changes she described, the board would assume responsibility for developing the charter application and scoring rubric; sponsors would have to submit a letter of intent to both the authorizer and the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission; and authorizers would accept applications and notify the commission of receipt within 10 days. "5 twenty-fourteen-one-zero 0.01 shifts responsibility for developing the charter school application and scoring rubric from the department to the state board," she said.

Soupey also described changes to funding and enrollment provisions. The draft rule would direct the department to disperse the state share of funding generated through the TISA formula directly to charter schools rather than through the authorizer, except when a school is authorized by the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission or the Achievement School District. The revisions introduce new enrollment preferences, including a preference for children of employees or governing-board members of public institutions of higher education, and clarify an existing preference for students residing in the county LEA. Soupey said the rule would also change reporting duties so required reports are submitted to the State Board rather than the department, require authorizers to post authorizer fee reports online and submit projected budgets to the State Board, and subject fee use to State Board review.

No public comments were offered at the hearing. The State Board is expected to consider final reading of the rule package on Nov. 21, 2025.