(a)

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 49-3-306

  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
  • Board: means the board of education of any LEA. See Tennessee Code 49-3-302
  • Commissioner: means the commissioner of education. See Tennessee Code 49-3-302
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Cost differential: means that factor establishing a rate of reimbursement for a program relative to the reimbursement of one (1) FTEADA in grades four through six (4-6) as established in §. See Tennessee Code 49-3-302
  • Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
  • Licensed personnel: means any person employed by an LEA and for whom licensure is required as a condition of employment by law. See Tennessee Code 49-3-302
  • Rules and regulations: means those rules and regulations that the state board may adopt for the administration of this part. See Tennessee Code 49-3-302
  • SEA: means the department of education. See Tennessee Code 49-3-302
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • State board: means the state board of education. See Tennessee Code 49-3-302
  • State salary schedule: means the salary schedule adopted by the state board for licensed personnel, which is based on training and experience. See Tennessee Code 49-3-302
  • Training and experience factor: means the average training and experience of all licensed personnel in each LEA based upon the table of training and experience factors adopted by the state board. See Tennessee Code 49-3-302
  • Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) The commissioner, as approved by the state board of education, shall annually formulate a table of training and experience factors and a state salary schedule to be effective for each school year, which shall be applicable to all licensed personnel in every LEA, and which shall include an established base salary per school year consisting of a term of two hundred (200) days for beginning licensed personnel with a bachelor’s degree and zero (0) years of experience. Licensed personnel having more training and experience shall receive more than the established base per school year. Certified personnel having less training and experience shall receive less than the established base per school year. The salary schedule shall not be applicable to substitute personnel. In the alternative, an LEA may submit to the commissioner its own proposed salary schedule, subject to collective bargaining where applicable. Implementation of such a salary schedule shall be subject to approval by the commissioner and the state board. In no case shall a salary schedule adopted pursuant to this subdivision (a)(1) result in the reduction of the salary of a teacher employed by the LEA at the time of the adoption of the salary schedule. Any additional expenditure incurred as a result of any such salary schedule shall be subject to appropriation by the governing body empowered to appropriate the funds.
(2) An LEA may adopt a salary schedule that is identical in either structure or designated salary levels or both to the salary schedule the LEA had in place during the 2012-2013 school year, with such schedule containing steps for each year of service up to and including twenty (20) years and for the attainment of advanced degrees at the level of masters, masters plus forty-five (45) hours of graduate credit, specialist in education and doctor of education or doctor of philosophy. In no case shall a salary schedule adopted pursuant to this subdivision (a)(1)(B) result in the reduction of the salary of a teacher employed by the LEA at the time of the adoption of the salary schedule.
(3) The state salary schedule for teachers formulated by the commissioner pursuant to subdivision (a)(1) must establish a base salary that is no less than:

(A) Forty-two thousand dollars ($42,000) for the 2023-2024 school year;
(B) Forty-four thousand five hundred dollars ($44,500) for the 2024-2025 school year;
(C) Forty-seven thousand dollars ($47,000) for the 2025-2026 school year; and
(D) Fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for the 2026-2027 school year.
(b)

(1) Salaries shall be payable in at least ten (10) monthly installments during any school year.
(2) [Deleted by 2022 amendment.]
(3) The salary for part-time personnel shall be proportionately less than that provided for full-time personnel.
(4) This section does not prohibit an LEA from supplementing salaries and wages with local funds when such supplementary funds are in addition to the LEA’s local contribution.
(5) An LEA shall not decrease the level of local funding budgeted for salaries and wages from the prior year, except in the case of decreased enrollment. An LEA shall not use increases in state funding to offset local expenditures for salaries and wages.
(c) A board may, with the approval of the commissioner, make such readjustment in the salary of licensed personnel as may be necessary to place the salary in fair relation to the salaries of other licensed personnel in the same LEA with comparable tenure, responsibility, training and experience; except that the affected licensed personnel shall be entitled to a hearing before the board. In computing the salaries required to be maintained by this subsection (c), only the part of the salaries paid under the authority of any LEA need be maintained. No LEA shall be required to supply any decrease in funds formerly available to supplement salaries from other than local sources.
(d) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, any board may increase the salaries of its employees at any time during the school year, upon the basis of a new or amended contract, if in so doing it does not exceed its budget as adopted or amended.
(e) Each LEA shall establish a local salary schedule for all licensed personnel in the LEA, and the schedule shall include, as a minimum, the same salary level or levels based upon college preparation as established by the state board in the state salary schedule. For fiscal year 2004-2005, the schedule shall include, as a minimum, the schedule recommended by the commissioner for salary equalization purposes under subdivision (a)(2).
(f) The LEA’s training and experience factor shall be calculated by the SEA as follows: by using the table of training and experience factors adopted by the state board, the SEA will classify all licensed personnel employed by the LEA on December 1, or the first full teaching day thereafter, according to training and experience as provided in the rules and regulations and compute the average training and experience factor for such personnel.
(g)

(1) Establishment of programs and cost differentials shall be as follows:

(A) Regular academic:

Kindergarten (K) through grade three (3) ………………..1.20

Grades four (4) through six (6) ……………….. 1.00

Grades seven (7) and eight (8) ……………….. 1.10

Grade nine (9) ……………….. 1.20

Grades ten (10) through twelve (12) ……………….. 1.30

(B) Career and technical education:

Agriculture ……………….. 2.62

Consumer and homemaking, health occupations ……………….. 2.10

Trade and industrial ……………….. 2.48

Related trade and industrial ……………….. 1.84

Office and distributive education ……………….. 2.04

(C) Special education:

Identified and served handicapped ……………….. 1.07

(2) Identified and served students with a disability shall be included in the program attendance surveys in the appropriate regular academic and career and technical education programs as provided in the rules and regulations. The special education cost differential is supplemental to the regular academic and career and technical education programs and is based on the preceding year’s identified and served students with a disability.
(3) This table of programs and cost differentials shall apply to educational programs as of the opening of schools for the 1977-1978 school year. At its quarterly meeting in February 1978, and annually thereafter, the state board, as approved by the commissioner, shall establish both the education programs and the cost differentials of the programs applicable to the following school year, which may vary from the table in this subsection (g).
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section to the contrary, an LEA shall develop, adopt and implement a differentiated pay plan under guidelines and rules established by the state board of education to aid in staffing hard to staff subject areas and schools and in hiring and retaining highly qualified teachers. The plan shall be reviewed and evaluated annually to consider any change in circumstances regarding the hiring and retention of highly qualified teachers in the LEA’s schools and subjects taught or any necessary revision or restructuring of the plan. No plan or revised plan shall be implemented prior to approval of the plan by the department of education. Each LEA shall implement a differentiated pay plan prior to the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year.
  Previous section
Next section  
 Part 3 Contents