An Act to Require One Full Credit in Civics Education as a High School Graduation Requirement

WSB/2/9

Sponsored by Mary Helen Brabham, Kendall Castleman of West High School

This legislation was filed in the Education category

Presented as part of the YIG Volunteer 2024 conference

1	i. Enacting Clause
2	Be it enacted by the Tennessee YMCA Youth in Government
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4	ii. Definitions
5	Section 1: Terms in this act will be defined as follows:
6	a. Civics: The study of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.
7	b. Asynchronous course: An educational course taught through an online platform. Students
8	complete the course on their own time and never meet in person with their teacher.
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10	iii. Sections
11	Section 2: Students will be required to earn one full credit in civics education in order to graduate.
12	Section 3: All public high schools will be required to offer a course on civics education worth one
13	full credit, if they don’t already.
14	Section 4: The timeline of how each civics course will be taught is to be determined by each
15	individual school based on what fits the school’s scheduling best (full year, 1 semester, etc.)
16	Section 5: The standards for the courses will follow the Tennessee US Government and Civics
17	Education Standards.
18	Section 6: In the event that a teacher can not be found to teach the course, an asynchronous
19	course will be created, taught by a teacher from another school, funded by the Tennessee Board of
20	Education.
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22	iv. Fiscal Line Item
23	Section 7: The addition of this course requirement will cost roughly $600,000 and will be funded
24	through the Tennessee Department of Education budget. This will be roughly .012% of the
25	Tennessee Department of Education’s total budget.
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27	v. Repealing Clause
28	Section 8: All laws or parts of laws in conflict with this are hereby repealed.
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30	vi. Effective Date
31	Section 9: This act shall take effect June 1, 2025, the public welfare requiring it.
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