Tennessee school tip line law

Does Tennessee require a school tip line?

Tennessee requires anonymous reporting through district threat assessment teams. Since 2023, each LEA (a school district) must adopt a policy setting up a threat assessment team. Each team must set up procedures for students, faculty and community members to report threatening or dangerous behavior anonymously, and must say who receives those reports. When the law was first enacted in 2019, adopting a threat assessment team policy was optional for districts. The 2023 changes, other than rulemaking, took effect July 1, 2023.

What else must threat assessment teams do?

Teams must give students, faculty, staff and others guidance on how to recognize, address and report threatening or dangerous behavior. Teams must get training from local law enforcement or mental health providers on assessing individuals who show threatening or disruptive behavior. Since 2023, teams must also coordinate with state agencies that give local teams support services and technical assistance.

What is SafeTN?

The state Department of Safety and Homeland Security describes SafeTN as an anonymous reporting app that students, faculty, parents and the public can use to report concerns confidentially. The department says SafeTN is free. The department says it reviews and assesses each submission, then sends it to law enforcement, mental health crisis response teams and/or school administrators. A 2025 department release says the Threat Assessment Center assesses SafeTN submissions 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and takes threat reports by phone at (615) 532-7825. The Department of Education's Safety Coordinator Manual lists the SafeTN anonymous report app as a resource. These are agency descriptions of how the program works, not duties set by the threat assessment law.

What must districts do after a threat is reported?

Since 2025, a district that reports a threat to state or local law enforcement must notify parents and guardians within 48 hours. That notice duty applies to credible information about a threat of violence or significantly disruptive behavior aimed at, or on the grounds of, a public school in the district. A 2026 law lets the new state office of homeland security investigate threats to, or attacks on, schools under the threat assessment law.

Are reports confidential?

Documents produced or obtained under the threat assessment team section are not open for public inspection. Since July 1, 2023, school security reports, threats and similar records created or received by the Department of Safety must be kept confidential and are not open to the public; the provision does not name SafeTN. That confidentiality does not limit access by law enforcement, courts or other government agencies doing official work.

What data must be reported?

Each team must document behaviors and incidents that pose a risk to school safety or lead to intervention, and give that information to the district. Teams must report their activities regularly to the local board of education and the director of schools. Since 2023, those reports also go to the Department of Safety, the Tennessee School Safety Center and the members of the state-level safety team. Each local board of education must report at each quarterly meeting how many incidents reported to law enforcement required parent notice.

What bills failed recently?

SB 2599 of 2026, which would have limited the 48-hour parent notice to threats the district first finds credible, passed the Senate but was held on the House desk on April 8, 2026, and did not become law. HB 2348 / SB 2660 of 2026, which would have required a mental health provider's written assessment in district threat assessments, ended with no action in a House subcommittee on March 10, 2026.