Tennessee lawmakers are considering legislation that could allow local education agencies (LEAs) to apply for grants that help “community partner” organizations develop a presence on school campuses in order to provide key services to students and their families, including healthcare, on school campuses. An “LEA” refers to the administrative body responsible for overseeing public education at the local level, which is generally a school district.
House Bill (HB) 225 by State Representative Kirk Haston (R-Lobelville) (pictured above, left) and Senate Bill (SB) 364 by State Senator Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville) (pictured above, right), the Tennessee Full Service Schools Act, would establish a “full service community schools grant program,” funded by taxpayers through the General Assembly, that would be administered by the University of Tennessee (UT).
The grant program would be available to all LEAs in Tennessee who seek to create “full service community schools,” which the bill defines as a school with plans for “coordinating and integrating educational, developmental, family, health, and other comprehensive services through a community partner and for providing access to such services through the school to students, families, and the community.”
HB 225 would also repeal the Tennessee Community Schools Act of 2011, which similarly empowered LEAs to designate schools where nonprofits and businesses can partner to provide services for students and family members, but stopped short of creating a grant program to provide state funding.
One organization which exists under the current law, and would potentially be eligible for grant money under the proposed legislation, is Communities in Schools of Memphis (CISM), which reported providing “nearly 1,000 services and over 1,500 hours of support” to Memphis Shelby County Schools during the 2020-21 school year.
CISM states it is, “Unapologetically advancing educational equity, preparing more students and families for success in life, and fostering inclusivity,” and appears devoted to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), the controversial ideology the Trump administration has sought to ban due to concerns it places more importance on immutable characteristics like race, gender, and sexual orientation than character or aptitude.
In 2022, an alum of the Memphis branch of Communities in Schools (CIS) attended the national organization’s 2022 DEI Summit, and the Tennessee group reported, “Session topics were wide-ranging, from finding a personal role in DEI and challenges facing LGBTQ+ youth in American schools to the intersection of DEI and advocacy, empowering youth to lead social change, leveraging personal lived experiences to build inclusivity, and more.”
An undated CISM web page discussing the importance of DEI practices for hiring professionals at schools calls it “core to your mission,” with CISM Director of Collective Impact Jessica Pontoo calling it “absolutely essential” for those in human resources to hire educators with “similar background and lived experiences” as those in the community.
A second, undated web page contains a message by CISM CEO Teshanda Middleton, which appears to have been published in late 2022. She similarly pledged to create “a vibrant internal culture” built on “an unwavering commitment to access, equity, empowerment, and contagious joy,” during her time at CISM.
Under the proposed legislation, MSCS could potentially apply for a grant to expand services offered by CISM.
Charging UT with administering the grant program may also prove controversial among Republicans, as colleges and universities have been targeted the Trump administration over DEI since President Donald Trump signed an executive order that stripped federal funding from schools and programs with DEI policies in January.
Last month, after Trump signed the executive order, Vanderbilt University purged a web page previously devoted to DEI, rebranding it with new copy about the university’s “Commitment to Belonging, Collaboration, and Growth.”
Though the Tennessee legislation was filed by Republicans, it harbors similarities with a failed 2023 effort by Democrats in the U.S. Senate, who titled their bill the “Full-Service Community School Expansion Act.”
Senate Democrats similarly sought to “award grants to eligible entities to plan, implement, expand, and support full-service community schools,” which would have integrated “medical care and assistance with housing, transportation, or nutrition,” onto certain school campuses.
Republicans have similarly expressed concerns about Planned Parenthood, the country’s largest abortion provider, being listed among “community health partners” in areas with community school initiatives.
