Rules & Regulations of the State of Tennessee
Title 0520 - Education
Subtitle 0520-01 - State Board of Education Rules, Regulations, and Minimum Standards for the Operation of the Public School System
Chapter 0520-01-01 - Preface
Section 0520-01-01-.01 - INTRODUCTION

(1) The responsibility for the support and control of public education in the United States has been recognized as belonging to the respective states. The authority and initiative for organizing and administering a system of public education are reserved to the states by the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

(2) The Tennessee Constitution of 1834 recognized and first enunciated the need for public education in Tennessee. This constitutional base served as the beginning of Tennessee's public educational system. In keeping with the educational concerns of the people, the General Assembly has established a structure for the state's public educational program by directing the appointment of a chief state school officer, by establishing a State Board of Education empowered to develop policies for the operation and approval of public schools, and by creating local education agencies to administer and operate the schools.

(3) The State Board of Education is authorized by law to prescribe rules and regulations for the approval, classification and governance of all public schools (T.C.A. §49-1-302). The rules, regulations, and minimum standards adopted by the board as printed herein, are intended to implement the law and to furnish a broad framework of policies within which local school systems operate in providing educational opportunities for the children of Tennessee. These policies supersede all such standards heretofore existing.

(4) These rules, regulations, and minimum standards are not to be construed as establishing maximum limitations restricting the efforts of any local school system that chooses to exceed the standards in order to provide greater educational benefits for its people.

(5) Legal citations herein are to sections of the Tennessee Code Annotated (T.C.A.). For the substance of these laws, reference should be made to the code.