Attorney General Opinions 
Relating to County Government

2017 Education

• An LEA has no authority to open and operate a public school within the jurisdictional boundaries of another LEA, nor can an LEA authorize a charter school to operate within the jurisdictional boundaries of another LEA.  A charter school operator has no authority to operate its school outside the jurisdictional boundaries of its chartering authority.  Ops. Tenn. Att’y Gen. 17-40 and 17-41 (September 20, 2017).

• Local education agencies (LEAs) are required under 2017 Public Chapter 307 to provide a list of student names, ages, addresses, dates of attendance, and grade levels completed upon request of a chartering authority or a public charter school approved to operate in the district.  Each school district or LEA must promptly amend its FERPA policy to permit the release of the information and notify the parents, allowing them the opportunity to opt out of the disclosure.  Op. Tenn. Att’y Gen. 17-39 (September 13, 2017).

• Neither the commissioner of education nor the ASD has the authority to allow an already under-performing school in the ASD to serve grades in addition to the ones it was serving when it was assigned priority status and placed in the ASD, whether through direct service or by contract with a provider.  Op. Tenn. Att’y Gen. 17-19 (March 13, 2017).

• Once a school has been placed in the achievement school district (ASD), there are no circumstances under which the school itself may add grades because it has no independent control over its operations while in the ASD.  Ops. Tenn. Att’y Gen. 16-50 (12/30/16) and 17-01 (January 5, 2017).