Prohibitions on mandatory implicit bias training - Section definitions

(a) An LEA or public charter school shall not: (1) Require an educator or other employee of the LEA or public charter school to complete or participate in implicit bias training; or (2) Take an adverse employment action against an educator or other employee of the LEA or public charter school for the educator's or employee's failure or refusal to complete or participate in implicit bias training. (b) The state board of education and the department of education shall not require an educator to complete or participate in implicit bias training as a requirement for educator licensure, professional development, program participation, or otherwise. (c) As used in this section, "implicit bias training" means a training or other educational program designed to expose an individual to biases that the training's or educational program's developer or designer presumes the individual to unconsciously, subconsciously, or unintentionally possess that predispose the individual to be unfairly prejudiced in favor of or against a thing, person, or group to adjust the individual's patterns of thinking in order to eliminate the individual's unconscious bias or prejudice. Added by 2023 Tenn. Acts, ch. 438, s 1, eff. 5/17/2023.

(a) An LEA or public charter school shall not: (1) Require an educator or other employee of the LEA or public charter school to complete or participate in implicit bias training; or (2) Take an adverse employment action against an educator or other employee of the LEA or public charter school for the educator's or employee's failure or refusal to complete or participate in implicit bias training.

(1) Require an educator or other employee of the LEA or public charter school to complete or participate in implicit bias training; or

(2) Take an adverse employment action against an educator or other employee of the LEA or public charter school for the educator's or employee's failure or refusal to complete or participate in implicit bias training.

(b) The state board of education and the department of education shall not require an educator to complete or participate in implicit bias training as a requirement for educator licensure, professional development, program participation, or otherwise.

(c) As used in this section, "implicit bias training" means a training or other educational program designed to expose an individual to biases that the training's or educational program's developer or designer presumes the individual to unconsciously, subconsciously, or unintentionally possess that predispose the individual to be unfairly prejudiced in favor of or against a thing, person, or group to adjust the individual's patterns of thinking in order to eliminate the individual's unconscious bias or prejudice.

Added by 2023 Tenn. Acts, ch. 438, s 1, eff. 5/17/2023.