In order to manage student behavior, to ensure the safety of all students in the teacher's classroom and school, and to ensure students the opportunity to learn in an orderly and disciplined classroom, a teacher may refer a student to the principal or the principal's designee. When a teacher disciplines a student by issuing a written referral for the student's behavior, the referral must be returned to the teacher with a notation of the action taken. The referral must be kept in a student discipline file, and shall not become a part of the student's permanent record. If an LEA or school has adopted an electronic system of making disciplinary referrals instead of using written referrals, then the teacher making the referral must be notified of the action taken, but the notification may be made either electronically or in writing. The principal or the principal's designee must respond to a teacher's disciplinary referral of a student by employing appropriate discipline management techniques that are consistent with the LEA's or school's policy. The director of schools, or the director's designee, must review the LEA's or school's discipline policies, practices, and data annually and ues that are consistent with the LEA's or school's policy. The director of schools, or the director's designee, must review the LEA's or school's discipline policies, practices, and data annually and recommend any necessary revisions to discipline policies to the local board of education or the public charter school governing body, as applicable, for adoption. Acts 2021, ch. 77, § 2.
Tennessee Legal Code