---
type: "Bill"
title: "Criminal Offenses - As enacted, clarifies that a school employee does not commit the criminal offense of falsifying educational and academic documents for altering, creating, or duplicating the grade of a student in an educational or academic document if the alteration, creation, or duplication is due to the student obtaining the grade through a program that allows students to retake a failed course, exam, or assignment and earn credit. - Amends TCA Section 39-14-136 and Title 49."
description: "Criminal Offenses - As enacted, clarifies that a school employee does not commit the criminal offense of falsifying educational and academic documents for altering, creating, or duplicating the grade of a student in an educational or academic document if the alteration, creation, or duplication is due to the student obtaining the grade through a program that allows students to retake a failed course, exam, or assignment and earn credit. - Amends TCA Section 39-14-136 and Title 49."
jurisdiction: "us/states/tn"
legislature: "Tennessee General Assembly"
session: "114"
identifier: "SB 273"
citation: "Tennessee SB 273 (114)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Criminal Offenses"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Taylor"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 21
vote_count: 4
first_action: "2025-01-23"
last_action: "2026-04-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/88f857f1-849b-4aec-bd69-b2da49c16394"
source_url: "https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default?BillNumber=SB0273&ga=114"
source_hash: "a7c88f90fc4a0cc6b9a02f8d17e22105ee4058f551999a51b9a72458930b6fbb"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-tn"]
---

# Tennessee SB 273 (114) — Criminal Offenses - As enacted, clarifies that a school employee does not commit the criminal offense of falsifying educational and academic documents for altering, creating, or duplicating the grade of a student in an educational or academic document if the alteration, creation, or duplication is due to the student obtaining the grade through a program that allows students to retake a failed course, exam, or assignment and earn credit. - Amends TCA Section 39-14-136 and Title 49.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Amendment HA0596** (committee substitute) — [source](https://capitol.tn.gov/Bills/114/Amend/HA0596.pdf)
2. **Current Version** (committee substitute) — [source](https://capitol.tn.gov/Bills/114/Bill/SB0273.pdf)

## Votes

- FLOOR VOTE: Motion to Concur House Amendment # 1 3/19/2026 Passed — **26–0** (pass) · upper
- FLOOR VOTE: REGULAR CALENDAR AS AMENDED PASSAGE ON THIRD CONSIDERATION 3/16/2026 Passed — **93–0** (pass) · lower
- SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Recommended for passage, refer to Senate Calendar Committee 3/11/2025 Passed — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- FLOOR VOTE: Motion to Adopt 3/17/2025 Passed (1) — **32–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Taylor — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-01-23** Filed for introduction `filing`
- **2025-01-27** Introduced, Passed on First Consideration `introduction`
- **2025-02-10** Passed on Second Consideration, refer to Senate Judiciary Committee `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-05** Placed on Senate Judiciary Committee calendar for 3/11/2025
- **2025-03-11** Recommended for passage, refer to Senate Calendar Committee
- **2025-03-14** Placed on Senate Consent Calendar 2 for 3/17/2025
- **2025-03-17** Engrossed; ready for transmission to House `receipt`
- **2025-03-17** Passed Senate, Ayes 32, Nays 0 `passage`
- **2025-03-20** Rcvd. from S., held on H. desk.
- **2026-03-16** Passed H., as am., Ayes 93, Nays 0, PNV 0 `passage`
- **2026-03-16** H. adopted am. (Amendment 1 - HA0596) `amendment-passage`
- **2026-03-16** Subst. for comp. HB. `substitution`
- **2026-03-17** Placed on Senate Message Calendar for 3/19/2026
- **2026-03-19** Enrolled and ready for signatures `enrolled`
- **2026-03-19** Concurred, Ayes 26, Nays 0 (Amendment 1 - HA0596) `passage`
- **2026-03-23** Signed by Senate Speaker `passage`
- **2026-03-24** Transmitted to Governor for action. `executive-receipt`
- **2026-03-24** Signed by H. Speaker `passage`
- **2026-04-01** Signed by Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2026-04-06** Effective date(s) 07/01/2026
- **2026-04-06** Pub. Ch. 632

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/88f857f1-849b-4aec-bd69-b2da49c16394`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Tennessee legislature records).