2025 Tennessee Disability Scorecard In 2025, Tennessee failed to address the growing need for affordable, accessible, and supportive housing and reduced its capacity to support employment for individuals with disabilities, resulting in an ‘incomplete’ grade for the year. Family Caregiving Support: F Access to Care: F Housing: F Education: D Aging: C+ Mental Health Access: D- Employment: C- Access to Justice: C- Transportation: C- Tennessee’s Overall Grade: Incomplete. Family Caregiving Support: F 2024 Homework: 1. Compensate: Enact a comprehensive, statewide paid family caregiving program and policy. 2. Protect: Fully fund conservatorship and supported decision-making services for Tennessee caregivers with loved ones enrolled in the state’s waiver programs. 3. Support: Repeal state preemption banning local paid family leave policies. Tennessee's Progress: 1.The General Assembly passed HB0712/SB1178, a bill that prohibits discrimination against family caregivers in the ability for provider agencies to hire them. 2. There have been no changes to funding. The General Assembly did establish a conservatorship management task force (SB 233/HB634), but did not provide any relief or additional support to families or conservators. 3.There has been no action on repeal of the ban. In a small step forward for family leave policies, the General Assembly did expand paid family leave for state employees caring for family members with health conditions (HB0915/SB0322). This will provide tangible benefit to some workers – but falls short of what is needed. Access to Care: F 2024 Homework: 1.Increase transparency: Modify the state’s provider network adequacy reporting standards to more accurately reflect the extent of waiver services enrollees actually receive, how long they wait for them and where and for whom our network gaps exist. 2. Improve Access: Submit a waiver to expand TennCare eligibility to those earning up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Line (FPL). 3. Management: Reconvene the TennCare Oversight Committee within the General Assembly to monitor TennCare’s provider network, 3rd party vendors, and quality of service delivery. Tennessee's Progress: 1. A bill to require transparency (SB0706/HB0711) moved through committees but failed to reach the floor of the General Assembly. 2. No action. 3. The House of Representatives has established a TennCare subcommittee, but it does not have oversight responsibility. Housing: F 2024 Homework: 1. Protect: Prohibit further exemptions to the state’s anti-institutionalization laws for new segregated and congregate residential facilities. 2. Support: Increase reimbursement rates for residential Community Living Supports providers. 3. Invest: Establish an Accessible Housing Trust Fund to acquire, rehabilitate, and modify homes for Tennesseans with disabilities. Tennessee's Progress: 1. Moving in the wrong direction, the General Assembly expanded its exemption of rules that prohibit new segregated residential programs in the state. 2. Rates have increased an average of 3% over the last two fiscal years. This does not keep up with the costs of providing services. 3. No action. Education: D 2024 Homework: 1. Compliance: Reconstitute the state’s special education compliance division within the Department of Education to focus on special education implementation. 2. Prepare teachers: Create an Academic and Behavioral Specialist (ABS) licensure category for prospective teachers who plan to work with students with behavior needs. 3. Follow the law: Require administrators to formally document ALL removals of students from school for behavior resulting from a disability and enforce IDEA protections. Tennessee's Progress: 1. No action. 2. The Department of Education has not acted. The Department of Disability and Aging has partnered with Trevecca Nazarene University to establish a Behavior Specialist Certificate program for teachers. 3. The Office of Research and Education Accountability produced a report on informal removal. It recommends that districts and schools should properly document all removals of student disabilities and all disciplinary actions for such students. No action has been taken. Aging: C+ 2024 Homework: 1. Protect: Expand spousal impoverishment protections beyond the federal minimum standards. 2. No wrong doors: Enact “no wrong door” policy to increase knowledge of and access to long-term supports and services, financial support, and community living options. 3. Waiting for help: Provide funds to draw down the OPTIONS and CHOICES Group 3 waitlists and improve provider network adequacy to ensure receipt of services. Tennessee Progress: 1. No action. 2. The new Department of Disability and Aging has helped to consolidate or integrate some programs, however more needs to done. 3. Investments made. The FY26 budget includes $11 million to reduce the OPTIONS and nutrition waiting lists and $20 million to reduce the CHOICES 3 waitlist. Mental Health Access: D- 2024 Homework: 1. Prevention: Increase funding for the TN START crisis intervention program to expand access statewide, recruit more providers, and develop additional crisis respite homes. 2. Communicate: Require the state’s psychiatric facilities to update their occupancy status daily in a statewide bed registry to ensure that Tennesseans aren’t retained in inappropriate settings during a mental health crisis. 3. Remove barriers: Streamline the process by which Tennessee school districts are able to bill TennCare for behavioral health services provided in the school setting. 4. Prepare: Develop training for mental health providers on working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Tennessee's Progress: 1. The FY26 budget includes $1.5 million to expand supports for individuals with IDD and co-occurring behavioral health needs. 2. No action. The Governor’s FY26 budget recommended $5 million to increase bed capacity at the Middle Tennessee Regional Mental Health Institute. This may help address capacity but does not address the need for data to “right-size”. 3. The state invested $8 million in recurring funds to hire 114 additional school-based behavioral health liaisons, a meaningful investment. 4. No direct action taken. Employment: C- 2024 Homework: 1. Prepare Workers: Fund the reopening of a Training Center for the Blind to ensure that Tennesseans with vision-related disabilities have access to their communities and gainful employment. 2. Support Workers: End the policy of automatic fading of job coaching for workers with disabilities participating in supported employment through the state’s Medicaid waiver programs. 3. Increase Capacity: Dedicate recurring state supplemental funds for Vocational Rehabilitation to increase access to job coaching, career services, and job placement. Tennessee's Progress: 1. No action. 2. No action. 3. The FY26 budget for Vocational Rehabilitation has 3.3-million-dollar reduction. Access to Justice: C- 2024 Homework: 1. Common Sense: Increase protections for students with disabilities from being charged with felonies resulting from “threats of mass violence.” 2. Protect liberty: Limit the application of “Jillian’s Law” to only violent felonies. 3. Appropriate Placements: Prohibit administrative transfers of justice-involved youth to the adult criminal justice system. Tennessee's Progress: 1. A bill that passed the General Assembly (HB1314/SB1296) requires that a threat have” intent and credibility”, however it overall creates more confusion and potential risk to students. 2. No action. 3. No action. Transportation: C- 2024 Homework: 1. Public-Private: Require ride-share companies to maintain a certain percentage of vehicles as accessible to folding and non-folding wheelchairs. 2. Mobility: Permit paratransit vehicles and disability plate, placard and decal holders to use the state’s new “Choice Lanes” free of charge. 3. Protect: Fine corporate ride-shares for each instance of driver refusal to permit a licensed service animal on a ride. Tennessee's Progress: 1. No action. 2. As of late September 2025, Tennessee's Choice Lanes program is in the public input and procurement stages. No action has been taken on proposal. 3. No action. The Tennessee Disability Coalition is an alliance of organizations and individuals across Tennessee who work together to improve the lives of Tennesseans with disabilities.