{"data":{"id":"us-tn/tenn.-code-ann.-49-6-1011","jurisdiction":"us-tn","citation":"Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-6-1011","heading":"Historical documents, writings and records - Use in classrooms - Censorship prohibited","body":"(a) No teacher or administrator in an LEA shall be prohibited from using or reading from, during the course of educational instruction, or from posting in a public school building, classroom or event, any of the following or any excerpts or portions of the following: (1) The national motto; (2) The national anthem; (3) The Pledge of Allegiance; (4) The Constitution of Tennessee; (5) The Declaration of Independence; (6) The writings, speeches, documents and proclamations of the founders or presidents of the United States or the founders or governors of this state; (7) Opinions of the United States and Tennessee supreme courts; (8) Acts of the United States congress and acts of the Tennessee general assembly; and (9) The United States Constitution. (b) The list of historically significant or venerated documents, writings or records set out in subsection (a) shall not be construed to be exclusive, and the doctrine of ejusdem generis shall not be applied to prohibit the use, reading or posting of other such documents, writings or records. (c) The use, reading or posting of the types of documents, writings and records authorized by this section shall be undertaken for educational purposes only and shall not be used to promote or establish any religion or religious belief. (d) There shall be no content-based censorship of American or Tennessee history or heritage based on any religious references contained in such documents, writings or records. (e) Each student shall be taught the documents, writings or records set out in subsection (a). (f) The documents, writings or records set out in subsection (a) shall be taught at an age appropriate time prior to graduation from high school as determined by the state board of education. Amended by 2014 Tenn. Acts, ch. 939,s 2, eff. 7/1/2014. Amended by 2014 Tenn. Acts, ch. 939,s 1, eff. 7/1/2014. Acts 1993, ch. 116, § 1.\n(a) No teacher or administrator in an LEA shall be prohibited from using or reading from, during the course of educational instruction, or from posting in a public school building, classroom or event, any of the following or any excerpts or portions of the following: (1) The national motto; (2) The national anthem; (3) The Pledge of Allegiance; (4) The Constitution of Tennessee; (5) The Declaration of Independence; (6) The writings, speeches, documents and proclamations of the founders or presidents of the United States or the founders or governors of this state; (7) Opinions of the United States and Tennessee supreme courts; (8) Acts of the United States congress and acts of the Tennessee general assembly; and (9) The United States Constitution.\n(1) The national motto;\n(2) The national anthem;\n(3) The Pledge of Allegiance;\n(4) The Constitution of Tennessee;\n(5) The Declaration of Independence;\n(6) The writings, speeches, documents and proclamations of the founders or presidents of the United States or the founders or governors of this state;\n(7) Opinions of the United States and Tennessee supreme courts;\n(8) Acts of the United States congress and acts of the Tennessee general assembly; and\n(9) The United States Constitution.\n(b) The list of historically significant or venerated documents, writings or records set out in subsection (a) shall not be construed to be exclusive, and the doctrine of ejusdem generis shall not be applied to prohibit the use, reading or posting of other such documents, writings or records.\n(c) The use, reading or posting of the types of documents, writings and records authorized by this section shall be undertaken for educational purposes only and shall not be used to promote or establish any religion or religious belief.\n(d) There shall be no content-based censorship of American or Tennessee history or heritage based on any religious references contained in such documents, writings or records.\n(e) Each student shall be taught the documents, writings or records set out in subsection (a).\nshall be undertaken for educational purposes only and shall not be used to promote or establish any religion or religious belief.\n(d) There shall be no content-based censorship of American or Tennessee history or heritage based on any religious references contained in such documents, writings or records.\n(e) Each student shall be taught the documents, writings or records set out in subsection (a).\n(f) The documents, writings or records set out in subsection (a) shall be taught at an age appropriate time prior to graduation from high school as determined by the state board of education.","path":["TN Code","Title 49","Chapter 6"],"source_url":"https://oss-data-us.vaquill.ai/v2026.08/us_tn_statutes.parquet","current_through":"2026-08-14","vintage":"open-us-law v2026.08, retrieved 2026-09-17","retrieved_at":"2026-09-17T21:51:56Z","sha256":"4525f5af14645787757ea8081649857369f37bea28f770520b1e01fe693af5e5","source_id":"us-tn","stale":false,"prev":"us-tn/tenn.-code-ann.-49-6-1010","next":"us-tn/tenn.-code-ann.-49-6-1012","notices":[{"id":"open-us-law","title":"Open US Law compilation","text":"Compilation CC BY 4.0, Open US Law (Vaquill AI). GroundRules uses only the releases published under CC BY 4.0: from v2026.09 the compilation is licensed CC BY-NC 4.0, and GroundRules does not use those releases. Each affected row names its release in its vintage label. GroundRules parsed and filtered the compilation to retain enacted text.","url":"https://huggingface.co/datasets/vaquill/open-us-law","license_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},{"id":"pro-tn","title":"Tennessee Release 76 supplement","text":"Tennessee electronic product files were republished by Public.Resource.Org under a public-domain mark. GroundRules uses enacted text from Release 76 only as a labeled supplement to the newer Open US Law rows.","url":"https://archive.org/details/gov.tn.tca"}]},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}