Tennessee Senate Bill SB1524

Tennessee 2025-2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 1/7/26
• Chaptered: 4/24/26
• Passed: 4/24/26

Caption

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 4, Chapter 29 and Title 37, Chapter 4, Part 1, relative to the Interstate Compact for Juveniles.

Summary

SB1524 amends Tennessee’s statutes governing the Interstate Compact for Juveniles, a multi-state agreement used to manage the supervision, return, and transfer of juveniles across state lines. The bill removes the compact from one of the statutory lists of entities subject to periodic termination review and adds it to a new termination provision in Title 4, Chapter 29, Part 2. Under the bill, the Interstate Compact for Juveniles is scheduled to terminate on June 30, 2034, unless it is continued, reestablished, or restructured under Tennessee’s sunset-review framework. The measure does not change the compact’s substantive juvenile-justice functions directly, but it does place the compact within the state’s administrative sunset process and updates the state code accordingly.

Impact

The bill affects Tennessee Code Annotated Title 4, Chapter 29, which governs the sunset review and termination of governmental entities, and Title 37, Chapter 4, Part 1, which contains Tennessee’s Interstate Compact for Juveniles provisions. Its practical effect is to subject the compact to a future termination date and potential legislative review, while preserving the General Assembly’s ability to renew or restructure it before that date. The bill primarily impacts state agencies and juvenile-justice administrators involved in interstate supervision and custody matters.

Sentiment

The available voting history suggests the bill was received favorably, with the Senate Government Operations Committee recommending passage by a 9-0 vote. No committee transcript is available, but the unanimous committee vote indicates little visible opposition at that stage. The bill’s straightforward administrative nature and its alignment with existing sunset-review procedures likely contributed to the positive reception.

Contention

No specific points of contention are reflected in the provided materials. The only potentially debatable issue is the decision to place the Interstate Compact for Juveniles under a sunset termination date, which could raise concerns among juvenile-justice stakeholders about future continuity or administrative uncertainty. However, the bill also expressly allows the entity to be continued, reestablished, or restructured, which may have reduced opposition.