MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The committee that reviews Tennessee's school funding formula said the state should pay for special education pre-K, Chalkbeat Tennessee reported on August 25, 2026. Under federal law, districts must serve eligible children with disabilities beginning at age three, but the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement formula does not generate funds for those pre-K students, leaving districts to cover a state-enforced federal mandate out of local money.

The recommendation did not appear from nowhere. In October 2025, school districts, prominently including West Tennessee districts, told the state that the mandated programs need funding through the formula, per Chalkbeat's reporting at the time. The committee's recommendation is advisory; moving money requires the General Assembly to change the formula, and the next opportunity is the session that convenes in January 2027.

For Memphis-Shelby County Schools, the state's largest district, the math cuts one way: every mandated special education pre-K classroom the formula ignores is local money the district spends because it must. The recommendation lands while the district operates under a state takeover and a forensic audit, which gives the question an edge: the state that took over the district is also the state its own committee says has been underfunding one of the district's mandated programs.

Why It Matters for Memphis

MSCS carries one of the largest mandated special education loads in Tennessee. A formula fix would move real dollars into a budget the state itself now oversees. The committee's dollar estimate, once published, is the number to hold against whatever the General Assembly does with it in January.

The Oversight Question

When a state mandates a program and its own review committee says the funding formula does not pay for it, who has been covering the difference, and for how long?

Your city. Your money. Your receipts.

Sources

  • Chalkbeat Tennessee, "TISA Education funding review committee says Tennessee should pay for special education pre-K programs," August 25, 2026: https://www.chalkbeat.org/tennessee/2026/08/25/special-education-pre-k-funding/
  • Chalkbeat Tennessee, "Tennessee needs to fund mandated special ed pre-K, districts say," October 14, 2025: https://www.chalkbeat.org/tennessee/2025/10/14/special-education-pre-k-needs-more-funding-tisa-model/