NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A state review panel is asking Tennessee leaders to change how public schools find their low-income students, a shift that would send about $233 million more a year through the state school funding formula.
The TISA Review Committee, whose members include senior state education officials and district leaders statewide, approved its first annual report last week on a 13-0 vote with one abstention, and the report was due to state leaders by Nov. 1. Its central recommendation is to add Medicaid eligibility to the data Tennessee uses to label a student economically disadvantaged.
That label matters for money. Under the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement formula, each student brings a base amount, and extra weights stack on top for needs such as poverty, disability or learning English. An economically disadvantaged student adds a 25 percent weight, which worked out to $1,823.75 per student in the 2025-26 school year.
Right now the state relies on direct certification through benefit programs such as SNAP and TANF. Advocates have long argued that approach misses children in families that struggle but do not sign up. An analysis presented to the committee in May found about 28 percent of Tennessee public school students carried the low-income label in 2023-24, compared with 52 percent in Indiana and 51 percent in South Carolina, two states that also use Medicaid data.
Adding Medicaid would pick up roughly 120,000 more students. The committee put the annual cost at $233 million, with $163 million from the state and $69 million from local governments. In Anderson County, for example, the share of students counted as low-income would rise from 29 percent to 46 percent.
The timing ties to federal changes. SNAP eligibility rules are expected to shrink the number of students identified through that program starting in 2027, even if the number of children in hardship holds steady.
The panel also called for more money for school buildings, mental health support and the smallest rural districts, plus funding for special education pre-K, which sits outside the K-12 formula. Any change still needs lawmakers and a budget line in the coming legislative session, and members noted the state could phase in the cost or adjust the weight instead of paying it all at once.
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