(a) A teacher shall give the director of schools notice of resignation at least thirty (30) days in advance of the effective date of the resignation. A teacher who fails to give such notice, in the absence of justifiable mitigating circumstances, shall forfeit all tenure status under this part; provided, that the board may waive the thirty (30) days’ notice requirement and permit a teacher to resign in good standing.
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 49-5-508

  • Board: means the local board of education holding jurisdiction in its respective territory. See Tennessee Code 49-5-501
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Director of schools: refers to the local director of schools, or to any other officer performing the functions of a director of schools. See Tennessee Code 49-5-501
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Teacher: includes teachers, supervisors, principals, director of schools and all other certificated personnel employed by any local board of education, for service in public, elementary and secondary schools in this state, supported in whole or in part by state or federal funds. See Tennessee Code 49-5-501
(b) Any teacher who breaks a contract with a board of education without a justifiable reason as listed in subsection (c) shall not be given permanent tenure status in any other school system in this state, until such teacher has met all of the requirements in such system for attaining permanent status plus the serving of five (5) continuous years in lieu of the three (3) continuous years required in § 49-5-503; provided, that the local board of education against which the teacher has broken a contract informs the commissioner of education of the breach of contract and requests the commissioner to so notify all local boards of education in this state. The local board of education may later inform the commissioner that it is no longer holding the breach of contract against the teacher, in which event the local board of education shall request the commissioner to so notify all local boards of education in this state. If and when the local board of education informs the commissioner that it is no longer holding the breach of contract against the teacher, the penalty in this subsection (b) against the teacher shall immediately become ineffective, null and void.
(c) The conditions under which it is permissible to break a contract with a local board of education are as follows:

(1) The incapacity on the part of the teacher to perform the contract as evidenced by the certified statement of a physician approved by the local board of education;
(2) The drafting of the teacher into military service by a selective service board; or
(3) The release by the local board of education of the teacher from the contract that the teacher has entered into with the local board of education.
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