Updated 4/13/20

The Tennessee State Board of Education has approved a set of emergency rules for the rest of the school year, lowering graduation requirements and freezing grades for high school students as the coronavirus outbreak upends in-school learning.
Schools in Giles County have been closed for most of March and will be closed for nearly all of April in response to COVID-19.
Under Gov. Bill Lee’s recommendation, schools will stay closed through at least April 24.
The rules unanimously approved Thursday include lowering graduation requirements, freezing grades for high school students and changes for student teachers who could not finish their semester in a classroom.
The emergency rules will be effective for 180 days, but some could be made permanent if necessary.
Final high school grades for the spring semester can be no lower than the grade the student had on March 20. Remote learning can be used to help improve students’ grades, but cannot lower them.
The number of credit hours required to graduate has been lowered from 22 to 20. The 20 credit hours include four in math, four in English, three in science, two in social studies and seven additional credits.
Students in 11th grade are normally required to take the the ACT or SAT in order to graduate. That requirement has been waived for those students, as well as for seniors, who have not yet taken the test.
End-of-year exams, including TNReady and end-of-course exams, will not be given.