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Council adopts rule changes: signed quarterly reports and reduced in‑service training (8 hours, 2 ethics)
Summary
At a Nov. 7 rulemaking hearing, the Tennessee Private Probation Services Council adopted amendments requiring private probation entities to sign quarterly reports acknowledging delivery to local court clerks and cut annual in‑service training for probation supervisors from 20 to 8 hours, including 2 hours of ethics.
The Tennessee Private Probation Services Council on Nov. 7, 2025, adopted proposed rule language that (1) adds a signature requirement to quarterly reports from private probation entities confirming the report was provided to the local court clerk and (2) reduces the annual in‑service continuing education requirement for employees responsible for probation supervision from 20 hours to 8 hours, with 2 of those hours required for ethics training.
Associate General Counsel Michael Underhill summarized the changes during the rulemaking hearing: the proposed amendment to Rule 11 77‑o1‑0.05 would add a subsection requiring that “the private probation entity shall also sign the quarterly report acknowledging the quarterly report has been provided to the clerk.” He also summarized the change to Rule 11 77‑o3‑0.01 that would require supervisors to receive 8 hours of annual in‑service training, with 2 hours devoted to ethics.
Underhill said notice of the hearing and the full text of the proposed rules were published in the Tennessee Administrative Register on June 27, 2025, and the program sent additional notice to licensees by enotify on July 18, 2025. No written comments were reported as received, and no members of the public spoke during the hearing.
The council recorded a roll-call vote to adopt the hearing rule language changes; the roll call recorded a majority of ayes and a recorded no vote from Judge Joel Perry on the main adoption. The council also voted to adopt the regulatory flexibility addendum (which staff said covers 26 private probation providers subject to the rules), adopted the impact-on-local-government statement, and approved the additional materials required for submission to the governor’s office and the attorney general for legal review and filing with the secretary of state. Under the process explained at the hearing, rules filed with the secretary of state generally become effective 90 days after filing if the joint governmental operations committee does not recommend otherwise and if the attorney general approves the filing.
Council members asked how providers typically obtain continuing-education credits; staff and members noted that continuing education often comes from local-judge programs, online coursework, or specialized trainers, and added that the council previously required ethics training and now explicitly reserves two of the reduced hours for ethics. The council also authorized staff to forward the adopted materials (rule text, regulatory flexibility, impact statement and joint-committee information) to the governor’s office and the attorney general for review and potential filing.
Underhill said the rules are intended to conform council rules with recent statutory direction and to improve accountability for reporting to local courts, while reducing the in‑service hour requirement to align with legislative changes.
