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Party labels in Tennessee school board elections
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| Tennessee overview: • Election dates: Varies |
| Key policies: • Election dates and timing • Party labels on the ballot |
| Key terms • On-cycle elections • Off-cycle elections • Off-year elections • Off-date elections • Party labels • Partisan elections • Nonpartisan elections |
School board elections in Tennessee can be partisan — which means candidates can be nominated by political parties and are displayed on the ballot with party labels — or nonpartisan — which means candidates are displayed on the ballot without party labels.
See law: Tennessee Code Section 49-2-201 and Section 2-13-203
There were 141 public school districts in Tennessee with a total of 984 school board member seats as of 2022. Those school districts operated a total of 1,843 schools serving 1,001,916 students.
Tennessee is one of five states with state laws allowing both partisan and nonpartisan school board elections.
The information in this page was last updated in 2022. Please email editor@ballotpedia.org with any updates, corrections, exceptions, or improvements.
Tennessee state law governing party labels on the ballot for school board elections
School board elections in Tennessee can be partisan — which means candidates can be nominated by political parties and are displayed on the ballot with party labels — or nonpartisan — which means candidates are displayed on the ballot without party labels. Tennessee Code states, "If at least one (1) county primary board of a political party elects to conduct school board elections on a partisan basis, then a person seeking a position on any board in that county may campaign as the nominee or representative of a political party, and political parties may nominate candidates for membership on the board." Legislation was enacted in 2021 to allow partisan elections. Before 2021, Tennessee school board elections were all nonpartisan without party labels.
See law: Tennessee Code Section 49-2-201 and Section 2-13-203
Examples of how school board candidates appear on the ballot in Tennessee
Below is an excerpt from a general election sample ballot in Tennessee featuring partisan school board elections.
How does Tennessee compare to other states?
Across the country, there are 13,187 public school districts governed by a total of 83,183 school board members. They are elected directly by voters except for a small handful of exceptions who are appointed.
As of July 2025, over 85% of school boards are elected without any party labels on the ballot identifying the candidates' affiliation with a political party. State laws in five states containing 1,169 school districts (9%) provide for party labels on the ballot for school board elections. In five states containing 554 districts (4%), state laws effectively provide for both the option of including or not including party labels on the ballot for school board elections. In the remaining states with elected local school board members, state law provides for school board elections without the inclusion of party labels on the ballot.
Elections in which party labels are included on the ballot are referred to as partisan elections. Elections in which party labels are not included on the ballot are referred to as nonpartisan elections.
The state laws of 40 states containing 11,472 school districts provide for school board elections without party labels identifying the affiliation of candidates listed on the ballot (nonpartisan elections).
State laws of five states provide for school board elections with party labels identifying the affiliation of candidates listed on the ballot (partisan elections):
State laws of five states containing 554 school districts effectively provide both options depending on the district. The details and the number of districts that fall in each category vary among the states. Those five states are:
See also
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School board election rules: |
School board election coverage: |
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Footnotes
