The purpose of this qualitative study is to determine how four rural school districts in East Tennessee worked to implement the third-grade retention law within their understanding and interpretation of the law to the benefit of the students and overall communities they serve. The study used a semi-structured questionnaire format conducted with a synchronous focus group of four participants using E-Interview technology. A systematic thematic analysis process was conducted of the resulting transcription using the modeling work of Naeem, Ozuem, and Ranfagni (2023). As a result, three themes emerged: (a) access to information related to the law, (b) strategies to implement the law, and (c) short-term and long-term challenges with implementation. The participants in the study discussed six specific strategies they used to implement the law with fidelity in their individual rural school districts. The strategies shared by the four participants included: communicating with learning communities, supporting learning communities, managing data analysis, changing grade-level formats, prioritizing tutoring services.?The conclusions of this study could be beneficial to rural districts in the implementation of future laws. This study added to the literature surrounding overall all third-grade retention law, the successful implementation of complex educational legislation, and in some limited fashion the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education in the state of Tennessee. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]