The Tennessee State Board of Education will take its first vote Friday on a new license endorsement for educators trained to help students who show characteristics of dyslexia.¶
The endorsement comes from Public Chapter 902, a law sponsored by Senator Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, and Representative Mark White, R-Memphis, that passed the Senate 32-0 and the House 96-0 this spring. It took effect July 1 and tells the board to create the endorsement for educators who provide intervention and other support to those students.¶
To qualify, an educator must hold the Certified Structured Literacy Dyslexia Interventionist credential. It’s issued by the Center for Effective Reading Instruction (CERI) in partnership with the International Dyslexia Association, and the law lets the board add its own requirements, such as more coursework or an exam.¶
The proposal before the board Friday adds “Dyslexia Interventionist” to the list of specialist endorsements in its licensure policy. Endorsements show the areas a licensed educator is prepared to teach or serve in.¶
The endorsement is optional. Under the law, educators without it can keep working with students who show characteristics of dyslexia if they’re otherwise authorized, and the board item makes the same point.¶
“Please note this credential is not required in order to provide instructional intervention, academic support, behavioral support, or related services to students demonstrating characteristics of dyslexia,” reads the board item.¶
The Tennessee Department of Education recommends that members accept the change on first reading, and its fiscal analysis finds no financial impact on school districts.¶
What the Credential Takes
CERI’s requirements start with a bachelor’s degree and 90 hours of coursework through a training partner accredited by the International Dyslexia Association. Half of those hours cover standards for teachers of reading, and half cover how to assess and teach decoding skills like phonics and fluency.¶
Candidates also complete a supervised practicum of at least 48 tutoring sessions over at least 24 weeks, and they must pass an exam. CERI charges $125 for a one-year certification and $165 for the exam, and educators renew it with 10 hours of continuing education a year.¶
CERI says interventionists with the credential typically work with individual students or small groups whose main need is learning to decode words.¶
Concerns About a Single Credential
A group called the Tennessee Dyslexia Collaboration started an online petition in June asking lawmakers to amend the law so that other established credentials also qualify for the endorsement.¶
“The new law does not prohibit other trained educators from providing dyslexia intervention, but it does place the weight of state statute behind a single private certifying organization,” wrote the group.¶
A position statement linked from the petition backs the goal of the law while objecting to how it was written.¶
“We applaud and support the General Assembly’s intent to clarify the qualifications and competencies required of professionals who provide dyslexia-specific instruction and intervention,” the statement begins.¶
The statement points to credentials from the Orton-Gillingham Academy and the Academic Language Therapy Association and describes both as requiring supervised practicums and graduate-level coursework. The group argues that naming only CERI’s credential could shrink the pool of qualified professionals, especially in districts already facing shortages, and raise costs for districts and educators. Its proposed amendment would keep CERI’s credential as one of several that qualify.¶
CERI also offers an alternate route for educators whose training didn’t come through one of the International Dyslexia Association’s accredited partners. They must pass the same exam and submit a portfolio documenting their tutoring work.¶
What It Means for Families
Since 2016, Tennessee’s “Say Dyslexia” law has required school districts to screen every student for characteristics of dyslexia and to provide dyslexia-specific intervention to students who need it. Public Chapter 902 leaves that requirement in place.¶
Parents get a letter when their child shows those characteristics and needs intervention. A department guide for parents says the letter doesn’t mean a child has dyslexia, but it does mean the child is struggling with a foundational reading skill, like sounding out words, and will get extra help in a small group.¶
The board meets at 9 a.m. Friday at the Alvin C. York Agricultural Institute in Jamestown, and the public can watch online. The agenda also includes final votes on computer science standards, teacher licensing test options, and public charter school and virtual school rules.¶
Under board policy, changes to its policies normally take two readings, so if members accept it Friday, the endorsement would come back for a final vote at a later meeting. The board’s first scheduled meeting of 2027 is February 26.¶
