Tennessee Schools Must Let Your RBT In. Bring an MOU and Proof of Insurance.

Tennessee signed Public Chapter 1112 on May 22, 2026. It takes effect “upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it, and applies to the 2026-2027 school year and each school year thereafter.” That school year started weeks ago, so this is a standing obligation, not one arriving.

The headline is straightforward. Under the new Section 49-10-1502(a), LEAs and public charter schools “shall allow” a private pay provider under contract with the parent of a student with autism spectrum disorder or developmental delays access to that student during the school day, “in educational settings, including, but not limited to, classroom settings,” provided the setting does not conflict with the student's educational placement.

The door is narrower than the practice act

The turn is in the definitions. Section 49-10-1501(5) defines a “private pay provider” as a licensed behavior analyst, a registered behavior technician, or a licensed assistant behavior analyst who is not employed or contracted by the school and is paid by the family or an external entity. Subdivision (7) then defines a registered behavior technician as a paraprofessional “certified by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board.”

Compare that with Tennessee's practice act. Section 63-11-306 exempts eight categories from ABA licensure, and the second is “unlicensed persons who deliver applied behavior analysis (ABA) services under the extended authority and direction of an LBA or an LABA” supervised by an LBA. A technician with no license and no BACB certification may lawfully deliver ABA in a family's living room in Tennessee. That same person is not a private pay provider and does not have a right of entry to a classroom.

What the school owes, and what it does not

Section 49-10-1502(f) requires reasonable accommodations, “including, but not limited to, providing classroom access and facilitating coordination between the private pay provider and school personnel.” Subsection (g) says an LEA or public charter school shall not:

• Charge a fee, or “impose conditions or place barriers that may hinder or prevent private pay providers from accessing a student during the school day” — with the proviso that the services are “aligned with the student's educational and developmental needs.”
• Discriminate against or deny educational benefits to a student receiving the services.
• Retaliate against a student, parent, or provider.
• Be held responsible for the cost of the services, for constructing special facilities, or for buying equipment beyond what is customarily available at that school.

Subsection (h) requires each LEA to adopt a policy operationalizing all of this, covering scheduling and coordination with the IEP team, professional expectations in a classroom, a process for discontinuing or terminating services for cause, whether a provider may interact with other people on school property, and a local appeal process for parents. The department is directed to publish guidelines, best practices and model agreements.

What the provider owes

Everything else. Under subsection (b), before any services, the provider coordinates with the IEP team and school staff where appropriate and “execute[s] a memorandum of understanding with the LEA or public charter school.” Under subsection (i), the provider must:

• Comply with the background investigation requirements of Section 49-5-413.
• Provide proof of licensure, certification, and “professional insurance that covers the school as an additional insured party” before providing any services on school premises.
• Follow the same student confidentiality rules that school employees follow.

Subsection (e) puts supervision on a named person: a licensed behavior analyst, privately compensated by the family or an external entity, supervises the services delivered during the school day, including those delivered by an assistant analyst or technician, “in accordance with national certification standards.” Subsection (d) requires the parent's written consent to the school, and that consent must include a waiver of the school's liability arising “solely from the acts or omissions of the private pay provider.” The school's own negligence is not waived.

The limits

Subsection (c) draws a hard line around the IEP: private pay services “must supplement, but not supplant” IEP requirements, “must not be used to meet” them, and do not reduce the school's obligation to provide FAPE. Work billed as satisfying an IEP goal is outside this statute.

The district's own policy is where this actually operates, and every district writes its own, including the for-cause termination process and the appeal route. The bar on barriers carries the alignment proviso, which is a judgment the district makes. We have not seen the department's guidelines or model agreements published yet, so the first Tennessee MOUs are being written without them.

What you must know or do

• Get an MOU executed with each district before anyone enters a building. Section 49-10-1502(b)(2) makes it a precondition, not paperwork to follow up on. One per LEA, not one per family.
• Call your insurer this week about additional insured endorsements. Proof of insurance covering the school as an additional insured is required before services on premises, and an endorsement is not same-day. Every district you serve is a separate certificate.
• Run Section 49-5-413 background investigations on every person who will go on site. BACB certification does not satisfy it, and the statute makes it the provider's obligation, not the school's.
• Check your school-bound roster against the definition, not against your payroll. LBA, LaBA, or BACB-certified RBT. A technician working lawfully under the Section 63-11-306(2) exemption in homes cannot go into a classroom under this statute.
• Name the supervising LBA in the MOU, and confirm that person is the one privately compensated. Subsection (e) attaches supervision to that specific role, and a supervisor employed by the school does not fill it.
• Get the parent's written consent, with the liability waiver, filed with the LEA before the first session. It goes to the school, not into your clinical record.
• Ask each district for its subsection (h) policy now. If it does not have one, that is a September conversation. Finding out in November that the district's for-cause termination process was written without you is worse.