Title I, Part A
Support for schools serving students from low-income families.
View funding source ↗Tennessee · Schools & districts
High-dosage tutoring for Tennessee schools.
Live, small-group virtual tutoring in K–12 math and ELA. Connect Tennessee’s literacy, learning acceleration, and RTI² priorities with focused instruction and student thinking that informs the next learning step.
A closer look at Tennessee
Your state’s priorities.
Your students’ next steps.
What Tennessee is prioritizing
State priorities.
Focused support.
Strong reading foundations. Access to grade-level learning. Responsive support that connects your classroom goals with students’ next instructional needs.
Official sources checked November 5, 2026
01Early literacy. Connect with the district’s reading plan.
Tennessee’s emphasis
Tennessee requires an approved Foundational Literacy Skills Plan for K–5. Its Literacy Success Act also calls for approved K–3 reading screening three times each year. The emphasis is early identification and a clear instructional response.
The Cignition connection
Bring the reading skills your students are developing and the instruction already in place. Review proposed tutoring tasks with your literacy team, then connect additional practice, language, and discussion with the school’s next learning goal.
02Learning acceleration. Keep grade-level content in view.
Tennessee’s emphasis
TN ALL Corps uses high-dosage, low-ratio tutoring to support access to grade-level learning. Its model connects upcoming concepts, practice, and timely skill support with core classroom instruction. Tennessee also has tutoring requirements tied to specified promotion pathways.
The Cignition connection
Protect recurring tutoring time and share your classroom learning sequence. Review student groups, proposed lessons, and assigned tutors’ preparation. If the program will serve a required promotion pathway, confirm its specific criteria with your district before arranging services.
03RTI². Make the next instructional decision clearer.
Tennessee’s emphasis
Tennessee’s Response to Instruction and Intervention resources connect screening, targeted support, and data-based decisions. Current tools include math skills support, reading intervention criteria, and resources for characteristics of dyslexia.
The Cignition connection
Start with the skill students need next and agree on the evidence your team will use. Review how tutoring fits the school’s RTI² plan, who will monitor progress, and how tutors and school staff will coordinate instructional next steps.
Our curriculum. Your instructional goals.
From a learning target
to student thinking.
Start with the skill your students need next. Connect the learning goal, the task, and the explanation that shows how a student is thinking.
The Tennessee connection · A closer look at instruction
From a learning need to the work students do.
Tennessee’s emphasis on foundational literacy, grade-level access, and intervention provides context for reviewing this sample. Examine how a learner connects sounds and print, responds to prompts, and practices a foundational reading skill.
Compare the task and prerequisites with your classroom sequence and student work.
Explore a sample lesson
Elementary literacy
ELA · K–5 sample. Open the student lesson to examine the tasks for yourself.
Open the elementary literacy sample ↗
What should we look for?
Consider how a learner connects sounds and print, responds to prompts, and practices a foundational reading skill. Which responses would help your team decide what the student understands and what to teach next?
How would this connect with our curriculum?
Compare the learning goal, task, language, and prerequisites with your classroom materials. Your school’s learning sequence and the students’ starting points guide that discussion.
How should we use this example?
This grade-band sample illustrates selected instruction. It has not been customized for Tennessee and is not a comprehensive state standards alignment. For a specific alignment question, share the standard and classroom materials with our team.
Inside a school partnership
A shared plan.
People to keep
it moving.
Cignition brings live virtual instruction, purpose-built lessons, a dedicated program manager, and participation and learning information. For example, a Tennessee school could connect supplemental reading instruction with the district’s Foundational Literacy Skills Plan and classroom sequence. Your school provides protected time, technology, and local support. This is a planning illustration; service eligibility and the agreed scope shape any partnership.
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Turn the instructional need into a workable plan.
Your school team
Identify the students and reading or math goals, share classroom and screening information, and protect recurring time. Your team names an onsite contact and checks devices, connectivity, and the proposed use of school funds.
The Cignition team
Your program manager coordinates planning with your school. Cignition prepares tutor assignments, small groups, instructional materials, and launch arrangements around your Tennessee school’s foundational literacy, grade-level access, and intervention.
Keep the session focused and students connected.
Your school team
Help students join on time, maintain a supervised learning space, and support participation or connection issues. Classroom teachers continue core instruction; tutoring provides additional targeted learning time.
The Cignition team
Experienced, carefully vetted tutors lead live virtual instruction using Cignition’s purpose-built curriculum, questions, models, and discussion. They respond to student work and record attendance, participation, and learning information.
Use the information. Keep the conversation going.
Your school team
Share classroom observations and school assessment context, review participation with your onsite contact, and identify questions about student learning or the routine.
The Cignition team
Your program manager shares participation and learning information and coordinates follow-up. Cignition’s instructional and implementation teams use that information with your school to consider grouping, learning targets, or scheduling adjustments.
Tennessee funding landscape
Understand the investment.
Find a relevant pathway.
Explore district Title I-A funds, TISA literacy resources, and current 21st CCLC and LEAPs awards. Start with the students, the approved activity, and the resources your district or grantee can use.
Selected federal funding for Tennessee
FY 2026 · Published statewide awards
Title II, Part A
Educator effectiveness and instructional capacity.
View funding source ↗Title III, Part A
English-language acquisition and support for English learners.
View funding source ↗21st Century Community Learning Centers
Academic enrichment during non-school hours.
View funding source ↗Read the TENNESSEE row and Fiscal Year 2026 column in each federal award table. Links highlight the row in supporting browsers. These are statewide allocations, not unspent local funds or a dedicated tutoring budget. Title II generally supports educator capacity. Confirm your district’s allocation, allowable use, and available balance before planning an expense.
Tennessee funding pathways
Funding reviewed November 10, 2026Additional instruction.
Start with the school’s plan.
Ongoing federal formula funding · Approved local use required
Who / what it supports
Tennessee’s Title I-A program supports schools serving students from low-income families. Schools use a schoolwide or targeted assistance model, which determines how services and participating students are selected.
Where tutoring could fit
Review additional math or literacy instruction against the school’s identified needs and approved plan. The federal programs team should determine whether the proposed tutoring activity fits the school’s program model and applicable funding requirements.
Practical next step: Confirm eligible students, the approved activity, available balance, required reservations, purchasing, and documentation. If the service will address a state-required tutoring pathway, review that pathway’s requirements separately.
Review Tennessee’s Title I-A guidance ↗A focus on reading.
Plan around the students served.
2026–27 formula funding · District budget decision
Who / what it supports
TISA includes direct funding for K–3 early literacy and eligible rising fourth graders needing additional reading support. The current guide uses third-grade ELA TCAP results to identify the rising-fourth-grade funding category.
Where tutoring could fit
The rising-fourth-grade category supports additional instruction, including tutoring or other interventions. Review the district’s allocation, approved budget, and student needs with your finance and instructional leads before planning the expense.
Practical next step: Ask your finance and instructional leads to confirm the applicable allocation, available resources, local spending plan, and required tutoring criteria before making a commitment.
Review Tennessee’s 2026–27 TISA guide ↗Learning beyond the bell.
Build on an existing award.
Current Tennessee grantees only · Approved program and budget
Who / what it supports
Tennessee’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers provide academic enrichment outside regular school hours, with a focus on students in high-poverty schools. Programs also include broader enrichment and services for participating families.
Where tutoring could fit
An existing grantee can review math or literacy tutoring as an academic component of its approved program. Keep it connected with school-day learning and the other activities the award requires.
Practical next step: Confirm the current award, approved students and schedule, budget, available balance, local supervision, and procurement. Have the grantee verify that the proposed virtual tutoring component is permitted before arranging services.
Explore Tennessee’s 21st CCLC program ↗A Tennessee after-school route.
Work with an awarded program.
FY 2027 program year · Existing LEAPs grantees only
Who / what it supports
Lottery for Education Afterschool Programs uses Tennessee lottery resources for academic enrichment. Awarded programs combine reading, math or science, technology, tutorial support, and other educational activities for eligible students ages 5–18.
Where tutoring could fit
A current grantee can consider tutorial support within its approved after-school program. The broader program has participation, scheduling, safety, and family-engagement requirements. Tutoring is one component of that program.
Practical next step: Confirm eligible participants, the current award and approved budget, available balance, allowable contracted services, and any approval needed for a virtual component. FY 2027 expenses must follow the award’s reimbursement and purchasing rules.
Review Tennessee’s LEAPs program guidance ↗Already awarded a TN Tutoring Grant?
Current district records include FY 2027 TN Tutoring Grant applications and budgets. If your district holds an award, start with its approved ePlan application and grant conditions. Confirm the permitted students, tutoring model, tutor preparation, service period, and contracted services before proposing a virtual program. A district award does not by itself approve Cignition. This is an existing-award planning route, not an open statewide application notice.
Tennessee · Program fit & purchasing
Start with fit.
Plan the details.
Define the role of tutoring within foundational literacy, grade-level math and ELA, RTI², or a required promotion pathway.
Match the program to the Tennessee requirements that apply. For a required promotion pathway, confirm student eligibility, tutor preparation, group size, session schedule, and reporting. Review the actual proposed service before treating it as a qualifying program.
Confirm the funding source, allowable activity, provider and staff requirements, purchasing, virtual supervision, and student-data protections with your district.
A few useful questions
What would you like to work through?
Start here, then bring the questions specific to your students and school.
How would tutoring connect with our literacy plan?
Share the reading skills your students are developing, the classroom materials in use, and the goals in your district’s Foundational Literacy Skills Plan. Your literacy team can review proposed tutoring tasks and agree on how student work will inform next steps. The school retains responsibility for required screening, plans, and family communication.
Can Cignition meet a required TN ALL Corps tutoring pathway?
That requires a program-specific review. Confirm student eligibility, tutor training, group size, session frequency, duration, reporting, and the permitted delivery arrangements with your district. Cignition’s general tutoring model does not automatically establish compliance with every required Tennessee pathway.
How would tutoring fit within our RTI² plan?
Start with the specific skills your school team has identified and the support already in place. Review proposed tutoring tasks, the information tutors will share, and how progress will inform your team’s decisions. Your district can determine how the tutoring plan fits its RTI² framework and any requirements that apply to the students served.
What does TISA’s rising-fourth-grade funding cover?
The 2026–27 TISA guide describes funding for eligible students needing additional literacy support based on third-grade ELA TCAP results. It can support tutoring or other interventions. Your district should confirm its allocation, approved spending plan, available funds, and the requirements of the students’ tutoring pathway.
Could our after-school grant support tutoring?
An existing 21st CCLC or LEAPs grantee can review tutoring as part of its approved academic program. Confirm the award period, eligible students, permitted schedule, budget, and service arrangements. For virtual tutoring, confirm any program approval and local supervision requirements. These are existing-award pathways, not open grant applications.
What if I’m looking for help for my own child?
This page focuses on school and district partnerships. For tutoring arranged directly by a family, explore Cignition’s family plans and discuss your child’s learning goals, grade level, and scheduling needs.
Your school’s next step
Let’s plan around
your students.
Planning around foundational literacy, grade-level access, and intervention? Request curriculum examples, implementation details, evidence, or funding information for your Tennessee school before deciding whether to book a call.
On our contact page, choose “Another question” for an information request or “School or district tutoring” to explore a program.