Last verified: October 2026
What do Tennessee's five private school categories mean?
Think of the five categories as five doors into state approval. Category I is TDOE's own door, with licensed teachers required (a special-purpose variant, I-SP, exists for programs serving children in residential or short-term placements); Category II comes through an accrediting agency the State Board of Education has authorized; Category III comes through a regional accreditor such as Cognia or SAIS; Category IV is the church-school door, through membership in an association Tennessee law names; and Category V is a second direct TDOE door whose teachers must hold at least a bachelor's degree.
TDOE takes Category I and Category V applications in a January-to-May window every year.
Which categories can accept EFS in Knoxville?
Categories I, II and III, provided the school also signs up for the year in question. The IEA goes further and covers all five.
In TDOE's 2026-27 directory, 56 of the 92 records in the four counties hold at least one of Categories I-III, 30 hold Category IV alone and 6 hold Category V alone.
Does accreditation make a Knoxville school EFS-eligible automatically?
Not on its own. An accreditor can carry a school into Category II or III, yet the school still has to sign up for EFS each year, and a handful of accredited Knoxville-area schools skipped 2026-27. The next sign-up runs November 16, 2026 to April 30, 2027.
A Category I school, by contrast, can register without any outside accreditor.
What rules apply to every Tennessee private school?
A few rules bind them all: background checks for adults near children, a 180-day year of 6.5-hour days, an enrollment report to the local district and, outside Category IV, a floor of ten school-age students. Every category except IV also tests grades 3-11 in English and math on a nationally normed exam.
Students moving from a Category IV or V school into another school may face placement testing.
| Category | How approved | EFS | IEA |
|---|---|---|---|
| I (and I-SP) | Direct TDOE application | Yes | Yes |
| II | SBE-authorized accrediting agency | Yes | Yes |
| III | Regional accreditor (Cognia, SAIS and others) | Yes | Yes |
| IV | Church-related association in state law | No | Yes |
| V | Direct TDOE application | No | Yes |
Where does a Knoxville family go from here?
Send us five answers in the funding check. A counselor then tells you, for your child specifically, which Tennessee program to apply for, how much it should pay and the very next deadline.