What do you need to qualify as a lead trainer in a Yoga Alliance Registered Yoga School 200 (RYS 200)?
If you visited the Yoga Alliance website about opening a RYS-200, it’s highly likely you left with wrong information or confused about why the website is different than the information you’ve heard. Why is this happening? The Yoga Alliance website info for registering a RYS is outdated and instead of updating the website, YA is sharing the updates in their Alliance newsletter.
The biggest misinformation is about the Lead Trainer credentials for the 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training.
So we did some fact-checking with Yoga Alliance to get the most current requirements and shared it in the video here.
See the Yoga Trainer Standards and Changes in Writing
You may be especially interested to see that Yoga Alliance has extended the up-level of the Lead Trainer till 2025! Watch here to see who can be a Lead Trainer in a 200 Hour RYS with the E-RYT 200 credential.
Who can be a Lead Trainer in a Yoga Alliance Teacher Training (RYS)?
Guess what? If you’re a E-RYT 200, you can still be the lead trainer of your own yoga school, according to Yoga Alliance, we got this clarification just last week. They have finally confirmed that they have extended their deadline for their lead trainer requirements.
We love that extension because it was really confusing. We were getting a lot of emails about the credentials, so we finally emailed the credentialing team and asked how long people with the E-RYT 200 designation can be the lead trainer in a Registered Yoga School 200 (RYS200). W also wanted to know if there any differences if you already have a school, or if you want a new school.
We had a Zoom with Yoga Alliance in the summer, and they had said the Lead Trainer up-level was extended, but they still hadn’t updated their website, it’s confusing people!
Yoga Alliance Lead Trainer Credentials and Extensions
Yoga Alliance replied on October 3rd that the lead trainer for the upcoming programs will only need to hold the ERYT 200 credential rather than the ERYT 500 credential. However, by January 1st, 2025, all lead trainers will be required to have the ERYT 500 credential.
They sent that email directly to us and then a couple of days later a newsletter came from Yoga Alliance on October 7th. If you don’t get Yoga Alliance emails you would have missed it.
The Newsletter says: The lead trainer up-leveling deadline has been extended. We recently announced that the required up level date for lead trainers has been extended from December 31st, 2023 to December 31st, 2024.
Lead Trainers have till 2025 to up-level their Qualifications
That’s really great news because if you have been thinking about becoming the lead trainer in your own RYS200, or you currently are the lead trainer in your own RYS. A lot of us were looking at that December 31st, 2023 deadline. And we were hoping for an extension from Yoga Alliance, and this is the first time we have seen it officially confirmed.
We had to email to ask Yoga Alliance this and if the only way they are communicating these changes is through their emails and their newsletters then people might miss it. You’ve got to watch this really carefully, it’s really easy to miss.
Yoga Alliance Yoga Teacher Training Requirements
The Yoga Alliance website still has not been updated to reflect this extension and it’s October 2023 now! We thought this was important to share with everybody.
Yoga Alliance Lead Trainer Requirements
We’re not surprised people are confused by the website which still says that by February 2022, the elevated standards of ERYT 500 will be in place. Even the fine print is out of date and says the up level to the enhanced standards will need to happen by December 31st, 2023.
You don’t have to be an E-RYT 500, as we had confirmed in the email and the Yoga Alliance newsletter, but you wouldn’t know it from the Yoga Alliance website.
That’s really frustrating because if you’re thinking about starting your own RYS-200, the first place you would check is the Yoga Alliance website. It’s really strange that Yoga Alliance has not updated that information.
We got this information in writing and shared it in the video.
Lead Trainer requirements in RYS: E-RYT 200
If you’re thinking about starting your own yoga school and you’re an E-RYT 200, you still have a year to run a training and also upgrade to the E-RYT 500 by 2025. A lot of trainers are already working on up-leveling to E-RYT 500 now, and you can breathe a little easier knowing that you’ve got until 2025 to complete it.
You can submit your RYS 200 application to Yoga Alliance on your own, or we can help you with the Yoga Trainer Fast Track. This will give you time to upgrade your credentials without trying to also write a yoga teacher training.
What Is Your Yoga Alliance Experience?
Leave a comment and let us know what you think about the Yoga Alliance website, communication, or policies. Are we the only ones who get confused?