Specialty Grandparenting Ending in 2016

In summer 2014, Yoga Alliance Registry’s Standards Committee made a series of changes including updates to our Continuing Education Requirement and a decision to end specialty grandparenting options for Registered Children’s Yoga Teachers (RCYT®s) and Registered Prenatal Yoga Teachers (RPYT®s). These grandparenting options were developed in 2010 with the intention of establishing qualified Lead Trainers to conduct children’s and prenatal teacher training programs.

Effective January 1, 2016, both specialty grandparenting options for RCYTs and RPYTs are no longer available.

Why is it Ending?

In October 2010, when we first published the Standards for the RCYT and RPYT, we found ourselves in a common chicken-and-egg conundrum that many in the credentialing industry face when developing new credentials: you cannot launch new programs without first grandparenting in people to lead them. Until these training programs were available and teachers successfully completed them, there would be no one eligible for the RCYT or RPYT credentials, and therefore no one eligible to hold the role of Lead Trainer to run the programs at these schools in the first place!

The solution to this challenge (which is not unique to yoga or Yoga Alliance®) is to award designations through grandparenting in the early stages of a credential. However, grandparenting options such as these are intended to be stop-gap solutions and reevaluated at a later time once the credential and the profession have evolved as a result of the improved criteria.

As of January 1, 2016, we hold everyone to the same high standard to achieve the RCYT or RPYT credential.