diff --git a/codecov.yml b/codecov.yml
index b4810bfa4..c85268b4c 100644
--- a/codecov.yml
+++ b/codecov.yml
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 codecov:
   require_ci_to_pass: yes
+  notify:
+    wait_for_ci: true
 
 coverage:
   precision: 2
diff --git a/src/axolotl/core/trainer_builder.py b/src/axolotl/core/trainer_builder.py
index a51211263..44f8c5d2b 100755
--- a/src/axolotl/core/trainer_builder.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/core/trainer_builder.py
@@ -932,9 +932,6 @@ class HFCausalTrainerBuilder(TrainerBuilderBase):
                 collator = DataCollatorForSeq2Seq
 
         kwargs["return_tensors"] = "pt"
-        if issubclass(collator, DataCollatorForSeq2Seq):
-            kwargs["sequence_parallel_degree"] = training_args.sequence_parallel_degree
-            kwargs["ring_attn_func"] = training_args.ring_attn_func
 
         return collator(
             *collator_args,
diff --git a/src/axolotl/core/trainers/base.py b/src/axolotl/core/trainers/base.py
index fd72cd6db..3864903a5 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/core/trainers/base.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/core/trainers/base.py
@@ -371,13 +371,15 @@ class AxolotlTrainer(
                 num_items_in_batch=num_items_in_batch,
             )
 
-        return super().compute_loss(
+        loss = super().compute_loss(
             model,
             inputs,
             return_outputs=return_outputs,
             num_items_in_batch=num_items_in_batch,
         )
 
+        return loss
+
     @staticmethod
     def orpo_concatenate_inputs(inputs, label_pad_token=-100, pad_token=0, device=None):
         concatenated_batch = {}
diff --git a/src/axolotl/core/trainers/mixins/__init__.py b/src/axolotl/core/trainers/mixins/__init__.py
index 44751b465..6e4b3e4d0 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/core/trainers/mixins/__init__.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/core/trainers/mixins/__init__.py
@@ -6,4 +6,4 @@
 from .optimizer import OptimizerMixin
 from .rng_state_loader import RngLoaderMixin
 from .scheduler import SchedulerMixin
-from .sequence_parallel import SequenceParallelMixin
+from .sequence_parallel import SequenceParallelContextManager, SequenceParallelMixin
diff --git a/src/axolotl/core/trainers/mixins/sequence_parallel.py b/src/axolotl/core/trainers/mixins/sequence_parallel.py
index 3930c6cb3..362acb88e 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/core/trainers/mixins/sequence_parallel.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/core/trainers/mixins/sequence_parallel.py
@@ -1,16 +1,86 @@
-"""Module for Axolotl trainer sequence parallelism mixin"""
+"""
+Module for Axolotl trainer sequence parallelism mixin and training context manager
+"""
 
+import functools
 import logging
 
+import torch
 import torch.distributed as dist
 from datasets import Dataset
+from torch import nn
 from torch.utils.data import DistributedSampler, Sampler
+from torch.utils.hooks import RemovableHandle
 
-from axolotl.monkeypatch.attention.ring_attn import get_ring_attn_group
+from axolotl.monkeypatch.attention.ring_attn import (
+    RingAttnFunc,
+    get_ring_attn_group,
+    update_ring_attn_params,
+)
 
 LOG = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
+def apply_sequence_parallelism(
+    batch: dict[str, torch.Tensor],
+    local_rank: int,
+    local_world_size: int,
+    ring_attn_func: RingAttnFunc,
+) -> dict[str, torch.Tensor]:
+    """
+    Apply sequence parallelism slicing to a batch.
+
+    Args:
+        batch: Batch dictionary (e.g., input_ids, attention_mask, etc.)
+        local_rank: Local rank in the sequence parallel group
+        local_world_size: World size of the sequence parallel group
+        ring_attn_func: The ring attention function to use
+
+    Returns:
+        Sliced batch dictionary.
+    """
+    # Update ring attention params if needed
+    if batch.get("position_ids") is not None:
+        update_ring_attn_params(position_ids=batch["position_ids"])
+
+    # Slice batch for sequence parallel processing
+    total_seq_len = batch["input_ids"].size(1)
+    for key in batch:
+        if (
+            key in batch
+            and isinstance(batch[key], torch.Tensor)
+            and batch[key].dim() > 1
+            and batch[key].size(1) == total_seq_len
+        ):
+
+            if ring_attn_func in [
+                RingAttnFunc.VARLEN_LLAMA3,
+                RingAttnFunc.BATCH_RING,
+            ]:
+                # Split in sequential fashion and grab this rank's chunk
+                batch[key] = (
+                    batch[key].chunk(local_world_size, dim=1)[local_rank].contiguous()
+                )
+            elif ring_attn_func is RingAttnFunc.BATCH_ZIGZAG:
+                chunks = batch[key].chunk(2 * local_world_size, dim=1)
+
+                # Take rank's chunk and opposing chunk for zigzag pattern
+                selected_chunks = [
+                    chunks[local_rank],
+                    chunks[2 * local_world_size - local_rank - 1],
+                ]
+                batch[key] = torch.cat(selected_chunks, dim=1).contiguous()
+            elif ring_attn_func is RingAttnFunc.BATCH_STRIPE:
+                # Split into striped data and stack
+                tensor = torch.stack(
+                    batch[key].split(local_world_size, dim=1),
+                    dim=1,
+                ).transpose(1, 2)
+                batch[key] = tensor[:, local_rank].contiguous()
+
+    return batch
+
+
 class SequenceParallelMixin:
     """
     Mixin class for sequence parallelism support in trainers.
@@ -87,3 +157,157 @@ class SequenceParallelMixin:
         return self._create_sequence_parallel_sampler(
             eval_dataset, shuffle=False, is_eval=True
         )
+
+
+class SequenceParallelContextManager:
+    """
+    Context manager for sequence parallelism operations.
+
+    This class provides a context that will automatically apply sequence parallelism
+    during model forward passes using a pre-forward hook, and gather outputs from
+    across the sequence parallelism group using a post-forward hook.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        model: nn.Module,
+        sequence_parallel_degree: int,
+        ring_attn_func: RingAttnFunc,
+    ):
+        self.model = model
+        self.sequence_parallel_degree = sequence_parallel_degree
+        self.ring_attn_func = ring_attn_func
+        self.process_group = get_ring_attn_group()
+
+        # Initialize sequence parallel group details
+        self.local_rank = dist.get_rank(self.process_group)
+        self.local_world_size = dist.get_world_size(self.process_group)
+
+        # Will store hook handles for removal
+        self.hook_handles: list[RemovableHandle] = []
+
+        # Create a partially applied version of the apply_sequence_parallelism function
+        # with pre-configured params
+        self.apply_sequence_parallelism = functools.partial(
+            apply_sequence_parallelism,
+            local_rank=self.local_rank,
+            local_world_size=self.local_world_size,
+            ring_attn_func=self.ring_attn_func,
+        )
+
+    def __enter__(self):
+        # Forward pre-hook to apply sequence parallelism
+        def sequence_parallel_pre_hook(_, args, kwargs):
+            # Apply sequence parallelism to kwargs
+            kwargs = self.apply_sequence_parallelism(batch=kwargs)
+            return args, kwargs
+
+        # Forward post-hook to gather outputs
+        def sequence_parallel_post_hook(_, __, output):
+            # Gather the sharded outputs
+            return self.gather_outputs(output)
+
+        # Register both hooks
+        self.hook_handles.append(
+            self.model.register_forward_pre_hook(
+                sequence_parallel_pre_hook, with_kwargs=True
+            )
+        )
+        self.hook_handles.append(
+            self.model.register_forward_hook(sequence_parallel_post_hook)
+        )
+
+        return self
+
+    def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_val, exc_tb):
+        # Remove all hooks
+        for handle in self.hook_handles:
+            handle.remove()
+        self.hook_handles = []
+
+    def gather_outputs(self, output):
+        """Gather sharded outputs from all ranks and reconstruct the full tensor."""
+        # Handle different output formats (dict, tensor, etc.)
+        if isinstance(output, dict):
+            gathered_output = {}
+            for key, value in output.items():
+                if isinstance(value, torch.Tensor) and value.dim() > 1:
+                    # Gather logits or other sequence-sharded tensors
+                    gathered_value = self.gather_tensor(value)
+                    gathered_output[key] = gathered_value
+                else:
+                    gathered_value = value.clone()
+                    dist.all_reduce(
+                        gathered_value, op=dist.ReduceOp.SUM, group=self.process_group
+                    )
+                    gathered_output[key] = gathered_value
+            return gathered_output
+        if isinstance(output, torch.Tensor):
+            return self.gather_tensor(output)
+
+        return output
+
+    def gather_tensor(self, tensor):
+        """Gather a sharded tensor from all ranks."""
+        # Prepare tensors for all_gather
+        world_size = self.local_world_size
+
+        # Create list to store tensors from all ranks
+        gathered_tensors = [torch.zeros_like(tensor) for _ in range(world_size)]
+
+        # All-gather operation
+        dist.all_gather(gathered_tensors, tensor, group=self.process_group)
+
+        # Concatenate along sequence dimension (typically dim=1)
+        if self.ring_attn_func in [RingAttnFunc.VARLEN_LLAMA3, RingAttnFunc.BATCH_RING]:
+            # Simple concatenation for standard sharding
+            return torch.cat(gathered_tensors, dim=1)
+
+        if self.ring_attn_func is RingAttnFunc.BATCH_ZIGZAG:
+            # Each rank has a pattern of (rank, world_size*2-rank-1)
+            reconstituted_tensors = [None] * (world_size * 2)
+
+            # First, split each gathered tensor into its two chunks
+            for rank, gathered_tensor in enumerate(gathered_tensors):
+                # Each tensor contains two chunks in the sequence dimension
+                chunk_size = gathered_tensor.size(1) // 2
+                chunk1, chunk2 = gathered_tensor.split(chunk_size, dim=1)
+
+                # Place chunks in their original positions
+                reconstituted_tensors[rank] = chunk1
+                reconstituted_tensors[world_size * 2 - rank - 1] = chunk2
+
+            # Concatenate the reconstituted tensors in the correct order
+            return torch.cat(reconstituted_tensors, dim=1)
+
+        # Otherwise, RingAttnFunc.BATCH_STRIPE
+        # In striping, each rank has every world_size-th slice
+        batch_size = tensor.size(0)
+        hidden_dim = tensor.size(-1)
+
+        # First, determine the full sequence length
+        total_seq_len = 0
+        for t in gathered_tensors:
+            total_seq_len += t.size(1)
+
+        # Create a tensor to hold the unstriped result
+        result = torch.zeros(
+            batch_size,
+            total_seq_len,
+            hidden_dim,
+            dtype=tensor.dtype,
+            device=tensor.device,
+        )
+
+        # For each rank's tensor, distribute its slices to the correct positions
+        for rank, gathered_tensor in enumerate(gathered_tensors):
+            # The rank's tensor contains every world_size-th slice
+            # starting from its rank position
+            seq_len = gathered_tensor.size(1)
+            for i in range(seq_len):
+                # Calculate the position in the full tensor
+                pos = i * world_size + rank
+                if pos < total_seq_len:
+                    result[:, pos] = gathered_tensor[:, i]
+
+        return result
diff --git a/src/axolotl/train.py b/src/axolotl/train.py
index e003c8b67..d116ea4fd 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/train.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/train.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import os
 import signal
 import sys
 import weakref
+from contextlib import nullcontext
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Any, Dict
 
@@ -25,6 +26,9 @@ from axolotl.contribs.lgpl import (  # pylint: disable = no-name-in-module
     fix_untrained_tokens,
 )
 from axolotl.core.trainer_builder import HFCausalTrainerBuilder, HFRLTrainerBuilder
+from axolotl.core.trainers.mixins.sequence_parallel import (
+    SequenceParallelContextManager,
+)
 from axolotl.logging_config import configure_logging
 from axolotl.utils.dict import DictDefault
 from axolotl.utils.distributed import cleanup_distributed
@@ -185,16 +189,28 @@ def execute_training(
         trainer: The configured trainer object.
         resume_from_checkpoint: Path to checkpoint to resume from, if applicable.
     """
-    LOG.info("Starting trainer...")
-    if cfg.flash_optimum:
-        with torch.backends.cuda.sdp_kernel(
-            # TODO configure these from the YAML w/ sdp_kernel_kwargs: ...
+    # Define the context managers to use
+    flash_context = (
+        torch.backends.cuda.sdp_kernel(
             enable_flash=True,
             enable_math=True,
             enable_mem_efficient=True,
-        ):
-            trainer.train(resume_from_checkpoint=resume_from_checkpoint)
-    else:
+        )
+        if cfg.flash_optimum
+        else nullcontext()
+    )
+    sequence_parallel_context = (
+        SequenceParallelContextManager(
+            model=trainer.model,
+            sequence_parallel_degree=cfg.sequence_parallel_degree,
+            ring_attn_func=cfg.ring_attn_func,
+        )
+        if cfg.sequence_parallel_degree > 1
+        else nullcontext()
+    )
+
+    LOG.info("Starting trainer...")
+    with flash_context, sequence_parallel_context:
         trainer.train(resume_from_checkpoint=resume_from_checkpoint)
 
 
diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/collators/batching.py b/src/axolotl/utils/collators/batching.py
index 738ef0dc5..45facf832 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/collators/batching.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/collators/batching.py
@@ -1,20 +1,12 @@
-"""
-Data collators for axolotl to pad labels and position_ids for packed sequences. Also
-includes logic for handling sequence parallelism collation.
-"""
+"""Data collators for axolotl to pad labels and position_ids for packed sequences"""
 
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 from typing import Any
 
 import numpy as np
-import torch
-import torch.distributed as dist
 from transformers import PreTrainedTokenizerBase
 from transformers.utils import PaddingStrategy
 
-from axolotl.monkeypatch.attention.ring_attn import update_ring_attn_params
-from axolotl.monkeypatch.attention.ring_attn.patch import RingAttnFunc
-
 
 @dataclass
 class DataCollatorForSeq2Seq:
@@ -49,8 +41,6 @@ class DataCollatorForSeq2Seq:
             The id to use when padding the labels (-100 will be automatically ignored by PyTorch loss functions).
         return_tensors (`str`):
             The type of Tensor to return. Allowable values are "np", "pt" and "tf".
-        sequence_parallel_degree (`int`):
-            The degree of sequence parallelism. Default to 1 for no sequence parallelism.
     """
 
     tokenizer: PreTrainedTokenizerBase
@@ -61,17 +51,6 @@ class DataCollatorForSeq2Seq:
     label_pad_token_id: int = -100
     position_pad_token_id: int = 0
     return_tensors: str = "pt"
-    sequence_parallel_degree: int = 1
-    ring_attn_func: RingAttnFunc | None = None
-
-    def __post_init__(self):
-        if self.sequence_parallel_degree > 1:
-            from axolotl.monkeypatch.attention.ring_attn import get_ring_attn_group
-
-            # Get information about our position in the SP group
-            sp_group = get_ring_attn_group()
-            self.local_rank = dist.get_rank(group=sp_group)
-            self.local_world_size = dist.get_world_size(group=sp_group)
 
     def __call__(self, features, return_tensors=None):
         has_attn_mask = "attention_mask" in features[0].keys()
@@ -141,62 +120,8 @@ class DataCollatorForSeq2Seq:
             )
             features["decoder_input_ids"] = decoder_input_ids
 
-        if self.sequence_parallel_degree > 1:
-            features = self.apply_sequence_parallelism(features)
-
         return features
 
-    def apply_sequence_parallelism(
-        self, batch: dict[str, torch.Tensor]
-    ) -> torch.Tensor:
-        """
-        Apply sequence parallelism slicing to a batch.
-
-        Args:
-            batch: Batch dictionary from parent collator.
-
-        Returns:
-            Sliced batch dictionary.
-        """
-        # Get local (start, end) for sequence parallelism slicing
-        total_seq_len = batch["input_ids"].size(1)
-
-        # Update params for varlen ring attention calculation
-        if batch.get("position_ids") is not None:
-            update_ring_attn_params(position_ids=batch["position_ids"])
-
-        # Slice batch for sequence parallel processing
-        for key in batch:
-            if batch[key].size(1) == total_seq_len:
-                if self.ring_attn_func in [
-                    RingAttnFunc.VARLEN_LLAMA3,
-                    RingAttnFunc.BATCH_RING,
-                ]:
-                    batch[key] = (
-                        batch[key]
-                        .chunk(self.local_world_size, dim=1)[self.local_rank]
-                        .contiguous()
-                    )
-                elif self.ring_attn_func is RingAttnFunc.BATCH_ZIGZAG:
-                    chunks = batch[key].chunk(2 * self.local_world_size, dim=1)
-
-                    # Take rank's chunk and opposing chunk for zigzag pattern
-                    selected_chunks = [
-                        chunks[self.local_rank],
-                        chunks[2 * self.local_world_size - self.local_rank - 1],
-                    ]
-                    batch[key] = torch.cat(selected_chunks, dim=1).contiguous()
-                elif self.ring_attn_func is RingAttnFunc.BATCH_STRIPE:
-                    # TODO(djsaunde): This doesn't seem to work as expected
-                    # Split into striped data and stack
-                    tensor = torch.stack(
-                        batch[key].split(self.local_world_size, dim=1),
-                        dim=1,
-                    ).transpose(1, 2)
-                    batch[key] = tensor[:, self.local_rank].contiguous()
-
-        return batch
-
 
 @dataclass
 class BatchSamplerDataCollatorForSeq2Seq(DataCollatorForSeq2Seq):
diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/config/__init__.py b/src/axolotl/utils/config/__init__.py
index b527dce08..e5ea44aa0 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/config/__init__.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/config/__init__.py
@@ -126,9 +126,6 @@ def normalize_config(cfg):
             with open(ds_config_path, encoding="utf-8") as f:
                 cfg.deepspeed = json.load(f)
 
-    if cfg.sequence_parallel_degree is None:
-        cfg.sequence_parallel_degree = 1
-
     if cfg.saves_per_epoch:
         save_steps = 1.0 / (cfg.saves_per_epoch * cfg.num_epochs)
         if save_steps < 1.0:  # prevent saves on every step
diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/schemas/config.py b/src/axolotl/utils/schemas/config.py
index 732ae60cf..f68d160df 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/schemas/config.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/schemas/config.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ from pydantic import (
 )
 from transformers.utils.import_utils import is_torch_npu_available
 
+from axolotl.utils.distributed import is_main_process
 from axolotl.utils.schemas.datasets import (
     DatasetConfig,
     DPODataset,
@@ -718,9 +719,10 @@ class AxolotlInputConfig(
             and data.get("eval_sample_packing") is None
             and not data.get("eval_table_size")
         ):
-            LOG.info(
-                "explicitly setting `eval_sample_packing` to match `sample_packing`"
-            )
+            if is_main_process():
+                LOG.info(
+                    "explicitly setting `eval_sample_packing` to match `sample_packing`"
+                )
             data["eval_sample_packing"] = True
 
         if (
@@ -1149,22 +1151,17 @@ class AxolotlInputConfig(
 
         return data
 
-    @field_validator("sequence_parallel_degree", mode="after")
-    @classmethod
-    def check_sequence_parallel_degree(cls, value, info):
-        if not value:
-            value = 1
-
-        if value > 1:
-            if not info.data.get("flash_attention"):
+    @model_validator(mode="after")
+    def check_sequence_parallel_degree(self):
+        if not self.sequence_parallel_degree:
+            self.sequence_parallel_degree = 1
+        elif self.sequence_parallel_degree > 1:
+            if not self.flash_attention:
                 raise ValueError(
                     "flash_attention: true must be set with sequence_parallel_degree > 1"
                 )
 
-            if (
-                info.data.get("sample_packing")
-                and not info.data["micro_batch_size"] == 1
-            ):
+            if self.sample_packing and self.micro_batch_size > 1:
                 raise ValueError(
                     "micro_batch_size must be set to 1 when sample_packing is enabled"
                     "due to a `ring-flash-attn` requirement"
@@ -1182,44 +1179,43 @@ class AxolotlInputConfig(
             # TODO: monkeypatch / callback to average losses correctly across SP ranks
             # / fix gradient scaling across SP ranks. Losses, grads should be scaled
             # according to the proportion of non-padding tokens per rank.
-            LOG.warning(
-                "Sequence parallelism (SP) is enabled with "
-                f"sequence_parallel_degree={value}. Please note that logged losses may "
-                "differ slightly to the non-SP losses due to transformers Trainer "
-                "implementation details. Please see "
-                "https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/pull/2495#issuecomment-2784022042 "
-                "for more details."
-            )
+            if is_main_process():
+                LOG.warning(
+                    "Sequence parallelism (SP) is enabled with "
+                    f"sequence_parallel_degree={self.sequence_parallel_degree}. "
+                    "Please note that logged losses may differ slightly to the non-SP "
+                    "losses due to transformers Trainer implementation details. "
+                    "Please see https://github.com/axolotl-ai-cloud/axolotl/pull/2495#issuecomment-2784022042 "
+                    "for more details."
+                )
 
-        return value
+        return self
 
-    @field_validator("ring_attn_func", mode="after")
-    @classmethod
-    def check_ring_attn_func(cls, value, info):
-        if not info.data.get("sequence_parallel_degree", 1) > 1:
-            return value
+    @model_validator(mode="after")
+    def validate_ring_attn_func(self):
+        if getattr(self, "sequence_parallel_degree", 1) == 1:
+            return self
 
         from axolotl.monkeypatch.attention.ring_attn.patch import RingAttnFunc
 
-        if value is not None:
-            # Set the ring attention function if passed in config
+        if self.ring_attn_func is not None:
             valid_funcs = list(RingAttnFunc)
-            if value in valid_funcs:
-                value = RingAttnFunc(value)
+            if self.ring_attn_func in valid_funcs:
+                self.ring_attn_func = RingAttnFunc(self.ring_attn_func)
             else:
                 raise ValueError(
-                    f"ring_attn_func: {value} must be one of {valid_funcs}"
+                    f"ring_attn_func: {self.ring_attn_func} must be in {valid_funcs}"
                 )
         else:
             # Default ring attention function selection
-            sample_packing = info.data.get("sample_packing")
-            value = (
+            sample_packing = getattr(self, "sample_packing", False)
+            self.ring_attn_func = (
                 RingAttnFunc.VARLEN_LLAMA3
                 if sample_packing
                 else RingAttnFunc.BATCH_RING
             )
 
-        return value
+        return self
 
     @model_validator(mode="before")
     @classmethod
diff --git a/src/axolotl/utils/trainer.py b/src/axolotl/utils/trainer.py
index c1154be68..3dc9ae3f6 100644
--- a/src/axolotl/utils/trainer.py
+++ b/src/axolotl/utils/trainer.py
@@ -348,7 +348,7 @@ def process_datasets_for_packing(cfg, train_dataset, eval_dataset):
                     load_from_cache_file=not cfg.is_preprocess,
                     desc="Add position_id column (PoSE)",
                 )
-    elif cfg.sample_packing or cfg.sequence_parallel_degree > 1:
+    elif cfg.sample_packing:
         drop_long_kwargs = {}
         if filter_map_kwargs:
             drop_long_kwargs["desc"] = "Add position_id column (Sample Packing)"
@@ -358,7 +358,7 @@ def process_datasets_for_packing(cfg, train_dataset, eval_dataset):
             **filter_map_kwargs,
             **drop_long_kwargs,
         )
-        if cfg.eval_sample_packing or cfg.sequence_parallel_degree > 1:
+        if cfg.eval_sample_packing:
             if eval_dataset:
                 eval_dataset = eval_dataset.map(
                     add_position_ids,
diff --git a/tests/e2e/patched/test_mixtral_samplepack.py b/tests/e2e/patched/test_mixtral_samplepack.py
index 2d4f97084..f035b1f28 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/patched/test_mixtral_samplepack.py
+++ b/tests/e2e/patched/test_mixtral_samplepack.py
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ class TestMixtral(unittest.TestCase):
                 "bf16": "auto",
             }
         )
+        cfg = validate_config(cfg)
         normalize_config(cfg)
         cli_args = TrainerCliArgs()
         dataset_meta = load_datasets(cfg=cfg, cli_args=cli_args)
diff --git a/tests/e2e/patched/test_sp.py b/tests/e2e/patched/test_sp.py
index 70a601f63..6e1e2f2cb 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/patched/test_sp.py
+++ b/tests/e2e/patched/test_sp.py
@@ -2,14 +2,19 @@
 
 # pylint: disable=redefined-outer-name,unused-argument
 
+import functools
+import sys
 from unittest.mock import MagicMock, patch
 
 import pytest
 import torch
 from accelerate.state import PartialState
 
+from axolotl.core.trainers.mixins.sequence_parallel import apply_sequence_parallelism
 from axolotl.monkeypatch.attention.ring_attn import (
+    RingAttnFunc,
     get_ring_attn_group,
+    register_ring_attn,
     set_ring_attn_group,
 )
 from axolotl.utils.dict import DictDefault
@@ -47,6 +52,27 @@ def fixture_cfg():
     return cfg
 
 
+@pytest.fixture
+def sequence_parallel_batch():
+    """Create a test batch for sequence parallelism tests."""
+    batch_size = 1
+    seq_len = 8
+
+    # Create test tensors
+    input_ids = torch.arange(batch_size * seq_len).reshape(batch_size, seq_len)
+    attention_mask = torch.ones(batch_size, seq_len)
+    position_ids = torch.arange(seq_len).expand(batch_size, seq_len)
+
+    # Create test batch
+    batch = {
+        "input_ids": input_ids,
+        "attention_mask": attention_mask,
+        "position_ids": position_ids,
+    }
+
+    return batch
+
+
 class TestRingAttention:
     """Tests for the ring attention functionality."""
 
@@ -73,11 +99,6 @@ class TestRingAttention:
         self, mock_world_size, mock_rank, mock_new_group, partial_state
     ):
         """Test that ring attention groups are created correctly."""
-        from axolotl.monkeypatch.attention.ring_attn import (
-            RingAttnFunc,
-            register_ring_attn,
-        )
-
         # Setup mocks
         mock_world_size.return_value = 8  # 8 GPUs total
         mock_rank.return_value = 3  # GPU #3
@@ -101,88 +122,308 @@ class TestRingAttention:
         set_ring_attn_group(None)
 
 
-# Mock a simplified DataCollator test
-@patch("axolotl.monkeypatch.attention.ring_attn.get_ring_attn_group")
-@patch("torch.distributed.get_rank")
-@patch("torch.distributed.get_world_size")
-def test_sequence_parallel_slicing(
-    mock_world_size, mock_rank, mock_get_group, partial_state
-):
-    """Test the basic sequence slicing logic without full collator instantiation."""
-    # Setup mocks
-    mock_get_group.return_value = MagicMock()
-    mock_rank.return_value = 1  # Second GPU
-    mock_world_size.return_value = 4  # 4 GPUs total
+class TestConfigValidation:
+    """Tests for validating sequence parallelism configurations."""
 
-    # Create a sample batch
-    batch = {
-        "input_ids": torch.tensor(
-            [
-                [101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112],
-                [201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212],
-            ]
-        ),
-        "attention_mask": torch.ones(2, 12),
-    }
+    @pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
+    def setup_mocks(self, monkeypatch):
+        """Set up mocks for all tests in this class."""
+        # Mock the ring_flash_attn module
+        monkeypatch.setitem(sys.modules, "ring_flash_attn", MagicMock())
 
-    # Simplified slicing logic from SequenceParallelDataCollator
-    def slice_batch(batch, rank, world_size):
-        result = {}
-        for key in batch:
-            seq_len = batch[key].shape[1]
-            slice_size = seq_len // world_size
-            start_idx = rank * slice_size
-            end_idx = start_idx + slice_size if rank < world_size - 1 else seq_len
-            result[key] = batch[key][:, start_idx:end_idx]
-        return result
+        # Mock the is_main_process function to return True
+        monkeypatch.setattr(
+            "axolotl.utils.schemas.config.is_main_process", lambda: True
+        )
 
-    # Slice the batch
-    result = slice_batch(
-        batch, rank=mock_rank.return_value, world_size=mock_world_size.return_value
-    )
+    @pytest.fixture
+    def base_cfg(self):
+        """Create a base configuration for testing."""
+        return DictDefault(
+            {
+                "base_model": "HuggingFaceTB/SmolLM2-135M",
+                "datasets": [{"path": "mhenrichsen/alpaca_2k_test", "type": "alpaca"}],
+                "micro_batch_size": 1,
+                "gradient_accumulation_steps": 1,
+                "learning_rate": 1e-3,
+                "output_dir": "./model-out",
+                "sequence_len": 512,
+                "special_tokens": {"pad_token": "<|endoftext|>"},
+            }
+        )
 
-    # Check slicing
-    assert result["input_ids"].shape == (2, 3)  # 12 tokens / 4 GPUs = 3 tokens per GPU
-    expected_input_ids = torch.tensor(
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize(
+        "config_updates, expected_values, should_pass, error_msg",
         [
-            [104, 105, 106],  # Second slice of first sequence
-            [204, 205, 206],  # Second slice of second sequence
-        ]
+            # Valid configuration
+            (
+                {"sequence_parallel_degree": 2, "flash_attention": True},
+                {"sequence_parallel_degree": 2, "flash_attention": True},
+                True,
+                None,
+            ),
+            # Default sequence_parallel_degree
+            ({}, {"sequence_parallel_degree": 1}, True, None),
+            # Invalid: sequence_parallel_degree > 1 without flash_attention
+            (
+                {"sequence_parallel_degree": 2, "flash_attention": False},
+                None,
+                False,
+                "flash_attention: true must be set",
+            ),
+            # Invalid: sequence_parallel_degree > 1 with sample_packing and micro_batch_size > 1
+            (
+                {
+                    "sequence_parallel_degree": 2,
+                    "flash_attention": True,
+                    "sample_packing": True,
+                    "micro_batch_size": 2,
+                    "pad_to_sequence_len": True,
+                },
+                None,
+                False,
+                "micro_batch_size must be set to 1",
+            ),
+        ],
+        ids=[
+            "valid_config",
+            "default_sp_degree",
+            "without_flash_attention",
+            "sample_packing_with_large_batch",
+        ],
     )
-    assert torch.all(result["input_ids"] == expected_input_ids)
+    def test_sequence_parallel_config_validation(
+        self, base_cfg, config_updates, expected_values, should_pass, error_msg
+    ):
+        """Test various sequence parallelism configuration scenarios."""
+        from axolotl.utils.schemas.config import AxolotlInputConfig
+
+        # Apply updates to base config
+        cfg = base_cfg
+        cfg.update(config_updates)
+
+        if should_pass:
+            # Should validate without errors
+            config = AxolotlInputConfig(**cfg)
+
+            # Check expected values
+            for key, value in expected_values.items():
+                assert getattr(config, key) == value
+        else:
+            # Should raise exception
+            with pytest.raises(ValueError) as excinfo:
+                AxolotlInputConfig(**cfg)
+            assert error_msg in str(excinfo.value)
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize(
+        "ring_attn_func, sample_packing, expected_func",
+        [
+            (None, True, RingAttnFunc.VARLEN_LLAMA3),
+            (None, False, RingAttnFunc.BATCH_RING),
+        ],
+        ids=["default_with_sample_packing", "default_without_sample_packing"],
+    )
+    def test_ring_attn_func_validation(
+        self, base_cfg, ring_attn_func, sample_packing, expected_func
+    ):
+        """Test ring_attn_func validation and defaults."""
+        from axolotl.utils.schemas.config import AxolotlInputConfig
+
+        # Apply updates to base config
+        cfg = base_cfg | {
+            "sequence_parallel_degree": 2,
+            "flash_attention": True,
+            "sample_packing": sample_packing,
+        }
+
+        if ring_attn_func is not None:
+            cfg["ring_attn_func"] = ring_attn_func
+
+        # Should validate without errors
+        config = AxolotlInputConfig(**cfg)
+
+        # Check ring_attn_func value
+        assert config.ring_attn_func.value == expected_func
+
+    def test_invalid_ring_attn_func(self, base_cfg):
+        """Test that an invalid ring_attn_func is rejected."""
+        from axolotl.utils.schemas.config import AxolotlInputConfig
+
+        # Invalid configuration with invalid ring_attn_func
+        cfg = base_cfg | {
+            "sequence_parallel_degree": 2,
+            "flash_attention": True,
+            "ring_attn_func": "INVALID_FUNC",
+        }
+
+        # Should raise ValidationError
+        with pytest.raises(ValueError) as excinfo:
+            AxolotlInputConfig(**cfg)
+
+        # Verify error message
+        assert "ring_attn_func: INVALID_FUNC must be in" in str(excinfo.value)
 
 
-@patch.dict("sys.modules", {"ring_flash_attn": MagicMock()})
-def test_config_validation_with_valid_inputs(cfg):
-    """Test that valid sequence parallelism configurations pass validation."""
-    # Import the actual model class with appropriate mocks
-    from axolotl.utils.schemas.config import AxolotlInputConfig
+class TestApplySequenceParallelism:
+    """Tests for the apply_sequence_parallelism function."""
 
-    # Valid configuration: sequence_parallel_degree > 1 and flash_attention is True
-    cfg = cfg | {
-        "sequence_parallel_degree": 2,
-        "flash_attention": True,
-    }
+    @pytest.fixture(autouse=True)
+    def mock_distributed(self, monkeypatch):
+        """Mock torch.distributed functions for testing."""
+        # Mock is_initialized to return True
+        monkeypatch.setattr(torch.distributed, "is_initialized", lambda: True)
 
-    # Should validate without errors
-    config = AxolotlInputConfig(**cfg)
-    assert config.sequence_parallel_degree == 2
-    assert config.flash_attention is True
+        # Mock get_rank to return 0 by default
+        monkeypatch.setattr(torch.distributed, "get_rank", lambda *args, **kwargs: 0)
 
+        # Mock get_world_size to return 2 by default
+        monkeypatch.setattr(
+            torch.distributed, "get_world_size", lambda *args, **kwargs: 2
+        )
 
-def test_config_validation_with_invalid_inputs(cfg):
-    """Test that invalid sequence parallelism configurations fail validation."""
-    from axolotl.utils.schemas.config import AxolotlInputConfig
+        # Mock the process group
+        monkeypatch.setattr(
+            "axolotl.monkeypatch.attention.ring_attn.get_ring_attn_group",
+            MagicMock,
+        )
 
-    # Invalid configuration: sequence_parallel_degree > 1 but flash_attention is False
-    cfg = cfg | {
-        "sequence_parallel_degree": 2,
-        "flash_attention": False,
-    }
+        # Mock update_ring_attn_params
+        monkeypatch.setattr(
+            "axolotl.monkeypatch.attention.ring_attn.update_ring_attn_params",
+            lambda **kwargs: None,
+        )
 
-    # Should raise ValidationError
-    with pytest.raises(ValueError) as excinfo:
-        AxolotlInputConfig(**cfg)
+    def test_world_size_one(self, sequence_parallel_batch):
+        """Test that function returns original batch when world size is 1."""
+        result = apply_sequence_parallelism(
+            batch=sequence_parallel_batch,
+            local_rank=0,
+            local_world_size=1,
+            ring_attn_func=RingAttnFunc.BATCH_RING,
+        )
 
-    # Verify error message
-    assert "flash_attention: true must be set" in str(excinfo.value)
+        # Should return the original batch unchanged
+        assert result == sequence_parallel_batch
+
+    def test_batch_ring_rank0(self, sequence_parallel_batch):
+        """Test BATCH_RING sharding for rank 0 in a 2-process group."""
+        batch = sequence_parallel_batch
+        seq_len = batch["input_ids"].size(1)
+
+        result = apply_sequence_parallelism(
+            batch=batch,
+            local_rank=0,
+            local_world_size=2,
+            ring_attn_func=RingAttnFunc.BATCH_RING,
+        )
+
+        # Check that sequence dimension was sharded correctly
+        assert result["input_ids"].shape[1] == seq_len // 2
+        assert result["attention_mask"].shape[1] == seq_len // 2
+
+        # Verify content: rank 0 should get the first half of the sequence
+        assert torch.equal(result["input_ids"], batch["input_ids"][:, : seq_len // 2])
+        assert torch.equal(
+            result["position_ids"], batch["position_ids"][:, : seq_len // 2]
+        )
+
+    def test_batch_ring_rank1(self, sequence_parallel_batch):
+        """Test BATCH_RING sharding for rank 1 in a 2-process group."""
+        batch = sequence_parallel_batch
+        seq_len = batch["input_ids"].size(1)
+        original_input_ids = batch["input_ids"].clone()
+
+        result = apply_sequence_parallelism(
+            batch=batch,
+            local_rank=1,
+            local_world_size=2,
+            ring_attn_func=RingAttnFunc.BATCH_RING,
+        )
+
+        # Verify content: rank 1 should get the second half of the sequence
+        assert torch.equal(result["input_ids"], original_input_ids[:, seq_len // 2 :])
+
+    def test_batch_zigzag(self, sequence_parallel_batch):
+        """Test BATCH_ZIGZAG sharding pattern."""
+        batch = sequence_parallel_batch
+        original_input_ids = batch["input_ids"].clone()
+        seq_len = batch["input_ids"].size(1)
+
+        # Test rank 0
+        result_rank0 = apply_sequence_parallelism(
+            batch={k: v.clone() for k, v in batch.items()},
+            local_rank=0,
+            local_world_size=2,
+            ring_attn_func=RingAttnFunc.BATCH_ZIGZAG,
+        )
+
+        # Test rank 1
+        result_rank1 = apply_sequence_parallelism(
+            batch={k: v.clone() for k, v in batch.items()},
+            local_rank=1,
+            local_world_size=2,
+            ring_attn_func=RingAttnFunc.BATCH_ZIGZAG,
+        )
+
+        # Checks for both ranks
+        assert result_rank0["input_ids"].shape[1] == seq_len // 2
+        assert result_rank1["input_ids"].shape[1] == seq_len // 2
+
+        # For a 2-rank system with 8 tokens, check specific zigzag pattern
+        # Rank 0 should get chunks [0, 1] and [6, 7]
+        # Rank 1 should get chunks [2, 3] and [4, 5]
+        if seq_len == 8:
+            # Create expected tensors for comparison
+            rank0_expected = torch.cat(
+                [original_input_ids[:, :2], original_input_ids[:, 6:8]], dim=1
+            )
+
+            rank1_expected = torch.cat(
+                [original_input_ids[:, 2:4], original_input_ids[:, 4:6]], dim=1
+            )
+
+            assert torch.equal(result_rank0["input_ids"], rank0_expected)
+            assert torch.equal(result_rank1["input_ids"], rank1_expected)
+
+    def test_partial_application(self, sequence_parallel_batch):
+        """Test that we can create a partially applied version of the function."""
+        batch = sequence_parallel_batch
+        original_input_ids = batch["input_ids"].clone()
+
+        # Create a partially applied function
+        rank0_ring_parallel = functools.partial(
+            apply_sequence_parallelism,
+            local_rank=0,
+            local_world_size=2,
+            ring_attn_func=RingAttnFunc.BATCH_RING,
+        )
+
+        # Use the partially applied function
+        result = rank0_ring_parallel(batch=batch)
+
+        # Verify it works as expected
+        assert result["input_ids"].shape[1] == original_input_ids.shape[1] // 2
+        assert torch.equal(
+            result["input_ids"],
+            original_input_ids[:, : original_input_ids.shape[1] // 2],
+        )
+
+    def test_missing_position_ids(self, sequence_parallel_batch):
+        """Test handling of batch without position_ids."""
+        # Create a batch without position_ids
+        batch = {
+            k: v for k, v in sequence_parallel_batch.items() if k != "position_ids"
+        }
+        original_input_ids = batch["input_ids"].clone()
+
+        # This should run without error even though position_ids is missing
+        result = apply_sequence_parallelism(
+            batch=batch,
+            local_rank=0,
+            local_world_size=2,
+            ring_attn_func=RingAttnFunc.BATCH_RING,
+        )
+
+        # Verification should pass
+        assert "position_ids" not in result
+        assert result["input_ids"].shape[1] == original_input_ids.shape[1] // 2