One of the most common questions received by the Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation is: “My program had a site visit; when will the CoA make an accreditation decision on my program and how will this decision be communicated?”
The Commission on Accreditation (CoA) meets three times a year to review programs. These program review meetings are posted on the accreditation calendar. Consistent with Section 4.5 of the Accreditation Operating Procedures, CoA will give written notice of its decision within 30 days of when the decision is made. The written notice is sent to the chief executive officer of the institution housing the program. Implementing Regulation D.4-9 clarifies that in addition to the chief executive officer, a copy of the letter will be sent to the training director, other administrators with responsibility for the program, and the site visitors who conducted the visit. Receipt of the written decision letter is the official notification of a program’s accreditation status. Upon receipt of the letter, a program must disclose the accreditation decision in its public documents.
In addition to notifying the institution, program and site visitors, CoA provides notification of its accreditation decisions to the public, consistent with the U.S. Department of Education Regulation 602.26(a)(1-2). This notification appears on our website no later than 30 days after the conclusion of the program review meeting. At this time, the accreditation search tool is updated to reflect any change to a program’s accreditation status.