Last week, the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) took the unprecedented step of recommending that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) suspend the American Psychological Association Commission on Accreditation’s (APA-CoA) recognition as a federally recognized accreditor for 12 months. This was at odds with the ED Final Staff Report, which acknowledged the high quality of the Commission’s program standards in their recommendation to renew and expand APA-CoA authority. NACIQI’s contrary position fails to reflect not only this recommendation, but the public commenters who urged reaccreditation with conditions, and of course, APA-CoA’s stellar record.
APA firmly rejects NACIQI’s recommendation and urges the U.S. Department of Education to re-recognize the APA-CoA.
The APA-CoA, a discrete unit within APA, is recognized by both the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) as the nation’s accrediting authority for professional education and training in psychology. The APA-CoA is the gold standard, accrediting more than 1,300 health service psychology programs for more than 25,000 students throughout the country each year. The Commission is made up of more than 30 volunteers who represent a broad cross-section of the profession, as well as student and public members. It has sole authority to make accreditation decisions, and it is insulated from the rest of APA. It assures that doctoral, internship, and postdoctoral residency programs with a wide range of missions across health service psychology deliver high-quality education, and that graduates possess the professional and scientific skills necessary to provide patients with evidence-based care.
The ostensible basis for NACIQI’s negative recommendation is that APA-CoA “failed to address a pervasive culture of antisemitism within its accredited programs,” a charge that is not supported by either the number of complaints received by APA-CoA about antisemitism at accredited programs or by the public comments presented at the NACIQI meeting.
The experiences shared by third party commenters at the NACIQI meeting are experiences no one should have to face, much less face alone. Yet the totality of the experiences recounted by third-party commenters, which named two of APA-CoA’s 1,300 accredited programs, cannot support NACIQI’s sweeping, unsubstantiated characterization of accredited programs. APA-CoA was already taking steps to investigate and address these two complaints before the NACIQI meeting, consistent with its established procedures.
APA-CoA is committed to giving any concerns of antisemitism in an accredited program the full attention they deserve under those Standards, and APA strongly supports their effort.
At the same time, APA and APA-CoA both have a profound duty to the well-being of the public that we and our clinicians serve.
A suspension of APA-CoA’s federal recognition will be devastating, causing tremendous harm to students, programs, the field, and, most importantly, the mental health of everyday Americans.
And a suspension would leave hundreds of accredited programs and their students and trainees in a precarious position with respect to their eligibility for certain federal funds. Graduate Psychology Education (GPE) and Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training program (BHWET) federal funds do not come to APA or CoA—they go directly to accredited psychology programs, the students in them, and the communities they serve. The disruption would reverberate through universities and health systems across the country—impacting accredited programs that serve veteran communities and rural areas that disproportionately depend on this federal funding and where mental health care is already limited. And across the nation, the suspension of APA’s accreditation status will result in patients losing access to the quality care they need.
We also strongly believe that suspending APA-CoA’s role as an accreditor does not resolve the concerns raised by the public commenters. We note that some of the third-party commenters with strong concerns about antisemitism in psychology recognized this, voicing a clear preference that ED continue recognizing APA-CoA as an accreditor while seeking enhanced efforts to address antisemitism.
The dramatic rise of antisemitism in all corners of our society requires serious, targeted, and sustained action to stem its spread and to support Jewish communities. APA has been focused on enhancing its policies and tools to address antisemitism to ensure that Jews and all members can learn, practice, and thrive free of antisemitic or any form of discrimination or exclusion. APA is committed to this work for the long haul as a core part of its mission to improve lives and support the psychological well-being of all people.
We do this even as we recognize that profound and emotional political debates are happening throughout our field, organization, and programs, and we remain equally committed to the core principles of academic freedom and nondiscrimination.
APA stands resolutely beside APA-CoA in urging the U.S. Department of Education to re-examine the facts, which do not support suspension of APA-CoA as a federally recognized accreditor, to renew and expand APA-CoA’s accreditation authority, and to recognize the profound and lasting harm that upholding this suspension recommendation would inflict on students, psychology programs, and patients nationwide.
For more information and ongoing updates about the status of APA-CoA as a federally-recognized accreditor, visit the Commission website.
Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD
Chief Executive Officer/Executive Vice President
American Psychological Association
Wendi S. Williams, PhD
2026 President
American Psychological Association