Senior Department Official Recommends Continued Agency Recognition for ACICS
ACICS Compliant with 19 of 21 Criteria with 12 Months to Demonstrate Compliance with Two Criteria
On September 28, the Senior Department Official (SDO) at the U.S. Department of Education released a detailed decision determining that the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) is in compliance with 19 of the 21 federal recognition criteria currently applicable to accrediting agencies (34 CFR Part 602). Furthermore, the SDO determined that “ACICS was likely in compliance with many of these criteria in 2016 at the time of the Secretary’s Decision” in 2016 that revoked ACICS recognition.
Regarding the two areas where the SDO states that ACICS has not demonstrated full compliance – “competency of the representatives” and “conflict of interest” – the SDO recommends that ACICS be granted 12 months to demonstrate compliance. The SDO further stated that ACICS is likely to achieve compliance with these two criteria in the next 12 months. The Secretary of Education must now review the SDO decision and make a final determination on ACICS recognized status.