Department of Education’s Accreditation Rule Eases Process for New Accrediting Agencies Seeking Recognition – Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville PC
On November 1, 2019, the U.S. Department of Education published final regulations that, among other things, revised its process for recognizing accrediting agencies, making it easier for new accrediting agencies to become recognized, thereby potentially increasing competition among agencies.
The new regulations, which will be effective July 1, 2020, were initially published in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on June 12, 2019 after the negotiated rulemaking committee reached consensus on the content of the rule – a rare occurrence in the last decade.
An accrediting agency must be recognized by the Department in order for its accredited institutions to be eligible to participate in the Title IV federal student aid programs. Accreditation by a recognized agency is also used as a requirement for institutions or programs seeking approval or authorization by some state agencies, programmatic accrediting agencies, and by the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA). As such, being accredited by a recognized accrediting agency is very helpful to a postsecondary institution.
The new regulations change the basic eligibility requirements for accrediting agencies seeking recognition, which currently include: 1) Federal Link, 2) Geographic Scope, 3) Accrediting Experience, and 4) Acceptance by Others. We address each of these below with the exception of geographic scope, which will be discussed in a future post.