Notifications of Accreditation Commission Actions
- ACPE sends Commission decisions to award or renew provisional status or accreditation (Accredited Member) no later than 30 days from the date of action to the program and U.S. Secretary of Education (“the Secretary”), appropriate state licensing or authorizing agencies, other appropriate accrediting agencies, posts commission actions on the ACPE website for the public, and updates the Department’s Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs (DAPIP).
- ACPE sends Commission decisions to initiate an adverse accrediting action no later than 7 days from the date of action to the center. Notifications of the initiation of an adverse action are not made public until it is final, which is either at the end of the appeal period window or at the conclusion of the appeal process (see Appeal of Adverse Decisions of the Commission)
- ACPE sends notification of final adverse actions of the commission to deny, suspend, or withdraw provisional or accredited member status to the Secretary, appropriate state licensing or authorizing agencies, other appropriate accrediting agencies at the same time the affected center is notified, but no later than 30 days after it reaches the decision to take final adverse action.
- The Commission provides written notice to the public via the ACPE website of final adverse action decisions within 24 hours of its notice to the center.
- The Commission makes available to the Secretary, appropriate state agencies, the program, and the public a summary of the reasons for action to deny, suspend or withdraw a program’s Provisional or Accredited Member status, any comments the affected program may wish to make with regard to the action or, if the affected program has not provided official comments, evidence that it has been offered the opportunity to do so. It is available on the ACPE website no later than 60 days following the date of final action.
- The Commission notifies the Secretary and appropriate state agencies, and the public upon request, when a program voluntarily withdraws from Provisional status or Accredited Member status, within 10 days of receiving notification from the program that it is voluntarily withdrawing from provisional or accreditation.
- If a program allows its accreditation to lapse, this is considered a voluntary withdrawal of accreditation. The Commission notifies the Secretary, appropriate state agencies and the public within 10 days of the date the accreditation lapses.
- ACPE annually submits required information to the Department of Education:
- an annual report of its activities,
- a current listing of all accredited programs, and
- a summary of the Commission’s major accreditation activities for the previous year.