Accreditation

Accreditation Criteria

On January 31, 2020, the NAAB Board of Directors approved the 2020 Conditions for Accreditation and Procedures for Accreditation, for publication on February 10, 2020. All programs are required to utilize the NAAB 2020 Conditions and Procedures for Accreditation for all accreditation purposes, except in the case of Interim Progress Reports (IPR). Programs whose previous term of accreditation requires IPR(s) will continue to submit IPRs to address identified deficiencies, consistent with the changes NAAB made to the Interim Progress Reporting requirements in July 2020, outlined below. 

2020 Conditions for Accreditation (May 2025 Revised Edition)

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2020 Procedures for Accreditation (May 2025 Revised Edition)

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Accreditation Guidelines

The Guidelines to the Accreditation Process (2020 Conditions and Procedures) serve as a resource and provide clarification and examples as programs plan and engage in the NAAB accreditation process.

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At its meeting on June 9, 2020, in response to the exceptional circumstances created by the pandemic, the Board of Directors made several decisions affecting upcoming accreditation visits:

  • All accreditation visits for 2020–2023 will be conducted virtually.
  • Every program with a visit scheduled between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2027, will have its visit postponed by one year.
  • Programs with visits scheduled between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2027, may request to have the visit remain in its currently scheduled year.
  • Requests from programs with visits originally scheduled in 2021 were due July 6, 2020.
  • Requests from programs with visits originally scheduled for 2022–2027 are due to NAAB by March 1 of the year prior to the original year of the visit.
  • Candidate programs whose visits are postponed will be afforded one (1) additional year from the date listed on the last decision letter to achieve initial accreditation. 

In an effort to support NAAB-accredited programs in their transition to the 2020 Conditions and Procedures, the NAAB Board of Directors, by their decision on July 17, 2020, streamlined the interim reporting process required by the 2012 and 2015 Procedures for Accreditation. The reporting requirements changed the Two-Year Interim Progress Report (IPR) in favor of a Three-Year IPR, effective September 1, 2020. Effective January 1, 2021, the Five-Year IPR submissions will remain on the current schedule, but programs that satisfied all deficiencies in their Two-Year or Three-Year IPR will not be required to submit a Five-Year IPR. Programs that are required to submit a Five-Year IPR will need to demonstrate that deficiencies have been corrected and how the corrections align with the 2020 Conditions and Procedures.

This reporting process is modeled after the 2020 Conditions and Procedures ‘Plan to Correct’ and will facilitate a smoother transition to the new set of Conditions and Procedures. Questions or comments? Contact our Accreditation Team!

2015 Procedures for Accreditation
2014 Conditions for Accreditation

2012 Procedures for Accreditation
2009 Conditions for Accreditation