Provisional Accreditation
Special Note: Entering the Process and Scheduling Site Visits (6.10)
Developing entry-level programs must contact executive director John McCarty to discuss their interest in beginning a program as well as their proposed timeline for program development and site visit.
The ARC-PA agendas for March 2011 and September 2011 are closed. There is limited availability for the March 2012 agenda. Programs wanting to schedule site visits should contact the ARC-PA executive director.
As a rule, the site visit component of the review process in advance of the March commission meeting must occur between August 1 and December 31 of the preceding year. For the September commission meeting the visit must occur between February 1, and June 30 of that year.
Provisional Accreditation is the status of accreditation granted for a limited, defined period (three years) to a new program that, at the time of the comprehensive review that includes the site visit, has demonstrated its preparedness to initiate a program in accordance with the Standards.
Initial Provisional Accreditation visits are conducted during the calendar year prior to enrollment of the charter class of students. Based on the accreditation application and descriptive report, the report of the site visit team, and the evaluation of these by the ARC-PA, the ARC-PA will determine whether or not to award Provisional Accreditation.
Provisional Accreditation does not ensure any subsequent accreditation status.
Follow-up provisional visits are conducted to programs that have successfully achieved provisional accreditation. Follow-up visits must occur no sooner than four months after students have entered the clinical phase of the program and no later than six months after graduation of the first class, and the ARC-PA retains the right to require an earlier follow-up provisional visit.
Programs that successfully achieve accreditation after their follow-up provisional visit will have a maximum interval before their next comprehensive visit of 5 years.
Failure of a provisionally accredited program to achieve accreditation within the specified time will result in withdrawal of accreditation.