Information and Procedures

Site Visit Team

Site Visit Protocol

Site Visit Schedule

Required Documentation

Application and Forms

Provisional Accreditation

Special Note: Scheduling Site Visits (4.8.08)

The ARC-PA agenda for the March 2009 meeting is closed and the ARC-PA is not scheduling of any more site visits during the period preceding that meeting. The next opportunity for a visit would be between March 30 – July 10, 2009, for the September, 2009 commission meeting. Developing entry level programs are reminded to contact executive director John McCarty to schedule their site visits in a timely fashion.

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Provisional Accreditation is the status of accreditation granted for a limited, defined period of time to a new program that, at the time of 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 visits of 5 years.

Failure of a provisionally accredited program to achieve accreditation within the specified time will result in withdrawal of accreditation.