Accreditation is the "hot topic" on everyone’s mind in social work education today, as the draft EPAS II has been released and is undergoing review and comment.

Accreditation Sites Related to Social Work Education

To view the guiding principles for the EPAS II draft as well as to review the draft itself, please visit:  http://www.cswe.org/CSWE/accreditation/EPAS+Revision.htm

BPD Webmaster, Bob Vernon, has gathered a comprehensive list of comments made by various individuals and organizations about the new EPAS II draft, and these can all be accessed on the BPD Website at:  http://bpdonline.org/site/indexer/180/content.htm

For those who wish to do their own comparisons of the current standards and the new EPAS draft, the current EPAS can be found at:  http://www.cswe.org/NR/rdonlyres/111833A0-C4F5-475C-8FEB-EA740FF4D9F1/0/EPAS.pdf

Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)

The Council on Social Work Education is a member of a larger body that governs accreditation throughout the United States.  That organization is the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).  CHEA’s web site is located at:  http://www.chea.org/default.asp

CHEA also maintains information about accredited programs internationally, and that information is located at:  http://www.chea.org/intdb/disclaimer.asp  Once arriving at this link, you must agree to CHEA’s standards in order to access the actual directory.

The next link will take you to information about programs in the United States that are accredited by CHEA (http://www.chea.org/search/default.asp).    From here, you have to indicate that you agree with CHEA’s policies in order to be given access to the actual database.  After agreeing, you can search for specific institutions or programs. 

If you want to see a list of all CHEA accredited professional programs in the United States, complete with web links and email contacts, go to:  http://www.chea.org/Directories/special.asp

CHEA’s Recognition Standards will be found at:  http://www.chea.org/recognition/CHEA_Recognition_Policy_and_Procedures.pdf

United State Office of Post-Secondary Educarion (OPE)

A complete set of documents on accreditation in the United States can be accessed at:  http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html  At this site, the visitor will find information about accreditation and accrediting agencies in the United States.  This includes information on accrediting agencies specifically recognized for Title IV purposes (http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation_pg10.html#TitleIVRecognition)

and accrediting agencies specifically recognized for distance education (http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation_pg11.html#Distance).

The United States Office of Post-Secondary Education (OPE) has a database of Accredited Post-Secondary Institutions and Programs.  Go to:  http://www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation/

EducationUSA

A search engine on this government site will allow the visitor to look for program or institution specific information.  Go to:  http://educationusa.state.gov/accred.htm  This site includes a discussion of accreditation that is relatively simple to understand.