Your program doesn't "buy" accreditation; your program "seeks" it. Accreditation is not something you "purchase"
once; it's a continous process. When you seek accreditation, it's something like joining a club; so long as you are a
member, there will be activities required of you, and there will be fees.
There's no certain answer to the question of costs, depending in large measure on how you conduct the accreditation
process and depending upon which activities of your staff may become budget items. For example, when you think about
costs, consider questions such as these:
- What will it cost you in time and effort to review your program and write a report?
- Will you budget for staff time?
- Will you budget for clerical help?
- Will you budget for additional professional meetings where you learn about accreditation?
- Will you budget for consultant help?
There are some one-time fees your program will pay to enable the CoA to work with you for initial accreditation.
There will be some out-of-pocket costs for the 2-person site visit team that comes to your campus. These fees and
estimated costs are items your CoA either has posted on its website or will share with you when you request information.
Once your program becomes accredited, there will be annual fees to the CoA and to CAAHEP. The CAAHEP fee is an
institutional fee -- each institution with one or more CAAHEP-accredited programs pays $450, currently. Some institutions
will pay for this from an administration budget; others will allocate all or a portion of that fee to your program, so
be sure to ask your administration how accreditation costs are handled where you work.
If your program is seeking initial accreditation, remember that initial accreditation is limited to 3 or 5 years
(depending upon your CoA's policy). That means that it will not be many years before you will be seeking continuing
accreditation. The process, and thus the costs, are similar to your costs when seeking initial accreditation.
Moreover, if, after you scrutinize your own program, you decide there are aspects of your program that need improvement
before you seek accreditation, the changes you wish to make will probably have costs attached.
In some institutions, the fees and some of the expenses may be costs that your institution carries in its budget;
other institutions expect these costs will be part of your program's budget.
A good strategy for anticipating all possible costs, and estimating those costs, is to consult peers in your
institution or elsewhere who have been through the process. Also, consult your CoA.