ACCREDITATION PROCESS WITH A.C.F.I.C.S.C.U.

Becoming a candidate for full accreditation:

ACFICSCU accepts applications and enquiries from institutions that are concerned predominantly with education. This can be broad in scope to any form of imparting or giving some aspect of knowledge. Our definition of education is “the process of teaching and/or training” or the “process of training to improve any aspect of one’s life from academic to anything that can be taken as improving the quality of life”.

Procedure for ACFICSCU Membership and Accreditation:

1. The School Official Must Submit the following:
   "Accreditation Application and Institutional Profile" a $250 annual fee.
2. After reading the standards and procedures and statement of faith
   of the Accrediting Council, please supply three copies of the
   following document with your membership application:

1.      Institution Identification

• A copy of your latest Prospectus.
• Name, address and telephone number of the Principal or Chief Executive.

2.        Institutions Program

• Your curriculum (including awards offered, and certification of government accreditation, where applicable).
• Your current timetable.
• Any academic information not included in your Prospectus which may be helpful.

3.      Additional Information 

• A brief statement of the institution’s objectives.
• A brief historical sketch of the Institution
• A brief statement of how the Institution is administered and financed.

 4.      Staff

• Teaching staff (Please include names and qualifications together with conferring body, areas of teaching responsibilities, and state whether
  full- or part-time.)
• Other staff. (Please indicate roles, and state whether full- or part-time.)

5.      Student Body

• Please give a breakdown of student details for the current year and for the two preceding years:
• Full-time (³ ¾ normal full-time load): 
• Part-time (< ¾ normal full-time load):
• Male students:
• Female students:
• To what areas of Christian ministry do students typically graduate?

6.      Library

• Holdings: Total number of volumes, areas of strength, policy for
  development, annual budget allocation for the past three     
  years.
• Staffing arrangements.

7.      Physical Plant

• Describe briefly the property occupied by the institution (e.g. facilities for accommodation, lecture rooms, library, recreation, dining etc).
• Photographs of the building, educational and office facilities
  Seven letters of recommendation for accreditation (2) Business, (2) Educator, and (3) Parent references

8.      Application Fee

An application fee; made payable to ROCK CHURCH AND MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL INC.

(Note that the information supplied is to assist the ACFICSCU in making a preliminary assessment only. (Final acceptance accreditation must wait for the report of the Visiting Evaluation Team.)
If school is approved for membership, a Candidate Certificate is issued which is valid for one year. A school may hold Candidate status for no more than two years; if the school remains a Candidate for Accreditation for more than two years without scheduling an on-site visit, the school must wait one year before re-applying for Candidate status.

3. - The school will schedule an on-site visit by the team of evaluators from ACFICSCU within the 6-month period while this Candidate certificate is valid. If the school is unprepared or unable to schedule an on-site visit within the first 6-month period, it may renew that Candidate certificate for up to two additional 6-month periods by paying the $250 renewal fee for each extension.

The On-site Visit for first time accreditation, or the Preparatory Visit for re-accreditation

The On-site visit is made by one or two ACFICSCU representatives. The purpose of the visit is to ascertain the institution's readiness to clarify the accreditation process. The visitor(s) will discuss every Standard for Accreditation with the Head of the Institution and or other key teaching and support staff members. Presentations to explain the accreditation process will be made to all staff as well as to representatives of the Governing Body.  A one-day workshop to prepare the institution for the next stages of the process is an integral part of this visit.

Team members visit classrooms and talk to students, parents, staff and members of the school’s Governing Body. The team examines all aspects of the school in the light of the school's own philosophy and objectives, and the Standards for Accreditation.

When the applicant institution is seeking re-accreditation a similar visit is conducted, the main differences being that the institution remains in accredited status throughout, and the visit is entitled the Preparatory Visit in order to highlight this distinction. A one-day or half-day workshop is an integral part of this visit. The candidate Institution must pay the round-trip travel before the on-site visit.

 Overnight lodging and meal expenses for the 2-day visit by the accreditation team from Miami, Florida must be paid within 30 days of the completion of the on-site visit.
The visiting team will write a detailed report which addresses each of requirements for accreditation, and a set of commendations, as well as rating the school against the standards and guidelines of ACFICSCU However, the report will not contain the team's recommendation with regards to accreditation – this is made directly by the ACFICSCU Board of Trustees and the Accreditation Service.

4. Decision on Accreditation

The ACFICSCU Accreditation Service and its Advisors, carefully reviews the Visiting Team’s Report and considers the team’s recommendations with respect to accreditation. A recommendation is then made to the ACFICSCU Board of Trustees, who will make a decision within one of the following four categories:
(a) Award Accreditation or Re-Accreditation

(b) Award Accreditation or Re-Accreditation with specific qualifications
(In cases where the school generally meets the standards, but the ACFICSCU Board feels that certain recommendations must be met immediately or within a given period of time, a Special Report and/or Visit by one or two ACFICSCU representatives may be required under such circumstances.)

(c) Postponed Accreditation or Re-Accreditation for some specified reason(s) (In cases when the school may meet many of the Standards, but falls seriously short in certain specific areas which the ACFICSCU   Board feels could be satisfactorily addressed within a specified time. A Special Report and Visit will be arranged under these circumstances)

(d) Not award Accreditation or Re-Accreditation (In cases when the school falls significantly short of meeting a substantial number of Standards and have shortcomings of a relatively serious nature.)

5. Subsequent Procedures

A number of procedures follow the award of accreditation. These include:

• The First Report on Progress and Planning, submitted by the school just over a year after the Team Visit, in response to the recommendations contained in the Visiting Team Report.
• A Five Year Report, submitted by the school, giving details of progress relative to the Team’s recommendations, explaining changes which have occurred in the school during the intervening period, and showing intended future actions.
• At this stage the school will receive a two or three-day Visit from one or two ACFICSCU representatives who submit a Five Year Visitors’ Report to ACFICSCU and the school.
• A Preparatory Visit, eight and a half years after the Team Visit, to initiate the next cycle aimed at re-accreditation.

If the vote is favorable, an "Accredited Member" certificate will be issued to the school, but only after all expenses of the on-site visit have been paid in full. The school must pay the $1,000 accreditation fee when it schedules the on-site visit by the ACFICSCU evaluation team.
An ACFICSCU - accredited school must schedule an on-site evaluation visit and be re-certified every five years.

• Annual Accreditation Fees (for schools to maintain that status) are:

ACFICSCU
Accrediting Council for Independent Christian Schools,
Colleges and Universities
P.O. Box 7714
Port Saint Lucie, Florida 34985 USA

Phone: (772) 634-7787
Fax: (772)237-4206
Email: info@accreditingcouncil.com

Download: ACFICSCU APPLICATION