Accredited online Schools

How can you find out if a school is accredited?

There are two major resources to find out if a school is accredited:

Some accrediting associations and their institutions appear in both the CHEA and USDE databases, while others appear in just one.

How can you find out if a school is accredited by a reputable organization?

Here is a list of all accrediting organizations recognized by CHEA or USDE. However, an accreditor being recognized doesn’t ensure that other schools will accept transfer credits from an institution accredited by that organization. Such is the case with the Distance Education Training Council (DETC), an accreditor that specializes in distance education. While many online schools are accredited by the DETC, and although the DETC is recognized by both the CHEA and the USDE, many colleges and universities don’t accept transfer credits from DETC-accredited schools.

As such, the most universally reputable accreditation for an online school is one from one of the six major regional accreditors, which accredit schools in the following locations:

• North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA): Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Navajo Nation, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
• Southern Association of Schools and Colleges (SACS): Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and several international locations.
• Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC): California and Hawaii, the territories of Guam, American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of Palau, Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands, the Pacific Basin and East Asia, plus areas of the Pacific and East Asia.

Students are advised to plan out their educational course of action before enrolling and to check with schools to which they might transfer to determine their credit acceptance policies.