Per regulations, the Department will publish a Federal Register notice approximately one year prior to the NACIQI meeting, with a second notice published shortly before the meeting. 

On April 4, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education published a notice in the Federal Register seeking public comment regarding applications for renewal of recognition filed by 11 accrediting agencies. The applications will be reviewed in summer 2026 at the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) meeting, a bipartisan advisory panel tasked with making recommendations to the Department on continued recognition. This Federal Register notice follows reports that President Donald Trump is expected to issue an executive order in the near future that may provide directives to accrediting agencies regarding their standards, including diversity and inclusion practices that some agencies currently include in accreditation standards. How and whether such an executive order plays into the renewal process remains to be seen.

Now 14 weeks into the Trump administration, this marks the first signs of activity from the accreditation group within the Department. Staff from the accreditation group largely survived the Department’s downsizing. That group has now turned its attention to the next batch of accrediting agencies up for recognition renewal, a process critical to the ability of many agencies to continue to act as gatekeepers for accredited institutions’ participation in the Title IV Higher Education Act (HEA) federal student aid programs.

Department efforts to reform the accreditation system have long been anticipated by the higher education community, and it is expected that certain themes will wind their way into this renewal application cycle by means of areas of focus by the accreditation group and NACIQI. In summer 2023, then-candidate Trump stated that when in office he would “fire the radical left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics.” In those recorded remarks, he cited high tuition and failure to protect students and taxpayers as cause for concern. He also vowed to revise the accreditation process to require agencies to mandate “real standards” that would defend Western civilization, protect free speech, prohibit illegal diversity and inclusion policies, expand low cost and accelerated educational options, require meaningful job placement and test college students at entry and exit to assess learning. In other remarks, Trump vowed to attack antisemitism and other offenses via the accreditation process.

In light of the foregoing, agencies up for renewal in this first cycle may be called upon to explain their own and their accredited institutions’ policies on these and other issues to defend their right to renewal. This public comment period has significance to build a record supportive or critical of the agencies under review and is the foundation for any future administrative or legal appeal of recognition decisions. All interested parties have the opportunity to submit public comments via the ThirdPartyComments@ed.gov mailbox. Public comments must be submitted by May 8, 2025. Experienced counsel will be able to provide advice on effective communications to the Department on this matter and, additionally, highlight the importance of the public comment period for this particular renewal cycle. Commenters should include in the subject line “Written Comments: To date, (agency name).” The email must also include the name(s), title, organization/affiliation, mailing address, email address and telephone number of the person(s) making the comment.

Per regulations, the Department will publish a Federal Register notice approximately one year prior to the NACIQI meeting, with a second notice published shortly before the meeting. The Department will then review the applications, along with accompanying public comments, and submit a staff report to NACIQI. The Department and NACIQI will then present its recommendations to a senior Department official tasked with the final recognition decision.

This summer 2026 cohort of agencies will undergo full review off all 34 C.F.R. Part 602 criteria, while the Department has notified agencies up for renewal for the summer 2027 NACIQI meeting and beyond that they will undergo a focused review of renewal petitions and that focused reviews will continue until such time as the HEA is reauthorized and/or new accreditation regulations are promulgated. As justification for this approach, the Department noted that the accreditation changes effective July 1, 2020, resulted in a regulatory burden and that the focused review will place emphasis on 38 criteria that most heavily impact quality education and training. Accrediting agencies will be required to provide an attestation that no changes have been made that would impact compliance with the sections not chosen for the focused review.

The accreditors subject to review in this first round are as follows:

1. American Bar Association, Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar
2. Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools
3. Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine
4. American Osteopathic Association, Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation
5. American Psychological Association, Commission on Accreditation
6. Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools
7. Council on Occupational Education
8. National Nurse Practitioner Residency and Fellowship Training Consortium
9. Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC)
10. Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, Accreditation Commission
11. Kansas State Board of Nursing

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