Due Date for 2026 CoA Nominations
Please complete the APPIC CoA Nominations Interest Form by July 3rd at 5pm CST for review by the APPIC Board of Directors.
Information for Prospective Members of the APA Commission on Accreditation (CoA)
Prospective members of the Commission on Accreditation (CoA) are drawn from those who are knowledgeable about education and training in psychology and who have had broad, national exposure to multiple aspects of the profession. Members of CoA are appointed by the APA Board of Educational Affairs (BEA).
CoA meets four times per year for approximately 4 days each (Wednesday through Saturday). One of these meetings will be entirely virtual and the other three will be conducted in a hybrid format, meaning that one may participate in person or virtually. All meeting participants will use the Zoom meeting platform. The first meeting of each calendar year, typically held in early February, is focused on developing and reviewing accreditation policies and procedures. No program reviews are conducted during the policy meeting. The subsequent three meetings each year, typically held in late March/early April, July, and mid to late October, are focused primarily on comprehensive reviews of master’s, doctoral, internship, and postdoctoral residency programs in health service psychology. As time permits the CoA also addresses policy issues during these three program review meetings. On rare occasions and with substantial advance notice, an additional day may be added to one of these three program review meetings to allow the Commission’s extended work on policy-related tasks.
Considerable preparation is required prior to each of the three program review meetings. Each CoA member is usually assigned 5-8 programs for which they serve as a reviewer. Review of a program is very thorough, including review of the program’s self-study, the program’s response to preliminary review of the self-study, the site visit report, the program’s response to the site visit report, and all related program correspondence. As an important note, the accreditation program review process is now online – due to this change these materials are reviewed from an online portal. Each member will serve as a reviewer for programs that represent their substantive area or specialty as well as for programs from other areas. In addition, all CoA members are responsible for the review of programs at all levels. Preparation time for these reviews is quite substantial, requiring detailed study that typically runs anywhere from 5 to 15 hours for each review, depending on complexity. All program reviews are completed within the four weeks immediately preceding each of the three program review meetings.
In addition, the agenda for the Commission’s policy discussions normally requires several hours of preparation. Policy issues range across a broad spectrum and include topics such as specific provisions of the accreditation standards as well as the general conduct of the accreditation review process. To facilitate this policy work, each CoA member participates in a CoA work group (e.g., Communication, Training, Research, or Complaints) and a policy group (e.g., Master’s, Doctoral, Internship, or Postdoctoral Residency).
Beyond the expectations described above, other potential service tasks for CoA members may include:
• preliminary reviews of self-studies from applicant programs
• chairing or co-chairing a program review panel during a program review meeting
• serving as a chair or co-chair of a work group or policy group
• conducting workshops for site visitors or training directors
• participating in CoA governance via membership on the CoA executive committee
• occasionally participating in special site visits
Since serving as a member of CoA is clearly a heavy workload appointment, an appropriate allocation of time and effort is an important consideration. Attendance at all CoA meetings in their entirety is essential, unless there are special, extenuating circumstances. Missing two meetings could result in resignation from the commission. Finally, prospective members need to know that while serving as a CoA member (and for one year after ending CoA membership), they may not serve as a regular accreditation site visitor and may not serve as a formal or informal consultant to any program. However, CoA members can serve as special site visitors on behalf of the Commission.
2026 CoA meeting dates
New member program/liaison program review training: February 4
CoA policy meeting: February 5-7
Spring program review meeting: April 15-18
Summer program review meeting: July 15-18
Fall meeting: October 21-24
www.apa.org/ed/accreditation/about/coa/