Decision Following an Initial Visit

At the conclusion of an Initial Visit, the Accreditation Committee may make the following recommendations to the Board: Full Accreditation, Provisional Accreditation, or Denied Accreditation.

Decision Following an Interim or Ten Year Visit 

At the conclusion of an Interim or Ten Year Visit, the Accreditation Committee may make the following recommendations to the Board: Full Accreditation, Conditional Accreditation, or Denied Accreditation.

Appeal of a Recommendation

A school seeking to retain its full accreditation may appeal an adverse action. An adverse action is defined as a recommendation for Denial of Initial Accreditation, Conditional Accreditation, or Termination of Membership. A school is given the right to contest the recommendation of the VAIS Accreditation Committee. These are the procedures to be followed:

• The Executive Director notifies the Head of school in writing about the proposed recommendation for adverse action and the reasons for the recommendation as soon as possible after the Accreditation Committee meeting.
• The school may request to have its representative appear before the VAIS Accreditation Committee to lodge an appeal, submit additional information, or respond to questions. Such a request must be submitted in writing to the Executive Director of VAIS no later than 36 hours prior to the Accreditation Committee meeting at which the school’s evaluation report is to be reviewed. If no such request is made, the motion shall proceed to the Board. Specific guidelines for the appeal visit will be provided by the VAIS office.
• A school desiring to contest the Accreditation Committee’s recommendation after and beyond its appeal to the Accreditation Committee may request to have its representative appear before the VAIS Board of Directors. The intention of the school to make this appeal must be submitted in writing no later than seven days before the meeting of the Board at which the accreditation of the school is to be considered.

The action of the Board of Directors on accreditation and membership, after any appeals have been heard, is final.

Adding Grades or Programs to a VAIS Accredited School 

A school creating a new program or adding new grades should establish the programs, note in their promotional materials that the new programs or grades are not accredited at that time, and seek re-accreditation within its existing accreditation cycle. At the time of the next visit, the school must write a separate report regarding the grades added to include rationale and mission alignment, as well as detailed curriculum mapping. A school may request a new accreditation cycle beginning with a full self-study process including the new program or grades. If accreditation is mentioned in the school’s literature, note what grades and programs are accredited.