Accreditation Handbook—Chapter XIX: Site Visit Planning and Conduct
Site visitors have reported that having materials in advance has increased their efficiency during the visit. The CAA hopes this practice will facilitate the site visit preparation and process for programs and the site visit team.
The CAA recommends that most documents be available to the site visit team 30 days before the scheduled visit. Any materials that cannot be made available 30 days in advance, e.g. actual student or alumni files, the program must work with the site visit team chair to identify those documents and expectations for secure access during the site visit.
Materials to be Available
Programs are required to provide electronic access to the following documents to the site visit team at least one month in advance of the site visit:
- Department student handbook
- Department clinical handbook, if different from the student handbook (given to students and/or supervisors)
- University handbooks given to graduate students
- University faculty handbooks
- University promotion and tenure guidelines
- University catalog/bulletin
- University calendar for recent academic year
- Flow chart showing university hierarchy with names, if available
- Copies of all course syllabi
- University policies and procedures
- Copy of typical recruitment package sent to prospective students
- Faculty meeting minutes
- Minutes and/or procedures from department admissions committee
- Minutes from department curriculum committee
- Minutes/agenda/dates of any advisory board meetings
- Lists of student files, current and past 3 years
- Copies of course evaluation forms and practicum evaluation forms (student and supervisor/site)
- Copies of employer, alumni, and exit surveys
- Data compiled from assessments
How to Provide the Documentation
Programs may provide this documentation by:
- Providing URLs for materials that can be accessed on the program’s website
- Granting temporary access to an internal site, such as a department or faculty intranet site
- Establishing a unique website for site visit team members to access
- A combination of these options
The program director should work with the site visit team chair to identify any other materials that would be needed. The CAA expects that this will not be an inconvenience, as most programs prepare and provide materials through this manner now. If this requirement presents a hardship to the program, the site visit team chair must be advised as soon as possible.