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Site Visits

Accreditation Handbook—Chapter VII: Site Visitors, Chapter XVIX: Site Visit Planning and Conduct, Chapter XX: Site Visit Report

The site visit is an essential and unique step in the accreditation process. Conducting a site visit on a campus during an accreditation review is one of several mechanisms used by the CAA to determine a program’s compliance with the Standards for Accreditation. The CAA sends trained site visit teams to:

  • Verify the accuracy of information provided in the application and resolve questions/concerns that arose from review of the application
  • Directly observe program resources and space on campus and interact with program faculty, students, and leadership
  • Document that compliance with accreditation standards was verified, consistent with CAA’s expectations
  • Facilitate the CAA’s decision making for programs by providing a written report of the visit

The site visit enables the program’s faculty to provide context about the program that is often not conducive in a written description and that can be obtained only by direct observation.

Program Preparation

View Upcoming Site Visits Programs anticipating a CAA site visit are required to provide opportunity for public comment in advance of the site visit. In addition, programs will host a public meeting with the CAA site visitors during the visit.

Information for Site Visitors

The CAA maintains a pool of academic faculty, clinical faculty, and practitioners that have completed site visitor training and actively serve as CAA site visitors. Site visitors are volunteers serving 4-year, renewable terms.