Dear NCATE Unit Heads and Coordinators:

All sectors of the economy have felt the impact of the current financial situation.

In consideration of the financial exigencies facing NCATE-accredited institutions, the NCATE Executive Board took action at its fall 2008 meeting to help alleviate the short-term financial impact of accreditation on NCATE-accredited schools, colleges, and departments of education. (In addition, ways to make the accreditation process more cost-effective and efficient for the long term will be under consideration in the near future.)

Effective immediately, NCATE is seeking permission from the states to offer all accredited institutions, except those with focused or probation visits or those with documentation due to remove a condition/provision, the option of deferring their visits for one year, beginning with visits in January 2009.

If your state agrees to permit institutions the option to defer their visits by one year, NCATE will work with the state to determine the schedule of upcoming reviews. An institution cannot defer its visit without the state’s approval.

We have asked the states to communicate with institutions and to send NCATE an updated schedule of visits after consultation with the educator preparation institutions in their state. We expect some states to offer the option to institutions, while others may not be able to do so. Should your institution opt to defer, the visit that takes place after the deferral will occur in either seven years or five years, whichever is your regular review cycle.

It is our expectation that many institutions’ visits would be deferred for one year, with the exception of those institutions with visits in the near future. We understand that many institutions would most likely prefer to go ahead with visits that are scheduled for 2009, and we will proceed as planned with those institutions that wish to remain on their current schedule.

Decisions should be made jointly by institutions and the state. We have asked states to inform us of the new visit schedule by January 31, 2009. Such a deadline is necessary so that we may better plan for allocating resources to visits.

We hope that this course of action will be helpful to institutions during the downturn in the economy. Your state contact should be communicating with you soon about the state’s position on this potential action.

Sincerely,
James G. Cibulka, President
NCATE