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ACCREDITATION TRAINING for SCHOOLS��Claire Bugen and Marcia Volpe��

November 6, 2025

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2025-2026 Sponsors

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What We’ll Discuss

What Accreditation Involves
First Steps and Organizing Your Process
Developing Your Self-Study & Surveys
Writing Your Self-Study
Your Onsite Visit
The CEASD Standards & Accreditation
Tips & FAQ
Wrap Up & Final Thoughts

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EXPECTATIONS OF A CEASD �ACCREDITED SCHOOL

Commitment to continuous school improvement based on a comprehensive self-assessment to identify strengths and areas for needed improvements.
Broad stakeholder involvement to reflect on the school’s philosophy and goals, its programs and services, the facilities and finances.
The use of mission, vision and beliefs as a basis for decision making.
Compliance with CEASD’s 12 Standards.
Action Plans for growth and improvement (student capacity and organizational improvement).
Validation and support through a peer review.

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THE ACCREDITATION PROCESS �IN A NUTSHELL

The accreditation process is like three interconnected spheres that come together to form a complete picture.

Adherence to the 12 research-based CEASD standards.

A thorough self-study that leads to strengthening goals for school improvement and student academic achievement.

An external peer review and internal mechanisms for review.

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HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO COMPLETE�THE SELF-STUDY?

Completing a high-quality self-study is impacted by the amount of time and energy the school wishes to devote to this process and the other demands on the school at the same time.

Plan your self-study process for approximately 12-18 months.
Will you also do strategic planning parallel to accreditation since there is significant overlap in the processes?
Do you plan to conduct a joint/ dual joint accreditation?

CEASD tools to support you in conducting your self-study include:

Accreditation Guidelines for School Improvement Guidelines

Accreditation Template for Self-Study Self-Study

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FIRST STEPS

Approximately12-18 months prior to the onsite visit

Send the accreditation application and your preferred dates/ timeframe for your onsite visit to the National Office (office@ceasd.org).

Decide and notify the office if your accreditation will be CEASD only or joint with a regional organization.

Review the steps involved in the self-study process:

Back-plan from your anticipated onsite visit.
Establish an internal overall planning schedule and target timeframes of the process.

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ORGANIZING YOUR PROCESS

Determine how you will facilitate and manage the process.

Decide on your overall framework, such as:

Identifying internal coordinators, and/or
Establishing a steering committee, and/or
Contracting with an external consultant (caution about ownership of process & findings).

What will be the role of your senior leadership?
Be mindful about allocating dedicated work time for school personnel to be involved in developing your self-study, such as dedicated use of professional development time.

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STAKEHOLDER CONSIDERATIONS

Plan how you will include broad representation of your stakeholders in your self-study (e.g., parents/caregivers, faculty/staff, students, alumni, community partners, governance members, etc.). This could include both survey participation and group meetings.

Consider how you might want to group various stakeholders:

Self-Study committees or focus groups that are cross departmental and represent a variety of roles and are assigned to address one or more specific standards. These could include “outside” stakeholders.
Focus Groups consisting primarily of “like” groups who have similar areas of responsibility and may be periodically convened to provide input about content across standards.

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PAUSE AND CLARIFY

Do you have any questions so far?

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DEVELOPING YOUR SELF-STUDY�5 Key Points

Wide representation on at least 2 school survey tools: CEASD 12 Standards Self-Assessment plus another form of survey.
Include a renewed review of your mission, vision and beliefs.
Develop your school profile to include history, significant influencing forces/factors, demographics (students and workforce), and student performance.
Develop a narrative about your compliance with each of the 12 Standards, with supporting evidence.
Develop a School Improvement Action Plan with 3-5 measurable goals/ objectives, at least two of which must be focused on improving student math and reading/literacy achievement (typically a reflection of something in your self-assessment).

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NOTES ABOUT SURVEYS

At least 2 types of surveys are expected to be conducted.

The CEASD Standards survey is expected to serve as an internal self-assessment; this is available in the Accreditation Guidelines located under the accreditation resources for schools on the CEASD website.

CEASD does not require which secondary survey you should use; rather, each school determines what best fits their constituency (such as a climate survey, work satisfaction survey, etc.).

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And …

Standard Surveys could be distributed in different ways:

To relevant Focus Groups (e.g., community partners),
Distributed school-wide,
Adapted for specific stakeholders (e.g., students),
A combination of strategies.
The important factor is broad input across standards from a wide range of representative members specific to your school community.

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NEXT STEPS

Conduct an orientation with your staff and governance about the process.

Determine how you will conduct your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats) analysis: Organizational surveys, CEASD Standards surveys, School Culture survey, etc.

Plan for when and how you will gather internal and external stakeholder input and data – identify which surveys, prepare surveys, focus group invitations, etc.

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PAUSE AND CLARIFY

What if any questions do you have at this point in the process?

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WRITING YOUR SELF-STUDY

Develop your Chapter 1 narrative as outlined in the CEASD Accreditation Self-Study Template to include:

Context of the School (history, governance, etc.)
Profile of the Community
Profile of the Students
External influences on the School
Mission Vision and Beliefs (and how this has been recently reviewed)
Summary of Survey Data

This is a very important chapter in the self-study. It describes the ”personality” and the “culture” of your school. The Visiting Team refers to this information frequently in its work.

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COMPILING & COMPLETING

Assemble and review –

Collect the work (draft narratives, analyses and findings from the data) from your committees/ work groups and determine who will compile and review the final Self-Study.

Check your evidence for each standard – Make it easy to access!!

Determine how you will provide it to the visiting team - embedded electronic hyperlinks are preferred.

Submit Self-Study to Accreditation Coordinator for review (6-8 weeks prior to visit). After a CEASD review, your school’s primary accreditation contact will be informed if any required self-study components need additional information before the report is ready to be distributed to your visiting team.

Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf, Inc.

Narratives – good to have consistent person(s) to review & edit Final S-S to ensure cohesive tone, clear narratives, & avoid any contradictions.

Evidence - While this can be Hard Copy or Electronic, visiting teams much prefer electronic so they can do some of that work before arrival on campus. Various ways to handle = embedded hyperlinks, dedicated drive that is made accessible, prior years used flash drive.

The evidence listed on the template are examples of what would be reasonable; not every item is required of every school since some don’t apply to all. The important point is that you provide sufficient evidence to support your compliance with each Standard.

Submission - Since you need to factor in the 6-8-week window to submit your completed S-S before your onsite visit, this should be part of your First Step (submitting your application and noting when you are requesting the onsite visit).

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PLANNING THE ONSITE VISIT

Draft the onsite visit schedule (Sunday – Wednesday) & collaborate with your CEASD Team Chair. For joint visits, connect your CEASD Accreditation Team Chair with your Regional representative.

Examples of schedules are in the CEASD Guidelines on the website. In addition to team meetings with various stakeholder groups, your governance also needs to be interviewed.

Provide logistical and accommodation information to Team Chair & team members (hotel, travel reimbursement process, ground transportation, technology needs, etc.).
Reserve nearby lodging for the team, including individual rooms and a team workroom at the hotel.

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Heads up – usually there are multiple renditions of the schedule – it is tweaked in the lead-up to the visit and even during the visit.

Each CEASD team member will have several Standards they are primarily responsible to address and thus will participate in those meetings; not all team members are in all meetings.

Logistical planning – the opening Sunday time and the closing Wednesday time impact the travel for team members, so this needs to be determined and communicated well in advance of the visit.

Ideal working space at hotel with projection system.

Ask team members if they will bring their own laptops – most do.

Ground transportation – preference for school van/shuttle - Identify internal school contact regarding ground transportation – sometimes teams need to work later at the school.

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ONSITE VISIT PREPARATIONS

Communicate with your Chair about any special requests (e.g., dietary).
Continue tweaking the onsite schedule with your Chair.

Determine the private school workroom space for the Visiting Team.

Ensure there is a projection system available in the room.
Assign a tech support person for the team!
Prepare the school workroom with any hardcopy school exhibit information (e.g., examples of school publications, and some basic office supplies)
Posted classroom and student support services schedules
Plan for plenty of snacks & beverages, access to printer, technology access

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PAUSE AND CLARIFY

What questions do you have about the information shared?

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THE 12 CEASD STANDARDS

Standard 1: Philosophy and Mission Standard 7: Health and Safety

Standard 2: Governance and Leadership Standard 8: Educational Program

Standard 3: School Improvement Planning, Outreach Standard 9: Assessment and Evidence of Student

and Viability Learning

Standard 4: Finances Standard 10: Student Services

Standard 5: Facilities Standard 11: Student Life, Student Activities and

Residential Living

Standard 6: School Climate and Organization Standard 12: Learning Resources and Information Technology

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CLARIFICATION ABOUT THE INDICATORS

Each standard is expressed in one or two sentences and is then followed by Indicators specifying characteristics or qualities that encompass the standard.

The Indicators within the standard are simply a guide.
Schools and site team evaluators will use these Indicators together with the standards, within the context of school’s mission, to demonstrate or determine compliance.
Schools and evaluators should not use the Indicators as a checklist.

The visiting team will make decisions about compliance with each Standard by considering all the evidence seen and learned during the visit, including the school’s information about the standard as it is documented in the self-study.

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ACCREDITATION STANDING

To achieve Full Accreditation the school must satisfy all 12 standards. This carries a 5-year cycle of accreditation.

When a school does not meet a standard the rationale that supports this will be listed in the Final Report recommendations.
If a school does not meet one or two standards the team may recommend Accreditation with Stipulations. This carries a one-year accreditation standing with a revisit to review the areas of needed remediation.

If the school does not meet multiple (more than 2) standards the team may make a recommendation of No Accreditation at this time.

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TIPS FROM EXPERIENCED CHAIRS

Share information about the accreditation visit with the entire school community; knowledge is power.
Identify a “runner” who is readily available all day to assist the team.
Exchange phone numbers and texts with school accreditation contacts and team members.
Have someone at your school participate in or observe another school accreditation prior to your first accreditation visit.
Be honest about things that your school is working on to improve.
Admit your shortcomings and never be defensive. Remember you have a lot more to be proud of than to apologize for.
Talk about GREAT stuff you are innovating and doing …including addressing equity.
The team will be crazy busy the last morning (Wednesday) finalizing details and conducting any last-minute interviews - instruct school personnel to try not to interrupt them.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What to expect during the visit

possible schedule tweaks - don’t take it personally
requests for additional evidence/ documentary information
unannounced program/classroom visits - ensure program folks know this
some level of disruption - it’s inevitable

Role of Accreditation Team Members
Preparing for Interviews & Meetings - interpreters, locations & team transition time, technology needs, security access, etc.
The visit process

School Orientation/ reception and First Day Overview session
Team meetings with stakeholder groups - no administrators
Last day - 2 Exit meetings
Final report

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Wrap Up and Final Thoughts…

What have we not yet clarified regarding the accreditation process?

Reach out to Marcia if you want to discuss other accreditation questions - marciavolpe2@gmail.com

Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf, Inc.