In the US, accreditation is a voluntary non-governmental process that schools and educational programs may choose to pursue. Accreditation agencies verify that the school or program teaches what it says it does, in the way it says it does, with a reasonably acceptable level of quality. Sometimes this involves specific standards, sometimes it is more general.

Accreditation agencies can be approved by the US government. Typically this is done in order to access federal student loan programs and other federal funding, although as the for-profit college scandals that started to come to light in the mid 2010's show, accreditation and access to federal student loans is not the be-all end-all of quality education.

Typically, accreditation is meant to be done by a school's peers - other schools in their region, other schools offering the same programs, or other schools serving the same population. A Pagan-specific accreditation program is needed, because it is challenging to find peers to review our schools.

Accreditation is for a school, or a program in a school, not for a curriculum. Anyone who tells you their curriculum is accredited doesn't understand what they're talking about. Accreditation looks at curriculum and implementation.

We are an association of schools affiliated with Pagan religions. We work with preschool, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges, vocational programs, and independent teachers.

Our members agree to our basic standards, published here, and agree to review documentation from applicants. You can find a list of our members and their accreditation status below this FAQ.

Accreditation gives students & families peace of mind about the education received.

It helps schools and teachers organize their programs in a way that makes them easier to understand, and helps them document what they're doing and how they're doing it.

Long term, with a documented history of accreditations and the performance of schools in our organization, we may be eligible to apply for federal recognition, which would open up other avenues for our schools, including accepting federal student aid.

There are 3 phases to accreditation.

1. Fill out the interest form, telling us a little about your program. We will invite you to join our forum and provide you our submission expectations.

2. Prepare your submission packet. This includes information about your organization, instructors, and program(s), along with a description of how you meet our standards. Current board members will review your documentation and provide a decision within 6 weeks. This decision will either be "yes," "needs improvement," or "no" - we expect no votes to be rare, and only in the case of organizations that are truly not a fit for our program (i.e., not at all Pagan, patently illegal, etc.). If there are improvements needed, the organization may work on those in order to reach approval status.

3. Pay your accreditation fee. You will be added to our member list, given accreditation status, and have a seat on our accreditation review board.