The accreditation process for VAISEF has been approved by the Virginia Council for Private Education as authorized by the Virginia State Board of Education.
What is VCPE?
The Virginia Council for Private Education (VCPE) oversees accreditation of nonpublic preschool, elementary and secondary schools in the Commonwealth. VCPE facilitates a statewide framework for communication and cooperation among private schools, their public school counterparts, state and local governments, and other agencies and organizations.
What is State Recognized Accreditation?The Virginia Board of Education has authorized the Virginia Council for Private Education to accredit private nursery, preschool, elementary, and secondary schools. (§22.1-19) State recognized accreditation comes through accreditation granted by any of the VCPE Approved State Recognized Accrediting Members.All approved accrediting organizations must meet the VCPE core set of standards. A peer review process and an annual reporting requirement have been developed to monitor the standards. Each association has standards that meet and exceed those that are monitored by VCPE and must be considered individually by an interested school.Accreditation through a VCPE Approved State Recognized Accrediting Member guarantees the transfer of student credits from the state recognized accredited private school to a public school and ensures recognition of teacher licensure credits for time served in an accredited private school.
VCPE is the Virginia affiliate for CAPE.VCPE was organized in 1974 as the Virginia affiliate of the Council for American Private Education (CAPE), a national private school advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C. CAPE offers a variety of resources and information about America’s private schools. Click here to visit the CAPE website.
