This year, 179 systems are going before the Accreditation Review Council (ARC) and the Kansas State Board of Education to receive an accreditation.  

So far, the ARC has been able to review and vote on 105 systems. During the ARC’s April 13 meeting, the council voted on 46 systems. 

In May, the ARC has about 60 additional systems that need to be reviewed, with an additional 20 systems scheduled for review in June, according to the Kansas State Department of Education’s (KSDE) Accreditation and Design (AD) team. 

“This has been, and will continue to be, a huge undertaking by our ARC,” said Sarah Perryman, a coordinator for the AD team. 

To ensure clarity, the AD team is asking that systems take some time to review the process and the amount of time it takes from when a system completes its report to when a final status is issued from the State Board of Education. 

The ARC uses three primary documents when completing its review – the system’s year five report, the Outside Visitation Team’s (OVT) year five report and the system’s most recent Performance Accountability Report (in this case, 2022). 

As a reminder, year five reports are due in the authenticated application and to the OVT 30 days prior to the on-site visit. Similarly, the OVT’s report is due in the authenticated application and to the system no later than 30 days after the on-site visit. 

Once all the documentation is submitted in the authenticated application, a system’s three reports (outlined above) are sent to the ARC review team. The ARC review team then utilizes the ARC Criteria as it reviews materials and crafts a summary and recommendation. 

ARC review team members have, at a minimum, two weeks to review a system and develop an Executive Summary before going to the full ARC for a vote. The closer a system’s report is submitted to the ARC meeting for the next month, the greater the likelihood that the system won’t be acted upon until the following month, Perryman said. 

“Given that only two months remain, it is critical that you submit reports as promptly as possible as extended time is less likely to be an option,” she said. 

Once the full ARC has made its recommendation and submitted its report, the AD team must edit and finalize the Executive Summary before sending it to the systems. Thus, there will be about a one-week turnaround between when the ARC votes and when a system is notified of the recommendation. Given the number of systems to be reviewed, this could take up to two weeks. 

Please ensure your System Contact information in the authenticated application is up to date to streamline the communication process. 

If you have questions throughout the process, email accreditation@ksde.org.