Education Department Bars Cosmetology Accreditor NACCAS From Adding New Members: About 300 Pending Applications Halted
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced on October 21 that it will prohibit the National Accrediting Commission of Career Arts and Sciences (NACCAS) from adding new members, and it put the accreditor on notice that it could face more severe penalties if it does not address a range of compliance concerns, according to Inside Higher Ed. The decision was made by Under Secretary Nicholas Kent. About 300 pending membership applications were halted, and Kent gave the accreditor 12 months to address the findings of noncompliance.
NACCAS accredits more than 1,000 programs and institutions across the United States, including many cosmetology schools. Accreditation by a federally recognized agency is what unlocks access to federal student aid for an institution's students. Education Department staff and the federal advisory committee raised concerns including a lack of transparency, poor student outcomes, and NACCAS's failure to independently monitor whether its member institutions had been sanctioned by other agencies.
In July, the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), which advises the Secretary of Education on accreditor recognition, voted 9 to 3 to recommend stripping NACCAS of federal recognition. The department's final decision stopped short of that step and instead froze the accreditor's growth. In his decision letter, Kent wrote that if NACCAS is unable to adequately monitor its institutions, "perhaps NACCAS has reached an unsustainable number of institutions it accredits." He added that he believes the agency is capable of corrective action, but that he does not believe NACCAS should continue to add institutions. On the same day, ED imposed similar growth restrictions on the Council on Occupational Education, barring it from taking on new members as well.
Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, welcomed the decision, calling the halt on new accreditations a major step in holding accreditors accountable. Jeremy Bauer-Wolf of New America also supported the action, saying his organization's investigation last year found that beauty schools accredited by NACCAS regularly gave prospective students wrong or incomplete information. NACCAS officials did not respond to a request for comment from Inside Higher Ed.
More than 90 percent of cosmetology undergraduate certificate programs are expected to fail a new federal earnings test that could restrict eligibility for student loans, the report added, meaning NACCAS's member schools and their students face further uncertainty if the accreditor does not correct the problems within the deadline.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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