Education Dept Seeks to Keep Bureaucratic Wheels Turning on Accreditations
Published Date: 12/19/2025
Notice
Summary
The Department of Education wants to keep collecting info from groups that approve schools and programs, including foreign medical and veterinary ones, without changing the current process. This affects accrediting agencies and state approval groups who’ll keep submitting their info as usual. You’ve got until February 17, 2026, to share your thoughts—no new costs or changes, just a smooth extension!
Analyzed Economic Effects
3 provisions identified: 0 benefits, 2 costs, 1 mixed.
Large Estimated Annual Burden
The notice reports a total estimated number of annual responses of 16 and a total estimated annual burden of 347,648 hours for this information collection. These numeric estimates apply to the respondents to the OMB 1840-0788 e-Recognition collection.
e-Recognition Collection Extended
The Department of Education is extending without change the information collection for the e-Recognition process (OMB Control Number 1840-0788). Accrediting agencies and State approval agencies must continue to submit the same information as before; the public may submit comments by February 17, 2026.
Data Used To Decide Recognition
The Department will use the collected data to evaluate whether accrediting agencies are reliable authorities under the Higher Education Act (Sec. 496) and regulations at 34 CFR 602 and 34 CFR 603. The collection covers accrediting agencies, State approval agencies, and evaluation of foreign medical and foreign veterinary accrediting agencies, and is used for State approval of vocational and nurse education.
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Key Dates
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