I have been a VA certified LPC. I am not a CACREP graduate but I am alarmed by the proliferation of programs and graduates claiming to be “as good or better than CACREP” – my response to them is who says so besides your faculty and the institution collecting your fees?

Other university programs get institutional funding to support accredittion peer review, why not counselor education (i.e., by counseling practitioners, educators and supervisors using what are developed by the profession itself as its “minimum standards)?

CACREP was established by ACA 34 years ago to accredit counselor education programs. It is time that we act responsibly as a profession, not just as a “field or occupation.”  Seven years implementation and safeguards such as grand-parenting buffer for those not in such programs currently.  

The Board’s charge is to protect the public. It is their sole responsibility. National accreditation serves to help them meet that responsibility.

If they have not thought of doing so, I would encourage the VA Board to consider a provision for permitting out of state non-CACREP graduates moving to VA to meet requirements suitable to establishing knowledge and clinical equivalency. For the sake of students and their graduates paying the same or more for their education, all VA counselor education programs should be peer reviewed and nationally accredited as proposed.