CHAIR'S MESSAGE
CACREP is the Mark of Excellence
For thirty years CACREP has been recognized as the mark of excellence in counselor education preparation. When CACREP was first established in 1981, it was officially endorsed by the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES). Even though CACREP was, and still is, a voluntary accreditation, it was viewed back then as the minimal national standards for training counselors; and programs that made the effort to earn CACREP-accreditation were recognized as excellent programs from the very beginning. A lot has happened in the past thirty years.
From a mere handful of CACREP-accredited programs in the beginning, the number of programs earning the mark of excellence has increased steadily over the past thirty years. As of January 2011 there were a total of 258 different institutions boasting a total of 604 CACREP-accredited programs, and the number grows every year. Currently there are CACREP-accredited programs in 47 states and in Washington, D.C., Canada, and Mexico. Clearly more and more programs recognize the advantages of earning the mark of excellence. And this recognition is very real.
CACREP is officially recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) also recognizes CACREP and accepts a reduced amount of evidence from school counseling programs involved in NCATE's unit accreditation process. The Institute of Medicine (IOM), an independent, nonprofit arm of the National Academy of Science that works outside of government to provide unbiased and authoritative advice to decision makers and the public, recently recommended that CACREP accreditation as a Clinical Mental Health Counseling program be the recognized preparation for working within TRICARE. While the TRICARE legislation has not yet been formalized, the Veteran's Administration has already independently decided to recognize CACREP in its new hiring requirements for mental health counselors seeking employment within its system. This type of national recognition demonstrates the mark of excellence accorded to CACREP-accreditation, and it further elevates the recognition of the counseling profession.
Thirty years ago only a handful of states had passed counselor licensure but even back then educational requirements for licensure were modeled after the CACREP standards. Today all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have counselor licensure and CACREP is mentioned, by name, in 28 of those states' rules and regulations. In most of the jurisdictions that do not mention CACREP by name in their licensure laws, the CACREP standards still appear in the core curriculum, practicum and internship, and credit hour requirements. The mark of excellence is increasingly being seen as the minimal standard of preparation, the purpose that it was first intended to meet thirty years ago. The next thirty years will no doubt see many changes, challenges and advances to the counseling profession. There is no doubt that CACREP will continue to be recognized as the national training standards for counselors. It is no coincidence that the CACREP logo contains a check mark. It is for the mark of excellence that CACREP-accredited programs have earned.
Kind Regards,
Name Chair,
Chair, CACREP
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