Nebraska Department of Education Homepage

Approval, Accreditation, and Accountability Rule Development

The Nebraska Department of Education is required to accredit and/or approve all schools in Nebraska, guided by current Rule 10: Regulations and Procedures for the Accreditation of Schools and Rule 14: Regulations and Procedures for the Legal Operation of Approved Nonpublic Schools. As part of its commitment to advancing equity, the State Board of Education directed the NDE to begin a process for revising and reinterpreting these rules in the Fall of 2018.

During this revision process the NDE created three separate, but interrelated, draft rules for approval, accreditation, and accountability of public and non-public schools.

Approval outlines the minimum standards for a school to operate. Accreditation emphasizes quality of programming and a focus on continuous improvement.  Accountability uses data to inform stakeholders how a school is performing.

ANNOUNCEMENT

At the September 2, 2021, board meeting, the Nebraska State Board of Education voted to suspend the Rule Revision Scope of work approved at the December 2020 meeting and extend the Approval, Accreditation, and Accountability timeline to:

  1. Allow for additional stakeholder and practitioner engagement
  2. Implement new rules no sooner than the 2023-2024 school year, and
  3. Allow at least a full academic year between adoption of new rules and the implementation of the rules.

Updates to the rule revision process will be posted to this webpage when available.

Updated September 10, 2021 12:49pm