What "seeking accreditation" means
Of the 30 campuses in the program table, 25 hold CAAHEP accreditation and 5 at 5 institutions are still seeking it.
New programs are opening faster than at any time since the profession began, so more applicants are weighing an offer from a program that isn't accredited yet. This page covers how accreditation is granted and what depends on it.
Who accredits CAA programs
The Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) is the only nationally recognized accreditor of anesthesiologist assistant education. It does not review programs itself. The Accreditation Review Committee for the Anesthesiologist Assistant (ARC-AA) evaluates each program against the CAAHEP Standards and Guidelines for AA programs and makes a recommendation, and the CAAHEP board votes on that recommendation at one of its six meetings a year.
How a new program gets accredited
ARC-AA describes the path in nine steps. Condensed, a program:
- files a Request for Accreditation Services with CAAHEP;
- writes a self-study documenting how it meets every standard;
- receives ARC-AA's written analysis and responds to it;
- hosts a one- to two-day site visit and responds to the visit team's findings;
- is reviewed by the ARC-AA board, which sends its recommendation to CAAHEP;
- receives the CAAHEP board's decision, then files a mandatory annual report every year after.
Programs that are past the first step but before the last are the ones CASAA and this site label as seeking accreditation. In practice the decision tends to land close to the first cohort's start date. Among the four most recent accreditations recorded in our directory, NEOMED (accredited 2022, first cohort January 2023), Saint Louis University (January 2025, first cohort May 2025), and Kansas City University (September 2025, first cohort January 2026) were accredited before their first students arrived, while UTHealth Houston enrolled its first class in August 2024 and received initial accreditation five months later. Each program page cites the source for those dates.
Campuses still seeking accreditation
As of the last check, from each program's own statements. The program page has the full notes and sources.
- Bluefield University at VCOM — Virginia (Blacksburg)
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Burrell College of Health Sciences — Melbourne
The school, renamed Burrell College of Health Sciences in June 2026 after earning Higher Learning Commission accreditation in June 2025, told the Las Cruces Bulletin in August 2026 that it expects to enroll the first class in January 2028.
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Lipscomb University — Nashville
The university has SACSCOC approval and says it is seeking CAAHEP accreditation for the program.
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Nova Southeastern University — Nevada (Henderson)
It isn't accredited yet: NSU says a site visit for initial accreditation is scheduled and notes that this is "neither a status of accreditation nor a guarantee."
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University of Mary Hardin-Baylor — Belton
The program isn't accredited yet: a CAAHEP site visit for initial accreditation is scheduled, and CASAA lists it as seeking accreditation.
What depends on it
- State licenses. Licensing statutes commonly require graduation from a CAAHEP-accredited program before a license is issued. Colorado, Washington, Wisconsin, and Missouri all do, and each state page cites the statute. This is the concrete risk of an unaccredited program: a graduate could hold NCCAA certification and still be unable to get licensed in a state whose statute names CAAHEP.
- The certifying exam. The NCCAA's 2025 certification handbook ties exam eligibility to graduating from an anesthesiologist assistant program "offered at an institution that is accredited by an agency recognized by the US Department of Education (USDE) or the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)", plus NCCAA's own clinical-experience standards. The handbook does not name CAAHEP; ARC-AA, for its part, describes completing a CAAHEP-accredited program as the route to exam eligibility. Candidates get two years from graduation and six attempts.
- Delegation states. In Texas and Michigan, CAAs practice under physician delegation with no state license, so whether an employer credentials a graduate of a newly accredited program is the employer's decision.
Questions for a program that isn't accredited yet
- Has the site visit happened, and which CAAHEP board meeting will consider the recommendation?
- What is the plan for enrolled students if the decision is delayed or negative?
- Do the statutes in the states where you plan to practice require CAAHEP accreditation? Check the state's page here before you enroll.
- Ask for the current status in writing, and confirm it in CAAHEP's directory rather than relying on a brochure.
Checking a program's status yourself
CAAHEP's find-an-accredited-program directory is the official list, and ARC-AA sends students there. The program table here shows Accredited or Seeking for every campus with the date it was last checked.
Sources
- ARC-AA — For Students and the Public (CAAHEP as sole recognized accreditor; exam eligibility)
- ARC-AA — For Programs (the nine-step accreditation process)
- NCCAA — 2025 Certification Exam Handbook (eligibility, rev. November 8, 2025)
- NCCAA — Certification Exam Eligibility
- CAAHEP — Find an Accredited Program
- State statutes as cited on the Colorado, Washington, Wisconsin, and Missouri pages; program accreditation dates as cited on each program page.