Applying for Continuing Education Accreditation

Key points

  • CDC programs and funded partners are eligible for CDC's accreditation services.
  • Education developers should begin planning for accreditation as soon as they start developing educational products and activities.
  • Being prepared can help avoid delays.
Woman working on laptop

Eligibility

CDC provides accreditation services to

  • CDC programs, which includes CDC center, institute, offices (CIOs), or a division or branch therein.
  • CDC partners that have received funding from a CDC grant, cooperative agreement, interagency agreement, or contract that conveys the intention to use the funding for training or workforce development. Examples of CDC funded partners include colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, state health departments, and other federal agencies.

When a CDC CIO develops an activity with a partner or contract organization, a CE request must be submitted listing the assigned education developer--referred to as a CE developer. If the partner organization submits the request, the CDC official listed must be copied since the partner is responsible for working with the CDC CIO to complete the CE proposal.

If you're developing a training that's not funded by CDC, view a list of other options for CE accreditation. CE activities that have already been delivered cannot be accredited retroactively.

Before applying

Accreditation standards cover parts of the development process, so the accreditation process should be a part of development.

Read the information on these pages and become familiar with the accreditation process before you start developing educational activities or materials you would like to have accredited.

Plan ahead‎

Plan for accreditation to take 2 to 4 months, except for conferences, which can take 4 to 6 months.

Please note that CDC is the primary provider for continuing education accreditation for CDC programs and funded partners. If a CDC program is interested in working with an accreditation provider outside of CDC, the program must first submit a written justification to CErequests@cdc.gov.

To prepare for accreditation, complete the following steps:

  1. Learn about what makes a quality training.
  2. Establish a timeline for clearance.
  3. Establish a planning committee, including the primary CE developer, who serves as point of contact.
  4. Gather information you'll need for your proposal, including:
    1. The educational gap your program is fulfilling
    2. Program goals
    3. SMART learning objectives
    4. Professional competencies addressed by the training
    5. How the training will be promoted
    6. Biographical information on the presenter or content expert (title/position, degrees, and workplace)
    7. Timeframe (for live activities)

How to apply

Apply for Continuing Education ‎

Complete and submit this CE Request form to CErequests@cdc.gov as soon as you begin planning an educational activity. An assigned CE consultant will email you and guide you through the accreditation process.
Continuing Education Request Form

After applying

  • All course materials, promotion materials, and certificates related to CE must include specific accreditation and designation statements. CDC will provide more information about these statements during the accreditation process.
  • Enduring, recurring, and series types of educational activities are accredited for 2 years.
  • A CE activity can be renewed for an additional 2 years if there are no changes to the activity's content. Renewing is a quick and easy process.
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Content Source:
Public Health Infrastructure Center; Division of Workforce Development