Policies

Guiding Statement on Best Practices for Transfer of Credit The Board recognizes that the transfer of credit (between or within institutions and/or counseling programs) is not specifically addressed in the CACREP Standards. Furthermore, the Board believes each institution housing CACREP-accredited counseling programs has the ultimate authority to determine and implement credit transfer policies within their system. However, many programs request guidance from CACREP on transfer of credit dilemmas and best practices. The goal of transfer credit decisions, regardless of whether the credits were completed at a CACREP-accredited program or not, is to ensure that all degree-seeking students have met the same (or appropriately similar) curricular requirements upon graduation. To that end, the Board endorses the following Transfer of Credit Best Practice Guidelines for programs to consider. Each program develops specific transfer of credit policies to be approved by their institution. These policies should address transfer credit maximums, evaluation criteria for transfer courses, and potential outcomes related to transfer credit decisions (including how the transfer credits align with current program course offerings). In the event that transfer credits result in the waiver of a course or courses containing key performance indicators (KPI) or other essential aspects of the program’s CACREP assessment plan, the program develops alternate methods to assess and record the transfer student’s performance in those areas (including assessments of dispositions). The program should be able to identify how the alternate method specifically correlates with standard CACREP KPI assessment. To safeguard against potential threats to ethical practice and clinical competencies, transfer students complete all clinical courses, where counseling skills, client interaction, and clinical competencies are supervised and evaluated, within the CACREP-accredited program from which they plan to graduate.