User:Daask/sandbox/Council on Accreditation

The Council on Accreditation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1977 which provides accreditation for human service organizations, including child and family services and behavioral healthcare.

Overview
The Council on Accreditation accredits human service organizations, including child- and family-service, behavioral healthcare, and debt counseling agencies.

COA accredits a wide variety of human service activities

Similar accrediting organizations include the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), the Joint Commission (TJC), Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), and the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC).

"The Council on Accreditation (COA) develops standards and guidelines for the accreditation of services delivered by behavioral health and social service agencies. The accreditation process is designed to assist agencies in implementing organizational structures (i.e. financial management), and processes of care (i.e. case-management) that will help them achieve better results in all areas, and ultimately improve the well-being of their clients. Organizations use their accredited status to demonstrate accountability to clients, funders and donors."

It is based in New York City.

History
COA was founded in 1977 by the Child Welfare League of America through a grant from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare with the goal of improving the quality of child welfare services.

It originally accredited only child welfare programs They began to accredit organizations performing a broader variety of services in 1987, including those who managed employee assistance programs. In 1999, EASNA and COA made an agreement where COA would administer EASNAs accreditation for a variety of internal and external EAPs.

In 2000, Illinois was the first state to accredit its entire child welfare system, and was followed by Kentucky in 2002, Louisiana in 2003, Arkansas in 2004. Washington state was in process. Ohio Department of Job and Family Services sought accreditation for each of its 88 county offices. COA is the only organization which accredits public child welfare systems.

As of 2017, four state social service agencies are accredited

In October 2017, commentators expressed astonishment that the Kentucky Department for Community Based Services was able to renew its COA accreditation after receiving very poor evaluations of its child protective services from both a Kentucky state legislature committee and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Kentucky child protection services worker average caseloads have ranged from 25-32 cases per worker, far higher than COA's recommended maximum of 15. Even outside of Kentucky, this recommendation is widely ignored.

Recognition
COA is the only national accreditor designated by the U.S. Department of Defense to develop accreditation standards and processes for human service programs provided to military personnel and their families

Is recognized many state laws "Some states and localities give preference to accredited agencies in distributing contracts and funding for child and family services."

It is recognized by the federal government in the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2016 as an accreditor of residential treatment programs for children and youth.

Procedures
The process of going through accreditation is a process of learning and adopting best practices in client care and organizational management. COA's accreditation process reviews "buildings, safety, training, ethics, personnel administration"

COA provides information on best practices and technical assistance throughout the accreditation process to aid organizations in achieving accreditation. COA usually gives noncompliant organizations time to resolve accreditation compliance issues.

COA's accreditation standards are established in consultation with advocacy groups, academic scholars, and policy makers.

Motivations for accreditation
reasons organizations pursue COA accreditation: "policies that require accreditation, wanting to assert their positions in the field, and the need to increase funding opportunities. Other factors were internal, related to agency leadership using accreditation as a platform for change and agencies' genuine intent to improve services".

accreditation is often pursued in response to lawsuits to support improved practices

Impact of accreditation
COAs goal continues to be quality improvement.

A 2003 GAO report found that accredited child welfare agencies are able to recruit and retain higher quality staff.

A qualitative study of social and behavioral services programs accredited by the Council on Accreditation found that accredited programs performed better than non-accredited programs in areas of risk management practices, performance evaluation, and corrective action practices. No differences were found in the other seven performance domains studied.

Based on a matched comparison of accredited and nonaccredited programs, accredited programs performed better in areas of risk management practices, performance evaluation, and corrective action practices. No differences were found in internal quality monitoring, stakeholder participation, case record review, outcomes measurement, consumer satisfaction, personnel satisfaction, and other service-specific processes.

A study by HHS OIG in 1994 found no conclusive evidence about the impact of accreditation on agency operations and quality. Opinions about impact of accreditation varied: some felt that accreditation led to improvements in service, others felt no impact.

Advocacy
The have occasionally been involved in advocacy for the charity field.

International adoption
Since about 2009, COA had been the only active organization in America accrediting international adoption agencies.> In November 2017, they announced they would be discontinuing this role after public disputes with the U.S Department of State. Several major adoption agencies expressed dismay at the announcement because they respected COA's work.

The State Department claimed that the new rules were merely addressing aspects of the 2008 Hague Adoption Convention that had been neglected and unenforced.

"The Council on Accreditation (COA) protested that the US State Department was requiring “significant changes” that would likely reduce the already record-low number of intercountry adoptions, put small adoption providers out of business, and prohibit prospective parents from pursuing such adoptions."

2008 fraud case
In 2008, a scandal ensued when a defunct but COA-accredited agency was bought solely for its accreditation status and proceeded to file false reports to COA. Three people were convicted of Accreditation Fraud and conspiring to defraud the United States.