COAMFTE Accreditation Requirements and Standards

Accreditation is a public service that helps improve the quality and development of educational programs and encourages them to continually self-evaluate to meet established standards. As a program director, administrator or supervisor in the field of psychology, accreditation is important to show the public and prospective students that your program meets certain requirements through your goals, educational objectives and established outcomes.

In particular, accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) is essential for students pursuing a career as licensed marriage and family therapists. COAMFTE-accredited programs maintain the highest expertise of professional education, which can boost your institution’s reputation and benefit your students’ future careers.

What is COAMFTE Accreditation?

To ensure marriage and family therapy clients receive care from the most experienced, knowledgeable therapists, The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) created the COAMFTE as a special accrediting agency to hold these educational training programs to the highest standard. The COAMFTE oversees marriage and family therapy programs at various educational levels, including master’s, doctoral and post-doctoral.

The main priorities of COAMFTE are to:

• Oversee and ensure high-quality MFT education.
• Help institutions develop programs that promote continuous improvement in the MFT educational field.
• Develop and preserve standards so students can gain adequate knowledge and skills needed for professional competence.
• Act as a guide for students looking for quality training in MFT.
• Produce a list of accredited programs for licensing agencies and state boards.

COAMFTE accreditation acts as a stamp of approval that marriage and family therapy programs have completed a multi-step application and review process to demonstrate their compliance with certain standards set by experts in the MFT field. This accreditation benefits both current and prospective students. They know that these programs meet the minimum requirements for quality, and as a result can meet licensure requirements with more ease.

Accreditation is important to a program and institution’s standing in the public, but its primary benefits are focused on boosting student achievement. With accreditation, students who are currently researching various training programs in the MFT field can determine whether each program offers quality education and meets current requirements for professional licensure. All COAMFTE-accredited programs are continually reviewed and monitored by the AAMFT to ensure they maintain these standards.

COAMFTE accreditation allows students to:

• Receive a quality education in MFT that has been thoroughly evaluated and met established standards.
• Ensure that the program’s curriculum matches its description and goals.
• Prepare for licensure as an MFT therapist.
• Prepare for state or national examinations in MFT.
• Gain an advantage in obtaining employment.

COAMFTE Accreditation Requirements and Standards

Programs aiming for accreditation must complete a letter of intent and ensure that various elements of their program are consistent with COAMFTE Standards Version 12.5 including:

• Policies
• Processes
• Resources
• Outcome-based educational structures
• Curricular components
• Achievement data review

Here are the priorities that guide COAMFTE Standards for Accreditation and that MFT programs must meet:

• Certain philosophies and ethics within relational and systemic therapies
• An educational framework based on specific outcomes to assess student competency
• An inclusive and diverse learning environment
• Professional growth that accommodates diversity within various educational contexts
• A responsibility to adequately prepare students for licensure according to current regulations

To meet accreditation eligibility, the program must demonstrate compliance with each of the COAMFTE Accreditation Standards and their key elements:

1. Standard I: Outcome-Based Education Framework and Environmental Support
2. Standard II: Program Leadership, Program Faculty, and Program Clinical Supervisors
3. Standard III: Curriculum
4. Standard IV: Program Achievement and Improvement

In addition to these standards, COAMFTE-accredited educational programs must also meet the following guidelines:

• A program structure and curriculum founded in the Professional Marriage and Family Therapy Principles (PMFTPs)
• A dedication to multiculturally informed education
• An educational experience that aligns with the goals, outcomes and mission of the specific level of education, such as doctoral or post-doctoral degrees
• Access to appropriate and relevant learning resources necessary to prepare students for MFT practice
• A commitment to clinical training if required for program outcomes

How Tevera Helps Colleges Earn and Maintain COAMFTE Accreditation

With Tevera, you can eliminate many of the time-consuming aspects of managing disparate data. Tevera is a single collection point for program data that conveniently holds everything you need in one place for COAMFTE accreditation. You can more easily catch mistakes, avoid missing information and save your program staff valuable time so they can focus on student success.

Tevera is more than just a data storage tool. Our platform enables every user — including students, admins and other staff — to use key functions that fit their needs and role. Students can track field experience hours, graduation requirements, assignments and other resources. Faculty can view the students they oversee and the reporting requirements they must meet, making the path to accreditation much more streamlined and efficient.

As a program director or facilitator of the accreditation process for your program, you have many responsibilities on your plate. Tevera empowers you to store and manage everything you need in one unified solution so you can eliminate manual tasks and minimize the time you spend gathering data.

COAMFTE Accreditation Reporting

Tevera offers various assessment reports that simplify your accreditation process. You can quickly generate and filter student and program outcome reports in various formats to determine how well your students are meeting COAMFTE standards. These reports include:

• Individual Student Rubric Analysis
• Group Rubric Analysis
• Individual Student Accreditation Standards
• Group Analysis of Accreditation Standards
• Accreditation Standards Raw Data

You can use Tevera at your institution to enable your program’s students, admins and faculty members to run reports and compare performance to COAMFTE requirements. This can help you align your program and curriculum with current standards and improve your processes before applying for evaluation.

At Tevera, we know how time-consuming it can be to gather data from various sources. That’s why we created a solution that captures and tracks your program’s data in one place. View and create the reports you need to stay on track with state-specific programmatic accreditation standards and work toward COAMFTE accreditation for your program.

Simplify COAMFTE Accreditation With Tevera

An MFT program’s accreditation demonstrates to the public and prospective students that it’s reputable and capable of preparing them for future employment as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Obtaining and keeping a COAMFTE accreditation can be a challenging process. Tevera is a single repository for data that supports the success of students and programs seeking accreditation.

Tevera makes it easy to centralize the data you need for COAMFTE accreditation and gives all shareholders access to the same software. Students, administrators and program directors can generate reports instantly to track how well the program is meeting COAMFTE requirements. With the user-friendly interface, you can unify disparate data, simplify COAMFTE reporting and control program-wide results to support accreditation.

To learn more about our software and how we can help you achieve accreditation, schedule a product overview today.

Interested in Learning About Other Accreditation Bodies Tevera Supports?

• CSWE Accreditation

• CACREP Accreditation

• CAEP Accreditation

• COAMFTE Accreditation

• APA Accreditation

• ACBSP Accreditation

• NCATE Accreditation

• AACSB Accreditation

• CAAHEP Accreditation

• AACN Accreditation