Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation COCA Standards Revisions

COCA Standards Revisions

April 12, 2024

During an executive session on April 12, 2024, the American Osteopathic Association’s Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA) approved an open comment period for proposed amendments to the documents Accreditation of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine: Substantive Change Requests.

The COCA has undertaken this review process for several reasons:

  • To incorporate the updated accreditation standards (that the COCA has already approved) into the substantive change request documents;
  • To use more narrative to look forward towards the impact the requested change will have rather than looking back at the current state of the requesting institution;
  • To put all expected documentation requirements for a single substantive change request into a stand-alone document;
  • To address questions from COCA’s constituents and issues that have arisen with current substantive change request policies; and
  • To simplify the substantive change request process for COMs.

The public comment period will begin on Monday, April 15, 2024 and close on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. A townhall will be scheduled for Tuesday, May 7, 2024, from 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. CT. More details about the townhall will be released shortly.

Review copies of the COCA Substantive Change Requests are available below:

Substantive Change Requests

Comments submitted for consideration must be made in writing and must include the following information:

  • The name of the individual submitting the comments
  • The title and affiliation of the individual submitting the comments, if applicable (comments submitted on letterhead will be presumed to be on behalf of the organization indicated on the letterhead)
  • The email address of the individual submitting the comments
  • The Standard/Element number for each subject on which you are providing comment

Comments must be written out in the text of a Word or PDF document. Comments submitted using track changes or the comment feature in a Word document, or in any other format, will not be accepted. Only comments regarding proposed changes will be considered.

Written comments must be submitted to predoc@osteopathic.org by 5:00 p.m. CT on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Contact COCA staff at predoc@osteopathic.org if you have any questions.

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