The Council for Interior Design Accreditation (CIDA), the organization responsible for accrediting some of the interior design schools in the country, recently announced a change in the way it talks about some of its policies.
This change is the result of discussion between interior design schools and other interested parties regarding the potential for erroneous assumptions by those investigating an interior design school’s accreditation because of some of CIDA’s documents.
The parties discussed with the agency the potentially negative perspective that some students and parents might have of certain schools because of the wording used in CIDA’s Confidentiality and Disclosure statements as well as its Program Announcement and Disclosure of Accredited Status document.
The primary concerns were three-parts of the documents that made statements about the interior design school accreditation process and the need for visit to the schools by CIDA representatives. The organization agreed that some parents and students may not fully understand the terms used in the accreditation process and mistake terms to mean something less than positive about the schools.
The parties worried about the publishing of interior design school compliance standards, which could somehow create an unintentional ranking of the schools. CIDA’s press release did not provide detail into which texts were considered risky or how their reports could unintentionally rank the interior design schools involved. CIDA decided to publish more information to clarify this information rather than refrain from publishing it all together though they did concede to not mention any interior design school by name.
The documents also mentioned a required physical visit to certain interior design schools, which some concerned parties viewed as incriminating. The language implied that some schools were fully accredited, while others were not. CIDA says that the organization’s representatives decided to make changes after “careful consideration of stakeholders’ comments and concerns”, but ultimately voted to also disclose any interior design school that is denied for accreditation as well.
