Stephens Co. Schools Working on System Level Accreditation

By Charlie Bauder, WNEG Radio, Toccoa

The Stephens County School System is continuing to work on system-level accreditation.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said the school system is currently working through the process to try to achieve system-level accreditation through AdvancED, which is the parent agency of the

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, or SACS.

“For the first time, we are seeking system accreditation, which is an accreditation process going through all of our schools at once and also reviewing system level governance, structure, professional learning, data reviews,” said Dorsey.

He went on to say that system-wide accreditation is important for multiple reasons.

“It is a standard that has been accepted long in place and practice that allows our students to move between other school systems, saying that we are all working at some standard,” said Dorsey. “Then it is obviously also something, since it is for both K-12 institutions and higher learning institutions, that helps them to ensure there is some continuity between programs and gets our students a little easier acceptance into colleges.”

Dorsey said that the school system has turned in the written report part of the accreditation and will now await a site visit from the agency.

He said representatives from the accrediting agency are expected to visit Stephens County next month.

“They will be arriving in town on September 21st,” said Dorsey, who added they would be from not just Georgia, but other Southeastern states.

Dorsey said the agency representatives are expected to make a presentation to the Board of Education at the conclusion of their visit.

He said the final accreditation report from the agency is expected to come out a couple of months after the site visit.