Accreditation is a peer-review process that involves submission of paperwork in advance (a pre-packet) of an on-site survey by a trained accreditation assessor. All organizations are required to be re-accredited every five (5) years in order to maintain their ADI accredited membership status.

ADI’s accreditation process starts in the third or early fourth quarter of the year prior to the year a Member or Candidate organization is due for accreditation. The ADI Program Manger will email organizations to confirm the organization is prepared to go through the accreditation process the following year. This email will also include the most recent accreditation documents. If a Candidate organization wants to go through the accreditation process prior to the five (5) year deadline of candidacy, they must wait until they have been a Candidate organization for at least two (2) years and have placed at least 10 assistance dogs. If the Candidate organization meets these requirements, the organization needs to contact Program Manager to initiate the accreditation process. To do this please email the Program Manager at [email protected].

Once ADI confirms that the organization will be seeking accreditation the following year, the Program Manager will set-up a phone/virtual meeting with the organization to discuss the accreditation. This is typically done in the third quarter of the year.

Organizations are encouraged to begin compiling documents to show compliance with ADI Standards after their phone/virtual meeting with the Program Manager. The Accreditation Manual and the Compliance Guidance Notes documents assist organizations in compiling the information. These two documents complement each other by outlining the requirements to meet ADI Standards (the Accreditation Manual) and explaining how an organization may show compliance for the requirement and what an assessor may request to see for compliance (the Compliance Guidance Notes). The assistance dog industry is always evolving, so ADI may update the Accreditation Manual and Compliance Guidance Notes on an annual basis. New versions of these documents will be available by the end of November each year (and take effect January 1 of the following year). Organizations must use the most recent version of these documents for the organization's accreditation assessment that year. This means organizations can begin to compile the required documentation in the third or fourth quarter of the year prior to the organization's accreditation year, but the final documents the organization would use for the accreditation process are not available until the end of November in the year leading up to their accreditation year.

Member and Candidate organizations are required to submit paperwork in advance (referred to as a pre-packet) of their accreditation on-site assessment. This pre-packet is a digital Dropbox folder of documents for any requirement in the Accreditation Manual marked “Paperwork in advance.” The pre-packet is typically due to the ADI Program Manager in February for programs undergoing reaccreditation surveys and March for programs undergoing their first accreditation survey. The Program Manager reviews the pre-packet. The Program Manager may require further documentation. Once the Program Manager is satisfied with the pre-packet, it is sent to the assigned Accreditation Assessor. The Assessor has 60 days to review the pre-packet and may request further documentation as well.

The assessor and the organization coordinate the dates and agenda schedule of the on-site assessment. The on-site assessment is typically several days and includes interviews of staff, clients, applicants, volunteers, and Board members. The assessment also includes review of paperwork and files, observation of clients and dog training, and inspection of the organization's facilities and kennels, if applicable. If an organization has 50% or more if its puppies or dogs in a prison system, the assessment also includes a visit to one of the organization's prison locations.

Once an assessor returns from the organization's on-site assessment, the assessor has 60 days to write-up their recommendation. The recommendation is reviewed by the Accreditation Review Committee, which meets monthly. The Accreditation Review Committee determines whether or not an organization passes the accreditation.

The Accreditation Process Chart summarizes this process in a visual chart.