The member schools of the Commission on Accrediting have adopted a number of procedures that relate to accreditation and membership. They have equal force with the standards (see sections 2.3 and 2.4 of the Commission Bylaws).

In the context of its duties to make decisions regarding accreditation, the Board of Commissioners (elected by the membership for that purpose) is responsible for adopting and overseeing policies that ensure thorough and fair evaluation of schools and for consistently applying the Commission’s procedures and accrediting standards (see Commission Procedures VIII.A.3). All such policies are contained in the Board’s Policy Manual, including references to guidelines for conducting self-studies and for petitioning for substantive change that are published in the Handbook of Accreditation.