Editorial Policy

Where our data comes from

Every school and program profile is compiled from primary, public, authoritative sources. We do not republish marketing copy or rely on third-party rankings. Specifically:

• Accreditation status — verified against the official directory of the relevant accrediting agency (e.g., ACCSC, ACCET, ABHES, COE, and the regional commissions), and cross-checked against the U.S. Department of Education's Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs (DAPIP).
• State authorization — confirmed with the postsecondary regulatory agency in each state where the school operates (e.g., the state board of private postsecondary education or equivalent).
• Tuition, fees, and total cost — taken from the school's published consumer disclosures, catalog, and enrollment agreement, and cross-referenced with IPEDS when available.
• Program length — reported in clock hours, credit hours, and weeks as published by the school and required by its accreditor.
• Outcomes (completion, placement, licensure pass rate) — sourced from accreditor annual reports, state disclosure filings, and the school's own gainful employment / consumer information disclosures.

Each data point on a school profile links directly to the public source it was drawn from, so you can verify it yourself.

How often we re-verify

• Accreditation and state approval are re-checked at least every 90 days, and immediately whenever an accreditor publishes a status change (probation, show-cause, withdrawal).
• Tuition and program length are re-verified at least annually, and whenever a school publishes a new catalog or enrollment agreement.
• Outcomes data is updated when new accreditor annual reports or state disclosure filings are released — typically once per year.
• Every record displays a "Last verified" date so you can see how fresh the information is.
• If a reader reports an inaccuracy, we re-verify within 5 business daysand either correct the record or document why the original entry stands.

Independence — what we do not do

CareerSchoolFinder exists to give prospective students unbiased, source-linked information. To preserve that, we hold ourselves to the following bright lines:

• No paid placement. Schools cannot pay to be listed, ranked higher, featured, or have negative information removed. Listing inclusion is based solely on whether a school meets our public criteria (active accreditation and state approval).
• No lead selling. We do not collect, sell, share, or transfer prospective student contact information to schools or third-party lead aggregators. The search bar on this site is informational. When you are ready, you contact the school directly.
• No "best of" rankings. We do not publish rankings or use promotional language like "top schools" or "best programs." Ranking career schools by a single score misleads readers; we present comparable data points and let you weigh them.
• No high-pressure tactics. No fake countdowns, no "limited seats remaining" banners, no manufactured urgency.
• No undisclosed affiliations. CareerSchoolFinder is not owned by, or operated on behalf of, any school, school group, or lead-generation company.

Corrections policy

When we discover or are notified of an error, we correct it promptly, log the change, and update the "Last verified" date. Substantive corrections (for example, an accreditation status change we initially missed) are noted in a brief correction line on the affected page. If you believe a record is inaccurate, please use the "Report an inaccuracy" link on the relevant school or program page.

Use of AI and editorial review

We may use automated tools to help collect, normalize, and summarize public records, but every published data point is sourced to a primary document, and editorial guides are written and reviewed by humans. We do not publish AI-generated school reviews, testimonials, or rankings.

Learn more

• About CareerSchoolFinder
• Detailed methodology
• Primary data sources
• Accreditation vs. state approval
• How to choose a career school