Can California Rely on ACAOM and Control Standards?
Little Hover Commission 2004
Regulation of Acupuncture: A Complementary Therapy Framework
California has - and should - maintain control over its educational standards for the sole purpose of ensuring adequate minimum competency for entry-level practitioners.
Some stakeholders oppose involvement by organizations that are active throughout the United States, preferring to evolve the California profession independent of national and international trends. But as others suggest, the Acupuncture Board could have ACAOM accredit schools and still reserve final approval for the board. 116
Five of the nine schools that responded to the UC survey said that the approval process should involve a combination of ACAOM and Acupuncture Board evaluation.
Other regulatory boards have relied on national organizations to ensure the quality of individual programs and then develop a means for ensuring that state-specific curriculum standards are met. In the case of podiatry, national accreditation is used as a basis for approval, and then schools must document their compliance with California policies that exceed national standards.117